Film & Media Culture

In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival by trying to salvage the body of a boy he takes for his son. “No matter how many Holocaust films you’ve seen, you’ve not seen one like this”––Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times. In Polish and German with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Holocaust Film Fund. (László Nemes, Hungary, 2015, 107 minutes) Free

A film director arrives in town a day early, meets a fledgling artist, and they start to fall for each other. Then, quite unexpectedly, the story begins again, but now things appear somewhat different. “No director working today can carry out this kind of heavyweight emotional excavation with such feather-light flicks of his trowel”––Robbie Collin, The Telegraph. In Korean with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Sang-soo Hong, South Korea, 2016, 121 minutes) Free

Jewish singer Nelly Lenz has survived the Nazi concentration camps, but she is disfigured and has undergone facial surgery. Back in what is left of Berlin, she searches for her musician husband Johnny in the ruins of the city. “Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss are one of the best director-actor duos working in movies today”––Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter. In German with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Holocaust Film Fund. (Christian Petzold, Germany/Poland, 2014, 98 minutes) Free

After the death of their estranged father, three 20-something siblings invite their 14 year old half-sister to live with them at their grandmother’s house. “The film is quiet, understated, gentle, and presented with wonderful freshness and clarity”––Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian. In Japanese with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan, 2015, 128 minutes) Free

When five orphan girls are seen playing innocently with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged. “A moving portrait of sisterhood, a celebration of a fierce femininity and a damning indictment of patriarchal systems that seek to destroy and control this spirit”––Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times. In Turkish with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Turkey, 2015, 97 minutes) Free

(Joss Whedon, USA, 2012, 109 minutes) Shakespeare’s classic comedy is given a contemporary spin by director Joss Whedon. Shot in just 12 days, the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a dark, sexy and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love. “The first filmed Shakespeare comedy in decades that is actually funny.”––Lou Lumenick, New York Post.

(Mike Leigh, 2014, UK, 150 minutes) This film explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. “It’s funny and visually immaculate”––Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

An intensely moving study of how China’s economic boom and the culture of materialism it has spawned has affected the bonds of family, tradition, and love. “We’re always aware of being in the hands of one of the contemporary world’s great filmmakers”—Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com. In Cantonese with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Zhangke Jia, China, 2015, 131 minutes) Free

(Steve James, USA, 2014, 120 minutes) Acclaimed director Steve James and executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian present Life Itself, a documentary that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of Roger Ebert—arguably the nation’s best-known and most influential movie critic. “A film about illness and death, about writing, about cinema and, finally, and very movingly, a film about love”––Geoffrey O’Brien, The New York Times.

(Audrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2014, 140 minutes) A dispute over land in a remote Russian township becomes a stone that casts cataclysmic ripples through a family and a community. It is a thinly veiled political parable drenched in bitter irony that takes aim against the corrupt, corrosive regime of Vladimir Putin. “The director’s most accessible and naturalistic film, using everyday characters to test how well modern-day Russia is maintaining the social contract with its citizens.”––Peter Debruge, Variety. In Russian with English subtitles.