Arabic

Asfouri

Directed by Fouad Alaywan
(Lebanon, 2012, 98 min.)

Spanning two decades, “Asfouri” traces the stories of the religiously diverse inhabitants of a building in the Sanayeh district of Beirut, which has survived Lebanon’s Civil War, guerilla groups, militias, displaced civilians and invaders (Arabic, Armenian and French).

AMC Mazza Gallerie
Fri., Nov. 1, 6:30 p.m.,
Sat., Nov. 2, 1 p.m.

Chaos, Disorder
(Harag W’Marag)

Directed by Nadine Khan
(Egypt, 2012, 77 min.)

In a dusty, poor but lively village, Manal, a local shopkeeper’s beautiful daughter, is in a tense relationship with Zaki, but rebel Mounir schemes to win Manal’s affections from Zaki and cunningly pursues her, further fracturing the couple’s already delicate relationship.

AMC Mazza Gallerie
Fri., Nov. 1, 9 p.m.,
Sat., Nov. 2, 3:45 p.m.

A Common Enemy

Directed by Jaime Otero Romani
(Tunisia/Spain, 2013, 78 min.)

This thrilling political documentary is based on the first-ever free elections in Tunisia after the Arab Spring, as told through the eyes of the protagonists of the Jasmine Revolution (Arabic and French).

AMC Mazza Gallerie
Sat., Nov. 2, 9 p.m.

Jews of Egypt

Directed by Amir Ramses
(Egypt, 2012, 96 min.)

This documentary brilliantly blends interviews and archival footage to recall times of tolerance and inclusiveness when the identity of Egyptian Jews was unquestioned by their Arab compatriots and they were viewed as partners in nation building (Arabic and French).

AMC Mazza Gallerie
Sun., Nov. 3, 12 p.m.

Tanjaoui

Directed by Moumen Smihi
(Morocco, 2013, 99 min.)

In the 1960s during the early years of Moroccan independence, the son of a Muslim theologian family in cosmopolitan Tangiers debates God’s existence with his devout father, literature with a beautiful teacher from Paris, and national politics with his friends (Arabic and French).

AMC Mazza Gallerie
Sat., Nov. 2, 6:15 p.m.,
Sun., Nov. 3, 4:30 p.m.

Zabana!

Directed by Said Ould-Khelifa
(Algeria, 2012, 107 min.)

This biopic on Ahmad Zabana sheds insight into the life of an Algerian activist and icon while also examining the French justice system in the 1950s (Arabic, Amazigh and French).

AMC Mazza Gallerie
Sun., Nov. 3, 7:15 p.m.

Bahasa Indonesian

Opera Jawa

Directed by Garin Nugroho
(Indonesia/Austria, 2006, 120 min.)

Commissioned by Peter Sellars for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, this sweeping tale updates the “Ramayana” epic, as two former dancers live in modern Java scraping out a living in pottery while fending off the street gangs who fill in for the traditional evil king Rahwana. 

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

Danish

Freddy Frogface
(Orla Frøsnapper)

Directed by Peter Dodd
(Denmark, 2011, 81 min.)

Victor and his best friend Jacob can’t wait to hang out with Sausage the dog and Jacob’s cool cousin Clara over the summer, but being small doesn’t make life easy for 10-year-old Victor and his friends, who not only have to face a world full of stern grown-ups, but also the town bully Freddy Frogface.

La Maison Française
Sun., Nov. 10, 12 p.m.

English

12 Years a Slave

Directed by Steve McQueen
(U.S./U.K., 2013, 133 min.)

Based on an incredible true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom in pre-Civil War United States, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

— And Now the Screaming Starts

Directed by Roy Ward Baker
(U.K., 1973, 91 min.)

Charles brings new bride Catherine home to his ancestral family mansion, once the site of an unspeakable debauchery, where, on her wedding night, she is raped by a spectral presence and left in a state of hysteria.

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 23 to 25

The Asphyx

Directed by Peter Newbrook
(U.K., 1973, 83 min.)

A Victorian scientist and amateur photographer Shas a morbid fascination with death, taking photos of the deceased at the exact moment they pass on.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 16, 11 a.m.,
Wed., Nov. 20, 9:15 p.m.

Berberian Sound Studio

Directed by Peter Strickland
(U.K., 2012, 92 min.)

Peter Strickland’s inspired homage to 1970s-era Italian horror filmmaking finds a shy, retiring English soundman taking a job at the gloomy Berberian Sound Studio in Italy to work on the sound editing a depraved giallo about Satanic doings at a girls’ school.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 23, 9:45 p.m.,
Tue., Nov. 26, 9:20 p.m.

The Book Thief

Directed by Brian Percival
(U.S./Germany, 2013, 135 min.)

While subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, a young girl finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 15

The Counselor

Directed by Ridley Scott
(U.S./U.K., 2013, 117 min.)

A lawyer finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking.

Angelika Mosaic

The Creeping Flesh

Directed by Freddie Francis
(U.K., 1973, 94 min.)

A scientist’s discovery of an ancient skeleton may just be the incarnation of evil that can provide an antidote to man’s worst instincts, but the warden of the local madhouse has other ideas.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Nov. 17, 11 a.m.,
Thu., Nov. 21, 9:30 p.m.

Dallas Buyers Club

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
(U.S., 2013, 117 min.)

A Texas cowboy, whose free-wheeling life was overturned in 1985 when he was diagnosed as HIV+ and given 30 days to live, is shunned by many of his old friends and bereft of government-approved effective medicines, so he decides to take matters in his own hands, tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means legal and illegal.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 8

Diana

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
(U.K./France/Sweden/Belgium, 2013, 113 min.)

“Diana” takes audiences into the private realm of one of the world’s most iconic and inescapably public women — the Princess of Wales, Diana (Naomi Watts) — in the last two years of her meteoric life, as she embarks on a secret love affair with a Pakistani heart surgeon.

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

The Fifth Estate

Directed by Bill Condon
(U.S./Belgium, 2013, 128 min.)

This dramatic thriller based on WikiLeaks reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Flesh for Frankenstein

Directed by Paul Morrissey
(Italy/France, 1973, 95 min.)

The one and only Udo Kier plays the role of Baron Frankenstein — now married (to his sister!) with children (little creeps) — who spends way too much time in his lab.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 2, 11:30 p.m.,
Sun., Nov. 3, 9:20 p.m.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Directed by Francis Lawrence
(U.S., 2013, 146 min.)

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Fri., Nov. 22

How I Live Now

Directed by Kevin Macdonald
(U.K., 2013, 101 min.)

An American girl on holiday in the English countryside with her family finds herself in hiding and fighting for her survival as the third world war breaks out.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 8 

Mother of George

Directed by Andrew Dosumnu
(U.S., 2013, 106 min.) 

Adenike and Ayodele, a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn, are having trouble conceiving a child — a problem that defies cultural expectations and leads Adenike to make a shocking decision that could either save or destroy her family (English and Yoruba).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Philomena

Directed by Stephen Frears
(U.K./U.S./France, 2013, 98 min.)

A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman’s search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Wed., Nov. 27

Snowflake, the White Gorilla
(Floquet de Neu)

Directed by Andrés G. Schaer
(Spain, 2011, 86 min.)

Snowflake, the only white gorilla in the world, arrives at the Barcelona Zoo but is shunned by the other gorillas. So he goes off in search of the famous Witch of the North, hopeful that she can give him a potion to turn him into an ordinary black gorilla.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 9, 11 a.m. 

Theatre of Blood

Directed by Douglas Hickox
(U.K., 1973, 104 min.)

Savaged by theater critics throughout his career, a Shakespearean ham actor fakes his suicide to return as a vengeful ghost, doing in his critics one by one with murder methods quoted from the Bard’s plays.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 16, 9:15 p.m.,
Wed., Nov. 20, 6:30 p.m. (Montgomery College show) 

The Vault of Horror

Directed by Roy Ward Baker
(U.K./U.S., 1973, 83 min.)

In a London office building, five men hop on an elevator, only to be let out in the basement and trapped in a mysterious room., where each man shares his horrifying recurring nightmares. 

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Nov. 3, 5 p.m.,
Thu., Nov. 7, 7:15 p.m.

The Wicker Man

Directed by Robin Hardy
(U.K., 1973, 88 min.)

A remote Scottish isle inhabited by neo-pagans practicing fertility rites and sexual magic provides the setting for one of the coolest, creepiest cult classics from the 1970s. 

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 22 to 24

Farsi

Five: Dedicated to Ozu

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
(Iran, 2003, 74 min.)

Abandoning the traditional narrative forms of Abbas Kiarostami’s previous films, “Five” presents five seemingly static landscape shots, each a subtle mini-narrative (preceded by “Roads of Kiarostami”).

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 10, 2:45 p.m. 

Roads of Kiarostami

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
(Iran, 2006, 32 min.)

“Roads of Kiarostami” combines Abbas Kiarostami’s own landscape photographs, a journey through the winter countryside, and a narration that considers the role of nature in Persian poetry, Japanese haiku and Kiarostami’s work (followed by “Five: Dedicated to Ozu”).

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 10, 2 p.m.

Flemish

The Broken Circle Breakdown

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen
(Belgium/Netherlands, 2012, 110 min.)

Elise and Didier fall in love at first sight. They bond over their shared enthusiasm for American music and dive headfirst into a sweeping romance — but when an unexpected tragedy hits their new family, everything they know and love is tested (Flemish and English).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., Nov. 15

French

The Day of the Crows
(Le jour des corneilles)

Directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint
(Belgium/France, 2012, 90 min.)

In a cabin deep in the forest, a child and his father lead a wild and hard life in total isolation. The ghosts haunting the forest are the boy’s only companions, until he meets a young girl from a neighboring village and discovers that love exists.

National Geographic
Sat., Nov. 9, 10 a.m.

Ernest & Celestine
(Ernest et Célestine)

Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner
(Luxembourg/France, 2012, 80 min.)

Célestine is a tiny orphan mouse living beneath the streets of France. Big Ernest the bear, looking for something to eat, finds Célestine and almost swallows her — but she convinces him they could make a good team.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Nov. 3, 11 a.m.

Tales of the Night
(Les contes de la nuit)

Directed by Michel Ocelot
(France, 2011, 84 min.)

“Tales of the Night” uses a shadow puppet style, with black silhouetted characters set off against exquisitely detailed backgrounds, to weave together six exotic fables unfolding in Tibet, medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains and even the Land of the Dead.

National Gallery of Art
Sat., Nov. 2, 10:30 a.m.,
Sun., Nov. 3, 11:30 p.m.

German

A Horse on the Balcony
(Das Pferd auf dem Balkon)

Directed by Hüseyin Tabak
(Austria, 2012, 90 min.)

When 10-year-old Mika discovers a horse on his neighbor’s balcony, he’s suddenly embroiled in an adventure involving an Indian princess, a hapless gambler, and — of course — a horse.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Nov. 10, 11 a.m.,
Wed., Nov. 13, 10 a.m.

Windstorm
(Ostwind – Zusammen sind wir frei)

Directed by Katja von Garnier
(Germany, 2013, 105 min.)

The fierce stallion Windstorm is too wild to be anyone’s friend. But Mika, a lonely and unhappy girl, may just discover her true passion and talent: She’s a horse whisperer.

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Nov. 8, 5:15 p.m.
Goethe-Institut
Sat., Nov. 9, 2 p.m. 

Italian

Accattone

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy, 1961, 120 min.)

A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 10, 4:30 p.m.

Arabian Nights
(Il fiore delle mille e una notte)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France, 1974, 130 min.)

In his version of the Middle and Near Eastern tales called “The Arabian Nights,” Pier Paolo Pasolini revels in the joy of storytelling, elaborately intertwining a series of meandering episodes that lend the film a rich narrative complexity.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Nov. 17, 7 p.m.,
Mon., Nov. 18, 7 p.m.

The Canterbury Tales
(I racconti di Canterbury)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France, 1972, 140 min.)

This film recounts a series of amorous misadventures with a sharp emphasis placed more on sex than on love, lust or desire — climaxing with a wildly scatological vision of hell (Italian and English).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Nov. 10, 7 p.m.,
Mon., Nov. 11, 7 p.m.

Comizi d’amore

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy, 1964, 90 min.)

In the mid-1960s, Pier Paolo Pasolini conducted a survey of Italian attitudes toward sexual mores and mating rituals. As this film progresses, interesting variations emerge from region to region, and class to class, on such subjects as prostitution, virginity, marriage, homosexuality, gender equality and divorce.

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 24, 4;30 p.m.

The Decameron

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France/W. Germany, 1970, 111 min.)

For the first film in his “Trilogy of Life,” a series of classic literary adaptations, Pasolini chose eleven tales from Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century work, loosely weaving them together using the thread of his own vision.

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 17, 4:30 p.m.

The Gospel According to Matthew

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France, 1964, 137 min.)

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s naturalistic account of Christ’s life was both an artistic tour de force and a predictable choice for the left-leaning filmmaker — his Jesus seems more social revolutionary than religious leader.

National Gallery of Art
Fri., Nov. 29, 2 p.m.

The Hawks and the Sparrows
(Uccellacci e uccellini)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy, 1966, 91 min.)

Alternately caustic and gently comic, this melancholy film offers a parable of Italy’s massive economic post-war boom, tracing the odyssey of a father and son through a landscape of degradation and exploitation as they follow a talking crow that delivers a Marxist critique of the situation.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 16, 11 a.m.,
Sun., Nov. 17, 11 a.m.

Mamma Roma

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy, 1962, 110 min.)

Mamma Roma, a hooker on the fringes of Rome who tries to rise above her tormented past into lower middle class respectability for the sake of her son, is played by the larger-than-life actress Anna Magnani at her operatic best.

National Gallery of Art
Sat., Nov. 30, 4 p.m.

Medea

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France/W. Germany, 1969, 110 min.)

“Medea,” shot in Turkey, is based on Euripides’s text and features Maria Callas in the title role.

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 3, 4:30 p.m.

Pigsty
(Porcile)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France, 1969, 99 min.)

In two parallel plots, the son of a wealthy businessman’s lack of interest in his fiancée betrays an unorthodox sexual predilection, while in an unspecified prehistoric past, a brutish barbarian scrounges for food in an archaic landscape ravaged by primitive warfare.

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m.,
Wed., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
(Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma)

Directed by Paolo Pasolini
(Italy/France, 1975, 116 min.)

Set in northern Italy during the last days of Mussolini’s reign, the film liberally adapts de Sade’s “120 Days of Sodom,” using the tale of amoral libertines who kidnap young victims for a sacrificial orgy to launch a ruthless attack on modernity as a whole (Italian, French and German; recommended for mature audiences).

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Nov. 25, 7 p.m.,
Tue., Nov. 26, 7 p.m.

Torso
(I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale)

Directed by Sergio Martino
(Italy, 1973, 92 min.)

After the murder of three undergrads rocks their campus, best friends Jane and Danni leave for the countryside and a visit to the villa of Jane’s art history professor. But the ski-masked killer, realizing that Jane was a witness to his crime, follows the girls there.

AFI Silver Theatre
Nov. 1 to 6

Mandarin

The Terrorizers
(Kong bu fen zi)

Directed by Edward Yang
(Taiwan, 1986, 109 min.)

This intellectual thriller about the chaos of urban life and the vagaries of fate intertwines three seemingly disparate storylines that involve six central characters, as a random prank phone call from a bored juvenile delinquent known as the “White Chick” sets the chain-reaction plot in motion.

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

GF*BF

Directed by Yang Ya-Che
(Taiwan, 2012, 105 min.)

A woman is caught up in a love triangle that mirrors Taiwan’s political changes over the last three decades.

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

No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti
(Cannot Live Without You)

Directed by Leon Dai
(Taiwan, 2009, 85 min.)

Prolific actor Leon Dai’s second film as a director begins with the shocking image of a man threatening to jump from a highway overpass with his daughter in his arms. Inspired by actual events, the film moves back in time to show the increasingly desperate attempts of the man — a poor, migrant dockworker — to establish guardianship of his own child in the face of an uncaring bureaucracy (Mandarin and Hakka).

Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Nov. 22, 7 p.m.

Vive L’Amour

Directed by Tsai Ming-liang
(Taiwan, 1994, 118 min.)

Unbeknownst to one another, a harried real estate broker, her street-vendor lover  and an eccentric loner all use a vacant luxury apartment for their own secret purposes — until chance brings them together.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Nov. 17, 2 p.m.

Polish

At Full Gallop
(Cwal)

Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi
(Poland, 1996, 104 min.)

In 1950s Communist Poland, Hubert and his mother endure harassment by the state because Hubert’s father defected to Britain, so Hubert’s mother sends him to Warsaw, where he lives with his strong-willed, eccentric aunt (Polish, English, Russian and Italian).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Nov. 2, 2 p.m. 

Yiddish

The Pin

Directed by Naomi Jaye
(Canada, 2014, 83 min.)

Two young people experience love and loss while in hiding during World War II.

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