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Foreign Films December 2019
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At War (French)
Despite record profits, and heavy sacrifices made by their employees, the management of Perrin Industries decides to shut down a factory. The 1,100 employees decide to battle against the brutal decision in an attempt to save their jobs.
Director: Stephane Brize
Starring: Vincent Lindon, Melanie Rover, Jacques Borderie
Quotes: "...a worthy companion piece in the effort to make films in a turbulent time that speak the truth about the plagued dignity of everyday people." - Los Angeles Times
"In Union leader, spokesperson and factory worker Laurent Amédéo, Lindon adds another rivetingly real characterization to his muscular everyman repertoire." - Variety
"A generally gripping account of workers taking on the man." - Hollywood Reporter
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Ayiti Mon Amour (French)
Five years after a devasting earthquake in Haiti, a teenage boy discovers his superpower, a fisherman seeks a cure for his wife, and a character tries to escape from her author's story.
Director: Guetty Felin
Starring: Joakim Cohen, Anisia Uzeyman, Jaures Andris, Pascale Faublas, James Noel, Judith Jeudy, Simbi Duplan
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Crosscurrent (Mandarin)
From the spinning Shanghai metropolis to snow-capped Tibet mountains, Gao Chun steers a cargo up the Yangtze and comes across a reversely aging woman named An Lu at every port recorded in a poetry book. He wonders whether she is supernatural or he is traveling back in time. After passing a pagoda that reverberates Buddha's voice, a flooded town reappeared elsewhere and the grandiose Three Gorges Dam, he finally arrives at the start of the river and unveils the secret of his past and An Lu.
Director: Chao Yang
Starring: Hao Qin, Zhilei Xin, Lipeng Wu
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Diamantino (Portuguese)
When a big-hearted but dimwitted Portuguese soccer hunk blows it in the World Cup finals, he goes from superstar to laughingstock overnight. His sheltered worldview is further shattered after learning about the European refugee crisis and he resolves to make amends by adopting an African refugee, only to find that his new 'son' is actually an undercover lesbian tax auditor investigating him on the suspicion of corruption. From there, he gets swept up in a gonzo comic odyssey.
Director: Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt
Starring: Carloto Cotta, Cleo Tavares, Anabela Moreira
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Guy (French)
Gauthier, a young journalist, finds a letter suggesting he might be the son of Guy Jamet, a 72-year-old French pop singer who was famous from the 60's to the 80's. As the old-time singer embarks on a tour to promote his newly released covers album, Guathier follows his maybe-biological father under the pretext of filming a documentary about Guy's career.
Director: Alex Lutz
Starring: Alex Lutz, Tom Dingler, Pascale Arbillot
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In the Aisles (German)
Director: Thomas Stuber
Starring: Franz Rogowski, Sandra Huller, Peter Kurth
An affecting and bittersweet glimpse into the shared connections of a motley group of nightshift workers at a big box store, including the reclusive newbie Christian and the charming but mysterious Marion.
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Miss Friman's War (Swedish)
It's 1905 in Stockholm and Swedish lives are changing rapidly because of the introduction of new food safety technologies. Miss Friman believes firmly in equal rights for women. She and her friends set out to open Swedish Homes, a grocery cooperative with unspoiled food at affordable prices. It's a store for women, run by women, and a revolutionary idea for its time. When the all-male board of the Stockholm Wholesale Association learns about the women's business plan, they start fighting back.
Starring: Sissela Kyle, Frida Hallgren, Maria Kulle, Lena T Hansson, Sofia Ledarp, Gustaf Hammarsten, Ulla Skoog
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Socrates (Portuguese)
After his mother's sudden death, Socrates, a fifteen-year-old living on the margins of Sao Paulo's coast, must survive on his own. As he faces isolation because of his sexuality, his search for a decent, worthy life reaches a breaking point.
Director: Alexandre Moratto
Starring: Christian Malheiros, Tales Ordakji, Caio Martinez Pacheco
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Third Wife (Vietnamese)
In nineteenth century rural Vietnam, fourteen-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon, she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May's hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.
Director: Ash Mayfair
Starring: Long Le Vu, Mai Thu Huong Maya, Nguyen Phuong Tra My
Quotes: "What we have here is a small, delicate mini-masterpiece, and bright new talent behind the camera." - San Francisco Chronicle
"There is much that is finely wrought here as a tactile slice of women's history told in careful observances, hidden textures and the sights and sounds of nature unbound." - Los Angeles Times
"An audience-friendly affair which deals with harrowing subject-matter in restrained, tactful and aesthetically entrancing style..." - Hollywood Reporter
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Who Killed Cock Robin (Mandarin)
In this delicately scripted gut-wrenching psycho-thriller from award-winning filmmaker Cheng Wei-Hao (The Tag-Along), an ambitious journalist who witnessed a hit-and-run years ago reboots his investigation led by newly emerged clues. As he beats the clock to save the only survivor after her sudden disappearance, layers of unimaginable dark truths around a corrupted system start peeling.
Director: Wei-Hao Cheng
Starring: Wei-Ning Hsu, Kaiser Chuang, Chia-Yen Ko
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Yomeddine (Arabic)
Beshay, a man cured of leprosy, has never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where he has lived since childhood. Following the death of his wife, he finally decides to go in search of his roots. With his meager possessions strapped to a donkey cart, he set out. Quickly joined by Obama, the Nubian orphan he has taken under his wing, Beshay will cross Egypt and confront the world with all its sorrows, all its hardships and its moments of grace.
Director: A.B. Shawky
Starring: Rady Gamal, Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Osama Abdallah
Quotes: "Bright, cheerful, inevitably moving." - New York Times
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