Films - September 2014 | Washington Diplomat

September 2014

Films – September 2014

By Cari

August 28, 2014

**Languages**
Bahasa Indonesia French Italian Mandarin Tagalog		Burmese German Japanese Russian Thai		English Hebrew Korean Silent Tibetan	Finnish Hindi Malay Spanish Vietnamese

Bahasa Indonesia

The Jungle School
(Sokola Rimba)
Directed by Riri Riza
(Indonesia, 2013, 92 min.)
This drama follows Butet Manurung, Time magazine’s 2004 “Hero of Asia,” as she evolves from an anthropologist into an educator and, finally, an activist. While working with indigenous people in Indonesia, Butet collapses from malaria. A tribal boy named Bungo comes to her aid, motivating her to teach the children in his remote clan, but her good intentions do not get the blessing of Bungo’s clan members (part of the ASEAN Film Festival; followed by a discussion with Gouri Mirpuri, wife of the Singaporean ambassador and co-writer of the book, and Ro King).
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 7, 1 p.m.

Burmese

Kayan Beauties
Directed by Aung Ko Latt
(Myanmar, 2012, 105 min.)
Three Kayan women and a young girl travel from their remote village in Myanmar to sell handicrafts in the distant city of Taunggyi, but when the girl is kidnapped by human traffickers, the women embark on a desperate search far from home and out of their element (in Burmese and Kayan; part of the ASEAN Film Festival).
Center for Strategic and International Studies
University of the District of Columbia
Sat., Sept. 6, 1 p.m.

English

The Blue Max

Directed by John Guillermin

(U.K., 1966, 156 min.)

A lowly German infantryman moves up the ranks to lieutenant and becomes a decorated fighter pilot, but his crude ambition rankles the sensibilities of the various “vons” in the privileged officer class.

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., Sept. 2, 3:20 p.m.,

Thu., Sept. 4, 4 p.m.

Doctor Zhivago

Directed by David Lean

(U.K., 1965, 212 min.)

David Lean’s Oscar-winning adaptation of the Boris Pasternak classic recounts the time before, during and after the Russian Revolution, as experienced by soulful doctor/poet Omar Sharif and recounted later by his half-brother, Soviet army officer Alec Guinness.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sept. 1 to 4

Frank

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson

(U.K./Ireland, 95 min.)

Acclaimed Irish director Lenny Abrahamson creates a wildly quirky comedy about a naïve young wannabe musician who finds himself out of his depth when he joins an avant-garde rock band led by the mysterious Frank.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

God Help the Girl

Directed by Stuart Murdoch

(U.K., 2014, 111 min.)

In Glasgow, Scotland, a young girl starts writing songs as a way of coping with her problems, eventually moving to the city where she meets two other aspiring musicians.

AFI Silver Theatre

Opens Fri., Sept. 12

The Green Prince

Directed by Nadav Schirman

(Germany/U.S./U.K./Israel, 2014, 95 min.)

The son of a founding leader in the Palestinian organization Hamas becomes a spy for the Israelis (English and Hebrew).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., Sept. 19

The Kill Team

Directed by Dan Krauss

(U.S., 2013, 79 min.)

Private Adam Winfield was a 21-year-old soldier in Afghanistan when he attempted with the help of his father to alert the military to heinous war crimes his platoon was committing, but his pleas went unheeded and he was himself drawn into the moral abyss, forced to make a split-second decision that would change his life forever.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Last Days in Vietnam

Directed by Rory Kennedy

(U.S., 2014, 97 min.)

This documentary examines the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, when the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon as panicked South Vietnamese desperately tried to escape while American officials had to figure out whether to help.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., Sept. 12

The Missing Picture

Directed by Rithy Panh

(Cambodia, 2013, 92 min.)

Director Rithy Panh recounts the firsthand experience of his family and friends’ suffering at the hands of Pol Pot’s communist regime. Because most of the existing recorded artifacts of that time are propaganda footage, Panh utilizes beautifully sculpted clay figurines and elaborately detailed dioramas to recreate the missing images from his memory (part of the ASEAN Film Festival).

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., Sept. 7, 4 p.m.

Our Man in Havana

Directed by Carol Reed

(U.K., 1959, 111 min.)

A Havana vacuum cleaner salesman is surprised to find himself recruited by a Caribbean spymaster for service in MI6. He’s happy for the extra income, but when nothing much happens, he spices up his reports to please his superiors.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sept. 5 to 11

A Passage to India

Directed by David Lean

(U.K./U.S., 1984, 164 min.)

In 1920s colonial India, headstrong Brit Judy Davis befriends a local doctor, but a mysterious event while touring the mystical Marabar caves leads to accusations of rape.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sept. 7 to 10

Paths of Glory

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

(U.S., 1958, 87 min.)

In the third year of World War I, the erudite but morally bankrupt French general Broulard orders his troops on a suicide mission to seize the heavily fortified “Ant Hill” from the Germans.

Goethe-Institut

Mon., Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m.

Regeneration aka Behind the Lines

Directed by Gillies MacKinnon

(U.K./Canada, 1997, 114 min.)

This screen adaptation of Pat Barker’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel chronicles the long road to recovery for Great War vets traumatized by their time at the front and the horrors of war.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sept. 12 to 17

Ryan’s Daughter

Directed by David Lean

(U.K., 1970, 195 min.)

A British-occupied village in 1916 Ireland is scandalized when word gets out that the much-younger wife of a staid schoolteacher is carrying on an affair with a British officer.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Sept. 1, 12:30 p.m.

The Swan

Directed by Charles Vidor

(U.S., 1956, 104 min.)

A Mittel-European princess (Grace Kelly, in her Hollywood swansong, before marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco) is torn between marrying the Crown Prince Alexander (Alec Guinness), as her family desperately desires, and her love for a dashing tutor.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sept. 7 to 10

The Trip to Italy

Directed by Michael Winterbottom

(U.K., 2014, 108 min.)

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon team up again, this time for another comedic, improved road trip through Italy.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Westfront 1918

Directed by G.W. Pabst

(Germany, 1930, 93 min.)

Four German soldiers spend the last months of World War I fighting on the French front in the first talkie by Austrian filmmaker G. W. Pabst.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Sept. 6, 11 a.m.,

Sun., Sept. 7, 11 a.m.

Yentl

Directed by Barbara Streisand

(U.S., 1983, 134 min.)

In her directorial debut, Barbra Streisand stars as Yentl, a young woman who wants nothing more than to study religious scripture but is denied that possibility because she is a woman. So she moves, passes herself off as a male named Anshel, and then begins her studies.

Washington DCJCC

Tue., Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m.

The Zero Theorem

Directed by Terry Gilliam

(U.K./Romania/France/U.S., 2013, 107 min.)

A computer hacker whose goal is to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; namely, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.

AFI Silver Theatre

Opens Fri., Sept. 19

Finnish

Helsinki, Forever

Directed by Peter von Bagh

(Finland, 2008, 74 min.)

An exquisite collage portrait of Finland’s capital as captured by the country’s leading feature and documentary makers over a period of one hundred years, “Helsinki, Forever” is also an essay on Finnish culture in a broader sense.

National Gallery of Art

Sun., Sept. 7, 4:30 p.m.

French

Bicycling with Molière

(Alceste à bicyclette)

Directed by Philippe Le Guay

(France, 2013, 104 min.)

In this warm, funny, literate comedy, two French actors portray two French actors, friends who are at odds with one another in every possible way, except their love of Molière’s “The Misanthrope.”

The Avalon Theatre

Wed., Sept. 17, 8 p.m.

Jealousy

(La Jalousie)

Directed by Philippe Garrel

(France, 2013, 77 min.)

Shot in lustrous, widescreen black and white, the film opens with a man leaving his wife and daughter and, in a series of brief conversations, observed gestures, chance encounters and impulsive acts, tells the story of the relationships that flounder and thrive in the wake of this decision.

The Avalon Theatre

Joyeux Noël

Directed by Christian Carion

(France/Germany/U.K./Belgium/Romania/Norway, 2005, 116 min.)

German, French and British soldiers set aside their arms to celebrate a day of peace and brotherhood (in French and German).

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Sept. 14, 11:10 a.m.,

Tue., Sept. 16, 7 p.m.

Love Like Poison

(Un poison violent)

Directed by Katell Quillévéré

(France, 2010, 92 min.)

Anna, a 14 year-old girl, returns home for the holidays from her Catholic boarding school to find that her father has left. Emotionally devastated, her mother seeks the help of a local priest, while Anna grows close to a free-spirited boy who cares little about God (French, Italian and English).

Embassy of France

Tue., Sept. 9, 7 p.m.

A Very Long Engagement

(Un long dimanche de fiançailles)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

(U.S./France, 2004, 133 min.)

After her soldier fiancé goes missing in action under mysterious circumstances during the Battle of the Somme, determined Audrey Tautou undertakes a daring search for him herself.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Sept. 13, 1:30 p.m.

German

Comradeship

(Kameradshaft)

Directed by G.W. Pabst

(Germany/France, 1931, 93 min.)

Even though the Great War is over, tensions run high in the towns along the French-German border, but after a mining disaster on the French side traps some 600 French miners below ground, German miners volunteer to aid the French effort to rescue the men.

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., Sept. 3, 5 and 9 p.m.

Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision

(Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehnsucht)

Directed by Edgar Reitz

(Germany, 2013, 230 min.)

In the mid-19th century, hundreds of thousands of Europeans immigrated to faraway South America in a desperate bid to escape the famine, poverty and despotism that ruled at home. This drama and love story is set against the true backdrop of this forgotten tragedy and centers around two brothers who realize that only their dreams can save them.

Goethe-Institut

Wed., Sept. 10, 6 p.m.

Nosferatu

(Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens)

Directed by F.W. Murnau

(Germany, 1922, 81 min.)

This silent classic is based on the story “Dracula,” in which Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new real estate agent’s wife.

Goethe-Institut

Mon., Sept. 29, 6:30 p.m.

Run, Boy, Run

(Lauf Junge lauf)

Directed by Pepe Danquart

(France/Germany, 2013, 107 min.)

After escaping the Warsaw ghetto at the behest of his father, a 9-year old Polish boy seeks the kindness of others in his solitary struggle to outlast the Nazi occupation and keep alive his Jewish faith.

Washington DCJCC

Tue., Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m.

Hebrew

Life According to Agfa

Directed by Assi Dayan

(Israel, 1992, 100 min.)

After a group of chauvinist soldiers are kicked out of a Tel Aviv pub with a multicultural clientele, the unintended consequences are greater than anyone could have imagined.

Washington DCJCC

Sun., Sept. 14, 11 a.m.

Hindi

Siddharth

Directed by Richie Mehta

(Canada/India, 2014, 97 min.)

Mehendra is a chain-wallah, eking out a living fixing zippers on the bustling streets of New Delhi, who slowly begins to suspect that his 12-year-old son was kidnapped by child traffickers. With few resources and no connections, Mehendra desperately travels to Punjab and Mumbai with the hope that whoever took his son might return him unharmed.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Italian

Journey to Italy

(Viaggio in Italia)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini

(Italy/France, 1954, 97 min.)

Traveling through southern Italy, a mismatched English couple is at odds not only with each other, but also with the setting. But ultimately the landscape, their isolation, and the aura of their surroundings bring them to a near transcendent moment in their lives.

American University Malsi Doyle and Michael Forman Theater

Fri., Sept. 26, 7 p.m.

Lisa and the Devil

(Lisa e il diavolo)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy/W. Germany/Spain, 1972, 95 min.)

Vacationing in the ancient walled city of Toledo, Spain, the lovely Lisa Reiner is spooked that the man shopping alongside her for antiques bears an uncanny resemblance to the devil depicted in an old fresco she viewed that day.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Sept. 11, 7:20 p.m.

Planet of the Vampires

(Terrore nello spazio)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Spain/Italy, 1965, 86 min.)

On a deep space mission from Earth, two spaceships respond to a distress signal coming from an unexplored planet, but most of the crew become possessed by a mysterious force, first causing them to slaughter one another, then reanimating their corpses.

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., Sept. 2, 9:30 p.m.

Rabid Dogs

(Cani arrabbiati)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy, 1974, 96 min.)

At a red-light street crossing, fleeing bank robbers carjack an innocent woman and force her to drive them to Rome.

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., Sept. 9, 7:20 p.m.

Shock aka Beyond the Door II

(Schock)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy, 1977, 93 min.)

Dora is a recently released mental patient who moves into her old home with her new husband, but when he goes out of town, her son seems to be possessed by the ghost of her ex-husband, a heroin addict who committed suicide.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Sept. 12, 9:30 p.m.,

Wed., Sept. 17, 7 p.m.

Il Sorpasso

Directed by Dino Risi

(Italy, 1962, 105 min.)

Wonderfully mismatched costars Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant embark on a wildly reckless ride from Rome to rural southern Italy in this elegy on the unfettered energies of the early 1960s.

American University Malsi Doyle and Michael Forman Theater

Sun., Sept. 28, 4:30 p.m.

Japanese

A Letter to Momo

(Momo e no tegami)

Directed by Hiroyuki Okiura

(Japan, 2011, 120 min.)

Clinging to an unfinished letter written by her recently deceased father, young Momo moves with her mother from bustling Tokyo to the remote Japanese island, where she soon discovers three goblin spirits living in the attic, mischievous creatures that only she can see who, constantly hungry, create mayhem as she tries desperately to keep them hidden.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Korean

Kundo: Age of the Rampant

(Kundo: min-ran-eui si-dae)

Directed by Jong-bin Yoon

(South Korea, 2014, 137 min.)

A pack of bandits calling themselves Kundo rise against the tyrants, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor in the last days of the Joseon Dynasty.

Area theaters

Malay

Bunohan

Directed by Dain Iskandar Said

(Malaysia, 2011, 97 min.)

Adil, a young Muay Thai kick-boxer, has just fled an honor fight-to-the-death and must hide from an assassin — Adil’s stepbrother — who’s been hired by the organizer of the death match to kill the fugitive (part of the ASEAN Film Festival).

American University SIS Founder’s Room

Sat., Sept. 13, 3:30 p.m.

Mandarin

Ilo Ilo

Directed by Anthony Chen

(Singapore, 2013, 99 min.)

Set in Singapore, “Ilo Ilo” chronicles the relationship between a family of three and their newly arrived Filipino maid, Teresa, who has come like many other Filipino women in search of a better life (part of the ASEAN Film Festival).

American University SIS Founder’s Room

Sat., Sept. 13, 1 p.m.

Rock Me to the Moon

Directed by Huang Chia-Chun

(Taiwan, 2013, 115 min.)

Six middle-age fathers, all with children suffering from incurable rare diseases, find comfort in their music and undertake an impossible mission: to perform at the highly competitive Hohaiyan Rock Festival.

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., Sept. 5, 2 p.m.

Stray Dogs

Directed by Tsai Ming-liang

(Taiwan/France, 2013, 138 min.)

An alcoholic father and his two young children attempt to survive in modern-day Taipei, where they eat food left over from supermarkets and seek shelter in abandoned buildings — until one stormy night when they encounter a woman from the past.

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., Sept. 5, 7 p.m.

Russian

The Gift to Stalin

Directed by Rustem Abdrashev

(Kazakhstan/Russia, 2008, 95 min.)

Set against the sweeping beauty of the Kazakh steppes, “Gift” is the heartwarming tale of a young orphaned Jewish boy who is sent into exile during a Stalinist purge, but saved by a gruff older Muslim (in Russian, Kazakh and Hebrew; includes a presentation from Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov).

Washington DCJCC

Tue., Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Silent

All Quiet on the Western Front

Directed by Lewis Milestone

(U.S., 1930, 132 min.)

A group of young friends in Germany, full of youthful passion and unquestioning patriotism, enlists in the Prussian Army at the outbreak of the Great War, but are soon shaken to their core by the horrors of trench warfare in this seminal screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Sept. 6, 4 p.m.

Spanish

La Camioneta

Directed by Mark Kendall

(U.S./Guatemala, 2013, 71 min.)

Following the makeover of a decommissioned American school bus into one of the brightly colored camionetas that transport the majority of Guatemalans to work each day, “La Camioneta” deploys its transnational tale in a form that is both pointed and understated, while exploring a host of complex themes.

National Gallery of Art

Wed., Sept. 17, 1 p.m.,

Fri., Sept. 19, 1 p.m.

Tagalog

I Do Bidoo Bidoo: Heto nAPO Sila!

Directed by Chris Martinez

(The Philippines, 2012, 120 min.)

Two teenage sweethearts who are both nursing students in Manila learn that they’re going to become parents and decide to get married, but they quickly realize that their parents have other plans (part of the ASEAN Film Festival).

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Fri., Sept. 5, 5 p.m.