Arabic

Dolphin Boy
(Ha’Dolfin)
Directed by Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir
(Israel, 2011, 72 min.)
A teenage boy from an Arab village in northern Israel suffers severe post-traumatic shock after being brutally beaten by classmates, then slowly recovers with the help of dolphin therapy. (Arabic, French and Hebrew)
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 4, 1:30 p.m.

Kaddish for a Friend
Directed by Leo Khasin
(Germany, 2011, 94 min.)
A 14-year-old from a Palestinian refugee camp escapes to a new life in Berlin and longs to be accepted by his fellow Arab youths in the public housing project, but instead is forced to seek out the trust and forgiveness of his enemy. (Arabic and German)
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 3, 9:15 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 4, 8:45 p.m.

Czech

Men in Rut
(Muzi v riji)
Directed by Robert Sedlácek
(Czech Republic, 2009, 120 min.)
Small and big worlds clash in a remote Moravian village — so remote, in fact, that the road ends there — as politicians try to realize their dream of a new highway connecting them to Europe.
The Avalon Theatre
Wed., Dec. 14, 8 p.m.

English

Between Two Worlds
Directed by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow
(U.S., 2011, 70 min.)
Filmed in the U.S. and Israel, this first-person documentary reveals the agonizing battle over divestment from Israel on a university campus and shows the crackdown on dissent within Israel itself.
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 4, 3:30 p.m.

Breath Made Visible
Directed by Ruedi Gerber
(U.S./Switzerland, 2009, 80 min.)
This documentary follows the career of Anna Halprin, the American dance pioneer who helped redefine the notion of modern art with her belief in dance’s power to teach, heal and transform at all ages of life.
Embassy of Switzerland
Mon., Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.

A Christmas Carol
Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst
(U.K./U.S., 1951, 86 min.)
Miserly and mean-tempered, Scrooge is shaken to his core when he is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future.
AFI Silver Theatre
Dec. 17 to 21

A Clockwork Orange
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
(U.K., 1971, 136 min.)
In future Britain, a charismatic delinquent is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society’s crime problem … but not all goes to plan.
AFI Silver Theatre
Dec. 9 to 15

David
Directed by Joel Fendelman
(U.S., 2011, 80 minutes)
The 11-year-old son of the Imam of a Brooklyn mosque, Daud, inadvertently befriends a group of Orthodox Jewish boys in the neighboring community, becoming drawn into a complicated dilemma inspired by the best of intentions.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 10, 7 p.m.
Washington DCJC)
Sun., Dec. 11, 4:15 p.m.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas
Directed by Jim Henson
(U.S./Canada, 1977, 48 min.)
This is the heart-warming story of Ma Otter and her son, who both secretly enter a talent contest to win money for each other’s Christmas presents. In contrast to the typical Muppet style of puppetry, the lovable river animals are portrayed realistically.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 10, 11 a.m.,
Sun. Dec. 11, 11 a.m.

An Encounter with Simone Weil
Directed by Julia Haslett
(U.S./Italy/Sweden, 2010, 85 min.)
The filmmaker’s journey to understand the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-43) reveals a brave young woman willing to die for her convictions. (English and French)
Embassy of Italy
Tue., Dec. 6, 5 and 7:30 p.m.

Fireflies
(Gachliliyot)
Directed by Gili Meisler
(Israel, 2009, 82 min.)
This is a story of two brothers: Giora, the most talked about MIA of the Yom Kippur War, and Gili, the one who has been searching for Giora and himself ever since. (English and Hebrew)
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 11, 2:15 p.m.

The French Connection
Directed by William Friedkin
(U.S., 1971, 104 min.)
Two tough New York City cops try to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. (English and French)
AFI Silver Theatre
Dec. 2 to 4

The Great Muppet Caper
Directed by Jim Henson
(U.K., 1981, 95 min.)
This show-stopping musical finds intrepid journalists Kermit and Fozzie heading to London, hot on the trail of the jewel thief who stole the fabulous Baseball diamond from Lady Holiday (Miss Piggy).
AFI Silver Theatre
Dec. 9 to 14

Hell and Back Again
Directed by Danfung Dennis
(U.S/U.K./Afghanistan, 88 min., 2011)
This documentary set in southern Afghanistan tackles what it’s like to lead men into war and what it’s like to come home — told through the eyes of 25-year-old Sergeant Nathan Harris who suffers a life-threatening injury when his unit is attacked by the Taliban.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Into the Abyss
Directed by Werner Herzog
(Germany/Canada, 2011, 107 min.)
In this documentary, conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry (who died within eight days of appearing on screen) and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people — and a state — kill.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Je T’Aime, I Love You Terminal
Directed by Dani Menkin
(Israel/Czech Republic, 2010, 80 min.)
Ben, a 29-year-old Israeli, finally gets himself on the plane to New York to begin a new life with his girlfriend only to meet the charming, outrageous and somewhat dysfunctional Emma, who always seems to fall for the wrong guys.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 3, 7 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Fri., Dec. 9, 10 a.m.

The Kissinger Saga: Walter and Henry, Two Brothers from Fuerth
Directed by Evi Kurz
(Germany, 2008, 87 min.)
“I never give interviews about my personal life,” Henry Kissinger told the filmmaker in 2003. Eventually she changed his mind, and the result is this surprisingly revealing story.
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 4, 11 a.m.

Labyrinth
Directed by Jim Henson
(U.K./U.S., 1986, 101 min.)
While babysitting her brother, a teenage girl inadvertently casts him into the hands of the Goblin King, then tries to rescue him from his labyrinth.
AFI Silver Theatre
Thu, Dec. 1, 10:10 p.m.

Melancholia
Directed by Lars von Trier
(Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany, 2011, 136 min.)
Two sisters find their already-strained relationship challenged during a wedding party that turns into a fiasco, with family tensions mounting while a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Muppet Movie
Directed by James Frawley
(U.K./U.S., 1979, 95 min.)
In their first foray onto the silver screen, Kermit the Frog and his Muppet cohorts Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and the gang sing their way to Hollywood, hoping to make it big.
AFI Silver Theatre
Dec. 2 to 8

My Week with Marilyn
Directed by Simon Curtis
(U.K., 2011, 120 min)
Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during filming of “The Prince and the Showgirl,” while also introducing Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life.
AFI Silver Theatre
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

One, Two, Three
Directed by Billy Wilder
(U.S., 1961, 115 min.)
In this Cold War farce of capitalists and communists, James Cagney is in electrifying form as a Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin charged with keeping an eye on his boss’s flirtatious daughter, who has eyes for a cute commie.
AFI Silver Theatre
Dec. 17 to 22

Partisans of Vilna
Directed by Aviva Kempner
(U.S., 1986, 130 min.)
This riveting tale of the Vilna Ghetto’s Jewish armed resistance explores the struggle to organize under anarchic conditions, and the successes and failures of the movement. (English, Yiddish and Hebrew)
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Dec. 10, 6:15 p.m.

Reuniting the Rubens
Directed by Yoav Factor
(U.K., 2011, 97 min.)
An uptight lawyer finally beginning to relax on a much-needed retirement cruise when his ailing mother emotionally blackmails him into a reunion with his estranged children.
AFI Silver Theatre
Thu., Dec. 8, 9:15 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Mon., Dec. 5, 8:30 p.m.

Shame
Directed by Steve McQueen
(U.K., 2011, 101 min.)
A man’s carefully cultivated private life — which allows him to indulge his sexual addiction — is disrupted when his sister arrives for an indefinite stay, stirring memories of their shared painful past.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Dec. 2

Who Shot My Father? The Story of Joe Alon
Directed by Liora Amir Barmatz
(Israel, 2011, 71 min.)
Three daughters try to uncover the secrets behind the never-solved murder of their father, Col. Joe Alon, the air force attaché at the Israeli Embassy in D.C. who in 1973 returned home from a party with his wife and was shot and killed in front of his Chevy Chase home.
Washington DCJCC
Tue., Dec. 6, 6:15 p.m.

French

Beauty and the Beast
(La Belle et la Bête)
Directed by Jean Cocteau
(France, 1946, 96 min.)
A 17th-century village beauty must surrender to a beast as a sacrifice for her father’s error of judgment in Jean Cocteau’s fantastical version of the classic fable.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., Dec. 24, 2 and 4 p.m.

Blood of a Poet
(Le Sang d’un Poète)
Directed by Jean Cocteau
(France, 1930, 55 min.)
This fantasy drama, which begins when an artist’s drawing of a mouth comes to life on a statue, is just the first of many strange happenings that comprise the first part of Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy. (Screens with “The Seashell and the Clergyman”)
National Gallery of Art
Sun., Dec.4, 5 p.m.

Donkey Skin
(Peau d’âne)
Directed by Jacques Demy
(France, 1970, 100 min.)
In this musical fairytale, a king agrees to his dying queen’s last wish that he should remarry at once, but only to someone more beautiful than she — and only their daughter fits the bill.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., Dec. 31, 4 p.m.

Le Havre
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki
(Finland/France/Germany, 2011, 93 min.)
When an African refugee boy arrives by cargo ship in the French port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and takes him in, standing up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Dec. 9

Heartbeats
(Les Amours Imaginaires)
Directed by Xavier Dolan
(Canada, 2010, 95 min.)
Close friends Francis and Marie compete for the attention of Nicolas, a suave, playful and irresistibly hot new arrival in Montreal — and their once-solid friendship becomes unhinged. (French and English)
Letelier Theatre
Thu., Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

Orphée
(Orpheus)
Directed by Jean Cocteau
(France, 1950, 95 min.)
Jean Cocteau’s take on the Greek myth about the musician, poet and prophet — the second part of his Orphic Trilogy — is a major allegorical work dealing with themes of death and dreams, fantasy and myth, poetry and song.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., Dec. 31, 2 p.m.

The Seashell and the Clergyman
(La Coquille et le Clergyman)
Directed by Germaine Dulac
(France, 1928, 40 min.)
Obsessed with a military general’s woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism. (Screens with “Blood of a Poet”)
National Gallery of Art
Sun., Dec. 4, 5 p.m.

German

The African Twin Towers
Directed by Christoph Schlingensief
(Germany, 2006, 71 min.)
This is a documentary about Christoph Schlingensief’s last unfinished film, set in Namibia, as the director, diagnosed with cancer, attempts to find the right form of film expression after a decade in theater, performance arts and visual arts.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., Dec. 3, 4 p.m.

In Another Lifetime
(Veilleicht In Einem Anderen Leben)
Directed by Elisabeth Scharang
(Austria, 2010, 94 min.)
In this drama set near the end of World War II, a group Hungarian Jews forced into a death march to an Austrian concentration camp hope to win over the locals and ensure their safety, deciding to stage an operetta for the Nazi-sympathizing townspeople.
AFI Silver Theatre
Tue., Dec. 6, 9:15 p.m.

Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death
(Eichmanns Ende – Liebe, Verrat, Tod)
Directed by Raymond Ley
(Germany/Israel, 2010, 90 min.)
The love affair between Adolph Eichmann’s son and the Jewish daughter of a Holocaust survivor leads to Eichmann’s discovery in Argentina by the girl’s blind father, who recognizes him as the infamous SS lieutenant colonel and turns him over to the Mossad. (German, Hebrew and Spanish with English subtitles)
AFI Silver Theatre
Thu., Dec. 8, 7 p.m.

In Heaven Underground
(Im Himmel Unter Der Erde)
Directed by Britta Wauer
(Germany, 2011, 90 min.)
This documentary looks at the largest active Jewish burial ground in Europe — Berlin’s Weissensee Jewish Cemetery — which has operated for 130 years continuously under Jewish authority, even during the Nazi regime. (German, Russian and English)
AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Dec. 5, 7 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Tue., Dec. 6, 8:30 p.m.

Incessant Visions — Letters From an Architect
Directed by Duki Dror
(Israel, 2011, 70 min.)
German Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn, a visionary who created striking buildings and became Israel’s national architect, is the subject of this documentary. (German and Hebrew)
AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 4, 1 p.m.

Mahler on the Couch
Directed by Percy and Felix Adlon
(Austria/Germany, 2010, 100 min.)
The beloved, headstrong wife of legendary composer Gustav Mahler is having an affair with a young architect, so the tormented Mahler tracks down Sigmund Freud in Holland and begs for treatment.
Washington DCJCC
Wed., Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Remembrance
(Die Verlorene Zeit)
Directed by Anna Justice
(Germany/Poland/U.S., 2011, 105 min.)
A remarkable love story blossoms in 1944 in the middle of the terror of a German concentration camp in Poland, as a young Polish political prisoner tries to rescue his Jewish lover, who’s discovered she is pregnant. (English, German and Polish)
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m.

The Rescuers
Directed by Michael King
(U.S., 2011, 94 min.)
This alternately heart-wrenching and heart-warming film traces the emotional journey of a young Rwandan anti-genocide activist who lost 100 members of her family in her country’s 1994 genocide.
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Dec. 3, 6:15 p.m.

Terror 2000 – Intensivstation Deutschland
Directed by Christoph Schlingensief
(Germany, 1992, 79 min.)
In the 1988 Gladbeck hostage drama, two fugitive gangsters are unsuccessfully pursued by two detectives as they harass asylum seekers in an East German town, while West German neo-Nazis, a faith healer and local politicians try to take advantage of the situation.
Goethe-Institut
Mon., Dec. 5, 6:30 p.m.

United Trash
(a.k.a The Slit)
Directed by Christoph Schlingensief
(W. Germany, 1995/96, 79 min.)
A gay United Nations general rampages among German soldiers at a U.N. camp in Zimbabwe, as his wife gives birth to a black-skinned child who’s soon idolized as the Messiah by natives, in this comedy-musical.
Goethe-Institut
Mon., Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew

Love During Wartime
Directed by Gabriella Bier
(Sweden, 2010, 92 min.)
Jasmin and Assi are newlyweds, but building a life together seems impossible for the Jewish dancer and Muslim artist in this tender, honest Romeo and Juliet story drawn from today’s headlines. (Hebrew, Arabic, German and English)
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 10, 9:15 p.m.

Mabul – The Flood
Directed by Guy Nattiv
(Israel/Canada/Germany/France, 2010, 101 min.)
When his autistic brother, locked away for years in an institution, returns to live at home with them right before 13-year-old Yoni’s Bar Mitzvah, his already unstable family threatens to crumble.
The Avalon Theatre
Thu., Dec. 1, 7:45 p.m.
American University Greenberg Theatre
Sun., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.

Restoration
(Boker Tov Adon Fidelman)
Directed by Joseph Madmony
(Israel, 2011, 105 min.)
Seventy year-old Yaakov Fidelman has spent his life restoring antique furniture, but repairing the relationships in his life is far more difficult.
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Dec. 3, 8:45 p.m.

Japanese

Caterpillar
(Kyatapirâ)
Directed by Koji Wakamatsu
(Japan, 2010, 85 min.)
In this scathing look at small-town life in World War II Japan, a soldier returns home to his wife, deaf and missing both arms and legs, but his wife soon discovers that his abusive nature and brutal lust are still intact, despite his ravaged body.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Dec.16, 7 p.m.

United Red Army
(Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi)
Directed by Koji Wakamatsu
(Japan, 2007, 190 min.)
This docudrama charts the trajectory of Japan’s radical left, beginning with the idealistic student movements of the 1960s and then following the rise and collapse of the far-left United Red Army group, which infamously tortured and killed its own members for not properly adhering to Communist doctrine.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Dec.18, 2 p.m.

Polish

My Australia
(Australia Sheli)
Directed by Ami Drozd
(Israel/Poland, 2011, 100 min.)
Young Tadek and his older brother, both fatherless, spend their days in mid-1960s Poland as part of a neo-Nazi gang that beats up Jews. So their mother Halina, secretly a Holocaust survivor, finally decides to tell the boys that they are, in fact, Jewish and moves the family to Israel. (Polish and Hebrew)
American University Greenberg Theatre

Silent

The Artist
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
(France, 2011, 100 min.)
Set in 1927, silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, as sparks fly with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break. (Silent with limited English and French)
AFI Silver Theatre
Opens Sun., Dec. 25
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Dec. 9

Spanish

36 Righteous Men
(Los 36 Justos)
Directed by Daniel Burman
(Argentina, 2010, 67 min.)
Every year, a group of Orthodox Jewish friends from Argentina journeys 2,500 miles to Russia, Ukraine and Poland to visit the graves of the 36 Righteous Men, the Tzadikim, who are said to live on earth to do good anonymously in each generation. (Spanish and English)
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Dec. 11, 12 p.m.

Lope
Directed by Andrucha Waddinton
(Spain/Brazil, 2010, 106 min.)
This spectacular romantic epic explores the life and loves of immortal dramatist and swashbuckling adventurer Lope de Vega — a man ruled by his passions, and more condemned than commended for his eviscerating wit.
AFI Silver Theatre
Thu., Dec. 1, 4:45 p.m.

Thai

Eternity
(Chua fah din salai)
Directed by Sivaroj Kongsakul
(Thailand, 2010, 105 min.)
A forbidden affair becomes a sumptuous tale of a bond so strong that it continues beyond the grave, moving seamlessly from ghost story to love story to a touching coda.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

Salsa Tel Aviv
Directed by Jorge Weller
(Israel, 2011, 100 min.)
A Mexican salsa dancer and poor single mom flies to Israel dressed as a nun to sneak into the country to find the father of her child but instead encounters a young Israeli scientist about to marry his girlfriend. (Spanish and Hebrew)
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Dec. 10, 9:30 p.m.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
(Loong Boonmee raleuk chat)
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(Thailand, 2010, 114 min.)
Dying of kidney failure, a man is visited by the ghosts of his wife and son, who help him to prepare for his journey to the afterlife and to remember his previous lives.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Dec. 11, 2 p.m.