Albanian

 Besa: The Promise
Directed by Rachel Goslins
(U.S., 2012, 89 min.)
One Albanian man’s quest brings three men together in a journey that transcends borders, time and religion (Albanian, English and Hebrew).
JCC of Greater Washington
Sun., Jan. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Tue., Jan. 8, 8:45 p.m.

Arabic

 Sharqiya
Directed by Ami Livne
(Israel/France/Germany, 2012, 85 min.)
Eng. Subtitles
When the destitute central bus station he shares with his family is threatened by demolition orders, young Bedouin security guard makes a curious set of fateful decisions in his attempt to act as a hero (Arabic and Hebrew).
AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Jan. 7, 7 p.m.

English

Born in Berlin
Directed by Noemi Schory and Leora Kamenetzy
(Israel, 1991, 85 min.)
This documentary looks at the lives of three Jewish women writers who grew up in pre-war Berlin until Nazi racial laws shattered their lives.
Goethe-Institut
Tue., Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.

Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
(U.S., 2012, 165 min.)
In the South two years before the Civil War, a slave’s brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with a German-born bounty hunter.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Hyde Park on the Hudson
Directed by Roger Michell
(U.K., 2012, 95 min.)
The love affair between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his distant cousin Margaret Stuckley plays out over a weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen of Britain visit upstate New York.
AFI Silver Theatre
Through Jan. 17
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Impossible
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
(Spain, 2012,
In this powerful true story based on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a family begins their winter vacation in Thailand, looking forward to a few days in tropical paradise but instead become caught, along with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Les Míserables
Directed by Tom Hooper
(U.K., 2012, 160 min.)
In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless Inspector Javert after he breaks parole, agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s daughter, Cosette — a decision that forever changes their lives.
Various area theaters

Lessons of Darkness
(Lektionen in Finsternis)
Directed by Werner Herzog
(Germany, 1992, 50 min.)
Werner Herzog’s controversial documentary surveys the wreckage left in the wake of the Gulf War, lamenting the human and environmental damage caused by modern war technology (English, German and Arabic).
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Jan. 11, 7 p.m.

No Place on Earth
Directed by Janet Tobias
(U.S./U.K./Germany, 2012, 81 min.)
Out of options, a group of families descend into underground caves in southern Ukraine to escape Nazi persecution in 1942, remaining there for 500 days.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Jan. 6, 7:15 p.m.

Orchestra of Exiles
Directed by Josh Aronson
(Israel/U.S., 2011, 85 min.)
Bronislaw Huberman, the celebrated Polish violinist, rescues some of the world’s greatest musicians from Nazi Germany and then creates one of the world’s finest orchestras, the Palestine Philharmonic (later the Israeli Philharmonic).
Goethe-Institut
Mon., Jan. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria
Directed by Jeff Lieberman
(Nigeria/U.S., 2012, 95 min.)
In an African country where Christians are terrorized and their churches burned down, it is a decision of extraordinary bravery for Nigerians to declare themselves Jewish.
Washington DCJCC
Tue., Jan. 8, 6:15 p.m.

Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir
Directed by Laurent Bouzereau
(U.K., 2011, 90 min.)
Friend and colleague Andrew Braunsberg extracts an intimate, sympathetic and candid portrait of Roman Polanski’s life and work in this extraordinary series of conversations with the filmmaker.
Carnegie Institute for Science
Sun., Jan. 6, 3:45 p.m.
JCC of Greater Washington
Sun., Jan. 13, 5 p.m.

Zero Dark Thirty
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
(U.S., 2012, 157 min.)
“Zero Dark Thirty” chronicles the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy SEAL Team 6 in May 2011.
Various area theaters
Opens Fri., Jan. 11

Farsi

A Modest Reception
(Paziraie sadeh)
Directed by Mani Haghighi
(Iran, 2012, 100 min.)
A couple from Tehran distributes large bags of money to people living in an impoverished town and then documents the reactions of the shocked recipients with their cell phone, but what seems like an act of generosity is actually something much more perverse.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Jan. 25, 7 p.m.

French

 A Bottle in the Gaza Sea
Directed by Thierry Binistri
(France/Canada/Israel, 2010, 99 min.)
Frustrated by the hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, a 17-year-old Frenchwoman living in Jerusalem scrawls a letter, slips it into a bottle, and throws it into the sea. Weeks later, she receives an email from the mysterious young Palestinian that begins a turbulent but tender long-distance friendship.
JCC of Greater Washington
Sat., Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Jan. 12, 6:30 p.m.

The Day I Saw Your Heart
Directed by Jennifer Devoldere
(France, 2011, 98 min.)
While patriarch Eli expects a baby with his new young wife, he attempts to reconcile his tepid relationship with his adult daughter by reaching out to her ex-boyfriends.
La Maison Française
Thu., Jan. 10, 8:30 p.m.
JCC of Greater Washington
Sat., Jan. 12, 7:30 p.m.

Let My People Go!
Directed by Mikael Buch
(France, 2011, 88 min.)
A hilarious fusion of gay romantic comedy, Jewish family drama and French bedroom farce, this film follows the travails and daydreams of a French-Jewish mailman living in fairytale Finland with his gorgeous Nordic boyfriend.
La Maison Française
Thu., Jan. 10, 6:30 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Jan. 12, 8:45 p.m.

Paris-Manhattan
Directed by Sophie Lellouche
(France, 2012, 77 min.)
Idealistic pharmacist Alice is completely obsessed with Woody Allen, and her increasingly concerned Jewish parents hope to cure her fixation by setting her up with a handsome French gentleman — but he quickly realizes that he’s no match for the man of her dreams.
U.S. Naval Memorial
Thu., Jan. 3, 6:15 and 8:45 p.m.
AFI Silver Theatre
Wed., Jan. 9, 7 p.m.

Rust and Bone
(De rouille et d’os)
Directed by Jacques Audiard
(France/Belgium, 2012, 120 min.)
Put in charge of his young son, Ali leaves Belgium for France, where his bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

German

 Images of the World and the Inscription of War
(Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges)
Directed by Harun Farocki
(Germany, 1988, 75 min.)
The discarding of American surveillance images of the Auschwitz concentration camp because the site didn’t register as a useful military target is the starting point for this wide-ranging meditation on the use and misuse of photographic evidence.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Jan. 13, 2 p.m.

Lore
Directed by Cate Shortland
(Germany/Australia/U.K., 2012, 109 min.)
Left to fend for themselves after their Nazi parents are arrested by the Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey that exposes them to the reality of their parents’ actions.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Jan. 6, 9:10 p.m.

My Best Enemy
Directed by Wolfgang Murnberger
(Austria/Luxembourg, 2011, 100 min.)
Rudi, an SS Officer, and Victor, the son of Jewish gallery owners, have their lifelong friendship tested with the outbreak of World War II.
Embassy of Austria
Wed., Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Oma and Bella
Directed by Alexa Karolinski
(Germany/U.S., 2012, 76 min.)
Two friends who live together in Berlin, having survived the Holocaust, remember their childhoods through the food they cook together.
Goethe-Institut
Wed., Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Hebrew

Bridging Beit Shemesh
Various Directors
(Israel, 2012, 90 min.)
Two Israeli women, one secular and one Ultra-Orthodox, use filmmaking to open dialogue between members of communities that rarely interact and frequently clash.
JCC of Greater Washington
Thu., Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Jan. 13, 1 p.m.

From the Black You Make Color
Directed by Judy Maltz and Richie Sherman
(U.S./Israel, 2012, 77 min.)
Eight women on the margins of Israeli society are thrown together under one roof during the course of a school year at Tel Aviv’s oldest beauty academy.
Carnegie Institution for Science
Sun., Jan. 6, 1:45 p.m.
Atlas Performing Arts Center
Wed., Jan. 9, 6:30 p.m.

The Law in These Parts
Directed by Ra’anan Alexandrovicz
(Israel/U.S./Germany, 2012, 101 min.)
In the aftermath of the 1967 War, Israel faced a complex problem of how to properly administer the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Hebrew and Arabic).
Carnegie Institute for Science
Sun., Jan. 6, 11 a.m.

Off-White Lies
Directed by Maya Kenig
(Israel/Germany, 2011, 86 min.)
An introverted teenager from California is sent to live with her dad in Israel, but her arrival coincides with the outbreak of the second Lebanon war and her father, an infantile eccentric, is “in between apartments.”
U.S. Navy Memorial
Sat., Jan. 5, 6:30 p.m.
JCC of Greater Washington
Tue., Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.

Russian

My Dad Baryshnikov
Directed by Dmitry Povolotsky
(Russia, 2011, 88 min.)
In 1986 Moscow, Boris Fishkin is an awkward, ballet-obsessed teenager faced with an inconvenient truth: he is the worst dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, but after discovering a VHS tape of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Boris becomes convinced the famed dance icon is his father.
AFI Silver Theatre
Tue., Jan. 8, 7 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Sun., Jan. 13, 3:30 p.m.

Serbian

 When Day Breaks
Directed by Goran Paskaljević
(Serbia, 2012, 90 min.)
Recently retired Misha Brankov is entrusted with a battered box excavated from the site of a former Nazi death camp. Scanning the documents inside, Brankov makes a jarring discovery: His real name is not Brankov, but Weiss.
The Avalon Theatre
Tue., Jan. 8, 6:15 p.m.
Washington DCJCC
Sat., Jan. 12, 3 p.m.

Spanish

All In
Directed by Daniel Burman
(Argentina, 2012, 86 min.)
Following a difficult divorce, Uriel discovers he’s well suited to the bachelor lifestyle — that is, until he meets his past lover.
U.S. Naval Memorial
Sat., Jan. 5, 8:45 p.m.