Home The Washington Diplomat December 2018 Films – December 2018

Films – December 2018

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Languages

Bulgarian

Danish

Finnish

Hungarian

Latvian

Portuguese

Spanish

Catalan

Dutch

French

Italian

Lithuanian

Rhaetian

Swedish

Croatian

English

German

Japanese

Norwegian

Romanian

Yakut

Czech

Estonian

Greek

Korean

Polish

Slovenian

 

 

Bulgarian

Omnipresent
(Vezdesushtiyat)

Directed by Ilian Djevelekov
(Bulgaria, 2017, 120 min.)

Emil has it all. He is a successful writer and owner of a small ad agency, with a wife and teenage son. But when his ailing father asks him to install a hidden camera after a few antiques go missing, Emil is hooked. With cameras now in his home, office, bathroom and even his wife’s therapy practice, Emil knows more than he should (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 16, 9:05 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 17, 9:10 p.m.

 

Catalan

Distances
(Las distancias)

Directed by Elena Trapé
(Spain, 2018, 99 min.)

When longtime friends Olivia, Eloi, Guille and Anna travel to Berlin to surprise their college classmate Comas for his 35th birthday, he is less than pleased to see them. During their weekend together, the group tries to revive the closeness of their student years, but contradictions and tensions emerge as they slowly come to realize that Comas’s life in Berlin is not what he’d made it out to be (Catalan, English, Spanish and German; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Tue., Dec. 4, 7:15 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 5, 9:10 p.m.

 

Croatian

The Eighth Commissioner
(Osmi povjerenik)

Directed by Ivan Salaj
(Croatia, 2018, 139 min.)

an ambitious politician embroiled in a front-page scandal is shipped off to a remote island, where, as its newly appointed state commissioner, he must organize the local elections and whip the government into shape on an island without internet or phone service (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 7:05 p.m.,
Fri., Dec. 14, 2:30 p.m.

 

Czech

Winter Flies
(Vsechno bude)

Directed by Olmo Omerzu
(Czech Republic/Slovenia/Poland/Slovakia/France, 2018, 85 min.)

In the dead of winter, the naïve and energetic Heduš runs into his stoic pal Mára and convinces him to go on a road trip to nowhere in a stolen Audi in this coming-of-age, comedic road movie (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatr
Sun., Dec. 16, 11:05 a.m.,
Tue., Dec. 18, 7:15 p.m.

Danish

Becoming Astrid
(Unga Astrid)

Directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen
(Sweden/Denmark, 2-18, 123 min.)

Astrid Lindgren, the author of numerous children’s books and creator of Pippi Longstocking, struggles for independence in 1920s Sweden. Dying of boredom on her strict family’s farm, she entertains her many siblings with tall tales, roaming the forests and fields instead of doing her chores. She jumps at the chance to work at the local newspaper office, where she is romanced by the handsome, married, but soon-to-be-divorced editor Blomberg. Learning some hard life lessons, Astrid nevertheless finds within herself the courage to carry on, creating new worlds through her empathy and talent for storytelling (Danish and Swedish).

Landmark’s Theatres
Opens Fri., Nov. 30

That Time of Year
(Den tid pa aret)

Directed by Paprika Steen
(Denmark, 2018, 101 min.)

Katrine prepares to host her annual Christmas Eve family dinner, but this year is shaping up to be the most stressful yet: her teenage daughter is giving her more attitude than usual; her divorced parents start bickering immediately; while her other sister, just out of rehab, surprises everyone by showing up with a brand-new husband and stepdaughter (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 15, 3 p.m.

 

Dutch

Love Revisited
(Oude liefde)

Directed by Nicole Van Kilsdonk
(Netherlands/Belgium, 2017, 99 min.)

In this highly untraditional tale of forbidden romance, sixtysomethings Fer and Fransje are long-divorced when the sudden death of their forty-year-old son unexpectedly brings them back together (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 1, 12:15 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 4, 5:10 p.m.

 

English

On the Basis of Sex

Directed by Mimi Leder
(U.S., 2018, 120 min.)

This is the true story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her struggles for equal rights and what she had to overcome to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Tue., Dec. 25

Black ’47

Directed by Lance Daly
(Ireland/Luxembourg, 2018, 100 min.)

Lance Daly pulls off the unthinkable with this brutal revenge Western — set in 1847 Ireland during the worst year of the Great Famine — creating an insightful thriller that melds genre conventions with gritty realism and historical critique (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 5 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 4, 9:45 p.m.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Directed by Bryan Singer
(U.K./U.S., 2018, 134 min.)

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury, who defied stereotypes and shattered convention to become one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet.

Angelika Mosaic
Angelika Pop-Up
Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Directed by Marielle Heller
(U.S., 2018, 106 min.)

Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling celebrity biographer who finds herself unable to get published because she had fallen out of step with the marketplace, so she turns her art form to deception.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Chef Flynn

Directed by Cameron Yates
(U.S., 2018, 82 min.)

Ten-year-old Flynn transforms his living room into a supper club using his classmates as line cooks. With sudden fame, Flynn outgrows his bedroom kitchen, and sets out to challenge the hierarchy of the culinary world.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

At Eternity’s Gate

Directed by Julian Schnabel
(Switzerland/U.K./France/U.S., 2018, 110 min.)

“At Eternity’s Gate” is a journey inside the world of a man who, despite skepticism, ridicule and illness, created some of the world’s most beloved and stunning works of art. It is based on Vincent van Gogh’s (Willem Dafoe) personal letters and common agreement about events in his life that present as facts, hearsay and moments that are just plain invented.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Directed by David Yates
(U.K./U.S., 2018, 134 min.)

The second of five all-new adventures in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World finds the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America). But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings (English and French).

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

The Favourite

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
(Ireland/U.K./U.S., 2018, 119 min.)

In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah governs the country in her stead. But when a new servant Abigail arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.

Angelika Mosaic

Free Solo

Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
(U.S., 2018, 100 min.)

Follow Alex Honnold as he becomes the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite’s 3,000ft high El Capitan Wall. With no ropes or safety gear, he completed arguably the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

Angelika Mosaic
West End Cinema

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

Directed by Fede Alvarez
(U.K./Germany/Sweden/Canada/U.S., 2018, 117 min.)

Young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

Green Book

Directed by Peter Farrelly
(U.S., 2-18, 130 min.)

When Tony, a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger — as well as unexpected humanity and humor — they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime (English, Italian, Russian and German).

Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

Mary Queen of Scots

Directed by Josie Rourke
(U.K., 2018, 124 min.)

Queen of France at 16 and widowed at 18, Mary Queen of Scots defies pressure to remarry. Instead, she returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. But Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I. Each young queen beholds her “sister” in fear and fascination. Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence.

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Fri., Dec. 14

Overlord

Directed by Julius Avery
(U.S., 2018, 110 min.)

With only hours until D-Day, a team of American paratroopers drop into Nazi-occupied France to carry out a mission that’s crucial to the invasion’s success. Tasked with destroying a radio transmitter atop a fortified church, the desperate soldiers join forces with a young French villager to penetrate the walls and take down the tower. But, in a mysterious Nazi lab beneath the church, the outnumbered G.I.s come face-to-face with enemies unlike any the world has ever seen.

Angelika Mosaic
Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

A Private War

Directed by Matthew Heineman

(U.K./U.S., 2018, 110 min.)

In a world where journalism is under attack, Marie Colvin is one of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time. After being hit by a grenade in Sri Lanka, she wears a distinctive eye patch and is still as comfortable sipping martinis with London’s elite as she is confronting dictators. Colvin sacrifices loving relationships, and over time, her personal life starts to unravel as the trauma she’s witnessed takes its toll. Yet, her mission to show the true cost of war leads her to embark on the most dangerous assignment of their lives in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

Angelika Mosaic
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Ray & Liz

Directed by Richard Billingham
(U.K., 2018, 108 min.)

Inspired by his own upbringing in the Black Country, west of Birmingham, Britain, this film is named for Richard Billingham’s highly dysfunctional parents and comprises three episodes in the family’s life, spanning the early 1980s to the late 2000s (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 15, 10 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 19, 7:15 p.m.

Robin Hood

Directed by Otto Bathurst
(U.S., 2018, 116 min.)

A war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown in a thrilling action-adventure packed with gritty battlefield exploits, mind-blowing fight choreography and a timeless romance.

Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

Stan & Ollie

Directed by Jon S. Baird
(U.K./Canada/U.S., 2018, 97 min.)

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly bring their brilliant comedic chops to bear as legendary comedy duo Stan “Laurel” and Ollie “Hardy” in this hilarious road movie recounting the pair’s famed 1953 “farewell” tour of Britain and Ireland (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Vice

Directed by Adam McKay
(U.S., 2018)

“Vice” explores how a bureaucratic Washington insider quietly became the most powerful man in the world as vice president to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways still felt today.

Opens Fri., Dec. 25

Widows

Directed by Steve McQueen
(U.K./U.S., 2018, 129 min.)

Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities, take fate into their own hands, and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.

Angelika Mosaic
Angelika Pop-Up
Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Wildlife

Directed by Paul Dano

(U.S., 2018, 104 min.)

In 1960s Montana, an unemployed father decides to join the cause of fighting a nearby wildfire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves. Suddenly forced into the role of an adult, 14-year-old Joe witnesses his mother’s struggle as she tries to keep her head above water.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Estonian

Take It or Leave It
(Vota voi jata)

Directed by Liina Trishkina
(Estonia, 2018, 102 min.)

A thirtysomething construction worker hasn’t seen his ex-girlfriend in six months when he gets the news that she is going into labor with his child, but has decided she is not ready for motherhood. So he is determined to be a single father to a daughter he never knew existed (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Dec. 3, 7 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 6, 5:10 p.m.

 

Finnish

Euthanizer
(Armomurhaaja)

Directed by Teemu Nikki
(Finland, 2017, 85 min.)

Pitch-black humor meets Nordic noir and animal rights advocacy as a reclusive mechanic with a second job as a black-market pet euthanizer engages in a side project doling out vigilante justice to neglectful animal owners (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 9:40 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 10, 9:30 p.m.

 

French

Angel
(Un Ange)

Directed by Koen Mortier
(Belgium/Netherlands/Senegal, 2018, 105 min.)

After a drug scandal calls his reputation into question, world-famous Belgian cyclist Thierry goes on holiday with his brother to Dakar, where he meets a headstrong Senegalese sex worker who eschews the labels given to her profession and works to unite her colleagues against social stigmas (French and Wolof; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Dec. 10, 7:05 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 11, 9:25 p.m.

Eva

Directed by Benoît Jacquot
(France/Belgium, 2018, 100 min.)

Gaspard Ulliel is a hot young playwright with a potentially career-destroying skeleton in his closet. Isabelle Huppert is the mysterious call-girl with whom he begins a series of meetings, initially for “research” purposes but increasingly for more dangerous games of cat and mouse (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Dec. 14, 7:15 p.m.,
Sun., Dec. 16, 1:05 p.m.

A Faithful Man

Directed by Louis Garrel
(France, 2018, 75 min.)

When Abel is abandoned by his girlfriend Marianne for his best friend Paul (the father of her unborn child), the hapless young man accepts the devastating news and moves on. Years later, Paul unexpectedly dies, and the two meet again. As they begin to rekindle their romance, however, Paul’s alluring younger sister and Marianne’s highly suspicious young son throw things off course (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Dec. 7, 5:30 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 11, 7:15 p.m.

Girl

Directed by Lukas Dhont
(Belgium/Netherlands, 2018, 109 min.)

Lara is a 15-year-old ballet dancer doing her best to fit in while standing out. Among her peers, family and friends, her trans identity is rarely an issue as she transitions from her assigned gender into adulthood (French and Flemish; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 12:15 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 4, 9:45 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 6, 7:05 p.m.

Knife + Heart
(Un couteau dans le coeur)

Directed by Yann Gonzalez
(France/Mexico/Switzerland, 2018, color, 110 min.)

This campy erotic thriller is set in the seedy milieu of the gay porn demimonde of Paris in the 1970s, where director/producer Anne aspires to be an underground auteur, working closely with her stock company of carefully selected “real men” actors and a former lover with whom she’s still self-destructively obsessed (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 8, 10:20 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 13, 10 p.m.

Non-Fiction
(Doubles vies)

Directed by Olivier Assayas
(France, 2018 108 min.)

Olivier Assayas’ smart dramedy set in the publishing world deftly balances a serious, informed debate about the future of publishing in the digital age against the romantic foibles, workaday stresses and crazy-making tendencies of the characters’ messy lives (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 8, 8 p.m.,

Sun., Dec. 9, 2:10 p.m.

Sorry Angel
(Plair, aimer et courir vite)

Directed by Christophe Honoré
(France, 2018, 132 min.)

In this intimate, disarming romance set against the vibrant backdrop of gay life in early 1990s France, Jacques is a worldly-wise HIV-positive writer living in Paris — and not expecting to find love. When he meets a curious, self-assured university student from Brittany, sparks fly (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 7:45 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 4, 7 p.m.

 

German

Angelo

Directed by Markus Schleinzer
(Austria/Luxembourg, 2018, 111 min.)

Angelo Soliman is kidnapped from sub-Saharan Africa as a child in the 1720s, purchased from the slave market by a wealthy Austrian countess and raised and educated to be a “court Moor,” a courtier/entertainer/exotic status symbol for the household (German and French; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 4:25 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 12, 9:15 p.m.

In My Room

Directed by Ulrich Köhler
(Germany/Italy, 2018, 119 min.)

A fortysomething cameraman slacking his way through life in Berlin still clings to the days of his youth. After going back home to help with his ailing grandfather at the insistence of his father, he gets a chance to reinvent himself when he wakes up to find that he is inexplicably the last human alive on Earth (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Nov. 30, 10 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 3, 9:10 p.m.

The Interpreter

Directed by Martin Sulík
(Slovakia/Czech Republic/Austria, 2018, 113 min.)

Octogenarian translator Ali is on a quest for vengeance after stumbling across the identity of the former SS officer he believes murdered his parents. But instead of finding the man who pulled the trigger, he meets the officer’s son in this poignant odd-couple dramedy (German, English, Slovak and Russian; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 4:45 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 11, 7:05 p.m.

Joy

Directed by Sudabeh Mortezai
(Austria, 2018, 99 min.)

Joy is a Nigerian immigrant working as a prostitute in Vienna who reluctantly has taken the newest arrival at the brothel, Precious, under her wing (German and English; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Dec. 14, 5:10 p.m.,
Sun., Dec. 16, 7 p.m.

Never Look Away

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
(Germany/Italy, 2018, 188 min.)

Kurt, a talented young artist from Dresden, finds the GDR and its totalitarian state machinery stifling to his art. Emigrating to Düsseldorf in the West, Kurt makes a new life for himself, but finds that events, and people, from his past will always have a grip on him (German and Russian; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 16, 3:15 p.m.

The Silent Revolution
(Das schweigende klassenzimmer)

Directed by Lars Kraume
(Germany, 2018, 111 min.)

In 1956 East Berlin, a classroom of high school students stages two minutes of silence in solidarity with the Hungarian Uprising recently crushed by the Soviet army — which is simultaneously an amusing prank to pull on their uptight teacher. But things escalate as the students are referred to the GDR’s education minister, who is intent on throwing the book at these would-be counter-revolutionaries (German and Russian; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 1, 3 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 6, 7:15 p.m.

Styx

Directed by Wolfgang Fischer
(Germany/Austria, 2018, 94 min.)

In this taut and timely nautical thriller, a German doctor encounters a wrecked trawler filled with refugees while on a solo sailing trip to Ascension Island. Alone, save for an SSB radio, she quickly becomes torn between maritime law and her own moral compass (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 9 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 3, 9:35 p.m.

Transit

Directed by Christian Petzold
(Germany/France, 2018, 101 min.)

This exquisite adaptation of the 1942 novel about German refugees trying to escape Nazi-occupied France gains additional resonance from Christian Petzold’s decision to eschew any ’40s period trappings, instead telling the tale in modern-day Marseille (German and French; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 8, 4:30 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 10, 7:10 p.m.

The Waldheim Waltz

Directed by Ruth Beckermann
(Austria, 2018, 93 min.)

After serving as U.N. Secretary General from 1972 to 1981, Kurt Waldheim was elected president of Austria in 1986. But it was a controversial election, as new details about Waldheim’s service in the Nazi Wehrmacht in Greece and Yugoslavia during World War II came to light (German and French; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Dec. 3, 7:05 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 5, 7:05 p.m.

 

Greek

Pity

Directed by Babis Makridis
(Greece/Poland, 2018, 97 min.)

With his wife in a coma and his life in a rut, a sullen, nameless everyman soon finds himself addicted to his own sadness — with those around him continually throwing pity his way. But what will he do if his wife wakes up? (European Union Film Showcase)

AFI Silver Theatre
Wed., Dec. 5, 7:15 p.m.,
Sat., Dec. 8, 12 p.m.

Smuggling Hendrix

Directed by Marios Piperides
(Cyprus, 2018, 93 min.)

Loafing man-child Yiannis is about to leave his fading music career and broken relationship on the Greek Cypriot side of Nicosia for a new life in Holland. But his dog, Jimi, has other plans. When the pup wanders across the U.N. buffer zone and into the Turkish side of the divided city, Yiannis is forced to enlist a trans-border band of misfits to skirt EU law and get the pooch back (Greek and Turkish; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 1, 5:10 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 5, 5:10 p.m.

 

Hungarian

The Butcher, the Whore and the One-Eyed Man
(A hentes, a kurva es a felszemu)

Directed by János Szász
(Hungary, 2017, 105 min.)

In this moody true crime story from 1920s Budapest, local meat-packing magnate Ferenc falls madly in love with Mici, a former prostitute married to disabled former gendarme Gusztáv, who now toils in Ferenc’s plant. For a while, the couple extract a fee from Ferenc for Mici’s services, but then attempt and fail to kill him (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Dec. 7, 9:30 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 13, 9 p.m.

Jupiter’s Moon
(Jupiter holdja)

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó
(Hungary/Germany/France, 2017, 129 min.)

Syrian refugee Aryan is crossing the border from Serbia into Hungary with his father when he’s suddenly gunned down by a trigger-happy border guard. In his wounded state, he discovers he can now mysteriously levitate at will. How should he use these new powers? (European Union Film Showcase)

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Dec. 14, 9:20 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 19, 9:30 p.m.

The Whiskey Bandit
(A viszkis)

Directed by Nimród Antal
(Hungary, 2017, 126 min.)

In the 1990s, an unknown bandit pulled off a string of daring, daylight bank robberies in and around Budapest, eluding the befuddled police, who had no leads save for one identifying trait: the faint aroma of whiskey the tellers noticed on the thief (Hungarian and Romanian; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 1, 10 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 6, 9:20 p.m.

Italian

Boys Cry
(La terra dell’abbastanza)

Directed by Damiano D’Innocenzo, Fabio D’Innocenzo
(Italy, 2018, 95 min.)

Manolo and Mirko are pizza delivery boys on the outskirts of Rome, itching for something to happen. And then it does. When the pair are involved in a hit and run and learn they have killed a marked man, inadvertently doing the local mafiosi a great service, Manolo’s wannabe-mobster father jumps at the chance to get his son in with the crime bosses (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Wed., Dec. 5, 9:30 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 6, 9:30 p.m.

Dogman

Directed by Matteo Garrone
(Italy/France, 2018, 103 min.)

In a picturesquely dilapidated seaside town outside of Naples, a gentle dog groomer deals cocaine on the side in order to make ends meet and raise his young daughter (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Dec. 7, 7:15 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 11, 9 p.m.

Euphoria
(Euforia)

Directed by Valeria Golino
(Italy, 2018, 115 min.)

This riveting drama centers around two very different brothers forced back into each other’s lives when one is diagnosed with a brain tumor (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 2:30 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 3, 7:15 p.m.

Loro

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
(Italy/France, 2018, 150 min.)

In this eye-popping, surreal skewering of early 21st-century Italy, Media scandal-plagued ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s milieu of unfettered wealth, raucous “bunga bunga” parties and cutthroat political power games are told in counterpoint to that of an ambitious wannabe desperate to impress Berlusconi and enter the big time (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 6:45 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 13, 7 p.m.

Lucia’s Grace

Directed by Gianni Zanasi
(Italy, 2018, 110 min.)

Pressed to rush things through so that an ambitious architect’s new building can break ground, single-mom land surveyor Lucia grinds things to a halt first after the Virgin Mary appears to her in the field and commands her to build a church instead (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 4:45 p.m.,
Wed,. Dec. 5, 7 p.m.

Japanese

11/25: The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate

Directed by Koji Wakamatsu
(Japan, 2012, 119 min.)

Like “United Red Army,” Koji Wakamatsu’s final film looks back at political extremism in Japan during the height of his “pink” film career. Where “United Red Army” looked at the far left, 11/25 examines the far right by recreating the day of novelist Yukio Mishima’s failed coup and suicide by seppuku.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Dec. 9, 2 p.m.

Dodes’ka-den

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1970, 144 min.)

Tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s first color film follows the daily lives of people barely scraping by in a slum on Tokyo’s outskirts.

Freer Gallery of Art
Wed., Dec. 5, 2 p.m.

Ecstasy of the Angels

Directed by Koji Wakamatsu
(Japan, 1972, 89 min.)

After being betrayed by their leaders, a group of radical political activists turns on each other in a paranoid frenzy in this ultimate expression of Koji Wakamatsu’s distinct blend of extreme politics, sex and experimentation.

Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Dec. 7, 7 p.m.

United Red Army

Directed by Koji Wakamatsu
(Japan, 2007, 190 min.)

This uncompromising docudrama charts the trajectory of Japan’s radical left from its beginnings in the idealistic student movements of the 1960s to the rise and collapse of the United Red Army.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Dec. 2, 2 p.m.

Korean

Burning

Directed by Chang-dong Lee
(South Korea, 2018, 148 min.)

“Burning” is the searing examination of Jongsu, an alienated young man whose already difficult life is complicated by the appearance of two people into his orbit: Haemi, a spirited woman who offers romantic possibility, and Ben, a wealthy and sophisticated young man she returns from a trip with. When Jongsu learns of Ben’s mysterious hobby and Haemi suddenly disappears, his confusion and obsessions begin to mount, culminating in a stunning finale.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Latvian

Homo Novus

Directed by Anna Viduleja
(Latvia, 2018, 123 min.)

In 1930s Riga, if you aren’t part of the in-crowd of the bohemian art scene, you might as well put away your brushes. A poor young artist from the rural outskirts is determined to break into the scene, and finds the love his life at a party on his very first night in town in this hilarious and touching historical tale (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 1, 12 p.m.,
Fri., Dec. 7, 3 p.m.

Lithuanian

Acid Forest
(Rugstus Miskas)

Directed by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
(Lithuania, 2018, 63 min.)

This observational documentary experiment takes place in one of the strangest tourist attractions in the world: a dying forest full of cormorants actively killing off the trees with their acid-fortified droppings along the border of Lithuania and Russia (Lithuanian, English, German and French; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 12 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 3, 5:45 p.m.

Norwegian

The Quake

Directed by John Andreas Andersen
(Norway, 2018, 106 min.)

In 1904 an earthquake of magnitude 5.4 on the Richter scale shook Oslo, with an epicenter in the “Oslo Graben,” which runs under the Norwegian capital. There are now signs that indicate that we can expect a major future earthquake in Oslo.

Landmark’s Theatres

 

Polish

Another Day of Life
(Jeszcze dzien zycia)

Directed by Raúl de la Fuente, Damian Nenow
(Poland/Spain/Germany/Belgium/Hungary, 2018, 85 min.(

Based on the eponymous memoir by famed Polish war correspondent Ryszard Kapuściński, this stunningly crafted, graphic-novel-style biopic traces the journalist’s experiences of the 1975 Angolan civil war during a three-month period in which he travelled from the capital of Luanda across the war-torn country in search of a renowned rebel (Polish, English, Portuguese and Spanish; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 8, 12:30 p.m.,
Thu., Dec. 13, 7:05 p.m.

Cold War
(Zimna wojna)

Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
(Poland/France/UK, 2018, 88 min.)

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War in Poland, East Germany, Yugoslavia and France, this music-drenched love story follows a pair of star-crossed lovers from their first fateful meeting in post-World War II Poland (Polish, French, German, Croatian, Italian and Russian; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m.

Mug
(Twarz)

Directed by Malgorzata Szumowska
(Poland, 2018, 91 min.)

Jacek is a carefree, heavy-metal-loving laborer working on the construction site of what is to be the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. When a terrible fall disfigures him, the media and everyone around him are whipped into a frenzy as he undergoes Poland’s first ever facial transplant (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 15, 5:15 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 18, 9:05 p.m.

Portuguese

Diamantino

Directed by Daniel Schmidt
(Portugal/France/Brazil, 2018, 92 min.)

Portuguese soccer star Diamantino makes an unforgivable error at the 2018 World Cup, letting down his country and ending his career. As the guileless former icon starts to look for a new purpose in life — much to the dismay of his scheming twin sisters — a truly bizarre and wonderful odyssey unfolds, touching on the refugee crisis, the rise of nationalism and, of course, a delightfully unconventional romance (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 8, 2:15 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 12, 7:15 p.m.

Rhaetian

Iceman
(Der manna us dem is)

Directed Felix Randau
(Germany/Italy/Austria, 2017, 97 min.)

More than 5,300 years ago, Kelab returns from a hunting trip to find his family murdered, his home burned and his holy amulet stolen. He sets out through the freezing mountains to wreak vengeance on the killers, and the result is mankind’s first unsolved murder case (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 12 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 12, 7:05 p.m.

Romanian

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians

Directed by Radu Jude
(Romania/Germany/Bulgaria/France/Czech Republic, 2018, 140 min.)

Mariana is a young theater director working to stage a production about the ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front of 1941, in which Romanian soldiers executed 10,000 Jews. As tempers flare in rehearsals and city officials ramp up the pressure to tone down the portrayal of the massacre, Mariana must ask herself if she is willing to compromise her art (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 2, 7 p.m.,
Tue., Dec. 4, 7:05 min.

Lemonade

Directed by Ioana Uricaru
(Romania/Canada/Germany/Sweden, 2018, 88 min.)

Mara is a young Romanian woman working in the U.S. as a physical therapist while awaiting her green card. Having recently married, Mara brings her 9-year-old son from Romania to live in their new home, but when she is accused by an immigration officer of falsifying paperwork and suffers an inexcusable abuse of power, a spiral of injustice unfolds (Romanian and English; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 15, 1 p.m.,
Mon., Dec. 17, 7:15 p.m.

Slovenian

Consequences
(Posledice)

Directed by Darko Stante
(Slovenia, 2018, 93 min.)

When Andrej’s youthful criminal tendencies look set to spiral out of control, he is packed off to a center for troubled young men, where he quickly falls in with Zele, the center’s bordering-on-psychopathic alpha male gang leader (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., Dec. 10, 9:10 p.m.,
Wed., Dec. 12, 9:10 p.m.

Spanish

El Angel

Directed by Luis Ortega
(Argentina/Spain, 2018, 118 min.)

In 1971 Buenos Aires, Carlitos is an angelic-looking 17-year-old with movie star swagger, blond curls and a baby face, who discovers his true calling as a thief. When he meets the handsome, slightly older Ramón, the two embark on a journey of discovery, love and crime, which randomly escalates to murder.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Everybody Knows
(Todos lo saben)

Directed by Asghar Farhadi
(Spain/France/Italy, 2018, 132 min.)

Laura (Penélope Cruz) travels from her home in Buenos Aires with her family to her hometown in Spain for her sister’s wedding, where a startling crime and some long-buried secrets alter the course of their lives (Spanish, English and Catalan; European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Dec. 1, 7:20 p.m.

Swedish

Border

Directed by Ali Abbasi
(Sweden/Denmark, 2018, 110 min.)

Tina has a secret: She can smell guilt, which makes her an amazingly successful customs border agent, respected but also feared by her colleagues. Her physical differences make her a loner, until she meets a mysterious traveler who is attracted to her.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Yakut

Aga

Directed by Milko Lazarov
(Bulgaria/Germany/France, 2018, 96 min.)

In the barely populated snowy wilderness of northeastern Siberia, an elderly Yakut couple lives in a yurt, continuing to practice centuries-old ancestral traditions in the face of climate change and increasing scarcity. Their one constant is the dream of reuniting with their only daughter, Ága, who left their slowly vanishing way of life to work at a diamond mine in a distant town (European Union Film Showcase).

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Dec. 9, 2:45 p.m.,
Sat., Dec. 15, 11 a.m. 

Cari