Amharic

Fig Tree
Directed by Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian
(Ethiopia/France/German/Israel, 2018, 93 min.)

Sixteen-year-old Mina is poised to flee war-torn Ethiopia with her grandmother to be reunited with her mother in Israel; however, she is reluctant to leave her Christian boyfriend Eli, who lives in the woods in order to avoid forcible conscription by the military.

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center
Nov. 1 to 14

Arabic

10 Days Before the Wedding

Directed by Amr Gamal
(Yemen, 2018, 122 min.)

It’s almost miraculous that this was made at all. The first Yemeni movie to be released commercially in over 40 years, it was filmed in Aden, a city still bearing the scars of the civil war that reduced much of it to rubble. Appropriately, the film’s story is one of perseverance. Everything starts to go wrong for a young couple with 10 days to go before their long-delayed nuptials. Will our young hero and heroine continue to believe that love conquers all?

Freer Gallery of Art
Sat., Nov. 23, 2 p.m.

The Cave

Directed by Feras Fayyad
(Syria/Denmark/Germany/Qatar/U.S., 2019, 95 min.)

For besieged civilians, hope and safety lie underground inside the subterranean hospital known as the Cave, where pediatrician and managing physician Dr. Amani Ballour and her colleagues Samaher and Dr. Alaa have claimed their right to work as equals alongside their male counterparts, doing their jobs in a way that would be unthinkable in the oppressively patriarchal culture that exists above (Arabic and English).

West End Cinema

For Sama

Directed by Waad al-Khateab and Edward Watts
(U.K./Syria, 2019, 100 min.)

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, this film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria, as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her.

West End Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 8

Sofia

Directed by Meryem Benm’Barek-Aloïsi
(France/Qatar/Belgium/Morocco, 2018, 80 min.)

Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca, Morocco. Suffering from pregnancy denial, she finds herself breaking the law by giving birth to a baby out of wedlock. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide them with the identification papers belonging to the father of the child before informing the authorities (Arabic and French).

The Avalon Theatre
Wed., Nov. 20, 8 p.m.

Czech

Beauty and the Beast

Directed by Juraj Herz
(Czechoslovakia, 1978, 84 min.)

A tale you’ll know well — innocent girl presents herself as sacrifice to a cursed, freakish beast living in isolation, and learns to live with and love her captor — is turned into something very different in Juraj Herz’s morbid imagining.

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 8 to 14

Caught by Night

Directed by Juraj Herz
(Czechoslovakia, 1986, 130 min.)

Born to Jewish parents in Kežmarok in modern-day Slovakia, Juraj Herz spent part of his youth in Ravensbrück labor camp, an experience of horror that may have obliquely informed much of his work, and that is directly reflected in this film, a nauseously stylized version of hell on earth.

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Nov. 4, 7 p.m.

Ferat Vampire

Directed by Juraj Herz
(Czechoslovakia, 1982, 93 min.)

In this satire on consumerism and piece of anti-automobile propaganda, Marek is upset to lose his ambulance driver to a job working as a rally driver for foreign car manufacturer Ferat, and even more upset when he hears whispers that Ferat cars use human blood for their fuel.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 16, 10:45 p.m.
Thu., Nov. 21, 9:30 p.m.

Morgiana

Directed by Juraj Herz
(Czechoslovakia, 1972, 106 min.)

Juraj Herz crafts a Gothic drama about two sisters, Klára and Viktoria — both played by Iva Janžurová, in an amazing double-role performance — put at loggerheads when the sweet, vapid Klára receives the better part of their father’s sprawling estate and the love of the man that Viktoria adores, leading the spurned sibling to venomous thoughts of murder.

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 3 to 7

Oil Lamps

Directed by Juraj Herz
(Czechoslovakia, 1971, 101 min.)

Iva Janžurová and Petr Čepek are peerless as miserably married cousins in Juraj Herz’s early-20th-century period piece, set in a provincial town that’s riven by repressed desire and smoldering secrets.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Nov. 11, 9:30 p.m.,
Wed., Nov. 13, 9:30 p.m.

Sign of Cancer

Directed by Juraj Herz
(Czechoslovakia, 1967, 87 min.)

A warped detective story that begins with a murder in a hospital, the investigation of which reveals rampant incompetence, alcoholism, graft and highly unprofessional goings-on between staff and patients, this film’s implicitly critical depiction of a public service sector overloaded with underqualified communist party stooges would land Juraj Herz in trouble with censors for what was not to be the last time.

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Nov. 15, 10 p.m.,
Tue., Nov. 19, 9:30 p.m.

English

Back to the Fatherland

Directed by Kat Rohrer and Gil Levanon
(Austria/Germany/Israel, 2017, 77 min.)

In this documentary, Gil and Kat have been friends since college. Gil is from Israel, Kat from Austria; Gil is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Kat the granddaughter of a Nazi officer. Through them we meet other young men and women whose grandparents were murdered or persecuted during the war. What’s interesting is that many have decided to move back to the Fatherland, a choice that their families disagree with (English, Hebrew and German).

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center
Sun., Nov. 10, 6:30 p.m.,
Mon., Nov. 11, 7 p.m.

Downton Abbey

Directed by Michael Engler
(U.K./U.S., 2019, 122 min.)

The story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century, picks up after the popular TV show ended.

Angelika Mosaic
Atlantic Plumbing Cinema
The Avalon Theatre
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Frankie

Directed by Ira Sachs
(France/Portugal, 2019, 98 min.)

Three generations grapple with a life-changing experience during one day of a vacation in Sintra, Portugal, a historic town known for its dense gardens and fairy-tale villas and palaces (English, French and Portuguese).

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Fri., Nov. 1

Gemini Man

Directed by Ang Lee
(China/U.S., 2019, 117 min.)

An over-the-hill hitman faces off against a younger clone of himself.

Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

Gift

Directed by Robin McKenna
(Canada, 2019, 90 min.)

This richly cinematic film interweaves multiple character-driven stories, from a young indigenous artist and carver following a family tradition, to a derelict sausage factory in Rome occupied by migrant families that is transformed into a living museum (English and Italian).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 1

Harriet

Directed by Kasi Lemmons
(U.S., 2019, 125 min.)

Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, Harriet tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes.

Angelika Mosaic
Angelika Pop-Up
Atlantic Plumbing Cinema
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 1

Heroes

Directed by Köken Ergun

(Turkey/Australia, 2019, 88 min.)

Every year, hordes of tourists from Turkey, Australia and New Zealand travel to Gallipoli, or Çanakkale, as the peninsula is called in Turkish. They go there to commemorate the soldiers who died during one of the largest battles of World War I. To Turkish visitors, it’s a pilgrimage; to Australians, a holiday. Video artist Köken Ergun, whose work is often about the role of ritual in communities, spent two years among the many tourists, interviewing people at the monuments and cemeteries and riding the tour buses on which guides tell their stories (English and Turkish).

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 10, 1:30 p.m.

The Irishman

Directed by Martin Scorsese
(U.S., 2019, 209 min.)

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century.

AFI Silver Theatre

Jim Allison: Breakthrough

Directed by Bill Haney
(U.S., 2019, 90 min.)

This is the astounding true story of one warm-hearted, stubborn man’s visionary quest to find a cure for cancer. The film traces Allison’s remarkable life from his school-boy days in Texas all the way to Stockholm where, in December of 2018, he accepted the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the immune system’s role in defeating cancer.

West End Cinema

Jojo Rabbit

Directed by Taika Waititi
(Germany/U.S., 2019, 108 min.)

This World War II satire follows a lonely German boy named Jojo whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Judy

Directed by Rupert Goold
(U.K., 2019, 118 min.)

Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) arrives in Swinging London to perform a five-week sold-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown.

The Avalon Theatre
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The King

Directed by David Michod
(U.K./Hungary/Australia, 2019, 140 min.)

Hal, wayward prince and heir to the English throne, is crowned King Henry V after his tyrannical father dies. Now the young king must navigate palace politics, the war his father left behind and the emotional strings of his past life.

West End Cinema

The Lighthouse

Directed by Robert Eggers
(U.S./Brazil, 2019, 109 min.)

This is the hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

AFI Silver Theatre
Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Song of Names

Directed by François Girard
(Canada/Hungary/U.K., 2019, 85 min.)

Constructed like a grand detective mystery, the film opens the night of the much-anticipated first public performance by Dovidl Rapoport, a Polish musical prodigy. When he fails to show up, his best friend Martin is forced to tell the packed theater that the performance will not go on. Decades later, an adult Martin, serving as a judge in a musical competition, watches a young student prepare to play in Dovidl’s unique style. This moment sends Martin, over the strident objections of his wife Helen, on a transcontinental search.

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center
Tue., Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m.

Where’s My Roy Cohn?

Directed by Matt Tyrnauer
(U.S., 2019, 97 min.)

One of the most controversial and influential American men of the 20th Century, Roy Cohn was a ruthless and unscrupulous lawyer and political power broker whose 28-year career ranged from acting as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist-hunting subcommittee to molding the career of a young Queens real estate developer named Donald Trump.

West End Cinema

French

By the Grace of God

Directed by François Ozon
(France/Belgium, 2019, 137 min.)

In this urgent and heartfelt the story, three adult men band together to expose the stifling code of silence that continues to enable a priest who abused them as boys.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Synonyms

Directed by Nadav Lapid
(France/Germany/Israel, 2019, 123 min.)

Young Israeli ex-soldier Yoav escapes his country and past to take up residence in Paris. Armed with a pocket-sized French dictionary, Yoav refuses to speak his native Hebrew as he desperately tries to immerse himself in French society. Living on only a few francs a day, he bounces from job to job on a wildly erratic journey, attempting to assimilate into a seemingly impenetrable culture (French and Hebrew).

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center
Nov. 29 to Dec. 5
Landmark’s Theatres
Opens Fri., Nov. 15

German

25 KM/H

Directed by Markus Goller
(Germany, 2018, 116 min.)

After 30 years, estranged brothers Georg and Christian reunite at their father’s funeral. Each has very little to say to the other. But following a carousing night of table tennis and drinking, they reconnect, determined to live out the plan they dreamed up at 16: a cross-country moped-trip through Germany (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Fri., Nov. 15, 9:30 p.m.

All I Never Wanted

Directed by Leonie Stade and Annika Blendl
(Germany/Italy, 2019, 89 min.)

Leonie and Annika are aspiring documentarians. When a wealthy man with questionable motives offers them money to finance their project, they set out to follow the lives of two very different women, hoping to capture their success stories. Nina, a 17-year-old model from the suburbs of Stuttgart, leaves for Milan to pursue her career. Meanwhile, 42-year-old television star Mareile must reassess her career after her character is killed off and replaced with a younger actress. But the success stories don’t turn out as the filmmakers had hoped (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sun., Nov. 17, 12 p.m.

All About Me

Directed by Caroline Link
(Germany, 2018, 100 min.)

West Germany’s Ruhr region, 1972: Chubby, bubbly 9-year-old Hans-Peter grows up enveloped by the warmth and security of his large and eccentric family. In various zany costumes and characters, he demonstrates a knack for making others laugh. Always seizing the opportunity to entertain and cheer up those around him, Hans-Peter’s antics help his family through some of their most trying times. However, when his mother plunges into depression after an operation, a shadow is cast over the boy’s daily life (opening-night film of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Thu., Nov. 14, 7 p.m.

Berlin Bouncer

Directed by David Dietl
(Germany, 2019, 87 min.)

This film chronicles an exciting piece of Berlin’s cultural history — from the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall up to the pulsating present — through the biographies of three legendary bouncers (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sat., Nov. 16, 7:45 p.m.

The Goldfish

Directed by Alireza Golafshan
(Germany, 2019, 112 min.)

Banker and portfolio manager Oliver lives life in the fast lane — the very lane that brings life as he knows it to an abrupt end after a crash paralyzes him from the waist down. One day, Oliver happens upon an apartment shared by four roommates with disabilities known as “the Goldfish.” When Oliver’s friend is caught hiding a stash of dirty money in Switzerland, Oliver — who has a stash of his own — quickly hatches a plan with his Goldfish friends (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sun., Nov. 17, 2 p.m.

Gundermann

Directed by Andreas Dresen
(Germany, 2018, 127 min.)

A poet, a clown and an idealist, Gerhard Gundermann dreams and hopes and loves and fights. He is a family man, a rebel, a spy, spied-upon, a threat to the state. A do-gooder who doesn’t know any better, this coal-digger is all of these things at once (closing-night film of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sun., Nov. 17, 7 p.m.

Happiness Sucks

Directed by Anca Miruna Lazarescu
(Germany, 2018, 95 min.)

Jessica is often mistaken for a boy and must constantly fight against her many strange tics. Her sister Sabrina is seriously ill. Jessica would love to trade with Sabrina, who is pretty and seems to have her life in control in spite of her illness. But the more Sabrina’s health deteriorates, the worse Jessica’s tics get, so the girls must devise a plan to transfer Sabrina’s illness to someone else, and fast (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sat., Nov. 16, 2 p.m.

The Miracle Method

Directed by Michael Kreihsl
(Austria, 2018, 96 min.)

It was love at first sight, back when they dived together into the warm, clear waters of the Red Sea. Now, many years of marriage later, Joana and Valentin Dorek continue to poison each other with their toxic relationship, and a session with a couple’s therapist seems to be the last rescue for their relationship (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sat., Nov. 16, 6 p.m.

System Crasher

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt
(Germany, 2019, 120 min.)

Benni, delicate-looking girl with unbridled energy, is a “system crasher,” a term used to describe children who break every rule and gradually fall through the cracks in Germany’s child and welfare services. But that’s exactly she wants because all she wants is to live with her mother again, a woman who is totally unable to cope with her daughter’s incalculable behavior (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Sun., Nov. 17, 4:15 p.m.

Zwingli

Directed by Stefan Haupt
(Switzerland, 2019, 128 min.)

In 1519, on the cusp of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, young widow Anna lives a miserable life between her fear of the ever-powerful Catholic Church and her worries over her three children. Then, the arrival of a young priest sparks heated discussions with his sermons that condemn the Church’s abuses of power, excesses and hypocrisies (part of the Film|Neu Festival).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Fri., Nov. 15, 7 p.m.

Hebrew

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

Directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz
(France/Germany/Israel, 2015, 115 min.)

Israel’s Foreign Language Oscar submission, this dramatic adaptation recounts a harrowing true story set in a Mizrahi Orthodox enclave in Israel. The eponymous heroine has spent five years in a stalemate fighting for a divorce that, according to religious law, requires her husband’s full consent. As he continues to refuse, Viviane fears that her life may never proceed freely, and the courtroom struggles grow increasingly surreal (Hebrew and French).

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center
Sun., Nov. 10, 3 p.m.

Japanese

Godzilla

Directed by Ishiro Honda
(Japan, 1954, 96 min.)

Sixty-five years ago this month, the roaring granddaddy of all monster movies arrived on screens, and though he is now retirement age, Godzilla continues to stomp around in our hearts. His debut is a remarkably humane and melancholy drama, made in Japan at a time when the country was reeling from nuclear attacks and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning almost 30 sequels.

Freer Gallery of Art
Wed., Nov. 6, 2 p.m.

Korean

Fujuoka

Directed by Zhang Lu
(South Korea, 2019, 86 min.)

Back in college, best friends Jea-moon and Hae-hyo parted ways when they both fell in love with the same woman. Nearly three decades later, Jea-moon runs a used bookstore in Seoul. So-dam, the young woman who lives next door, convinces him to take her along on a surprise visit to Hae-hyo, who now owns a bar in Fukuoka, Japan. As the two old pals bicker, drink, and reminisce, the enigmatic So-dam mysteriously and hauntingly flits in and out of their story (Korean, Mandarin and Japanese).

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 3, 2 p.m.

Parasite

Directed by Joon-ho Bong
(South Korea, 2019, 132 min.)

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. But when a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out.

AFI Silver Theatre
Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Mandarin

A Touch of Zen

Directed by King Hu

(Taiwan, 1971, 180 min.)

King Hu’s martial arts masterpiece depicts the journey of Yang, a fugitive noblewoman in disguise who seeks refuge in a remote, and allegedly haunted, village.

Freer Gallery of Art
Thu., Nov. 7, 2 p.m.

White Snake

Directed by Amp Wong and Ji Zhao
(China/U.S., 2019, 99 min.)

In this visually stunning new take on a classic legend, from Light Chaser Animation, one of China’s premiere animation studios, a young woman named Blanca is saved by Xuan, a poor snake catcher from a nearby village. She has lost her memory, but learns she has magical powers. Together they go on a journey to discover her real identity, meeting many adventures, and developing deeper feelings for one another along the way.

Landmark’s Theatres
Opens Fri., Nov. 29

Portuguese

Black Orpheus

Directed by Marcel Camus
(Brazil/France/Italy, 1959, 107 min.)

With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Marcel Camus brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the 20th-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 24 to 27

Silent

The City Without Jews

Directed by Hans Karl Breslauer
(Austria, 1924)

This film adapts Hugo Bettauer’s 1922 satiric novel in which he described the expulsion of all Jews from Vienna, considered an inconceivable idea at the time. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Nikolaus Wostry, managing director of the Filmarchiv Austria, and Ilya Tovbis, director of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. For ticket information, visit acfdc.org.

Embassy of Austria

Shiraz: A Romance of India

Directed by Franz Osten
(U.K./Germany/India, 1928, 105 min.)

An astonishing treasure of the silent cinema, “Shiraz” was shot on location in India. Ambitious and elegant, the film takes creative license with the story of the life and death of Mumtaz Mahal, the 17th-century Mughal empress whose early demise inspired her husband, Shiraz, to construct the Taj Mahal.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 24, 2 p.m.

Song of the Scarlett Flower

Directed by Mauritz Stiller
(Sweden, 1919, 101 min.)

The first and most famous of several screen adaptations of the 1900 novel by Finnish writer Johannes Linnankoski, this touchstone film of the silent era’s golden age in Sweden showcases stunning outdoor scenery during the season of the midnight sun; the folk customs of the farmers and foresters of the rugged northlands; and young star Lars Hanson, in top form as a callow, heartbreaking youth who learns some hard truths about life and love.

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 23 to 27

Spanish

Ana by Day

Directed by Andrea Jaurrieta
(Spain, 2018, 110 min.)

What would you do if one day you realize that a doppelganger has taken your place in life and nobody even suspects that she is not you? If all your obligations, all your duties, are being made by that “other you,” would you fight to recover your lost identity? Or, on the contrary, would you try to find your own being far from all that was supposed to be your “normal” life? (part of the “Mujeres de Cine” film series.)

Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain
Tue., Nov. 12, 6:45 p.m.

End of the Century

Directed by Lucio Castro

(Argentina, 2019, 84 min.)

In this sun-soaked European travelogue and an epic, decades-spanning romance, Ocho, a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi, a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories?

Landmark’s Theatres
Opens Fri., Nov. 8

Journey to a Mother’s Room

Directed by Celia Rico Clavellino
(Spain, 2018, 90 min.)

It’s time to leave home, but Leonor doesn’t know whether to go or stay. She is not capable of leaving her mother Estrella alone. Estrella doesn’t want her to go but she can’t force her daughter to stay either. So, the two women embark ona journey around their rooms to stop being just a mother and a daughter and discover who they both are separately from one another (Spanish and English; part of the “Mujeres de Cine” film series).

National Museum of Women in the Arts
Wed., Nov. 6, 6:30 p.m.

Pain & Glory

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
(Spain, 2019, 113 min.)

Antonio Banderas plays Salvador Mallo, a film director in physical decline who reflects on his past as his present comes crashing down around him.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Wild Season

Directed by Anxos Fazáns
(Spain, 2017, 68 min.)

(Spanish and Gallegan; part of the “Mujeres de Cine” film series).

Life isn’t harmless. It can be exhausting and frustrating. Manuel would like to be a writer but instead he is trapped in his routine, unable to confront his emotions. But summer and the unexpected reunion with the best friends from his youth will make all his impulses explode.

Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain
Tue., Nov. 19, 6:45 p.m.

Visa al Paraíso

Directed by Lillian Lieberman
(Mexico, 2010, 108 min.)

This film recounts the life of Gilberto Bosques, Mexico’s general consul to France between 1939 and 1942 who saved tens of thousands of Spanish republicans, Jews, socialists, communists and other people persecuted by fascist Nazis. A special post-film Q&A will be held via Skype with the director.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Swedish

Goliath

Directed by Peter Grönlund
(Sweden, 2019, 88 min.)

In a small Swedish industrial town in Sweden, when Roland is sentenced to prison, his17-year-old son is expected to provide for the family by taking over his dad’s criminal business. The film depicts the boy’s brutal entry into adult life and examines patriarchal structures at a time when the welfare is declining and Sweden is changing.

House of Sweden
Sun., Nov. 10, 2 p.m.

My So-Called Father

Directed by Ulf Malmros
(Sweden, 2014, 127 min.)

A pregnant daughter with nowhere to go helps her estranged father who’s lost his memory.

House of Sweden
Sun., Nov. 24, 2 p.m.

Tibetan

Jinpa

Directed by Pema Tseden
(China, 2018, 86 min.)

On a lonely road on China’s barren Kekexili Plateau, a truck driver named Jinpa picks up a hitchhiker who shares his name, carries a scary knife, and claims to be on the way to kill the man who murdered his father 10 years earlier. After dropping him off, the driver becomes curious and decides to seek him out, setting in motion a metaphysical plot in which dreams and reality mix.

Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Nov. 1, 7 p.m.

Turkish

The Announcement

Directed by Mahmut Fazil Coşkun
(Turkey/Bulgaria, 2018, 94 min.)

Based on an actual 1963 coup attempt, Mahmut Fazil Coşkun’s deadpan comedy follows four retired colonels who are under orders to take over an Istanbul radio station and announce what they believe is a successful coup. What begins as a tense political drama soon becomes a comedy of errors when nothing goes according to plan.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sat., Nov. 16, 3:30 p.m.

Commitment

Directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu
(Turkey, 2019, 135 min.)

Turkey’s official Oscar entry stars Kübra Kip in an intense, nuanced performance as Aslı, a woman confronting the dilemma of being a working mother. After hiring a babysitter for her infant so she can resume her career as a bank executive, Aslı is forced to confront secrets she has been keeping even from herself.

Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Nov. 8, 7 p.m.

Dead Horse Nebula

Directed by Tarik Aktaş
(Turkey, 2018, 73 min.)

In the opening scene of Tarik Aktaş’s debut feature, seven-year-old Hay comes across a dead horse in a field. His curiosity awakened, he studies the corpse and the tremendous effort it takes to remove it. This childhood memory haunts the rest of the film, permeating the adult life of Hay through a succession of encounters with the natural and animal worlds.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 10, 3:30 p.m.

Noah Land

Directed by Cenk Ertuk
(Germany/Turkey/United States, 2019, 109 min.)

Ibrahim, an old man dying of a terminal disease, asks his son to drive him to the town where he grew up so he can arrange to be buried beneath a tree he planted as a child. When the two men arrive, they are surprised to learn that the tree is now a pilgrimage site, with the villagers claiming the biblical Noah himself planted it.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sat., Nov. 16, 1 p.m.

Something Useful

Directed by Pelin Esmer
(Turkey/France/Netherlands/Germany, 2017, 108 min.)

Leyla is a lawyer and a poet who has decided to attend her high school reunion after 25 years of neglecting previous invitations. Canan is a young nurse in training who dreams of one day becoming an actress. The two women meet on the train and quickly form a relationship as each sees something of herself in the other women who are making their own way in a sometimes hostile world.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 10, 5:30 p.m.

Turkish Ice Cream

Directed by Can Ulkay
(Turkey, 2019, 123 min.)

Two Turkish immigrants are making a peaceful living in the year 1915 by operating a popular ice cream cart in an Australian outpost. Meanwhile, the Great War rages abroad, and the Allies turn their attention to Turkey. Lives and livelihood threatened, the two entrepreneurs attempt a return home to Turkey, but authorities block the way.

Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Nov. 15, 7 p.m.