MFF16: Foreign Language Films
Montclair Film Festival 2016 is pleased to present this exciting selection of international gems from all over the world.
WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDEIn 2007, then-Peruvian present Alan Garcia invited foreign companies to do business with the country by partnering on the extraction of natural resources. But when many of those resources were discovered on protected land occupied by indigenous Peruvians, the state entered into direct conflict with these communities and their leader, Alberto Pizango. In the breathtaking WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE, directors Heidi Brandenburg Sierralta and Matthew Orzel capture the brutal urgency of the situation, placing their cameras in the middle of the confrontation to tell the powerful story of a nation at war with itself.
In Spanish and English with English Subtitles
In person: editor Carla Gutierrez
Clairidge Cinema 1, Sat, Apr 30 4:45 PM, Buy Tickets
MA MAAcademy Award®-winning actress and producer Penélope Cruz captivates with a powerful and fearless performance as a woman fighting for happiness despite heartbreak and tragedy in Julio Medem’s emotional new film MA MA. Magda (Cruz) has recently separated from her cheating husband when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Determined to go on with her life, she attends her son’s soccer game where she meets Arturo (Luis Tosar), who shortly after receives devastating news of his own. Born out of a shared pain, their love soon becomes the source of strength, hope, and rebirth.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Bellevue Theater 2, Sat, May 7 12:00 PM, Buy Tickets
CHEVALIERSet in the confines of a well-appointed yacht, six friends, some with complicated connections, spend a long weekend playfully provoking each other. Things get interesting, and a bit sinister, when the play turns into a competition for who deserves the title of “the greatest ever,” the fuzzy parameters of which are never completely defined. Soon the men discard any attempts at fun in exchange for alliances and petty critiques as they grant and subtract points for factors both inane and inconsequential, all to win the coveted prize—a chevalier signet ring. In CHEVALIER, Tsangari and co-scribe Efthimis Filippou craft a wholly unique and unexpectedly ethnographic account of male bonding.
In Greek with English subtitles
Clairidge Cinema 1, Sat, Apr 30, 2:30 PM, Buy Tickets
Bellevue Theater 1, Tue, May 3, 9:30 PM, Buy Tickets
COME WHAT MAY (EN MAI, CE QU’IL TE PLAIT)
May, 1940. The German Wehrmacht blitzes into northern France, forcing the residents of the local villages to abandon their homes and flee the assault. But when a German expatriate, Hans (August Diehl), is jailed, his son sets out with the villagers of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, forcing the pair to take different, equally dangerous paths as they seek to reunite against all odds. Christian Carion’s COME WHAT MAY is a sweeping wartime drama that focuses on the civilian toll of the conflict, the lives lost, and those forever transformed.
In French with English subtitles
Bellevue Theater 1, Sat, Apr 30, 5:00 PM, Buy Tickets
FROM AFAR (DESDE ALLA)Two alienated souls make an unlikely pair in this debut from Venezuelan writer/director, Lorenzo Vigas. Armando is a solitary, upper-class dentist who pays young men to come to his apartment in a lower-class neighborhood. Avoiding all intimacy, Armando doesn’t touch his escorts; instead he sits across the room and orders them to undress as he watches. Left unsatisfied by his usual practice, Armando pursues a new escort, and a tentative connection develops between them. Both are profoundly alone in the world, but even as it seems they have found a bond in each other, an imbalance between them persists.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Clairidge Cinema 2, Tue, May 3 9:00 PM, Buy Tickets
Bellevue Theater 1, Wed, May 4 9:15 PM, Buy Tickets
LES COWBOYSThomas Bidegain’s debut feature LES COWBOYS is a modern updating of John Ford’s classic western THE SEARCHERS. Situated in France and engaged with the complex diversity of the contemporary world, the film is the story of Alain (François Damiens), a country music fan whose daughter goes missing. When Alain enlists his son Kid (Finnegan Oldfield) to join him, the pair spend years on their quest to find her, uncovering a new world that will take them to unforeseen places as they look to reunite their family and make it whole again.
In French, English, and Arabic with English subtitles
Bellevue Theater 2, Sun, May 1 4:15 PM, Buy Tickets
A MONSTER WITH A THOUSAND HEADS (UN MONSTRUO DE MIL CABEZAS)
When her insurance company refuses to approve the care her husband desperately needs to survive, Sonia Bonet (Jan Raluy) takes things into her own hands. Up against an unyielding bureaucracy and disinterested workers, she is pushed to her breaking point and, with her son in tow, attempts to fight the system. Rodrigo Plá’s A MONSTER WITH A THOUSAND HEADS is a tense hostage thriller with a nuanced sociopolitical commentary. An expertly executed look at fury in the face of injustice, award-winning Plá delivers on the tension and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
In Spanish with English Subtitles
Clairidge Cinema 2, Mon, May 2 9:00 PM, Buy Tickets
Clairidge Cinema 2, Sun, May 8 6:45 PM, Buy Tickets
NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH (NI LE CIEL, NI LA TERRE)
As combat troops slowly withdraw from Afghanistan, a small French squad is assigned to watch over the remote Wakhan valley. A quiet and routine surveillance mission quickly becomes the source of tension when a soldier mysteriously disappears, turning the men on each other. Clément Cogitore’s debut, NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH features an exceptional performance by Jérémie Renier as a captain struggling to maintain control while seemingly supernatural forces tear through the loyalty of soldiers and relationships with the locals. With a unique mixture of military toughness and regional mysticism, Cogitore reimagines the war film as never seen before.
In French and Persian with English Subtitles
Bellevue Theater 2, Sat, Apr 30 9:30 PM, Buy Tickets
Clairidge Cinema 1, Wed, May 4 9:15 PM, Buy Tickets
A young rural farm girl and a feminist activist embark on an epic love story in Catherine Corsini’s sensual new film, SUMMERTIME. Delphine (Izïa Higelin), under pressure from her family to marry a local boy, escapes to Paris and quickly finds herself swept up in the 1970s women’s liberation movement. There, she bumps into Carole (Cécile De France), an older and enchanting woman, with whom she feels an instant attraction. As the love affair blossoms over the hazy summer days, family obligations pull Delphine back to the farm, forcing her to choose between her new life and her family.
In French with English subtitles
Bellevue Theater 2, Sun, May 1 9:00 PM, Buy Tickets
Clairidge Cinema 2, Tue, May 3 11:30 AM, Buy Tickets
Iranian newcomer Babak Anvari’s UNDER THE SHADOW is a brilliantly layered story of psychological terror and political turmoil. In war torn Tehran, married couple Shideh (the scene stealing Narges Rashidi), and Iraj (Bobby Naderi) are forced to separate when he is assigned to medical work on the front lines. Alone in the apartment with their sick young daughter Dorsa, Shideh is nursing her own pride after being repeatedly rejected from medical school as punishment for her activism. As the war escalates, evil spirits are unleashed, haunting Dorsa and Shideh.
Persian with English subtitles
Clairidge Cinema 1, Sat, Apr 30 7:15 PM, Buy Tickets
Bellevue Theater 2, Sun, May 8 4:00 PM, Buy Tickets
Young Semele uses a permission slip as a reason to go visit her estranged father.
In Greek with English Subtitles
Showing In:
NARRATIVE SHORTS
Clairidge Cinema 2, Wed, May 4 8:45 PM, View More, Buy Tickets