International Cinema Series 2011
All movies will be shown in Von Liebig 1098, Neff Lecture Hall, 7:00 PM.
Tuesday, September 27: Red Cliff
Swank Motion Picture
This epic historical drama is based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. The film opens as power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao seeks permission to organize a mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way. Vastly outnumbered by the brutal, fast-approaching army, the warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign – unrivaled in history – that changes the face of China forever.
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Wednesday, October 26: When We Leave
Distributor, Olive Films
A German-born woman flees from her oppressive marriage in Istanbul, taking her son with her. She hopes to find a better life with her family in Berlin, but her unexpected arrival creates intense conflicts. Her family is trapped in their conventions; they’re torn between their love for her and the traditional values of their community. German Actress, Feo Aladag makes her sensational directorial debut in this heartbreaking drama. Germany’s Official Selection for the 2010 Academy Awards.
Tuesday, November 15: How I Ended This Summer
Distributor, Film Movement
On a desolate island in the Arctic Circle, two men work at a small meteorological station, taking readings from their radioactive surroundings. Sergei, a gruff professional in his fifties, takes his job very seriously. His new partner, bright eyed college grad Pavel, retreats to his MP3 player and video games to avoid Sergei's imposing presence. One day while Sergei is out, inexperienced Pavel receives terrible news for Sergei from HQ. Intimidated, Pavel can't bring himself to disclose the information. When the truth is finally revealed, the consequences explode against a chilling backdrop of thick fog, sharp rocks, and the merciless Arctic Sea.
Tuesday, January 24: Ali Zaoua
Distributor, Film Movement
Ali, Kwita, Omar, and Boukber are a group of street urchins living on the hard streets of Casablanca. Their everyday lives are filled with violence, begging, and indifference. In order to survive they create a bond of friendship and family between then. The bond is cut short when Ali is senselessly killed at the beginning of the film by a blow to the head; his life taken by a single act of a rival gang. Ali's friends decide not to report his death to the police, who would have the boy buried in a potter's field. Instead they decide to give him a worthy burial, to bury Ali on the private island he so often dreamed of. Ali Zaoua captures the power of dreams and presence of hope in the harshest of circumstances. Ali Zaoua was submitted by Morocco for the Best Foreign Film category of the 2001 Academy Awards®
Sunday, February 26: Of Gods and Men
Sony Classics
Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay... come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996. In Arabiic and French
Grand Prix, Cannes Film Festival; Best Foreign Language Film, National Board of Review
Thursday, March 29: Biutiful
Swank Motion Pictures
Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds. Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life’s corridors, whether bright, bad – or biutiful.
