Austria

FALLING
(FALLEN)
2006, Barbara Albert, Austria, 88 min.
With Nina Proll, Birgit Minichmayr

The reunion of five thirty-something girlfriends at the funeral of their favorite teacher starts with nostalgia and confession and blasts off blearily into a 24-hour revel in which the feisty femmes crash the wedding of an ex-lover, dance trippingly around their individual and collective pasts, and handily play show-and-don’t-tell. In German with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Kino International. 35mm. (BS)

Saturday, March 17, 5:45 pm

GRBAVICA: THE LAND OF MY DREAMS
2006, Jasmila Zbanic, Austria, 90 min.
With Mirjana Karonovic, Jasna Ornala

Single mother and cocktail waitress Esma always told her young daughter that her absent father was a Bosnian war hero. Now, taunted by schoolmates, teenage Sara demands proof, but the truth is a darker secret than she can imagine. Stunning lead performances make this Academy Awards submission a must-see. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. In Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Strand Releasing. 35mm. (BS)

Wednesday, March 14, 6:00 pm

KLIMT
2006, Raúl Ruiz, Austria/Germany/U.K./France, 99 min.
With John Malkovich, Veronica Ferres

Only the hyperactive imagination of prolific avant-garde dynamo Raúl Ruiz (TIME REGAINED) could do justice to the life and times of artist Gustav Klimt and 1900 Vienna in all their decadence and excess. Spectacularly sumptuous period costumes and sets showcase the performance of Chicago’s own John Malkovich as the scandal-ridden rake whose gilded masterpieces are drenched in eroticism. Nikolai Kinski, dead-ringer son of the late, great Klaus, is Egon Schiele. We screen Ruiz’s international release cut of the film. In English. Preview courtesy of Outsider Pictures, U.S. 35mm. (BS)

Sunday, March 18, 3:00 pm
Thursday, March 22, 6:00 pm

ZORRO’S BAR MITZVAH
(ZORROS BAR MIZWA)
2006, Ruth Beckermann, Austria, 90 min.

If Zorro were Jewish, he might have celebrated his religious coming-of-age with a multimedia masked-man-themed extravaganza much like one Vienna teen in this humorous and only slightly ironic look at European trends in Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Three boys and a girl and their extended families prepare for the ceremonial day in a manner that ranges from staunchly traditional to way out there. In German and Hebrew with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of First Run/Icarus Films. Beta SP video. (BS)

Sunday, March 25, 3:15 pm
Wednesday, March 28, 6:15 pm

Belgium

THE ICEBERG
(L’ICEBERG)
2005, Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, and Bruno Romy, Belgium, 84 min.
With Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel

“Distinctive. . . has a brightly-colored pop aesthetic all its own.”--Jonathan Holland, Variety

With an innocent zest that once characterized silent movies, THE ICEBERG boldly revives a tradition of physical comedy in a story that puts playful slapstick and winsome pantomime in place of dialogue. The manager of a fast-food restaurant gets trapped in the walk-in freezer one night, and unbidden arctic fantasies propel her to a new renegade life in a northerly direction. In French with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of First Run Features. 35mm. (BS)

Saturday, March 10, 6:15 pm

Czech Republic

BEAUTY IN TROUBLE
(KRÁSKA V NESNÁZÍCH)
2006, Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic, 110 min.
With Ana Geislerová, Jirí Schmitzer

Maybe she’s a damsel in distress and maybe she’s a gold-digger, but one thing sure is that “beauty” Marcela (luscious Czech star Geislerová) is a blonde with a not-so-dumb approach to survival and a great sense of timing when her husband goes to the slammer courtesy of a vineyard-owning aristocrat. Veteran actor Schmitzer tops a terrific supporting cast as the foxy grandpa with a special approach to discipline. In Czech with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Menemsha Films, Inc. 35mm widescreen. (BS)

Saturday, March 17, 5:30 pm
Monday, March 19, 6:00 pm

PLEASANT MOMENTS
(HEZKÉ CHVILKY BEZ ZÁRUKY)
2006, Vera Chytilova, Czech Republic, 108 min.
With Jana Janekova, Jana Krausova

“A full-throttle blast.”--Eddie Cockrell, Variety

Any new film by Czech New Wave icon Chytilova (DAISIES) is an occasion to celebrate, and this one’s a dilly. Psychologist Hana has a ringside seat to the marital indiscretions of her patients and the cross-generational attractions of near and dear including her husband, her son, and her best friend. The Variety critic suggested that PLEASANT MOMENTS does for psychology what M.A.S.H. did for surgery. In Czech with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Czech Television and Negativ Film Productions. (BS)

Saturday, March 3, 3:00 pm
Monday, March 5, 8:15 pm

WRONG SIDE UP
(PRIBEHY OBYCEJNEHO SILENSTVI)
2005, Petr Zelenka, Czech Republic, 107 min.
With Ivan Trojan, Jiri Bartoska

A view on the eccentric side of life is the stock-in-trade of director Zelenka (YEAR OF THE DEVIL and award-winning cult favorite BUTTONERS). Based on his own play Tales of Common Insanity, WRONG SIDE UP doesn’t disappoint with its mellow tale of a freight handler in the Prague airport who ships himself off to Cuba for love, forsaking, among other things, a freelance job that involves spying on his neighbors’ sex life. In Czech with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Negativ Film Productions and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic, Chicago. (BS)

Monday, March 12, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, March 14, 7:45 pm

Denmark

ADAM’S APPLES
(ADAMS AEBLER)
2005, Anders Thomas Jensen, Denmark, 94 min.
With Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Paprika Steen

The Lord certainly does move in mysterious ways in this blackly comic, often hilarious, and ultimately touching parable by prolific writer-director Jensen (MIFUNE, AFTER THE WEDDING). The versatile Mikkelsen plays a country cleric with a fondness for hiring paroled convicts, the most recent being surly skinhead Adam (Thomsen), who keeps slugging away at the other cheek that his ridiculously Pollyannaish benefactor keeps turning to him. It all seems part of some perverse divine plan, with the churchyard apple tree a key ingredient, and the increasingly exasperated Adam may be just the man to get the Job done. In Danish with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Outsider Pictures, U.S. 35mm widescreen. (MR)

Saturday, March 17, 3:30 pm
Tuesday, March 20, 8:15 pm

Closing night film!
AFTER THE WEDDING
(EFTER BRYLLUPPET)
2006, Susanne Bier, Denmark, 122 min.
With Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babbett Knudsen, Rolf Lassgard

A 2007 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, AFTER THE WEDDING confirms Bier (BROTHERS, OPEN HEARTS) as one of the world’s top filmmakers, unsurpassed at creating rich, multilayered relationship dramas that combine personal and social dimensions. This powerful and affecting film stars the brilliant Mikkelsen (CASINO ROYALE) as Jacob, a dedicated social worker in India who reluctantly returns to Denmark to humor a rich donor (Lassgard) whose daughter is getting married. . . and whose wife (Knudsen) summons up ghosts from Jacob’s past. In Danish, Swedish, Hindi, and English with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of IFC Films. 35mm. (MR)

Immediately following the screening, the audience is invited to a closing night reception hosted by Whole Food Market.

Note: No free passes or blue tickets will be valid for the closing night film.

Thursday, March 29, 6:30 pm

THE BIG DAY
(DEN STORE TAG)
2005, Morton Arnfred, Denmark, 94 min.
With Louise Mieritz, Nikolaj Steen

In this breezy romantic comedy, Anne (Mieritz) is a professional wedding planner whose company is called The Big Day. While dealing with reluctant and squabbling clients, she’s also planning her own marriage to longtime fiancé Simon (Martin Bryggman). A chance to land the high-profile wedding of two TV personalities promises to send The Big Day’s stock soaring, but Anne finds herself most inconveniently falling in love with the celebrity groom (Steen). In Danish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of The Danish Arts Agency. (MR)

Saturday, March 3, 3:00 pm
Wednesday, March 7, 8:00 pm

FLIES ON THE WALL
(FLUERNE PA VAEGGEN)
2005, Ake Sandgren, Denmark, 92 min.
With Trine Dyrholm, Lars Brygmann

Foul odors are a motif in this camera-haunted conspiracy thriller that literalizes the old saying about the state of Denmark. Celebrated filmmaker My Larsen (Dryholm) is hired by the Liberal Party to make a documentary about their rising star Svend Balder (Brygmann). But when My starts falling for Balder, then discovers that he may be mixed up in corruption and murder, then realizes that someone is filming her, her status changes from fly on the wall to sitting duck. In Danish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of The Danish Arts Agency. (MR)

Friday, March 9, 6:15 pm
Tuesday, March 13, 7:45 pm

France

THE AX
(LE COUPERET)
2005, Costa-Gavras, France, 122 min.
With José Garcia, Karin Viard

A change of pace for celebrated leftist filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Z, MISSING), THE AX is his best film in years, deftly integrating his political concerns into the framework of a black comedy/thriller. Based on a novel by crime specialist Donald E. Westlake (whose credits as novelist and screenwriter include POINT BLANK, THE GRIFTERS, and THE STEPFATHER), the story centers on a veteran engineer (Garcia) who is unceremoniously downsized. Unable to find work, he finally decides that it’s better to give the ax than to receive it, and he begins assassinating his top competitors in the job market. In French with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. (MR)

Sunday, March 4, 4:45 pm
Monday, March 5, 6:00 pm

EXTERMINATING ANGELS
(LES ANGES EXTERMINATEURS)
2006, Jean-Claude Brisseau, France, 102 min.
With Frédéric van den Driessche, Maroussia Dubreuil, Lise Bellynck, Marie Allan, Sophie Bonnet

“The most bemusing and fearless film in the [Cannes] festival--and one of the best.”--Gavin Smith, Film Comment
“Frequently funny, authentically arousing.”--Lisa Nesselson, Variety

Move over, SHORTBUS--there’s a new contender in the art-house sex-film sweepstakes, this time with an emphasis on the feminine and onanistic. Taboo-busting director Brisseau was successfully accused by four actresses who felt that their explicit audition sessions for his 2002 film SECRET THINGS constituted sexual harassment. The fictional follow-up EXTERMINATING ANGELS centers self-referentially on the problems of a filmmaker who discovers the power of his camera to unleash transgressive female sexuality. In French with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of IFC First Take Films. 35mm. Note: No one under 18 admitted. (MR)

Saturday, March 24, 8:00 pm

ME AND MY SISTER
(LES SOEURS FÂCHÉES)
2004, Alexandra Leclère, France, 93 min.
With Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Frot, François Berléand

Leclère’s first film is a sibling-rivalry comedy featuring superb performances by two of France’s top actresses. Beautician and aspiring writer Louise (Frot) comes to Paris to visit her older, more sophisticated sister Martine (Huppert), who considers her country-mouse sibling an embarrassment, but her own passionless life is nothing to be proud of. Funny but not fluffy, the film strikes real emotional sparks in the clash between consummate ice-queen Huppert and bumbling but big-hearted bumpkin Frot. In French with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. (MR)

Sunday, March 11, 3:00 pm
Thursday, March 15, 6:00 pm

PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES
(COEURS)
2006, Alain Resnais, France, 120 min.
With Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma, Isabelle Carré, André Dussollier, Laura Morante, Lambert Wilson, Claude Rich

At age 84, old master Resnais delivers a new masterpiece. Based on a play by Alan Ayckbourn, the story follows an ensemble of well-heeled Parisians through interlocking plotlines involving real estate, romance, religion, pornography, and loneliness. It starts out looking like a brittle comedy of manners, but the subtle intensity of Resnais’s style builds a tender, melancholy power that becomes overwhelming. The ravishing mise-en-scène, warmed by vibrant colors and cooled by constantly falling snow, should be seen only on the big screen. Putting the film at the top of his list in Sight & Sound’s Best of 2006 poll, Jonathan Rosenbaum called it “dark, exquisite, highly personal. . . an eloquent testimony to how distilled Resnais’s art has become.” In French with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of IFC First Take Films. 35mm widescreen. (MR)

Friday, March 16, 6:00 pm

REGULAR LOVERS
(LES AMANTS RÉGULIERS)
2005, Philippe Garrel, France, 178 min.
With Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme, Julien Lucas

“Garrel knows the truth of ‘68. . . This magnificent film is itself proof that all was not lost.”--Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“An amazing, redemptive experience.”--Andrew O’Hehir, salon.com
“Revolution, romance and rock--what else could you want?”--Village Voice

Based on cult director Garrel’s personal experiences, REGULAR LOVERS is a grittier alternative to Bertolucci’s glamorized THE DREAMERS, following a draft-dodging Parisian poet (Louis Garrel, son of the director) through the upheavals of 1968 and beyond. The first part climaxes with a stunning, extended depiction of the Night of the Barricades; the final parts trace the migration of the revolutionary spirit into drugs, decadence, love, and art. William Lubtchansky’s beautifully etched black-and-white cinematography will be greatly diminished on video. In French with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Palm Pictures. 35mm. (MR)

Saturday, March 24, 3:00 pm
Monday, March 26, 6:30 pm

THE ROLE OF HER LIFE
(LE RÔLE DE SA VIE)
2004, François Favrat, France, 100 min.
With Agnès Jaoui, Karin Viard, Jonathan Zaccaï

“This smart, finely acted film assesses the toxicity of celebrity with a withering eye.”--Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Funny, fierce, and accurate.”--Patrick Fabre, Studio

Whether as actress, writer, or director, Agnès Jaoui is a treasure of contemporary French cinema. Here, in her acting mode, she puts a Gallic spin on such recent diva-fests as BEING JULIA and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, playing an imperious star who hires a mousy journalist (Viard) as her personal assistant. At first, the star-struck girl is thrilled to cater to her idol, but contempt and romantic rivalry cast a shadow on her happy servitude. In French with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. (MR)

Sunday, March 18, 3:15 pm
Thursday, March 22, 8:00 pm

Germany

Opening night film!
FOUR MINUTES
(VIER MINUTEN)
2006, Chris Kraus, Germany, 112 min.
With Monica Bleibtreu, Hannah Herzsprung

On the verge of retirement, a piano teacher (Bleibtreu) at a women’s prison faces a final challenge in the form of a sociopathic young inmate (Herzsprung) with oodles of raw musical talent. She grooms the girl for the prestigious “Musical Youth” contest, but first she must get past hostile guards, bureaucratic roadblocks, the prodigy’s violent outbursts, and her own memories of a tragic wartime romance with another outcast girl. This rousing, powerhouse drama pulls out all the stops as it approaches the climactic contest, in which each contestant has just four minutes to show her stuff. The veteran Bleibtreu delivers a subtly moving performance as the repressed mentor, and Herzsprung (performing her own piano stunts) is simply sensational in her feature debut. In German with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Wolfe Releasing. 35mm. (MR)

Note: No free passes or blue tickets will be valid for the opening night screening on Friday.

Friday, March 2, 7:00 pm
Thursday, March 8, 6:00 pm

GHOSTS
(GESPENSTER)
2005, Christian Petzold, Germany, 85 min.
With Julia Hummer, Sabine Timoteo, Marianne Basler, Aurélien Recoing

“Petzold’s latest masterpiece. . . beautifully rendered.”--Marco Abel, senses of cinema

Petzold, whose three previous films (THE STATE I AM IN, SOMETHING TO REMIND ME, WOLFSBURG) graced EU Film Festivals, returns with another unnerving mystery filmed with icy, under-your-skin precision. The story, co-written by Harun Farocki and inspired by the Grimm tale “The Shroud,” brings together two plotlines: an alienated teenager (Hummer) roaming Berlin’s Tiergarten, and a French couple searching for a daughter abducted as an infant several years ago. The ghosts of the title are in the mind, and they can be devastating. In German and French with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Bavaria Film International. (MR)

Friday, March 23, 6:00 pm
Saturday, March 24, 6:15 pm

INTO GREAT SILENCE
(DIE GROSSE STILLE)
2005, Philip Gröning, Germany, 162 min.

“Engrossing, entrancing, enlivening.”--Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“One of those rare celluloid experiences that truly transports us into another world.”--Trevor Johnston, Time Out London

After many years of trying, filmmaker Gröning was granted unprecedented permission to film inside the Grand Chartreuse monastery high in the French Alps, working without a crew or added lighting as he lived among the silent order. The result--a surprise box-office hit in Europe--is a film of rigorous, mesmerizing beauty that follows the rhythms of the monks’ daily routines to approach a state of transcendent harmony. In German with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Zeitgeist Films. 35mm. (MR)

Saturday, March 10, 3:00 pm

LONGING
(SEHNSUCHT)
2006, Valeska Grisebach, Germany, 88 min.
With Andreas Müller, Ilka Welz, Anett Dornbusch

“Nothing less than a masterpiece.”--Olaf Möller, Film Comment
“The naturalistic performances are utterly credible, the documentary-like camerawork almost luminous in its capacity for revelation, and the inspired Brechtian coda merely the delicious icing on a rich, multi-layered cake.”--Geoff Andrew, Time Out London

In a village outside Berlin, a metalworker and his wife love each other with a steady devotion, but a drunken liaison on an out-of-town trip ignites a fire of desire that he can’t control. Simple yet deep, with remarkable non-professional performances captured by Grisebach’s intimate style, this piercing love ballad garnered raves at film festivals and showed up on several critics’ lists in Sight & Sound’s recent Best of 2006 roundup. In German with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Hollywood Classics. (MR)

Friday, March 16, 6:15 pm
Sunday, March 18, 5:15 pm

Great Britain

COLOR ME KUBRICK
2005, Brian Cook, Great Britain, 86 min.
With John Malkovich, Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant, Peter Bowles

“A sly, enormously entertaining romp.”--Lisa Nesselson, Variety
“A joy for Kubrick fans.”--Phillip Piggott, cinemattraction.com

Subtitled “A True. . .ish Story,” this bizarre comic footnote to film history is based on the exploits of Alan Conway, a gay British con man who profitably impersonated Stanley Kubrick in the 1990s, despite having little knowledge of the reclusive director’s life or films. Director Brian Cook and screenwriter Anthony Frewin were longtime associates of Kubrick (Cook as assistant director, Frewin as research assistant), and they fill the film with clever visual and musical references to the master’s oeuvre, plus amusing cameos by Ken Russell and Honor Blackman. With wobbly American accent and outrageous wardrobe, Malkovich has a field day as the flamboyant Conway; Mark Adnum of spiked called it “one of the great homo performances.” In English. Preview courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. 35mm. (MR)

Sunday, March 4, 3:00 pm
Thursday, March 8, 8:15 pm

GLASTONBURY
2006, Julien Temple, Britain, 138 min.

Pop-savvy filmmaker Temple (THE FILTH AND THE FURY, ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS) took five years to shape thousands of hours of footage into an exhilarating portrait of the world’s longest-running rock festival. The result is neither a conventional concert film nor a tidy chronological history but an immersion, simulating the three-day filth-and-fury experience of the festival in dazzlingly-edited patterns that evoke not only the 35-year history of the event but also its place in a larger history of British muddling-through, medieval fairs, and Arthurian legend. It’s as much about the ambience as the acts, the latter including standout gigs by Nick Cave, Morrissey, Björk, Joe Strummer, Ray Davies, and a climactic one-two wallop of Pulp and David Bowie. In English. Preview courtesy of THINKFilm. 35mm. (MR)

Saturday, March 3, 7:30 pm

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA
2006, Sophie Fiennes, Britain, 150 min.
With Slavoj Zizek

“The fastest-moving, most shamelessly enjoyable film I’ve seen at Toronto so far this year.”--Jim Emerson, Jim Emerson’s Scanners : Blog

“Cinema is the ultimate pervert art,” declares celebrated structuralist Slavoj Zizek, and he proceeds to illustrate the medium’s power to create desire via sometimes outrageous, often brilliant insights on 43 films, ranging from DUCK SOUP to THE MATRIX, with special emphasis on Hitchcock, Lynch, and Tarkovsky. This is no stodgy talking-head lecture; director Sophie Fiennes brings Zizek’s ideas to life through fluid editing and cheeky use of settings that place the flamboyant philosopher in the scenes he discusses: descending into the PSYCHO cellar, sitting on the CONVERSATION toilet, hiding in the BLUE VELVET closet, and many more. In English. DigiBeta video courtesy of Lone Star Productions. (MR)

Saturday, March 17, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, March 21, 6:30 pm

RED ROAD
2006, Andrea Arnold, Britain, 113 min.
With Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Nathalie Press

“It’s dynamite, the kind of sexy, paranoid, creepily atmospheric picture that invades all your senses at once.”--Andrew O’Hehir, salon.com

One of the must buzzed-about films on the festival circuit has been this debut feature by Andrea Arnold, whose short film WASP won an Oscar in 2005. Her ultra-edgy, erotically explicit thriller centers on a youngish widow (Dickie) who oversees a bank of surveillance monitors in a seedy Glasgow neighborhood. One day she spots Clyde (Curran), an evil blast from her past. When she starts stalking, then flirting with him, it seems like a case of the fly walking straight into the spider’s parlor. . . In English. Preview courtesy of Tartan Films USA. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, March 9, 6:00 pm
Saturday, March 10, 8:00 pm

UNREQUITED LOVE: ON STALKING AND BEING STALKED
2006, Chris Petit, Britain, 77 min.
With Rebecca Marshall, Gregory Dart, Vibeche Standal

“Best of all [the films at the Rotterdam Film Festival], London cine-essayist and psychogeographer Chris Petit’s UNREQUITED LOVE is a Chris Marker-like meditation on the metaphysics of stalking.”--Dennis Lim, Village Voice

British indie pioneer Petit (RADIO ON) calls stalking “one of the great subjects of the late twentieth century.” Loosely based on Gregory Dart’s autobiographical book, this coolly disquieting anti-thriller tracks the “viral emotion” through a LA RONDE-like narrative in which a harassed woman (Marshall) flees to London where she begins stalking an author (Dart) who himself becomes obsessed with a woman (Standal) in Leipzig. . . Petit builds a dense matrix of associations and allusions--drawing provocative links between terrorists and stalkers (“fundamentalists of love”), channeling Jean Rhys and Patricia Highsmith, and following the characters through locations haunted by the ghosts of films past such as BLOWUP, PEEPING TOM, and TORN CURTAIN. UNREQUITED LOVE is available on DVD through Illuminations Television (www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk). In English. DigiBeta video. (MR)

Friday, March 23, 6:15 pm
Sunday, March 25, 5:15 pm

Greece

CHARITON’S CHOIR
(aka HARITON’S CHOIR)
(I CHORODIA TOU HARITONA)
2005, Grigoris Karatinakis, Greece, 116 min.
With George Corraface, Maria Nafpliotou

The libertine school principal in a Corfu outpost circa 1968 is best known as an urbane ladies’ man, bed-hopping by night and calling in sick by day. Chariton sets his sights for the voluptuous new math teacher Eleni, but encounters a wily rival in the town’s humorless but marriage-minded military commander. The joyously love-minded confection was this year’s Greek pick for Oscar consideration. In Greek with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Greek Film Centre. (BS)

Friday, March 16, 8:15 pm
Monday, March 19, 8:15 pm

THE HEART OF THE BEAST
(I KARDIA TOU KTINOUS)
2005, Renos Haralambidis, Greece, 82 min.
With Renos Haralambidis, Giorgos Voultzatis

A buddy movie with a darkly absurd streak, THE HEART OF THE BEAST makes three unlikely men partners in a heist meant to settle old scores. Stephanos, a debt-ridden egghead, is lured into a sure-fire bank robbery scheme for the cash. Two men claim to know him from high school, but they don’t seem familiar. A babe is thrown in to seal the deal, but not exactly. Is this the best way to pay the bills? In Greek with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Greek Film Centre. (BS)

Friday, March 9, 8:15 pm
Monday, March 12, 8:15 pm

Hungary

EASTERN SUGAR
(SZEZON)
2004, Ferenc Török, Hungary, 89 min.
With Zsolt Nagy, Judit Rezes

Late-night booty calls from a senator’s wife no less, number among the few perks rustled up on the side by three adventurous twenty-something guys who set out for idyllic summer jobs and find a soul-sapping grind as waiters in a swanky lakeside resort. Director Török’s bittersweet comedy, in which the three discover life in a bossman’s world, deftly lays out the angst of working class dudes with boys-gone-wild dreams. In Hungarian with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Bunyik Entertainment and Magyar Filmunió. (BS)

Sunday, March 4, 5:00 pm
Tuesday, March 6, 6:00 pm

HUNTING FOR ENGLISHMEN
(VADÁSZAT ANGOLOKRA)
2006, Bertalan Bagó, Hungary, 86 min.
With Sándor Badár, Ilona Bencze

A love triangle is set against the background of a bucolic country enclave of aristocrats in 1830s Hungary as the Russian tsar plots an incursion. The handsome English engineer Blackwall arrives to build a railroad for Count Falussy, whose beautiful orphan ward is the would-be fiancée of a neighboring and much older nobleman. Intrigues, romantic and political, are laid bare when the boar hunt takes a dangerous turn. In Hungarian with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Bunyik Entertainment and Magyar Filmunió. (BS)

Saturday, March 10, 6:30 pm
Thursday, March 15, 8:00 pm

Ireland

DEAD LONG ENOUGH
2005, Tommy Collins, Ireland, 82 min.
With Jason Hughes, Michael Sheen, Angeline Ball

Sad-sack lawyer Ben (Hughes) has a love-hate relationship with his rock star brother Harry (Sheen of THE QUEEN), and it all goes back to rivalry over a certain redheaded lass in Donegal. No matter that the lady in question gave them both the kiss-off 16 years before. With a hidden agenda, Harry drags Ben off to visit their hometown where, in the course of a farcical “stag night” involving the whole town, all is revealed amid lashings of Irish traditional music. In English. 35mm print courtesy of Media Luna Entertainment. (BS)

Saturday, March 10, 4:45 pm
Wednesday, March 14, 8:00 pm

48 ANGELS
2006, Marion Comer, Ireland, 95 min.
With Shane Brolly, John Travers

A small boy desperate for a miracle, a runaway teen, and a bleeding convict who faces the end of the road as police close in, are thrown together by fate on a lake island in present-day Northern Ireland. A kid’s naïve belief that the crucified Jesus has come down from heaven to answer his prayer comes up against the complex reality of Ireland’s “troubles.” In English. 35mm print courtesy of Fantastic Films and Artist View Entertainment Inc. (BS)

Monday, March 26, 6:00 pm
Thursday, March 29, 8:15 pm

Italy

DON’T TELL
(LA BESTIA NEL CUORE)
2005, Cristina Comencini, Italy, 120 min.
With Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Stefania Rocca, Angela Finocchiaro, Alessio Boni, Luigi Lo Cascio

“Powerfully moving but laced with incisive wit.”--Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter

A 2006 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, DON’T TELL treats a sensitive topic with tact and insight. Mezzogiorno (THE LAST KISS, FACING WINDOWS) took the Best Actress prize at Venice for her moving performance as a happily married woman driven by nightmares to uncover a devastating secret. Director-screenwriter-novelist Comencini supplies vibrant subplots (including the terrific Angela Finocchiaro as a jilted wife who finds solace in an unexpected place) that leaven the serious subject without trivializing it. In Italian and English with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Lionsgate. (MR)

Sunday, March 18, 5:00 pm
Wednesday, March 21, 6:00 pm

MANUAL OF LOVE
(MANUALE D’AMORE)
2005, Giovanni Veronesi, Italy, 108 min.
With Carlo Verdone, Silvio Muccino, Luciana Littizzetto, Sergio Rubini, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca

Nominated for twelve of Italy’s Oscar-equivalent David di Donatello awards (and winning in the supporting-actor categories for Verdone and Buy), this nimble romantic comedy links together four vignettes representing the stages of love, from infatuation to abandonment. Standing out in a strong ensemble cast are Muccino as a lovesick young man, real-life ex-spouses Rubini and Buy as a couple in crisis, Littizzetto as a jilted policewoman out to get even, and Verdone as a doctor trying to rebuild his shattered life after his wife leaves him. In Italian with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Filmauro. (MR)

Wednesday, March 7, 8:15 pm
Saturday, March 10, 2:45 pm

THE TIGER AND THE SNOW
(LA TIGRE E LA NEVE)
2005, Roberto Benigni, Italy, 110 min.
With Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean Reno

“Winsome, charming, and irresistibly romantic.”--Andrew O’Hehir, salon.com
“One appreciates the independent spirit behind a film boldly set during a war, and the graceful optimism and humor Benigni brings to his subject.”--Deborah Young, Variety

Trounced by most critics but better liked by audiences, TIGER returns Benigni to the finding-comedy-in-unlikely-places strategy of LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. He plays an eccentric professor/poet whose beloved (Braschi) is injured in Baghdad when the war breaks out. Benigni poses as a surgeon to slip into Iraq with a Red Cross unit, tangling with camels, minefields, and G.I.s as he races to the rescue. Jean Reno plays an Arab poet, and Tom Waits has a cameo as a wedding singer. In Italian, Arabic, and English with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Strand Releasing. 35mm widescreen. (MR)

Sunday, March 25, 3:00 pm
Wednesday, March 28, 8:15 pm

Latvia

HOSTAGE
(KILNIEKS)
2006, Lalia Pakalnina, Latvia, 74 min.
With Branko Zavrsan, Kristaps Mednis

A world-weary hijacker forces an airliner to land in Riga, where he releases all the passengers but Tom, a bold eight-year-old. Pakalnina’s absurd allegory on national identity has Tom adding his own request for chocolates to the hijacker’s demand for $30 million, while a sequence of possibly unrelated scofflaw events play out just beyond the airport. In English and Latvian with English subtitles. Beta SP video courtesy of the National Film Centre of Latvia. (BS)

Friday, March 9, 8:00 pm
Monday, March 12, 8:00 pm

Lithuania

Arunas Matelis in person!
BEFORE FLYING BACK TO EARTH
(PRIES PARSKRENDANT I ZEME)
2005, Arunas Matelis, Lithuania, 52 min.
THE WIDOWS’ COAST
(NASLIU PAKRANTE)
2006, Janina Lapinskaité, Lithuania, 26 min.

A children’s leukemia ward in a Vilnius hospital is the subject of Lithuania’s first Academy Award submission (and the recipient, at the time of writing, of a stratospheric 9.8 rating on IMDb.com). Do not expect anything morbid or mawkish; this high-spirited, lyrical documentary is close in spirit to Truffaut in its portrayal of its indomitable, often mischievous subjects. Winner of the DGA Award for Best Documentary Feature,

Preceded by THE WIDOWS’ COAST: 2006 festival guest Lapinskaité (LAND OF GLASS) displays her stunning pictorial sense in this poetic portrait of women living on a gorgeously desolate stretch of the Baltic seacoast. Both films in Lithuanian with English subtitles. Both in Beta SP video, courtesy of Lithuanian Film Center. (MR)

Director Arunas Matelis is tentatively scheduled to appear at the March 11 screening; phone 312-846-2600 for confirmation.

Sunday, March 11, 5:00 pm
Wednesday, March 14, 6:15 pm

Luxembourg

LITTLE SECRETS
(PERL ODER PICA)
2006, Pol Cruchten, Luxembourg, 90 min.
With Ben Hoscheit, Anouk Wagener

Amid the detritus of WWII, and in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis, 12-year-old Norbi is growing up in the small Luxembourg mining town of Esch, more fixated on how to get his hands on comic books and cigarettes and listen to equally forbidden rock ‘n’ roll. This quirkily nostalgic comedy with appeal for the whole family is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by best-selling Luxembourg author Jhemp Hoscheit. In Luxembourgish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Centre National de l’audiovisuel, Luxembourg. (BS)

Sunday, March 11, 3:15 pm
Tuesday, March 13, 6:00 pm

Netherlands

DEEP
(DIEP)
2006, Simone van Dusseldorp, Netherlands, 86 min.
With Melody Klaver, Monic Hendrikx

This coming-of-age story explores a girl’s gradual awakening to her own sexuality in the milieu of a comically permissive and dysfunctional ‘70s-era household. Dad takes off with his secretary after gifting mom with a chrome-trimmed vibrator; she hankers after unsuitable lovers; and everybody smokes dope. Like a Dutch Ellen Page, Melody Klaver brings sullen ripeness to a role that requires both sobering innocence and burgeoning sensuality. In Dutch with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. (BS)

Saturday, March 3, 7:45 pm
Wednesday, March 7, 6:15 pm

SONG FROM THE OTHER SIDE
(HET ZWIJGEN)
2006, André van der Hout and Adri Schrover, Netherlands, 95 min.
With Vincent Croiset, Rosa Reuten

Folklore and the supernatural color a mysterious tale that begins with an anthropologist’s plan to check out his inherited cottage in the Dutch fenlands and simultaneously evade his demanding boss at the research institute. Everyone in this creepy canal-side hamlet has something to hide, and it all revolves around a fragment of a folk ballad describing a grisly triple murder that’s been unsolved for seventy years. In Dutch with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Note: The Monday 8:00 pm show will begin at 8:05 pm. (BS)

Sunday, March 4, 3:00 pm
Monday, March 5, 8:00 pm

Poland

LOVE IN THE YEAR OF THE TIGER
(KOCHANKOWIE ROKU TYGRYSA)
2005, Jacek Bromski, Poland/China, 100 min.
With Michal Zebrowski, Li Min

The first Polish Chinese co-production, LOVE IN THE YEAR OF THE TIGER is set in 1913, when two Polish political prisoners escape their Siberian exile and cross into China. Guo, a hunter, finds them and hides survivor Wolski in his home. As a precaution, Guo cuts his pretty daughter Song’s hair and dresses her as a boy, but human nature will not be denied. In Russian, Cantonese, and Polish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Polish Film Institute. (BS)

Saturday, March 24, 8:15 pm
Wednesday, March 28, 8:00 pm

THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR US
(CZEKA NA NAS SWIAT)
2006, Robert Krzempek, Poland, 95 min.
With Sebastian Pawlak, Jadwiga Lesiak

A 30-year-old mama’s boy finds his cushy lifestyle threatened when the mailman makes off with mom’s pension check and she ends up in a convalescent home. Fazi’s helpful friend Sproket suggests a great job--gigolo. It’s harder than Fazi expects, but not quite as hard as his sole customer would hope. Rock bottom could be in sight for Fazi in this spoof on the plight of Poland’s new generation. In Polish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Polish Film Institute. (BS)

Sunday, March 11, 5:15 pm
Thursday, March 15, 7:45 pm

Portugal

BOSNIA DIARIES
(OS DIÁRIOS DA BÓSNIA)
2005, Joaquim Sapinho, Portugal, 78 min.

A moving chronicle of evolving tragedy in the Balkans, BOSNIA DIARIES charts two very personal Sarajevo sojourns by the filmmaker. Summer, 1996: in the ruins of the paralyzed city, Sapinho detects a faint hope taking hold. Winter, 1998: the psychic wounds of Muslims, Serbs, and Croats are rawer than ever, and the camera finds no metaphors for peace in the gently falling snow. In Portuguese and Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of ICAM. (BS)

Saturday, March 24, 6:30 pm
Monday, March 26, 8:00 pm

A SHOT IN THE DARK
(UM TIRO NO ESCURO)
2005, Leonel Vieira, Portugal, 117 min.
With Joaquim de Almeida, Vaness Machado

Portugal’s internationally acclaimed star Joaquim de Almeida delivers an ace performance as the cop caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place in this tense, rip-roaring thriller that begins when a young mother has her baby snatched from an airport restroom in Rio. The sleaze of a strip club spills over to the streets of Lisbon, and no one stays clean as this wild ride heads for a bang-up conclusion in yet another airport. In Portuguese with English subtitles. 35mm widescreen print courtesy of ICAM. (BS)

Monday, March 19, 8:00 pm
Thursday, March 22, 6:00 pm

Romania

THE GREAT COMMUNIST BANK ROBBERY
(CAMARADES GANGSTERS, LEVEZ-VOUS)
2004, Alexandru Solomon, Romania/France, 70 min.

A bizarre film within a film, THE GREAT COMMUNIST BANK ROBBERY recaps the surreal 1959 robbery of the Romanian National Bank in Bucharest by a masked gang. The Stalinist government arrested six individuals and forced them to reenact the heist under the impression they would be spared the death penalty. They were subsequently shot, only after reenacting their own trials. Solomon’s documentary incorporates the eerie 1959 footage and explores the strange and astonishing facts. In English and Romanian with English subtitles. DigiBeta video courtesy of Cinema Guild. (BS)

Saturday, March 24, 5:00 pm
Tuesday, March 27, 6:15 pm

Slovakia

KING OF THIEVES
(KRÁL’ ZLODEJOV)
2004, Ivan Fíla, Slovakia/Germany, 104 min.
With Lazar Ristovski, Yasha Kutiasov

A tale that begins with dreams of circus stardom and evolves into a harrowing saga of stolen innocence, KING OF THIEVES follows young Barbu and his teenage sister Mimma from their Ukrainian village to Berlin. Sold by their father to a German circus owner, they are eager for life under the big top, but their Fagin-like master trains Barbu as a thief and loses Mimma to a pimp in a card game. In German and Russian with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Picture This! Entertainment and Cine-International. (BS)

Saturday, March 17, 3:30 pm
Thursday, March 22, 8:15 pm

Slovenia

BULLETS MISS THE FOOL
(NOREGA SE METEK OGNE)
2005, Mitja Novljan, Slovenia, 80 min.
With Uros Potocnik, Petra Zupan

“Surprisingly raunchy sex-comedy-drama beguiles and appeals with its freewheeling style.”--Neil Young’s Film Lounge

The loose, brisk style of the storytelling is half the fun in a film that offers surprising twists. An arty young couple with serious money woes (loan sharks have already broken the husband’s legs) sublet half their apartment to another couple, a waiter and his pregnant wife. Domestic adjustments will be made, especially when the gangsters close in. In Slovene with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Ministry of Public Affairs, Republic of Slovenia. (BS)

Monday, March 5, 6:15 pm
Thursday, March 8, 8:15 pm

Spain

THE METHOD
(EL MÉTODO)
(aka THE GRÖNHOLM METHOD)
2005, Marcelo Piñeyro, Spain, 115 min.
With Eduardo Noriega, Najwa Nimri, Eduard Fernández, Pablo Echarri, Natalia Verbeke

“Nifty. . . Imagine ‘Survivor’ by way of Enron.”--Robert Koehler, Variety

In this stylish, timely thriller by the director of BURNT MONEY, a Madrid corporation gathers together seven job candidates, isolates them in a room, and pits them against one another in a series of psychologically brutal challenges designed to weed out all but the most devious and ruthless. While the aspirants fiddle away their integrity in an onslaught of conniving and backstabbing, an anti-globalization riot burns in the streets below. In Spanish with English subtitles. 35mm widescreen print courtesy of Latido Films and Palm Pictures. (MR)

Saturday, March 3, 5:15 pm
Wednesday, March 7, 6:00 pm

THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS
2005, Isabel Coixet, Spain, 115 min.
With Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Julie Christie

“The exquisitely coordinated performances elicit an empathy as powerful as anything I can remember feeling in a recent film.”--Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Polley once again delivers a terrific performance, and Robbins hits a career high.”--Ken Fox, TVGuide.com

Winner of four Goya Awards (Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Production Supervision), this moving character study features Sarah Polley in a custom-written role as a hearing-impaired factory worker sealed off from the world around her. While on a vacation, she volunteers to care for a seriously injured man (Robbins) on a North Sea oil rig--a relationship that slowly draws her from her shell until her hidden past comes pouring out in an electrifying torrent of long-held-back words. In English. Chicago premiere courtesy of Strand Releasing. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, March 23, 7:45 pm
Sunday, March 25, 5:15 pm
Wednesday, March 28, 6:00 pm

Sweden

EVERY OTHER WEEK
(VARANNAN VECKA)
2006, Felix Herngren, Måns Herngren, Hannes Holm, and Hans Ingemansson, Sweden, 95 min.
With Felix Herngren, Måns Herngren, Cecilia Frode, Anja Lundqvist, Anna Björk

“An absolute gem. . . thoroughly modern.”--Mark Rabinowitz, indieWIRE

Måns Herngren and Hannes Holm, whose THE REUNION was a highlight of our 2003 EU Festival, added two more co-directors for this fresh take on romantic comedy. Divorce is a way of life as two brothers get tangled up over an ex-girlfriend, and a divorced couple decide that they still want to make a baby. Amusing TV-commercial parodies, including a spoof of THE MATRIX. In Swedish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute. (MR)

Saturday, March 10, 8:15 pm
Monday, March 12, 6:00 pm

GOD SAVE THE KING
(TJENARE KUNGEN)
2005, Ulf Malmros, Sweden, 94 min.
With Josefin Neldén, Cecilia Wallin, Johanna Stromberg, Malin Morgan, Joel Kinnaman

“Adrenalin-infused. . . a comic tour de force.”--Gunnar Rehlin, Variety

It’s hard out there for a punk, especially if you’re a girl and the year is 1984, when the whole scene is being swamped by New Wave. Small-towner Abra (Neldén) runs off to the big city, where she and roommate Millan (Wallin) struggle to form a band called God Save the King that will “sound like pissed-off rabid dogs.” Director Malmros (SLIM SUSIE) fashions a bright, brash portrait of youthful aspiration in a tumultuous era. In Swedish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute. (MR)

Monday, March 19, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, March 21, 8:15 pm