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International Films

at Highland Park Public Library

THANK YOU to The Friends of The Library for sponsoring FREE International Film events!

Film: The Italian
International Film Series
Tuesday, July 15, 7:00 PM

The Italian. Russian; 2007; 97 min. Director Andrei Kravchuk.
Based on a true story of a small Russian boy abandoned in a rundown orphanage who is adopted by an Italian family and eventually goes in search of his birth mother.

Film: My Best Friend
International Film Series
Tuesday, July 22, 7:00 PM

My Best Friend. French; 2007; 94 min. Directed by Patrice Leconte.
An arrogant self-centered antique dealer with a fabulous life bets on a valuable Greek vase. He gets to keep it for free if he can prove that he has at least one true friend.
FREE! Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

Film: After the Wedding
International Film Series
Tuesday, July 29, 7:00 PM

After the Wedding. Danish/Swedish/Hindi/English. 2006. 120 min. Directed by Suzanne Bier.
The Academy award nominated emotional drama concerns the secrets and lies that come to light when a desperate Indian orphanage manager travels to Denmark to secure funds from a mysterious, wealthy man.
FREE! Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

Film: Offside
International Film Series
Tuesday, August 5, 7:00 PM

Offside. Iranian; 2007; 93 min. Directed by Jafar Panahi.
Part sports film, part feminist comedy. It is also a plea for women's rights in Iranian society.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Film: Riding Alone for
Thousands of Miles
Tuesday, August 12, 7:00 PM

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. Chinese/Japanese; 2006; 108 min. Directed by Zhang Yimou.
From three time Academy Award nominated director Yimou, a moving story about a Japanese father's journey to a remote region of China seeking reconciliation with his estranged son. Starring the great Japanese actor Ken Takakura.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Film: Band's Visit
International Film Series
Tuesday, August 19, 7:00 PM

Band's visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret). Israeli; 2007; 89 min. Directed by Eran Kolirin.
An Egyptian police band is looking to play at a new Arab Cultural Center when they get on the wrong bus and go to Betah Tikva, an isolated little town. A comedy and tragedy about the things that separate people.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Recent Films Screened at the Library:

International Film Night
Water
Tuesday, May 13, 7:00 PM

Indian film, 2006, director Deepa Mehta, 117 min.
Set in the days of the British Raj, this film explores the plight of widows forced to live in poverty at a temple in a holy city.
Free! Sponsored by the Friends of the Highland Park Public Library. Films are shown in the Library meeting room.

International Film Night
Crimson Gold
Tuesday, April 15, 7:00 PM

Iranian film, 2003, director Jafar Panahi, 95 min.
An ordinary pizza deliveryman embarks on a journey navigating the dark injustices on the streets of Teheran.
Free! Sponsored by the Friends of the Highland Park Public Library. Films are shown in the Library meeting room.

International Film Night
L'Enfant
Tuesday, March 11, 7:00 PM

French film, 2005, director Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 100 min.
A young woman on welfare is shocked to learn that her petty criminal boyfriend has sold their infant on the black market.
Free! Sponsored by the Friends of the Highland Park Public Library. Films are shown in the Library meeting room.

Elling
Norwegian film
Tuesday, December 11, 7:00 PM

FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.
All films are shown with English subtitles.

Directed by Petter Naess, 89 min. 2001.
Two middle-aged men are released from a state institution and have to learn to cope on their own in the world, with comic consequences.

Free Zone
Israeli film
Tuesday, November 13, 7:00 PM

FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.
All films are shown with English subtitles.
Directed by Amos Gitai, 90 min., 2005.
On a dangerous road trip, three women - American, Israeli and Palestinian - develop emotional bonds which will forever change them. Starring Natalie Portman.

Together
Chinese film
Tuesday, October 16, 7:00 PM

FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.
All films are shown with English subtitles.

Directed by Kaige Chen, 116 min., 2003.
A violin prodigy and his father travel to Beijing for a prestigious audition with the father seeking the means to his son's success while the son struggles to accept the path laid before him.

Volver
Spanish film (2006)
Wednesday, August 15, 7:00 PM

Directed by Pedro Almodovar. Comedy-Drama. Spanish. 2006. 121 minutes. Rated R.
Penelope Cruz, nominated for an Oscar for this role, stars as a young widow in a working class Madrid neighborhood who becomes obsessed with the ghost of her dead mother.
This film was Oscar and Golden Globe nominated, and won prizes at Cannes, the Empire Award, European Film Award, Goya Award, Hollywood Film Festival and the Satellite Award.

Noi
Icelandic film (2004)
Wednesday, August 8, 7:00 PM

Directed by Dagur Kari. Comedy-Drama. Icelandic. 2003. 93 minutes. Rated PG-13.
This internationally acclaimed film tells the story of an outcast albino teenager who finds love and tries to escape his dreary life on a remote fjord with terrifying consequences.
This film earned numerous prizes from various global film societies, including Best European Film at the Denver International Film Festival.

I'm Not Scared
Italian film (2004)
Wednesday, August 1, 7:00 PM

Directed by Gabriele Salvatores. Thriller. Italian. 2003. 108 minutes. Rated R.
A Sicilian farm boy discovers a child peering out from the bottom of a deep hole and learns that the villagers, including his parents, may be involved in a nefarious crime. "Who can you trust when everyone's a suspect?" Part thriller, part coming-of-age tale, the film won two Donatello Awards.

Fear and Trembling
French/Japanese film (2003)
Wednesday, July 25, 7:00 PM

Directed by Alain Corneau. Comedy. Japanese and French. 2003. 102 minutes. Unrated.
This French comedy stars Sylvie Testud as a dreamy young Belgian woman whose work as a translator for a Japanese company is fraught with cultural missteps. Based on an autobiographical novel by Amelie Nothomb.

Tsotsi
South African film (2005)
Wednesday, July 18

Based on Athol Fugard's novel. Directed by Gavin Hood. Drama. Zulu-Afrikaans-English. 2005. 94 min. Rated R.
This film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2005. It tells the story of a teenager forced into a life of crime and violence, who is transformed when he begins to care for a baby.

Heading South
French film (2006)
Wednesday, July 11, 7:00 PM

Directed by Laurent Cantet; starring Charlotte Rampling. Drama. French and English. 2005. 108 min., unrated.
Three middle-aged women on holiday in Haiti in the 1970's soak up the sun and compete for the handsome young men on the beach. The beautifully photographed film won two awards at the Venice Film Festival.

Film: Intimate Stories
Spanish film; 2002; 94 min.
Tuesday, May 8, 7:00 PM

Directed by Carlos Sorin. Spanish. 2002. 94 minutes. Unrated.

As in Motorcycle Diaries, the road and its surrounding landscape become a character in this unhurried portrait of three ordinary people making their way towards the city of San Julian in Southern Patagonia, Argentina. Each is traveling for a different reason. A crusty old man with a guilty conscience searches for his missing dog, Badface. A traveling salesman, unlucky in love, wants to find the perfect gift to impress the object of his affection. Finally, young single mother Maria is giddy upon learning she will be a contestant on a TV game show and might win a food processor. As they pass through the desolate plains, the road seems to stretch into infinity. Will they ever reach their goals? The director’s use of nonprofessional actors in the main roles gives the film a comfortable, natural feel and essential humanity. It won top awards for acting, screenplay, director, music, and cinematography and was named Best Film at the 2003 Argentinean Film Critics Association.

Saraband
Swedish film; 2003; 107 min
Tuesday, April 10, 7:00 PM

Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Swedish with English subtitles. 2003. 107 minutes. Rated R.

The estranged, volatile husband and wife who eventually divorced in 1973’s Scenes from a Marriage return in the director’s final effort, an intensely dramatic look at family relationships that conveys the legendary filmmaker’s passion for exploring psychological intricacies. On a whim, Marianne (Liv Ullmann) visits her well-to-do former husband Johan, who delights in humiliating his son from a previous marriage, 61-year-old son Henrik, with whom he lives. Henrik, in turn, is overly possessive of his 19-year-old daughter. In Bergman’s world grudges never disappear, and aged parents and grown children try their hardest to inflict as much emotional damage on each other as possible. The pathology of selfish, bitter relationships is portrayed with striking rawness, drawing on the director’s adroit use of close-ups. Bergman won awards from the Argentinean Film Critics Association and the Sant Jordi Festival.

Memory of a Killer
Belgian film 2003; 120 min.
Tuesday, March 13, 7:00 PM

Directed by Erik Van Looy. English subtitles. 2003. 120 minutes. Rated R.

Although this taut, energetic film may seem at first like a standard police procedural, it unrolls as something far more psychologically complex and intelligent. Veteran hitman Angelo Ledda, with a list of contract killings under his belt longer than his world-weary face, wants to retire, but his boss will not hear of it. Ledda is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease and knows it. Ordered to Belgium for a job, he secretly writes important details on his arms so he will not forget. When he discovers his task—eliminating an 11-year-old girl working as a child prostitute—he balks. That moral stance means the hunter has also become the hunted. In the meantime his path crosses that of two detectives working on related cases. The trio embark on a dizzying game of cat and mouse, even as Ledda, pursued on double fronts, can feel his “head emptying.” The thriller won the Critics Award at the Cognac Festival du Film Policier and the Audience Award at the Flanders International Film Festival.