The International Film Festival
All films take place in Dana Auditorium, located in Sunderland Language Center on College Street (Route 125). Films begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Some films may not be suitable for children. Films will be subtitled in English*. A discussion of the film will follow the screening. Space may be limited.
June 30 - School of Russian
Elena
Russia, 2011
Color, 109 minutes
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Synopsis: Elena and Vladimir are an older couple, they come from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy and cold man, Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife. They have met late in life and each one has children from previous marriages. Elena's son is unemployed, unable to support his own family and he is constantly asking Elena for money. Vladimir's daughter is a careless young woman who has a distant relationship with her father. A heart attack puts Vladimir in hospital, where he realizes that his remaining time is limited. A brief but somehow tender reunion with his daughter leads him to make an important decision: she will be the only heiress of his wealth. Back home he announces it to Elena. Her hopes to financially help her son suddenly vanish. The shy and submissive housewife then comes up with a plan to give her son and grandchildren a real chance in life. Written by Cannes Film Festival
July 6 - French School
* Please note there will be two films. Clavel... l'enfant numéro 13 will have French subtitles only.
7 p.m. Film:
Clavel... l'enfant numéro 13
France, 2007
Color, 52 minutes
Director : Antoine Léonard-Maestrati
Synopsis: Documentary of Rwandan genocide survivor, Clavel, badly wounded, who was 8 years old when he arrived in France in 1994. After years of surgeries, he can practice sports. He successfully participated in major athletics competitions and was crowned Paralympic champion in Athens and won two silver medals for France. This year, for the first time, he returned to Rwanda. With great emotion, he finds a brother and an aunt, both survivors of genocide.
9 p.m. Film:
Monsieur Lazhar
Canada, 2011
Color, 94 minutes
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Synopsis: Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere's play, Bachir Lazhar depicts the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression. Using great sensitivity and humor, Philippe Falardeau follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death. Written by micro_scope
July 7 - Portuguese School
The Diary of a Provincial Girl (Vida de Menina)
Brazil, 2003
Color, 101 minutes
Director: Helena Solberg
Synopsis: This film tells the story of the day-to-day life of a young girl, Helena Morley (Ludmila Dayer), who kept a journal in the small town of Diamantina, Brazil, in the late 19th Century.
July 14th - German School
Pina
Germany, 2011
Color, 103 minutes
Director: Wim Wenders
Synopsis: In modern dance since the 1970s, few choreographers have had more influence in the medium than the late Pina Bausch. This film explores the life and work of this artist of movement while we see her company perform her most notable creations where basic things like water, dirt and even gravity take on otherworldly qualities in their dancing. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
July 21 - School of Hebrew
Footnote (Hearat Shulayim)
Israel, 2011
Color, 103 minutes
Director: Joseph Cedar
Synopsis: Footnote is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son. Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are both eccentric professors, who have dedicated their lives to their work in Talmudic Studies. The father, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his work. Meanwhile his son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, who appears to feed on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition.
Then one day, the tables turn. When Eliezer learns that he is to be awarded the Israel Prize, the most valuable honor for scholarship in the country, his vanity and desperate need for validation are exposed. His son, Uriel, is thrilled to see his father's achievements finally recognized but, in a darkly funny twist, is forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and his father's. Will he sabotage his father's glory?
Footnote is the story of insane academic competition, the dichotomy between admiration and envy for a role model, and the very complicated relationship between a father and son.
Source: http://www.sonyclassics.com/footnote/
July 28 - Chinese School
The Piano in a Factory (Gang de qin)
China, 2010
Color, 119 minutes
Director: Zhang Meng
Synopsis: “An economically depressed steel-making city in northeast China, the present day. Chen Guilin (Wang Qianyuan) is an accordionist who runs a small band with other unemployed friends and has an easygoing relationship with Shuxian (Qin Hailu), the singer in the group. After going off with a wealthy manufacturer of fake medicine, Chen's wife Xiao Ju (Jang Shin-yeong) returns and asks him for a divorce — which he agrees to — plus custody of their young daughter Xiao Yuan (Liu Xingyu) — which he doesn't. Xiao Yuan is the apple of Chen's eye and he's been spending the little money he has on lessons for her to become a pianist. Xiao Yuan says she'll stay with whomever provides her with a piano, so Chen first tries borrowing money from friends and relatives, and then stealing one from a local school — all without success. He then decides there's only one solution: to make one, using pilfered parts from disused factories, wood from demolished buildings, and scrap metal left over from a closed foundry. He assembles all his friends to help in the project, including the scholarly Wang (Wang Zaoqin) who works out how to build a piano from a manual, local "businessman" Brother Ji (Luo Eryang) who lets him use a decrepit factory and supervises the smelting of the iron frame, ex-con Lightning Fingers (Guo Yongzhen) who pilfers small parts, and friend Wang Kangmei (Tian Yu) to help Shuxian with the cooking.”
August 4 - Spanish School
Violeta Parra Went to Heaven (Violeta se fue a los cielos)
Chile, Argentina and Brazil, 2011
Color, 110 minutes
Director: Andrés Wood
Synopsis:
“Write as you like, use the rhythms that come out, try different instruments, sit at the piano, destroy the metric, shout instead of singing, blow your guitar and ring the horn.
Hate mathematics, and love eddies.
Creation is a bird without a flight plan, that will never fly in a straight line.” -Violeta Parra
From the marquee that she built in Santiago, Chile, Violeta Parra is visited by people who shaped her life. She’s alive, but perhaps she’s dead. We’ll gradually find out her secrets, fears, frustrations and joys. Not only presenting her multiple works, but also her memories, her loves and her hopes. Her achievements are suspended in a passionate journey with the characters who made her dream, laugh and cry.
Source: http://www.violetalapelicula.cl/
August 11 - Italian School
Vincere
Italy, France, 2009
Black and White, Color, 128 minutes
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Synopsis: A cinematic tour-de-force, VINCERE is Italian master Marco Bellocchio’s (FISTS IN THE POCKET) portrait of Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi), and the fiery woman who was his secret wife and the mother of his abandoned child (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The film was a standout selection of the 2009 Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, New York, AFI film festivals, and received awards for Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Actor at the Chicago IFF.
In VINCERE, the closely guarded story of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s secret lover and son is revealed in fittingly operatic proportions. Thunderstruck by the young Mussolini’s charisma, Ida Dalser gives up everything to help champion his revolutionary ideas. When he disappears during World War I and later resurfaces with a new wife, the scorned Dalser and her son are locked away in separate asylums for more than a decade. But Ida will not disappear without a fight...
