Germany

Celebrated veterans Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) and Senta Berger (The Quiller Memorandum) are a delight to behold in Sophie Heldman’s brave debut drama, an intimate and affecting tale about aging, the bonds and boundaries of love, and life’s finite nature. Based on the true story of friends of Heldman’s, Colors in the Dark sketches an initially sunny tale of Fred (Ganz) and Anita (Berger), happily married for 50 years and living a well-to-do suburban life.

Director Bent Hamer Present

Mirth and misfortune go hand-in-hand in veteran director Bent Hamer’s (Factotum, Kitchen Stories, O’Horton) sixth feature.

“My love of Wagner is tearing me apart,” says Stephen Fry.  Brought face to face with Hitler through a shared passion—the glorious operatic repertoire of history’s most controversial composer, Richard Wagner—famed British television personality Stephen Fry is forced into a confusing juggling match with his Jewish history in one hand, and his love for Wagner in the other. 

In his first role performed entirely in French, Oscar winner Kevin Kline squares off against the radiant Sandrine Bonnaire to battle it out over a chessboard in this sleek, urbane comedy/drama. 

The film’s passionate insistence on remembrance lends it a moral as well as a metaphysical weight. Mr. Guzmán’s belief in eternal memory is an astounding leap of faith. - NyTimes

In the Chilean desert, astronomers gaze deep into space for clues to the origin of life. Nearby, women comb for bones buried in the sand, the remains of loved ones who were victims of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s violent regime. Will either group ever find what they’re looking for? Within the juxtaposition of these two quests, director Patricio Guzmàn explores the notion that humanity continually searches for information hundreds of years old and billions of miles away while resisting the urge to examine a 40-year-old history long hidden from full public view. 

The only debut feature in competition for the Palm d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and the long-awaited narrative debut of prizewinning documentarian Sergei Loznitsa, My Joy is a shockingly surreal and dark road film, and a searing analysis on the state of the Russian soul. 

Conductor Armand Diangienda Present

This is a great story worth seeing... - Chicago Reader

Audience Award winner at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Kinshasa Symphony is an unexpected and beautiful musical merging of worlds. 

Combining archival footage with vivid animation, writer-director Ali Samadi Ahadi presents an eye-opening portrait of the recent uprising in Iran following the 2009 election.  Like Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir, the film uses its animated sequences to go where real cameras could not. 

Like The Beatles and David Lynch before him, young German filmmaker David Sieveking sets off on a journey of enlightenment to better understand the teachings of Transcendental Meditation (TM), a controversial spiritual movement that's been criticized by some for using financially manipulative practices.  Travelling from Fairfield, Iowa (a founder Maharishi center), to India to Berlin, this artistic pilgrimage showcases Sieveking's charm in this tale on the fallibility of his idols, among them cult filmmaker and TM devotee David Lynch. Scenic backdrops and a playful musical score add to the depth of Sieveking’s whimsical and provocative documentary.

recommended for age 8+

A wild adventure-comedy reminiscent of The Goonies about a band of crime-fighting scrappy kids, adopted from the popular ’70’s German novel. Winner of the Audience Choice Award, Sprockets Film Festival, Toronto.