Bulgarain

 Viktoria

Directed by Maya Vitkova

(Bulgaria, 2014, 155 min.)

In 1979 Bulgaria: Boryana dreams of fleeing her Communist country for freedom in the West, but an unintended pregnancy grounds her, even more so after the child’s birth causes a national sensation: she was born without a belly button.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Dec. 4, 4 p.m.,

Fri., Dec. 5, 12 p.m.,

Wed., Dec. 10 9 p.m.

Cantonese

 Flowers of Shanghai

(Hai shang hua)

Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien

(Taiwan/Japan, 1998, 130 min.)

In a Shanghai brothel circa 1890, an intimate gambling party is going on — a continuation of last night’s events and a preview of tomorrow’s. Fueled by opium on one side and economic need on the other, love blossoms and withers (Cantonese and Shanghainese).

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., Dec. 14, 2 p.m.

Croatian

Cowboys

(Kauboji)

Directed by Tomislav Mršić

(Croatia, 2013, 107 min.)

Offered an opportunity to re-start the neglected community theater in his hometown, a big-city director Saša reluctantly returns to the dull industrial town of his youth and is forced to cast a group of eight lovable oddballs.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Dec. 8, 5:30 p.m.,

Tue., Dec. 9, 5:15 p.m.

Czech

Nowhere in Moravia

(Díra u Hanusovic)

Directed by Miroslav Krobot

(Czech Republic, 2014, 102 min.)

A former German teacher has moved back in with her difficult mother and sister and now runs the village pub, contenting herself with a rotation of no-strings-attached suitors.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Dec. 14, 9:45 p.m.,

Mon., Dec. 15, 9:30 p.m.

Danish

The Hour of the Lynx

(I lossens time)

Directed by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen

(Denmark/Sweden, 2013, 100 min.)

In a high-security psychiatric ward for killing an elderly couple, a murderous youth claims his suicide attempt was God’s will, leading his psychiatrist to call for the help of a priest to understand his erratic behavior (Danish and Swedish).

AFI Silver Theatre

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

Sun., Dec. 14, 7 p.m.

Someone You Love

(En du elsker)

Directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen

(Denmark, 2014, 95 min.)

Aging rocker Thomas Jacob, distrustful of other people after “all the booze, divorces and drugs,” returns to Denmark after decades living in Los Angeles and comes face to face with his shortcomings as a man and father.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Dec. 12, 5:15 p.m.,

Wed., Dec. 17, 9:30 p.m.

English

’71

Directed by Yann Demange

(U.K., 2014, 99 min.)

Belfast, 1971: After a riot breaks out in a staunchly Republican stronghold, rife with both IRA and splinter group “paras,” a Derbyshire lad, already far from home, finds himself trapped behind the lines.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Dec. 4, 7:15 p.m.

Antarctica: A Year on Ice

Directed by Anthony Powell

(New Zealand, 2013, 91 min.)

Although only a few scientists and researchers brave the extreme conditions of Antarctica year-round, the continent hosts a close-knit international population of base workers, chefs, technicians and trades-people who keep everything running.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., Dec. 5

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

Directed by Ravi Kumar

(U.K./India, 2014, 96 min.)

Inspired by real events, the interwoven stories of people in India and U.S. reveal dilemmas of a lifetime in the months leading to the biggest industrial disaster in human history that claimed 10,000 innocent lives within a few hours (English and Hindi).

Angelika Pop-Up

Clouds of Sils Maria

Directed by Olivier Assayas

(France/Switzerland/Germany, 2014, 124 min.)

Olivier Assayas’s latest film is a brilliant exploration of identity, relationships and role-playing, as international movie star Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is offered to star in a stage revival of the film that made her famous 20 years earlier.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Dec. 7, 3 p.m.,

Mon., Dec. 8, 7 p.m.

Comedy Warrior

Directed by John Wager

(U.S., 2013, 74 min.)

Five severely injured American veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars explore their wartime experiences and confront their disabilities through the healing power of comedy.

Washington DCJCC

Tue., Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Effie Gray

Directed by Richard Laxton

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

Victorian England was shocked by the sensational divorce of art critic John Ruskin from his younger wife Effie Gray, which pitted non-consummation of the marriage against the vaguely described “circumstances in her person.”

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., Dec. 10, 7:15 p.m.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Directed by Ridley Scott

(U.K./U.S./Spain, 2014, 146 min.)

The defiant leader Moses rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 600,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.

Area theaters

Opens Fri., Dec. 12

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Directed by Peter Jackson

(New Zealand/U.S., 2014)

Bilbo and company are forced to be embraced in a war against an armed flock of combatants and the terrifying Smaug from acquiring a kingdom of treasure and obliterating all of Middle-Earth.

Area theaters

Opens Wed., Dec. 17

The Imitation Game

Directed by Morten Tyldum

(U.K./U.S., 2014, 114 min.)

English mathematician and logician, Alan Turing, helps crack the Enigma code during World War II.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.

Area theaters

Opens Fri., Dec. 12

The Interview

Directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen

(U.S., 2014, 112 min.)

Dave Skylark and his producer run the popular celebrity tabloid TV show and when they discover that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show, they land an interview with him in an attempt to legitimize themselves as journalists.

Area theaters

Opens Thu., Dec. 25

Mr. Turner

Directed by

(U.K., 2014, 149 min.)

English Romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) receives a big-screen biopic that, by delighting in the day-to-day details, illuminates the artist’s great passion, his rapturous vision of the world and his drive to realize it on canvas.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Dec. 7, 5:15 p.m.

Angelika Mosaic

Opens Thu., Dec. 25

Point and Shoot

Directed by Marshall Curry

(U.S., 2014, 83 min.)

An American sets out with his motorbike to find both adventure and his sense of manhood, leading him on an extraordinary journey he could not have imagined, including fighting in the Libyan Revolution.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Remote Area Medical

Directed by Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman

(U.S., 2013)

During the U.S. debate about healthcare reform, many people failed to put a human face on what it means to not have access to healthcare. This documentary fills that gap by focusing on a single three-day medical clinic held in the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.

West End Cinema

Opens Fri., Dec. 5

Rosewater

Directed by Jon Stewart

(U.S., 2014, 103 min.)

Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy.

Area theaters

Skylight

Directed by Stephen Daldry

(U.K., 2014)

On a bitterly cold London evening, a schoolteacher receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, a much older, charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Sun., Dec. 7, 11 a.m.

Unbroken

Directed by Angelina Jolie

(U.S., 2014)

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

Area theaters

Opens Thu., Dec. 25

Finnish

Concrete Night

(Betoniyö)

Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo

(Finland/Sweden/Denmark, 2013, 96 min.)

Veteran Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo follows a lost, angry teen on a dreamlike odyssey through bleak Helsinki streets in this stunning coming-of-age tale.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Dec. 11, 7:15 p.m.

Flemish

Waste Land

Directed by Pieter Van Hees

(Belgium, 2014, 97 min.)

When the body of a Congolese teen washes ashore, a hardboiled homicide detective is drawn into the immigrant underworld of Brussels and quickly finds himself a stranger in his own land (Flemish and French).

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., Dec. 16. 9:15 p.m.,

Wed., Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.

French

Diplomacy

(Diplomatie)

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff

(France/Germany, 2014, 84 min.)

As the Allies march toward Paris in the summer of 1944, Hitler gives orders that the French capital should not fall into enemy hands, or if it does, then “only as a field of rubble.” However, on Aug. 25, Swedish Consul General Raoul Nordling steals into German headquarters and starts a tension-filled game of cat and mouse as Nordling tries to persuade German Gen. Dietrich von Choltitzto abandon his plan.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Girlhood

(Bande de filles)

Directed by Céline Sciamma

(France, 2014, 112 min.)

Céline Sciamma’s vital coming-of-age tale follows shy 16-year-old Marieme as she navigates the ins and outs of joining an Afro-French all-girl gang in a rough Parisian suburb.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Dec. 4, 9:45 p.m.,

Sat., Dec. 6, 10 p.m.

If You Don’t, I Will

(Arrête ou je continue)

Directed by Sophie Fillières

(France, 2014, 102 min.)

Empty nesters Pomme and Pierre are comfortably settling into the routine of middle age, the magic long ago having faded from their relationship. But on one of their regular weekend hikes, Pomme decides she needs a break and remains in the wild to fend for herself.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Dec. 14, 1:30 p.m.,

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