Home The Washington Diplomat October 2016 Films – October 2016

Films – October 2016

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Hebrew

Spanish

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English

Anthropoid

Directed by Sean Ellis

(Czech Republic/U.K./France, 2016, 120 min.)

This World War II thriller is based on the extraordinary true story of “Operation Anthropoid,” the code name for the Czechoslovakian operatives’ mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Cameraperson

Directed by Kirsten Johnson

(U.S., 2016, 102 min.)

A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage collected over the 25-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson.

Landmark’s Cinema

Opens Fri., Oct. 14

Command and Control

Directed by Robert Kenner

(U.S., 2016, 92 min.)

This high-stakes documentary thriller reveals the deadly “human error” that led to a little-known accident at the Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas in 1980.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Denial

Directed by Mick Jackson

(U.S./U.K., 2016, 119 min.)

The whole world knows the Holocaust happened. Now she needs to prove it. Based on the acclaimed book, “Denial” recounts Deborah E. Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against David Irving, who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier.

Angelika Mosaic

Landmark’s Cinema

The Dressmaker

Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse

(Australia, 2016, 119 min.)

A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.

Angelika Mosaic

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Eyes of My Mother

Directed by Nicolas Pesce

(U.S., 2016, 77 min.)

In their secluded farmhouse, a former surgeon teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl. Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a distinctly dark form (English and Portuguese).

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Oct. 8, 5:45 p.m.

Florence Foster Jenkins

Directed by Stephen Frears

(U.K., 2016, 110 min.)

Meryl Streep stars as Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who dreams of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Front Cover

Directed by

(U.S., 2016, 87 min.)

When a gay fashion stylist works with a renowned foreign actor, they both embark on a journey of self-discovery (English, Mandarin and Cantonese).

Angelika Pop-Up

Girl Asleep

Directed by Rosemary Myers

(Australia, 2016, 77 min.)

In this vibrant and funny Australian take on adolescent angst, Greta Driscoll’s bubble of obscure loserdom is burst when her parents throw her a surprise 15th birthday party and invite the whole school! Perfectly content being a wallflower, suddenly Greta is flung far from her comfort zone into a distant, parallel place.

Landmark’s Cinema

Opens Fri., Oct. 7

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Directed by Taika Waititi

(New Zealand, 2016, 93 min.)

Defiant city kid Ricky, raised on hip-hop and foster care, gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside, where he quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family. When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and his cantankerous Uncle Hec go on the run in the bush and a national manhunt ensues.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

London Road

Directed by Rufus Norris

(U.K., 2015, 91 min.)

London Road documents the events of 2006, when the quiet rural town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women. When a local resident was charged and then convicted of the murders, the community grappled with what it meant to be at the epicenter of this tragedy.

Angelika Pop-Up

Love & Friendship

Directed by Whit Stillman

(Ireland/Netherlands/France/U.S./U.K., 2016, 92 min.)

The charmingly flawed widow Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale) seeks a husband for her daughter and a match for herself, to shore up her status and gain financial stability before she exhausts the hospitality of an ever-shortening list of friends.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Oct. 9, 4 p.m.

The Lovers and the Despot

Directed by Ross Adam and Robert Cannan

(U.K., 2016, 98 min.)

Famed director/producer Shin Sang-ok and beautiful actress Choi Eun-hee fell in love and were married in 1950s post-war Korea, but, after many successes together, they divorced in the 1970s. Then Choi disappeared without a trace. She had been kidnapped by North Korean agents and taken to meet Kim Jong-il. While searching for Choi, Shin also was kidnapped, and following five years of imprisonment, the couple was reunited by the movie-obsessed Kim, who declared them his personal filmmakers and offered them unlimited funds (English, Korean and Japanese).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Mr. Pig

Directed by Diego Luna

(Mexico, 2016, 100 min.)

Down-and-out pig farmer Ambrose (Danny Glover) embarks on a road trip from California to Jalisco, Mexico, to sell his last prized hog. But when the trip falls apart and Ambrose’s health starts to decline, his estranged daughter Eunice (Maya Rudolph) comes to his rescue, and they set off to find the pig a proper home.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Oct. 1, 4:30 p.m.,

Sun., Oct. 2, 7:15 p.m.

Peelers

Directed by Sevé Schelenz

(Canada, 2016, 95 min.)

Former baseball player Blue Jean Douglas is closing down her small-town strip club and leaving for good. But on the club’s closing night, what starts out as a fun-filled last hurrah quickly turns into a bloodbath when a crew of coal miners arrive, bringing a deadly and contagious contaminant to the party.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Oct. 6, 7:15 p.m.

Queen of Katwe

Directed by Mira Nair

(South Africa/U.S., 2016, 124 min.)

“Queen of Katwe” is the colorful true story of a young girl selling corn on the streets of rural Uganda whose world rapidly changes when she is introduced to the game of chess. She quickly advances through the ranks in tournaments, but breaks away from her family to focus on her own life.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé: A Trip Across Latin America

Directed by Paul Dugdale

(U.K., 2016, 105 min.)

On their first tour through Latin America in a decade, the Rolling Stones take a rollicking trip through Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Colombia, culminating with their greatest challenge yet: preparing for a historic free concert in Havana, Cuba.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Oct. 1, 9 p.m.,

Wed., Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.

Sense and Sensibility

Directed by Ang Lee

(U.K./U.S., 1995, 136 min.)

Emma Thompson won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for this fine and faithful 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel, in which she and Kate Winslet star as the Dashwood sisters, financially strapped but rich in spirit.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Oct. 9, 1:15 p.m.

Snowden

Directed by Oliver Stone

(U.S./Germany/France, 2016, 134 min.)

NSA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.

Angelika Mosaic

Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

 

French

The Battle of Algiers

Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo

(Italy/Algeria, 1967, 123 min.)

Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, this legendary film vividly recreates the tumultuous three-year uprising against the occupying French military forces in the late 1950s, with a prescience as powerful today as ever. As violence escalates, the French employ extreme interrogation of prisoners and the Algerians resort to guerrilla terrorism in their quest for independence, with non-combatants caught between.

Landmark’s Cinema

Opens Fri., Oct. 7

Beyond the Walls

(Au Dela des Murs)

Directed by Hervé Hadmar

(France, 2016, 150 min.)

When a young speech therapist unexpectedly inherits her neighbor’s house, she begins to discover shifting hallways and rooms that fill her with terror. As she attempts to explore, she learns that her ever-changing house is also manipulating other occupants, interweaving space-time continuums.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Oct. 9, 5 p.m.

Long Way North

Directed by Rémi Chayé

(France/Denmark, 2016,

In 1882, a young Russian aristocrat goes on an epic adventure to find out what happened to her grandfather and save her family’s reputation (French and English).

Angelika Pop-Up

Opens Fri., Oct. 14

Neither Heaven nor Earth

(Ni le Ciel ni la Terre)

Directed by Clément Cogitore

(France/Belgium, 2015, 100 min.)

As the withdrawal of French troops approaches, Captain Antares Bonassieu and his squad have been assigned a surveillance mission in a remote valley of Wakhan, on the border of Pakistan. Despite the troops’ determination, control of the secluded valley slowly falls out of their hands. One dark night, soldiers begin to mysteriously disappear (French and Farsi).

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Oct. 7, 7:15 p.m.

Shoot the Piano Player

(Tirez sur le Pianiste)

Directed by François Truffaut

(France, 1960, 92 min.)

Adapting a novel by David Goodis, François Truffaut adds a parodic-comedic sensibility to the story of a heartbroken man, a concert pianist slumming as a barroom musician, who finds a new love and renewed purpose when he takes on gangsters who have threatened his brothers.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Oct. 24, 7 p.m.,

Wed., Oct. 26, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew

A Tale of Love and Darkness

Directed by Natalie Portman

(Israel, 2016, 95 min.)

Natalie Portman stars in and directs this drama based on the memoir of Amos Oz, a writer, journalist and advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unhappy in her marriage and intellectually stifled, she would make up stories of adventures (like treks across the desert) to cheer herself up and entertain her 10-year-old son. He became so enraptured when she read him poetry and explained about words and language, that it would become an influence on his writing for the rest of his life.

West End Cinema

 

Italian

Fishing Bodies

(Pescatori di Corpi)

Directed by Michele Pennetta

(Switzerland, 2016, 65 min.)

In a Sicilian port town, the crew of a clandestine fishing vessel crosses paths with Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who now lives illegally on the boat. Exploring indifference in the face of immigration, this film delicately uncovers the realities of lives lived in the shadows, simply and poignantly capturing the quotidian tragedies of those suspended between a past of poverty and oppression, and a future that is desperately uncertain (Italian and Arabic).

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Oct. 24, 7:15 p.m.

 

Japanese

A Ball at the Anjo House

Directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura

(Japan, 1947, 89 min.)

Setsuko Hara’s extraordinary performance is at the heart of this drama about a wealthy family devastated by Japan’s defeat in World War II. They hold one final glamorous ball before they have to give up their mansion and, with it, their way of life.

American History Museum

Sat., Oct. 22, 2 p.m.

Creepy

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

(Japan, 2016, 130 min.)

After a traumatic incident, a criminal psychologist and former police detective moves to a new neighborhood with his wife. Upon meeting their new neighbors, he is approached by the daughter, whose shocking whispered confession shatters the serenity of his new life: “That man in my house is not my father … He’s a total stranger.”

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Oct. 8, 2 p.m.

Daughters, Wives and a Mother

Directed by Mikio Naruse

(Japan, 1960, 123 min.)

With great performances by an A-list cast, this film stars Setsuko Hara as Sanae, a recent widow who has returned to the family home with a sizeable sum of insurance money. Her arrival triggers discord in a family already coming apart at the seams.

National Portrait Gallery

Sun., Oct. 23, 2 p.m.

The End of Summer

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

(Japan, 1061, 103 min.)

Setsuko Hara is as radiant as ever in her final collaboration with director Yasujiro Ozu. She plays the daughter of a sake company owner, who is trying to find suitable husbands for his two daughters. Meanwhile, the family business is in danger of going under, and the father restarts an affair with a former mistress, much to his children’s horror.

National Portrait Gallery

Sun., Oct. 16, 4:30 p.m.

Late Autumn

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

(Japan, 1960, 128 min.)

In the earlier film, Setsuko Hara played a daughter under pressure from her widowed father to get married. In “Late Autumn,” she plays the parent trying to marry off her daughter so she can wed one of her own suitors.

American History Museum

Sun., Oct. 9, 2 p.m.

Miss Hokusai

Directed by Keiichi Hara

(Japan, 2016, 93 min.)

Set in 1814, Miss Hokusai focuses on O-Ei, the daughter of famed artist Tetsuzo, as she tries to navigate the various aspects of her life. O-Ei spends the bulk of her time assisting her divorced father who cares about his art and not much else.

Landmark’s Cinema

Opens Fri., Oct. 28

No Regrets for Our Youth

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

(Japan, 1946, 110 min.)

Setsuko Hara worked just once with the legendary director Akira Kurosawa. Fittingly, the result is the only film in Kurosawa’s substantial body of work featuring a female protagonist. Hara gives a remarkable performance as Yukie, who, in the militarist years leading up to World War II, evolves from a bourgeois student to the wife of a dissident author to a committed social activist.

American History Museum

Sat., Oct. 8, 2 p.m.

Repast

Directed by Mikio Naruse

(Japan, 1951, 97 min.)

In this film by Mikio Naruse, Japan’s foremost cinematic portraitist of women buffeted by fate, Setsuko Hara gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as an Osaka housewife. Feeling trapped in her marriage to a stockbroker, she is galvanized by a surprise visit from her husband’s niece, who is on the run from her parents.

National Portrait Gallery

Sun., Oct. 16, 2 p.m.

Sadako vs. Kayako

Directed by Kôji Shiraishi

(Japan, 2016, 98 min.)

Director Kôji Shiraishi finally pits two of cinema’s most iconic demons against one another in a spectacular mash-up of the beloved “Ringu” and “Ju-On” franchises.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Oct. 6, 9:30 p.m.

 

Portuguese

Kill Me Please

(Mate-Me Por Favor)

Directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira

(Brazil/Argentina, 2015, 101 min.)

After a series of murders plagues a newly developed Rio de Janeiro suburb, 15-year-old Bia and her clique become increasingly obsessed with the gruesome killings. Bia’s first brushes with death only serve to awaken her burgeoning desires, as the world around her begins to decay.

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., Oct. 5, 9:30 p.m.

 

Spanish

The Exterminating Angel

(El Ángel Exterminador)

Directed by Luis Buñuel

(Mexico, 1962, 95 min.)

A high-society dinner party at a Mexico City mansion devolves into madness and depravity when the genteel guests discover that, quite mysteriously, they are unable to leave. As the guests’ polite chitchat gives way to paranoia, scandal-mongering and open warfare, Luis Buñuel introduces ever more surreal imagery to the dreamlike scenario.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m.,

Sun., Oct. 30, 3 p.m.

Ixcanul

Directed by Jayro Bustamante

(Guatemala/France, 2015, 93 min.)

The brilliant debut by Guatemalan writer/director Jayro Bustamante is a hypnotically beautiful fusion of fact and fable, depicting a tradition-bound indigenous Mayan family living on the slopes of an active volcano, where they earn a meager living as coffee-pickers. Maria is a beautiful 17-year-old girl with dreams of seeing the larger world. Her parents arrange an advantageous marriage for her with the coffee plantation foreman, but Maria prefers her own choice: Pepe, a handsome young coffee cutter who plans to migrate to the United States. Maria seduces Pepe to run away with him, but after promises and clandestine meetings, Pepe takes off, leaving her pregnant, alone and in disgrace (Spanish and Maya).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

La Gunguna

Directed by Ernesto Alemany

(Dominican Republic, 2015, 87 min.)

Punchy and picturesque, this is the tale of a legendary .22-caliber pistol changing hands between members of the Dominican criminal underground.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Oct. 2, 9:25 p.m.,

Mon., Oct. 3, 5:15 p.m.

Magallanes

Directed by Amador del Solar

(Peru/Argentina/Spain, 2015, 109 min.)

Decades after Magallanes served in the army under the deranged Colonel Rivero, he chauffeurs the now-frail war criminal around Lima in his taxi. When he crosses paths with a former sex slave of the colonel, he’s inspired to atone for his own past indiscretions and seek revenge against the colonel.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat. Oct. 1, 12 p.m.

Neruda

Directed by Pablo Larraín

(Chile/Argentina/France/Spain, 2016, 107 min.)

Forced into hiding in 1948 when Chile’s political winds shifted, Pablo Nerudo travels across Chile with his Argentinian wife and minders from Chile’s Communist party, staying in safe havens. Nerud”s movements are tracked by Inspector Oscar Peluchonneau, a dogged gumshoe who loves detective fiction and relishes his role as the poet’s nemesis.

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m.

The Olive Tree

(El Olivo)

Directed by Icíar Bollaín

(Spain, 2016, 100 min.)

Alma’s family has deep roots in Castellón, Spain, having produced olive oil there for generations. But tough times led them to sell their prized thousand-year-old olive tree and transition to chicken farming. Determined to save her family’s fortunes, Alma sets off on a quixotic quest to return the family heirloom to its proper place.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Oct. 1, 6:45 p.m.,

Sun., Oct. 2, 1 p.m.

Oscuro Animal

Directed by Felipe Guerrero

(Colombia/Argentina/Netherlands/Germany/Greece, 2016, 107 min.)

Deep in the Colombian jungle, in a war-torn region ruled by paramilitaries, three courageous women decide to escape their misery and flee to the capital city of Bogotá.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Oct. 2, 3:15 p.m.,

Mon., Oct. 3, 9:15 p.m.

The Room of Bones

(El Cuarto de los Huesos)

Directed by Marcela Zamora Chamorro

(El Salvador/Mexico, 2015, 61 min.)

Over the last three decades, forensic anthropologists in El Salvador have accumulated thousands of unidentified remains, piling them up heartbreakingly in one cramped and overflowing room at the Legal Medicine Institute. This chilling documentary by filmmaker Marcela Zamora follows the stories of four mothers who, like so many others, desperately continue to search for their missing children.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m.

Take Me for a Ride

(Uio: Sácame a Pasear)

Directed by Micaela Rueda

(Ecuador, 2016, 70 min.)

High school senior Sara is a loner, sneaking off to smoke cigarettes behind the school, until new student Andrea arrives and enters her solitary world. The two girls quickly strike up a friendship, finding solace in each other and escaping from their restrictive parents and normative classmates.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Oct. 2, 5:30 p.m.,

Tue., Oct. 4, 5:45 p.m.,

Wed., Oct. 5, 5:45 p.m.

 

Swedish

A Man Called Ove

(En man som heter)

Directed by Hannes Holm

(Sweden, 2016, 116 min.)

Ove, an ill-tempered, isolated retiree who spends his days enforcing block association rules and visiting his wife’s grave, has finally given up on life just as an unlikely friendship develops with his boisterous new neighbors.

Landmark’s Cinema

Opens Fri., Oct. 21

 

Vanuatu

Tanna

Directed by Martin Butler and Bentley Dean

(Australia/Vanuatu, 2016, 100 min.)

Set on the lush tropical island of Tanna in the South Pacific, this visually breathtaking Romeo-and-Juliet love story takes place among tribes still living by their ancient laws, untouched by modern society. Wawa, a free-spirited young girl, falls in love with Dain, the handsome grandson of the chief—but the chief promises her in an arranged marriage to a rival tribe as part of a peace treaty. The young lovers must choose between their hearts and the future of the tribe, while the villagers must wrestle with preserving their traditional culture and adapting it to increasing outside demands for individual freedom.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

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