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A Balance (Japanese)
Investigative filmmaker Yuko is putting together a piece about the bereaved families connected with a bullied schoolgirl's suicide. Determined to shed light on the truth, Yukoʼs uncompromising nature brings her into conflict with the conservative-minded management at her television network but succeeds in getting her interview subjects to place their trust in her. Then Yuko discovers that her father, Masashi, who runs a test prep school, has made a grave error of judgment. The further she becomes involved in his mistake, the more she finds herself telling lie after lie. As unexpected developments occur, Yukoʼs struggles with her conscience and her compromised perception of the truth force her to make life-altering decisions. The sophomore feature from Yujiro Harumoto, A BALANCE had its world premiere at the Pingyao International Film Festival where it won both the Roberto Rossellini Jury Award and the People's Choice Award before also capturing the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival.
Director: Yujiro Harumoto
Starring: Kumi Takiuchi, Ken Mitsuishi
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A Light Never Goes Out (Cantonese)
While dealing with her husband's passing, a woman discovers his neon workshop is still inhabited by his apprentice. They work together in putting up a neon sign, fighting against the forward movement against the traditional craft that defined Hong Kong.
Director: Anastasia Tsang
Starring: Sylvia Chang, Cecilia Choi, Simon Yam
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Alam (Arabic)
Despite being part of a young generation of Palestinian Arabs whose families chose to stay and challenge the Israeli state after Al-Nakba, 17-year-old Tamer and his friends are just like any other group of teenage boys. They clumsily search for drugs, flirt with girls, play video games, and slack off at school. However, when a beautiful new student named Maysaa' joins their class Tamer immediately falls for her and, by association, is drawn into her political activism. Together they join fellow classmate, Safwat, in an operation to covertly raise the Palestinian flag and peacefully disrupt the local celebrations planned for Israel's Independence Day otherwise known to Palestinians as a day of mourning and memorialization for their displacement 70 years prior. Unsure of his own political convictions, Tamer must quickly determine what matters to him and what price he is willing to pay for freedom.
Director: Firas Khoury
Starring: Mahmood Bakri, Sereen Khass, Mohammad Karaki, Muhammad Abed Elrahman, Saleh Bakri, Amer Hlehel
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Anselm - Criterion Collection (German)
In Anselm, Wim Wenders creates a hypnotic portrait of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most innovative and important painters and sculptors of our time. Shot in 6K resolution, and presented theatrically and on Blu-ray in 3D, the film presents an immersive cinematic experience of the German artist's work, which explores the overawing beauty of human existence, landscape, and myth while confronting the horrors of his country's history and seeking to undo the postwar silence in which both artist and director came of age. Through archival footage, biographical scenes, and direct access to his subject at work amid the massive installation in southern France where he now lives among his creations, Wenders traces the arc of Kiefer's career, provoking an engagement with creativity through the senses, the intellect, and the spirit. INCLUDES One Blu-ray 3D disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with director Wim Wenders. Trailer.
Director: Wim Wenders
Starring: Anselm Kiefer, Daniel Kiefer, Anton Wenders
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I am Cuba - Criterion Collection (Spanish)
Both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually beautiful films ever made, this legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream of rebellion. The result of an extraordinarily ambitious collaboration between the Soviet and Cuban film industries, director Mikhail Kalatozov's I Am Cuba unfolds in four explosive vignettes that capture Cuban life on the brink of transformation, as crushing economic exploitation and inequality give way to a working-class uprising. Backed by Carlos Fariñas's stirring score, the dazzling camera work by Sergei Urusevsky an inspiration for generations of filmmakers to follow gives flight to the movie's message of liberation.
Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Starring: Raquel Revuelta, Salvador Wood, Jose Gallardo, Sergio Corrieri, Luz María Collazo, Mario Gonzáles Broche, María de las Mercedes Díez
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La Syndicaliste (French)
An investigative thriller set in the world of nuclear power and politics, La Syndicaliste follows the true story of Maureen Kearney, the influential head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse. A deft navigator of elite political and financial circles, Maureen becomes a whistleblower when she discovers international backroom dealings, exposing secrets that shook the French nuclear sector. Fighting against government ministers and industry leaders, Maureen worked tirelessly to bring the scandal to light and defend thousands of jobs until she was violently sexually assaulted in her own home, seemingly targeted for her attempts to reveal the truth. As her attack is investigated, new elements create doubt in the minds of detectives and lawyers, and they begin to see Maureen not as a victim, but as a suspect. Surrounded by powerful enemies and unable to trust anyone, Maureen must fight to clear her name.
Director: Jean-Paul Salome
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Gregory Gadebois, Francois-Xavier Demaison
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Lamb - Special Edition (Icelandic)In the isolated depths of rural Iceland, a childless couple, Maria and Ingvar, make an alarming discovery one day in their sheep barn: a newborn unlike anything they've seen before. They decide to raise the girl, Ada, as their own, but sinister forces including one very pissed-off ewe seem determined to return Ada to the wilderness that birthed her. The masterful and terrifying debut feature from director Valdimar Jóhannsson, Lamb excavates primal fears of parenting, loss, and the vast and merciless wild - in a dark and unnatural folktale for the ages.
Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Sigurdsson
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The Animal kingdom (French)
An adventure between a father and his son, in a world where some humans have started mutating into other animal species.
Director: Thomas Cailley
Starring: Romain Duris, Paul Kircher
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The Beauty of Beauties (Mandarin)
In a story drawn from China's legendary Warring States Period, the King of Yue, Goujian, is defeated and imprisoned by the King of Wu, Fucha.
Director: Han Hsiang Li
Starring: Feng Chang, Ching Chiang, Lei Zhao, Fang-Hsia Chang
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The Policeman's Lineage (Korean)
Park Gang Yoon, Chief of Investigations, is under suspicion of using brutal and corrupt methods to achieve his unrivalled arrest record. When Choi Min Jae, a young officer from a well-known family of police enters the force, his ethical principles bring him to the attention of the department. He is ordered to join the investigative team, monitor Park's actions and report back. Hesitant at spying on a senior officer, Choi agrees without disclosing his real reason for doing so. The young man is on a mission to locate a secret document involving his late father and this could be his chance. As a new member of the Investigations team, things appear to be going well. Working on the case alongside his fellow officers, Choi begins to appreciate and admire his chief even though it is growing obvious that the man constantly crosses the line into the dark side of the criminal world.
Director: Kyu-maan Lee
Starring: Cho Jin-Woong, Woo-sik Choi, Choi Woo-sik
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The Procurator (Mandarin)
From the award-winning co-director of modern classics INFERNAL AFFAIRS and OVERHEARD, Alan Mak. When the death of an unethical and dangerous businessman starts an investigation by the procurator's office, layers of his shady dealings reveal more at play, from stolen artifacts to under-the-table promises and extreme life-threatening danger for those investigating. The truth is flexible, and a few dedicated individuals are forced to choose sides when history catches up with them.
Director: Alan Mak
Starring: Johnny Huang, Bai Baihe, Wang Qianyuan
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The Sales Girl (Mongolian)
When college coed Saruul takes a temporary job as a clerk in a sex shop, her poker-faced indifference makes her the perfect foil for the shop's clientele, who range from slightly sheepish and cautiously curious to downright perverse. But it's the shop's flamboyant, eccentric female owner who initiates Saruul's journey into adulthood taking her under her wing, teaching her the art of living, and gently guiding her on the path to self-discovery. This joyfully quirky, "candid big-city coming-of-age story" (Variety) from Janchivdorj Sengedorj, "one of the best voices of contemporary cinema in Mongolia" (Asian Movie Pulse), is fueled by a splendidly original script, utterly unique characters and unexpected encounters.
Director: Janchivdorj Sengedorj
Starring: Bayarjargal Bayartsetseg, Oidovjamts Enkhtuul
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The Three Musketeers Part 2: Milady (French)
D'Artagnan is forced to join forces with Milady to save Constance, who was kidnapped before his eyes. But as war is declared and Athos, Porthos and Aramis have already joined the front, a secret from the past shatters old alliances.
Director: Martin Bourboulon
Starring: Francois Civil, Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, Pio Marmai, Eva Green
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Tokyo Love Story (Japanese)
Nagao Kanji works for an advertising agency in his hometown of Ehime Prefecture. He is assigned to the Tokyo sales department where his colleague Akana Rika takes care of his work. One day, Kanji is invited to drinks by Mikami Kenichi, a former classmate from his hometown who is now in Tokyo, and he is also reunited with Sekiguchi Satomi who has feelings for him. However, Rika ends up joining them when she delivers Kanji's wallet which he had left in office. On the way back, Rika tells him, 'Kanchi, shall we kiss?' and he is rattled. There have been rumours in office that Rika is in a relationship with their boss Waga Natsuki.
Director: Nagata Koto
Starring: Ito Kentaro, Ishibashi Shizuka
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Under the Fig Trees (Arabic)
On a hot summer day, a crew of workers men and women, young and old arrive at dawn at a picturesque fig orchard in northwest Tunisia. We eavesdrop, through the sun-dappled leaves of the fig trees, on the young women stealing away precious moments from the foreman's watchful gaze. Meanwhile, the older women, tasked with packing the tender fruit, watch and reminisce together as well. They joke, argue, debate, gossip, and flirt while painting an unhurried but riveting portrait of everyday life in rural society, where class, gender, and circumstance often don't allow for such personal freedoms. Set over a single day, and with a cast made up of an intergenerational ensemble of non-professional actors, UNDER THE FIG TREES is "an elegant, understated tapestry of complex interactions {and} a pleasurable and immersive experience" (The Hollywood Reporter) that ultimately reveals how sisterhood itself becomes an act of resistance.
Director: Erige Sehiri
Starring: Ameni Fdhili, Fide Fdhili, Feten Fdhili
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Mercer County Library System
2751 Brunswick Pike Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648 609-882-9246 https://mcl.org
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