| February 3, 2009 Dreams of Dust (Burkina Faso – 2007) Mocktar, a refugee from Niger, arrives in Essakane looking for work in the gold mines, only to discover that the gold rush there ended 20 years earlier. Here mines are dangerous holes in the desert, dug straight down, and miners strap flashlights to their heads. Dreams of a better life keep Mocktar and the miners digging for the tiny scraps of gold that remain. Mocktar meets Coumba, a young widow struggling to raise her young daughter and get her out of the camp.
In French with English subtitles.
Director: Laurent Salgues. 86 minutes
February 10, 2009 Keita (Burkina Faso – 1995) The heritage of the GRIOT, the preserver and promoter of African culture and tradition, is continued in the very modern retelling of the Sundjata Epic. A contemporary Burkinabe boy, Mabo Keita, discovers that past and present fuse as he learns to understand his place in Mande history and looks to the past for a role model for his future. Filmmaker Dani Kouyaté cast his father as the Djéliba Kouyaté (the Great Griot) in this dazzling tale that explores the dilemma between traditional values and today’s Westernized urban African cities.
In Jula and French with English subtitles.
Director: Dani Kouyaté. 94 minutes
February 17, 2009 Taafe Fanga (Mali – 1997) Taafe Taafe Fanga (Skirt Power) is a gender bending farce set among 18th century Dogon cliff-dwelling people that makes serious points about the status of women in Africa today. Director Drabo, inspired by women’s participation in Mali’s 1991 revolution, skillfully blends myth, history, culture and social issues in this feminist allegory. The story unfolds on three levels: present day Mali, the 18th century revolt of the Dogon women, and the myths of spirit ancestors.
In Kaado and Bambara with English subtitles.
Director: Adama Drabo. 95 minutes
February 24, 2009 Guimba (Mali – 1995)
Cheick Oumar Sissoko’s Guimba is a dark political satire in the guise of a colorful fairy tale. A tyrant cruelly rules the people of his kingdom until his son’s sexual obsession leads him to a decision that weakens his control. Sissoko, a committed spokesperson for African cinema, is considered Mali’s most accomplished director.
In Bambara with English subtitles.
Director: Cheick Oumar Sissoko. 93 minutes
March 3, 2009 The Forest for the Trees (Germany – 2003) Melanie is a young, first-year teacher beginning a new job teaching ninth grade at a city high school. Socially awkward and trying too hard with both her new colleagues and new neighbors, Melanie is soon out of her depth in both areas. Director Maren Ade, the daughter of two schoolteachers, used several of her mother’s students as actors in The Forest for the Trees.
In German with English subtitles.
Director: Maren Ade, 81 minutes March 10, 2009 MadeinUsa (Peru – 2006) A young Peruvian girl named Madeinusa, lives in an isolated, mountainous area of Peru. The story is set during Holy Week when, according to local tradition, sin does not exist – and the villagers are free to do as they please from Good Friday until Easter Sunday. This is writer/director Claudia Llosa’s directorial debut.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Director: Claudia Llosa. 100 minutes
March 24, 2009 Fraulein (Switzerland – 2006) Set in Zurich, Fraulein is the story of 50-year-old Ruza, a cafeteria owner; Mila, a waitress; and Ana, a newly arrived refugee from Sarajevo. Ruza and Mila left their homes and lives in the former Yugoslavia behind them years ago, but Ana’s arrival deepens their intense feelings of exile.
In German and Bosnian with English subtitles.
Director: Andrea Staka. 81 minutes
March 31, 2009 Earth (India/Canada – 1999) The tragedy of the 1947 independence and subsequent division of India is illustrated through the interconnected lives of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsee and Christian friends living in Lahore on the eve of partition. The story is told through the eyes of Lenny, an eight-year old Parsee girl, whose Hindu nanny falls in love with a Muslim. Banned in Pakistan, and censored in India.
In Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Punjabi with English subtitles.
Director: Deepa Mehta. 101 minutes
April 7, 2009 Fire (India/Canada – 1996) Director Deepa Mehta explores the changing roles of women in modern day New Delhi through the story of two sisters-in-law. Sita is newly married, but emotionally abandoned by her new husband, who has a mistress. Radha is tied to a husband who has taken a religious vow of celibacy. The two young women break through cultural taboos as their friendship grows into love.
In Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Punjabi with English subtitles.
Director: Deepa Mehta. 104 minutes
April 14, 2009 Kristin Lavransdatter (Norway – 1995) Actress-turned-director Liv Ullmann tackles Sigrid Undset’s novel of a forbidden love affair in medieval Norway. The daughter of a wealthy landowner encounters a world of violent emotions inspired by her beauty. Seeking refuge in a convent, she meets the knight she will fall in love with and begins an affair that challenges the social status quo. “Ullmann emerges as a significant filmmaker in her own right” (Boston Herald).
In Norwegian with English subtitles.
Director: Liv Ullman. 110 minutes
April 21, 2009 Spare Parts (Slovenia – 2003) Nominated for over a dozen European film awards, writer/Director Damjan Kozole’s Spare Parts focuses on the trafficking of illegal immigrants from Croatia, across Slovenia, and into Italy. Ludvik is a former racecar driver who has fallen into this very profitable business. Ludvik’s young apprentice, Rudi, suffers pangs of conscience about the nature of smuggling desperate people across borders, while Ludvik confronts his own mortality.
In Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles.
Director: Damjan Kozole. 87 minutes April 28, 2009 Bach in Auschwitz (France – 1999) This moving film documents the 50th anniversary reunion of the 11 surviving members of the all female “Auschwitz Orchestra.” These musicians were brought together by the SS and forced to perform in order to survive the horrors of Auschwitz concentration camp. The story of how their music and their friendship brought them through this ordeal, this documentary details a little known but true story from the Holocaust.
In French with English subtitles.
Director: Michel Daeron. 105 minutes May 5, 2009 Nowhere in Africa (Germany – 2003) The 2003 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Nowhere in Africa is the story of Regina, Jettel and Walter Redlich, German Jews who escape Nazi Germany to run a poor farm in rural Kenya. Young Regina takes to Africa immediately, but her mother, Jettel, pines for Germany and is slow to appreciate anything about her new home. The film’s ironic highpoint occurs when the British authorities intern all Germans as enemy aliens. Caroline Link has crafted an
absorbing and breathtakingly beautiful film.
In German with English subtitles.
Director: Caroline Link. 141 minutes May 12, 2009 The Violin (Mexico – 2005) Musicians and farmers by day, Don Plutarco and his son Genaro are also part of the armed guerilla movement against their government. When the military takes over their village, Don Plutarco’s talent enables him to pose as a travelling violin player to get back into the village where he has hidden ammunition.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Director: Francisco Vargas. 98 minutes. |
