Films – May 2015

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Languages

Czech

French

Swiss-German

English

Italian

Estonian

Korean

Farsi

Swedish

Czech

 Fair Play

Directed by Andrea Sedláčková

(Czech Republic/Slovakia/Germany, 2014, 100 min.)

Set in 1983 Czechoslovakia, 18-year-old sprinter Anna dreams of making the Olympics in Los Angeles. In preparation, her coach gives her injections of stromba, which she learns from her boyfriend’s family is a dangerous drug that could lead to infertility. Anna rejects taking the injections, but her performance levels begin to decline (director in person).

The Avalon Theatre

Wed., May 13, 8 p.m.


English

5 to 7

Directed by Victor Levin

(U.S., 2015, 95 min.)

In this sweet and romantic love story, an aspiring novelist falls in love with Arielle, a beautiful older Frenchwoman he meets on a Manhattan street, not knowing that she is married. Their acquaintance blossoms into friendship and attraction, and free-spirited Arielle invites him to have an affair—at the traditional French hours of 5 to 7 (English and French).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

An Apartment in Berlin

(Ein Apartment in Berlin)

Directed by Alice Agneskirchner

(Germany, 2013, 84 min.)

More and more young Israelis are going to Berlin — an estimated 20,000 have moved to Germany’s capital. But Berlin was also the place from which the Nazis planned the systematic extermination of the Jews. Three generations after the Holocaust, does this fact matter to young Israelis?

Goethe-Institut

Tue., May 12, 6:30 p.m.

 

Berga: Soldiers of Another War

Directed by Charles Guggenheim

(U.S./Germany, 2003, 96 min.)

“Berga: Soldiers of Another War” reveals the untold story of 350 American prisoners of war caught in the tragedy of the Holocaust — the final work in the distinguished 50-year career of late documentary filmmaker Charles Guggenheim (part of the GI Film Festival).

Angelika Mosaic

Sun., May 24, 10:30 a.m.

 

Blood Fruit

Directed by Sinead O’Brien

(Ireland, 2014, 80 min.)

This documentary explains how a strike over the sale of South African fruit in Ireland became the focus of world attention as a key battleground in the fight against apartheid.

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., May 27, 7 p.m.

 

Cesar Chavez

Directed by Diego Luna

(Mexico/U.S., 2014, 102 min.)

This film follows legendary organizer César Chávez’s efforts to organize 50,000 farm workers in California, some of whom were braceros — temporary workers from Mexico permitted to live and work in the United States in agriculture, and required to return to Mexico if they stop working.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., May 4, 7 p.m.

 

Clouds of Sils Maria

Directed by Olivier Assayas

(France/Switzerland/Germany/U.S./Belgium, 2014, 124 min.)

A veteran actress comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career 20 years earlier (English, French, German and Swiss-German).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

Day One

Directed by Henry Hughes

(U.S., 2015, 25 min.)

Divorce is a life sentence for Feda, a thirty-year-old Afghan American woman pushed aside by her conservative community for being divorced with no kids. Taking control of her life, she uses her one marketable skill as a bilingual immigrant, returning to her birthplace as an interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan (English and Dari; part of the GI Festival).

Angelika Mosaic

Sun., May 24, 12:50 p.m.

 

Dior and I

Directed by Frédéric Tcheng

(France, 2015, 90 min.)

In 2012, legendary French fashion house Christian Dior Couture announced the appointment of designer Raf Simons as its head dreative director. “Dior and I” takes a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes makings of Simons’s debut haute couture collection and how it returned to the origins of the house of Dior (English, French, Italian and Flemish).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 1

 

Far from the Madding Crowd

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg

(U.K./U.S., 2015, 119 min.)

In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: a sheep farmer, a reckless Sergeant and a prosperous and mature bachelor.

Angelika Mosaic

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 1

 

Good Kill

Directed by Andrew Niccol

(U.S., 2015, 102 min.)

A Las Vegas-based fighter pilot turned drone pilot fights the Taliban by remote control for 12 hours a day, then goes home to the suburbs and feuds with his wife and kids for the other 12. But the pilot is starting to question the mission.

Theater TBA

Opens Fri., May 22

 

Kajaki. The True Story

Directed by Paul Katis

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

In September 2006, a three-man British patrol sets off from their outpost overlooking Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan to engage the Taliban. After one of them steps on a mine left from the Russian occupation some 25 years before, his colleagues rush to his aid only to find they are surrounded by mines and every move threatens serious injury or death (director in person; part of the GI Film Festival).

Angelika Mosaic

Fri., May 22, 7 p.m.

 

Noble

Directed by Stephen Bradley

(U.K./Vietnam, 2015, 101 min.)

This is the incredible true story of Christina Noble, an Irish children’s rights campaigner, charity worker and writer who, after experiencing a recurring dream, escaped the slums of Ireland and risked everything on the streets of Vietnam, eventually founding the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation in 1989.

Angelika Pop-Up

Opens Fri., May 8

 

Pride

Directed by Matthew Warchus

(U.K./France, 2014, 119 min.)

Inspired by an extraordinary true story: It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., May 1, 7 p.m.

 

Sunshine Superman

Directed by Marah Strauch

(Norway/U.S., 2015)

This heart-racing documentary examines the life of Carl Boenish, the father of the BASE jumping movement, whose early passion for skydiving led him to ever more spectacular, and dangerous, feats of foot-launched human flight.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 29

 

The Water Diviner

Directed by Russell Crowe

(Australia/Turkey/U.S., 2014, 111 min.)

An Australian man travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three missing sons. (English, Turkish, Greek and Russian).

Angelika Mosaic

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Estonian

Tangerines

Directed by Zaza Urushadze

(Estonia/Georgia, 2015, 87 min.)

Set in 1992, during the growing conflict between Georgia and Abkhazian separatists in the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, this compassionate tale focuses on two Estonian immigrant farmers who decide to remain in Georgia long enough to harvest their tangerine crop (Estonian, Russian and Georgian).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 1

 

Farsi

About Elly

(Darbareye Elly)

Directed by Asghar Farhadi

(Iran/France, 2015, 119 min.)

Beautiful Sepideh is a friendly young wife and mother with a tendency to stretch the truth to try to make things better. She arranges a weekend getaway with three couples to the seashore, where tragedy suddenly strikes with a mysterious disappearance. Recriminations ensue and relationships are strained (Farsi and German).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 8

 

French

After Winter, Spring

Directed by Judith Lit

(U.S./France, 2013, 75 min.)

Seen through the eyes of family farmers in southwest France, this internationally award-winning film is an intimate portrait of an ancestral way of life under threat in a world increasingly dominated by large-scale industrial agriculture (French and English).

Goethe-Institut

Mon., May 4, 8 p.m.

 

Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution

(Nos enfants nous accuseront)

Directed by Jean-Paul Jaud

(France, 2009, 112 min.)

“Food Beware” follows an experiment in a small village in the mountains of France, where — in opposition to powerful economic interests — the town’s mayor has decided to make the school lunch menu organic, with much of it grown locally.

Alliance Française

Fri., May 29, 7 p.m.

 

In the Name of My Daughter

(L’homme qu’on aimait trop)

Directed by André Téchiné

(France, 2015, 116 min.)

In 1976 Nice, Agnès Le Roux, daughter of the owner of the Palais de la Méditerranée, falls in love with Maurice, a beautiful lawyer 10 years her senior. After Maurice loses the casino, Agnès disappears and 30 years later, her mother is determined to see him put behind bars.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 22

 

Saint Laurent

Directed by Bertrand Bonello

(France/Belgium, 2014, 150 min.)

Yves Saint Laurent’s life from 1967 to 1976 is depicted, during which time the famed fashion designer was at the peak of his career (French and English).

Area theaters

Opens Fri., May 15

 

Two Days, One Night

Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

(Belgium/France/Italy, 2014, 95 min.)

In order to keep her job, a laid-off solar panel factory worker will need to plead her case and convince seven workers to forgo their annual bonuses by Monday.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., May 15, 7:30 p.m.

 

Italian

Black Souls

(Anime nere)

Directed by Francesco Munzi

(Italy/France, 2014, 103 min.)

This darkly elegant gangster drama centers on a former narcotics trafficker, now living peacefully as a shepherd, who is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous son.

Angelika Mosaic

Angelika Pop-Up

 

Korean

301, 302

Directed by Park Chul-soo

(South Korea, 1995, 100 min.)

The title refers to the apartment numbers of its two heroines. In 301 lives Song, an amateur chef fond of cooking elaborate meals for herself. Across the hall lives Yun, an anorexic writer. When Yun mysteriously disappears, a detective investigates, and a strange relationship between the two women comes to light.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., May 17, 2 p.m.

 

Cart

(Ka-teu)

Directed by Boo Ji-young

(South Korea, 2014, 104 min.)

When several women are unfairly laid off from a big box supermarket, they unionize and fight to get their jobs back — only to be met with everything from legal threats to armed thugs from their corporate opponents.

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., May 8, 7 p.m.

 

Confession

Directed by Lee Do-yun

(South Korea, 2014, 114 min.)

Lee Do-yun’s impressive, noir-inflected directorial debut is an action thriller about three childhood friends whose bonds are tested when they are asked to stage a robbery so one of their mothers can collect on an insurance policy.

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., May 26, 9:15 p.m.,

Thu., May 28, 9:30 p.m.

 

Man on High Heels

(Hai-hii)

Directed by Jang Jin

(South Korea, 2014, 125 min.)

Cha Seung-won plays a macho homicide detective so tough he can defeat a roomful of gangsters with his bare hands and emerge without a scratch. But he has one secret: He’s a woman trapped in a man’s body and is preparing to get a longed-for sex-change operation when a ruthless gang comes seeking revenge.

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., May 29, 7 p.m.

 

Miracle in Cell No. 7

Directed by Lee Hwan-kyung

(South Korea, 2013, 127 min.)

Mixing comedy, tragedy, family drama and hilarious physical gags, and starring several of Korea’s most talented character actors, this is the story of a mentally handicapped single father who is wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., May 18, 9:15 p.m.,

Wed., May 20, 9:15 p.m.

 

The Pirates

Directed by Lee Seok-hoon

(South Korea, 2014, 130 min.)

One of the biggest Korean box office hits of 2014, this swashbuckling tale is set in 1388, at the dawn of the Joseon Dynasty.

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., May 13, 9:30 p.m.

 

The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow

(Oo-lee-byeol il-ho-wa eol-lug-so

Directed by Chang Hyung-yun

(South Korea, 2014, 81 min.)

In this whimsical animated film, a satellite comes to earth in the shape of a girl who falls in love with a singer-songwriter boy, who in turn has been turned into a cow after his heart is broken.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., May 3, 2 p.m.

 

We Are Brothers

Directed by Jang Jin

(South Korea, 2014, 101 min.)

Two brothers, separated as children when one of them was adopted by an American family, are reunited on a tear-jerking talk show. When their dementia-suffering mother wanders off during filming, the brothers go on a wild goose chase across Korea.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sat., May 30, 2 p.m.

 

Swedish

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

(Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann)

Directed by Felix Herngren

(Sweden, 2013, 114 min.)

Based on the internationally bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson, a 100-year-old dynamite expert decides it’s not too late to start over and escapes the old folks’ home to embark on an unexpected journey.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 22

 

Eat Sleep Die

Directed by Gabriela Pichler

(Sweden, 2012, 104 min.)

A young Eastern European immigrant working in Sweden is faced with a painful choice when she’s laid off from her factory job in the name of “efficiencies” (Swedish, Serbo-Croatian and Serbian).

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., May 13, 7:20 p.m.

 

Swiss-German

Dark Star: HR Gigers Welt

Directed by Belinda Sallin

(Switzerland, 2015, 35 min.)

Throughout his life, HR Giger had inhabited the world of the uncanny, a dark universe on the brink of many an abyss. It was the only way this amiable, modest and humorous man was able to keep his fears in check.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., May 22