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Foreign Films December 2020 |
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Army of Shadows (French)
The most personal film by Jean-Pierre Melville, who had participated in the French Resistance himself, this tragic masterpiece based on a novel by Joseph Kessel recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the Resistance.
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Simone Signoret, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse
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Beau Travail (French)
With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of the time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant sows the seeds of his ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten.
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Gregoire Colin, Denis Lavant
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Buoyancy (Khmer)
After a Cambodian teenager is sold into labor on a Thai fishing boat, he witnesses murder and torture and realizes that to survive he may have to become as cruel as his captors.
Director: Rodd Rathjen
Starring: Sarm Heng, Thanawut Ketsaro, Mony Ros
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Christ Stopped at Eboli (Italian)
An elegy of exile and an epic immersion into the world of rural Italy during the Mussolini years, Francesco Rosi’s sublime adaptation of the memoirs of the painter, physician, and political activist Carlo Levi brings a monument of twentieth-century autobiography to the screen with quiet grace and solemn beauty. Banished to a desolate southern town for his anti-Fascist views, the worldly Levi discovers an Italy he never knew existed.
Director: Francesco Rosi
Starring: Gian Maria Volonte, Francois Simon
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Enter the Fat Dragon (Cantonese)
Sent to Japan on a routine police escort, Officer Zhu is excited to have the chance to requalify for full-time duty as a police officer. However, after a series of mishaps, the mission goes terribly wrong and the suspect Officer Zhu is escorting suffers a mysterious death. Zhu enlists the help of wok-wielding restaurant owner and a former undercover inspector to solve this murder mystery in the new best action-comedy movie from martial arts superstar Donnie Yen.
Director: Kenji Tanigaki
Starring: Donnie Yen, Teresa Mo, Niki Chow, Wong Jing
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Enter The Forbidden City (Chinese)
Yue Jiu, the most famous opera singer in all of Imperial China, is expelled from the capital city for vulgarity. He heads south, where he encounters Wang Runsheng, a promising young opera singer for the Chuntai Troupe. When the Emperor invites all of China’s opera troupes back to the capital city for a celebration, Yue Jiu and Runsheng are forced ot choose between their reputations, their safety, and their love of opera.
Director: Hu Mei
Starring: Jinghan Ma, Dalong Fu, Ziwen Wang, Yili Ma, Jiao Huang
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Hero (Chinese)
It is the story of the First Emperor of China, who is on the brink of winning a war torn land during the dawn of the Qin dynasty over 2000 years ago. Three opponents are determined to kill the King, and one loyal subject stands in their way.
Director: Yimou Zhang
Starring: Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang
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House of Hummingbird (Korean)
Fourteen-year-old Eun-hee moves through life like a hummingbird searching for a taste of sweetness wherever she may find it. Ignored by her parents and abused by her brother, she finds her escape by roaming the neighborhood with her best friend, going on adventures, exploring young love, and experiencing everything that comes with growing up in a country on the brink of enormous change.
Director: Bora Kim
Starring: Jihu Park, Saebyuk Kim, Seungyeon Lee, Ingi Jeong
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In My Room (German)
Lost in life and beset by a recent passing, Armin has nowhere to go and just as much to show for himself. Fate (or something like it) intervenes when Armin awakes one morning and discovers that seemingly all of humanity has disappeared, leaving him to his limited devices and opening the door for self-discovery but the gift of maximum freedom bears complications.
Director: Ulrich Köhler
Starring: Hans Löw, Elena Radonicich
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Incitement (Hebrew)
In September 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin announces the Oslo Accords, which aim to achieve a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians decades of violence. Yigal Amir, a law student and a devoted Orthodox Jew, cannot believe that his country’s leader will cede territory that he and many others believe is rightfully, by the word of God, theirs. As the prospect of a peaceful compromise approaches, Amir turns from a hot-headed political activist to a dangerous extremist.
Director: Yaron Zilberman
Starring: Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio, Anat Ravnitzki
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The Load (Serbian)
During NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999, Vlada, a truck driver, is hired to undertake a treacherous path across his war-torn country and deliver mysterious cargo. On a journey where friend and foe prove indistinguishable, Vlada comes to realize the horrifying ramifications of his mission. Brilliantly photographed and intoxicatingly intimate, this film signals the arrival of a major talent.
Director: Ognjen Glavonic
Starring: Leon Lucev
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Luz: The Flower of Evil (Spanish)
El Senor, the leader of a small cult in the mountains, returns one day to his village with a child who is purported to be the new messiah. But when only pain and destruction befall the community, El Senor finds himself under attack from his own followers, including his three daughters, whose burgeoning femininity has already caused them to question their faith.
Director: Juan Diego Escobar Alzate
Starring: Yuri Vargas, Jim Muñoz, Conrado Osorio
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Satan's Slaves (Indoneasian)
Rini and her siblings care for their sick mother in the countryside, but after the matriarch passes away, evil entities terrorize and even possess the family. To protect her little brothers, Rini traces back the roots of the evil and learns the horrifying truth.
Director: Joko Anwar
Starring: Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Asmara Abigail, Ayu Laksmi
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Taste of Cherry (Persian)
The first Iranian film to win the Palme d’Or, this austere, humanist drama by Abbas Kiarostami raises complex questions about mortality and individual choice, and challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Starring: Homayoun Ershadi, Safar Ali Moradi, Abdol Hossein Bagheri, Mir Hossein Noori
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Toni (French)
Based on a true story and set in a community of immigrants living, working, and loving on the margins of French society, the story follows the eponymous Italian migrant, whose tempestuous affairs with two women, the faithful Marie and the flirtatious Josefa, unleash a wave of tragedy.
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Charles Blavette, Jenny Helia, Celia Montalvan
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Vitalina Varela (Portuguese)
A Cape Verdean woman travels to Lisbon to reunite with her husband, after two decades of separation, only to arrive mere days after his funeral. Alone in a strange, forbidding land, she perseveres and begins to establish a new life. Winner of the Golden Leopard for Best Film and Best Actress at the Locarno Film Festival, as well as an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.
Director: Pedro Costa
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When Lambs Become Lions (Swahili)
In the Kenyan bush, a small-time ivory dealer fights to stay on top while forces mobilize to destroy his trade. When he propositions his younger cousin, a conflicted wildlife ranger who hasn't been paid in months, they both see a possible lifeline. The plummeting elephant population in Africa has captured the attention of the world, and as the government cracks down, both poachers and rangers face their own existential crises - what is the value of elephant life relative to human life?
Director: Jon Kasbe
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The Wolf House (Spanish)
An exquisitely handcrafted surrealist docu-horror-fairy tale about one of Chile's darkest periods. The film follows Maria, a young girl who hides in a mysterious abandoned house in southern Chile after escaping from a colony run by German religious fanatics.
Director: Cristobal Leon, Joaquin Cocina
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Mercer County Library System 2751 Brunswick Pike Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 Phone: (609) 882-9246 E-mail: nrsupprt@mcl.org |
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