World Cinema

Life and death come wrapped in a mutual embrace, both absurd and poignant, in this smart comedy about an unlikely friendship between a grieving cinematographer and a morbidly obsessed drifter. At work on a schlocky, low-budget horror film, Gaspar is still reeling from the untimely death of his older brother when he meets Alvaro at yet another premature funeral.

Laurence is a successful author and a well-liked literature teacher who reveals to his girlfriend on his 30th birthday that he’s always felt like a woman trapped in a man’s body. Taking place over a decade in the 80’s and 90’s, Laurence and Fred struggle to keep their relationship intact amidst increasing pressure from family, co-workers, and a society unprepared to accept them.

Outspoken Swedish journalist Torgny Segerstedt vehemently opposes the spread of Nazism throughout Europe in the late 30’s in the face of government pressure to keep quiet on the matter. Based on a true story, The Last Sentence explores Segerstedt’s singular struggle, even as an affair with his best friend’s wife grows more intense. Jan Troell, winner of best director at the Montreal World Film Festival, glosses over no detail of Segerstedt’s fraught domestic but principled political life.

Akin to the 2011 MSP International Film Festival hit Kinshasa Symphony, docu-drama hybrid Kinshasa Kids returns the focus to Kinshasa, starkly contrasting the poverty-stricken streets to pure, unadulterated joy emanating from a group of children. Thrown out of their homes after being accused of witchcraft, a group of kids come together to escape their situation the only way they know how: by becoming music superstars.

A struggling, suicidal actor switches identities with a man who’s suffering from amnesia only to find that his new identity is a highly sought-after mafia assassin. Sakurai’s attempts at his new hitman lifestyle are mind-bogglingly inept, but it’s Kondo’s new life as Sakurai, rectifying what he believes to be his fledgling acting career, that really steals the show.

Times are hard for ten-year-old Jojo, who lives alone with his bear-like night watchman father. But when Jojo comes across a tiny bird that has fallen from its nest, he secretly takes the vulnerable animal home. With his first feature length film, Boudewjin Koole has succeeded in creating a touching portrait of a boy who is struggling with a difficult family situation. Every minute detail reflects his need, but also his unbridled joy at the beautiful moments in life.

Director Reha Erdem Invited

A 17-year-old girl runs away from a stifling life in her small town to experience more freedom and discover herself in the big city. After spending days wandering the forests, struggling to survive, Jin finally makes her way to the city, only to discover that her new life there isn’t any easier. Jin is a captivating coming-of-age story about one young woman in a society that hasn’t always offered opportunities for girls like her.

In this high-octane thriller, Adib, a former Syrian intelligence officer, who left his country under mysterious circumstances, returns to Syria 20 years later after receiving news that his daughter is missing. Upon the brink of the Syrian civil war, Adib traverses the seediest parts of the country, with spy agencies from all parts of the world hot on his tail. Inescapable takes the premise from Taken and politicizes it, providing the perfect social tension to an already exhilarating film.

Based on Juan Mayorga’s play The Boy in the Last Row, François Ozon’s gorgeous In the House is fueled by the same tension and repression that can be found in Ozon’s masterpiece The Swimming Pool. The writings of an imaginative student who fictionalizes the hidden lives of a classmate’s family reinvigorate a failed novelist, who opts to push the boy creatively.

Preceded by Le Petit Nuage.

Told through the eyes of the femme fatale, here played by the beautiful Charlotte Rampling, director Barnaby Southcombe’s new film noir is at once an unconventional and archetypal approach to the classic genre. When Anna (Rampling) blacks out and forgets the events of a grisly murder, Chief Inspector Bernie Reid (Gabriel Byrne) keeps both a professional and romantic eye on her.