A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in “The French Dispatch.”
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: R for graphic nudity, some sexual references and language
Run time: 1 hour 43 minutes
The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. But this year, things will be profoundly different. SPENCER is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days.
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: R for some language
Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Two American filmmakers retreat to Fårö island for the summer and hope to find inspiration where Bergman shot his most celebrated films. As the days pass by, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and the couple is torn apart.
Showtimes for Friday October 15th– Sunday October 17th
(3:30)pm
Showtimes for Monday October 18th – Thursday October 21st
6:00pm
*( ) indicate matinee showtimes
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Cast: Vicky, Krieps, Tim Roth, Grace Delrue
Language: English, French, Swedish
Genre: Drama
Rating: Rated R for some sexual content, nudity and language.
Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes
In rural Iceland, a childless couple discover a strange and unnatural newborn in their sheep barn. They decide to raise her as their own, but sinister forces are determined to return the creature to the wilderness that birthed her.
Showtimes for Friday October 15th– Sunday October 17th
6:00pm, 8:25pm
Showtimes for Monday October 18th – Thursday October 21st
8:25pm
*( ) indicate matinee showtimes
Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
Language: Icelandic
Genre: Horror/Drama
Rating: Rated R for some bloody violent images and sexuality/nudity
Run time: 2 hours
THE RESCUE chronicles the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Academy Award®-winning directors and producers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin keep viewers on the edge of their seats as they use a wealth of never-before-seen material and exclusive interviews to piece together the high stakes mission, highlighting the efforts of the Royal Thai Navy SEALs and U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and details the expert cave divers’ audacious venture to dive the boys to safety. THE RESCUE brings alive one of the most perilous and extraordinary rescues in modern times, shining a light on the high-risk world of cave diving, the astounding courage and compassion of the rescuers, and the shared humanity of the international community that united to save the boys.
Showtimes for Friday October 15th– Sunday October 17th
(3:40)pm, 6:05pm, 8:30pm
Showtimes for Monday October 18th – Thursday October 21st
6:05pm, 8:30pm
*( ) indicate matinee showtimes
Director: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Cast: N/A
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG for thematic material involving peril and some language
Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes
The new feature documentary ALGREN is a journey through the gritty world, brilliant mind, and noble heart of Nelson Algren. Exploding onto the national scene in 1950 after winning the first-ever National Book Award for The Man with the Golden Arm, Algren defined post-war American urban fiction with his gritty, brilliant depiction of working class Chicago.
Hemingway declared him second only to Faulkner; Vonnegut dubbed him a literary groundbreaker. Hollywood soon came calling, immortalizing his breakout novel with none other than Frank Sinatra in the lead role. Algren even won a notorious place in both the heart and work of France’s premiere feminist, Simone de Beauvoir.
Including never-before-seen archival footage, newly uncovered audio recordings and his own rarely seen, personal photo collages, ALGREN charts the rise and fall of a man whose transgressions, compassion and thirst for justice pushed him to dedicate his life and career to giving a voice to the voiceless. Through interviews with Algren’s friends, literary experts and artists – including William Friedkin, Russell Banks, Philip Kaufman, Billy Corgan and John Sayles – the film is an intimate, witty and even antagonistic portrait of a tireless champion of America’s most marginalized.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Michael Caplan
Cast: Nelson Algren, Billy Corgan, Russell Banks
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 25 minutes
MAN IN THE FIELD profiles pioneering artist and chef Jim Denevan, founder of Outstanding in the Field, a radical alternative to the conventional dining experience. The documentary intimately reveals Denevan’s artistic and culinary first with land art in epic geometric formations alongside grand dinners in beautiful natural settings. Instead of bringing the food to the restaurant, Outstanding in the Field has brought the restaurant to the food since 1999. Hosted at one long table, with 100 to 1000 guests dining together, Denevan has set tables in vineyards, beaches, meadows, fishing docks, and city streets. Over 120,000 lucky patrons in all 50 states and 16 countries have experienced this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Rental fee is $9.99
Director: Patrick Trefz
Cast: Jim Denevan
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 2 hours
A semi-autobiographical film which chronicles the life of a working class family and their young son’s childhood during the tumult of the late 1960s in the Northern Ireland capital.
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Yet Rated
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes
A man goes on a bold and reckless journey of self-liberation in the city of London.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Baneil Karia
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Ellie Haddington, Hammed Animashaun, Jasmine Jobson
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes
One of the most acclaimed directorial debuts of recent years, and the winner of the coveted FIPRESCI Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Bogdan Mirică’s Dogs is the most haunting and gruesome Western to come out of Europe in decades.
Dogs begins with an elegant tracking shot through a marshland near the Black Sea, eventually landing on a severed foot, bobbing in the swampy water. Soon after, we meet Roman (Dragoș Bucur, star of the classic Romanian noir Police, Adjective), who has just arrived on a vast plot of vacant land bequeathed to him by his late grandfather, known locally as Uncle Alecu.
While selling off Uncle Alecu’s property, Roman learns that the land came into his family under murky circumstances. Then, after coming upon mysterious midnight meetings on the land, Roman discovers exactly what happened on Uncle Alecu’s watch, and why it will be both difficult and dangerous to sell his land: The squatters, led by the fearsome Samir (Snowpiercer’s Vlad Ivanov), are a gang of criminals so dangerous that the local police captain (Romanian cinema legend Gheorghe Visu) is powerless to protect him. After his friend disappears and the detached, chewed-up foot washes up, Roman must either cut his losses or stay and fight.
With gorgeous, sunbaked widescreen cinematography by Andrei Butica and masterful performances by three of Romania’s finest actors, Dogs is a terrifying allegory about class and corruption that builds towards a grim and bloody showdown. With Dogs, Mirică places himself squarely in the Western tradition exemplified by Sam Peckinpah and Anthony Mann.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Bogdan Mirică
Cast: Dragoș Bucur, Gheorghe Visu, Vlad Ivanov
Language: Romanian
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Once described as a young professional tennis prodigy, Thomas (Cesar-winner Alex Lutz) never had the career in the game he had hoped for. At 37, he decides to return to the French Open at Rolland Garros, in spite of his declining physical fitness and shattered knee. Although his wife Eve (Ana Girardot) and mother Judith (Oscar-nominee Kirstin Scott Thomas) advise him to give up on his unlikely ambition, Thomas obsessively perseveres. He will have to face his own demons as well as the intense competitive qualifying rounds to reach the tournament and eventually face a young tennis genius who disturbingly reminds him of his younger self.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Quentin Reynaud
Cast: Alex Lutz, Ana Girardot, Kristin Scott Thomas
Language: French
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Featuring interviews with Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cornel West, and Naomi Klein, The Big Scary “S” Word explores the rich history of the American socialist movement. Weaving together hidden episodes of history and verité footage, the film shows that, contrary to popular belief, socialism is in fact deeply American and led to popular government programs such as public schools and Medicare. Activists and journalists explain how the 2008 financial crisis, the Wall Street bailout, the Occupy Movement, and the ascension of politicians like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have pushed a new generation to embrace the language of socialism.
Showtimes for Friday September 3rd- Monday September 6th
6:00pm
Showtimes for Tuesday September 7th – Thursday September 9th
6:00pm
Director: Yael Bridge
Cast: Cornel West, Lee Carter, Jimmy Durante
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Yet Rated
Run time: 1 hour 32 minutes
Following a car accident, which kills her mother, 17-year old Ida moves in with her estranged aunt and her aunt’s grown sons. The home is filled with physical tenderness and love, but outside of the home, the family leads a violent and criminal life. When an unforeseen murder pressures the family and their loyalty to each other, tension builds as love and violence become impossible to separate. Ida is faced with the same question her mother faced before her: What are you willing to sacrifice for your family?
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Jeanette Nordahl
Cast: Sandra Guldberg Kampp, Sidse Babett Knudsen
Language: Danish
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 28 minutes
Utterly unique in film history, Mariam Ghani’s archival marvel WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED is a probing and engrossing case study in censorship, authoritarianism, and political art. Thirty years after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent civil war, during a new era of political uncertainty for the embattled nation, WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED looks closely at the era of state-funded Afghan filmmaking during the country’s Communist era, bringing together dozens of writers, actors, and filmmakers to discuss five unfinished, unedited projects produced between 1978 and 1991.
After each regime change, leaders always saw propagandistic potential in Kabul’s rich filmgoing culture and the high quality of Afghan filmmaking. Scenes from the five never-before-seen films, beautifully restored, testify to the immense resources provided to filmmakers willing to play by certain rules. The studio politics and mishaps that accompany any film’s production here rise to the level of life-and-death conflict, as filmmakers recall coming up against the censorship of an authoritarian government, as well as unceasing threats of violence. Depicting the censorship process with astounding detail, WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED raises potent, eternally relevant questions about art and politics, the freedom of speech, and what happens when the truth becomes a bargaining chip.
Mariam Ghani, the accomplished visual artist and a longtime advocate for film conservation, makes a passionate and personal feature directorial debut. Selected by the Berlin Film Festival, DOC NYC, and Il Cinema Ritrovato, WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED is an unsettling and brilliantly researched exposé which will prove disquieting to filmmakers and audiences alike.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Mariam Ghani
Cast: Latif Ahmadi, Jawanshir Haidari, Asadollah Aram
Language: English, Dari
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 10 minutes
A rising star in progressive politics and a new father, 32-year-old Ady Barkan’s life is upended when he is diagnosed with ALS. But after a confrontation with powerful Senator Jeff Flake on an airplane goes viral, catapulting him to national fame, Ady and a motley crew of activists ignite a once-in-a-generation political movement called “Be a Hero.” Together, they barnstorm across the country and empower people to confront their elected officials with emotional, personal stories to demand healthcare justice, and Ady holds groundbreaking interviews with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Through his journey, Ady discovers that collective action and speaking truth to power offers hope for his family and millions of others.
Rental fee is $9.99
Director: Nicholas Bruckman
Cast: Ady Barkan, Elizabeth Jaff, Rachael King
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes
For Berliners, the Baltic island of Usedom was once the most luxurious destination for excursions within striking distance of the city. This is where imperial Germany’s grand health resorts of Bansin, Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck were built. Heinz Brinkmann, who was born in Heringsdorf, traces the eventful history of his island. He talks about the magnificent villas on Europe’s longest beach promenade, about the expulsion of Jewish citizens by the Nazis and about Usedom being split into a German and a Polish half after the Second World War. During the GDR era, most of the spa architecture remained intact because of the lack of means to build something new. Since the fall of the Wall, however, investors have been trying to replace it with indistinguishable luxury residences.
Brinkmann also asks people about conservation and change. We hear from the mayor infuriated by the architectural eyesores of recent years, a farmer who bought an island in the Achterwasser lagoon for his organic cattle, a Polish hotel manageress and other bridge-builders between the two countries. Brinkmann also quotes from his own 1992 Usedom film and compares the plans of his former protagonists with today’s reality. A discursive tour through a fractured paradise.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Heinz Brinkmann
Cast: Hans-Uwe Bauer, Lars Petersen, Fritz Spalink
Language: German
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes
A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.
Showtimes for Friday August 20th- Sunday August 22nd
(3:50)pm, 8:35pm
Showtimes for Monday August 23rd – Thursday August 26th
8:35pm
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Rating: R for language and some violence
Run time: 1 hour 40 mins
A couple are forced to re-evaluate themselves and their relationship through the reality of lockdown. She is a charity worker, a coordinator for all of Europe at a refugee charity. She’s the daughter of a dentist father and an `old socialist’ mother and the only grandparent still around. He, meanwhile, is a self-employed, self-made man who runs a boutique computing consultancy.
Showtimes for Friday September 3rd- Monday September 6th
6:10pm
Showtimes for Tuesday September 7th – Thursday September 9th
6:10pm
Director: Stephen Daldry
Cast: James McAvoy, Sharon Horgan
Language: English
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R for language throughout
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes
A young writer sees his dream put in jeopardy when he has to take care of his mentally ill sister.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Peter Sattler
Cast: Ben Platt, Lola Kirke, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alfphonso Mcauley
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes
A ROCKY-esque tale of determination and grit, PLATFORM follows of three Iranian sisters as they compete to become international champions of Wushu, a Chinese martial art. The sisters thrilling underdog story explores not only their dedicated training, but also their surprising place in society as they challenge traditional gender roles on the path to success.
“Iranian cinema has a rich, varied, and self-aware texture. While one might expect the strictures of a theocratic state to impinge creative output, these very restrictions push filmmakers to extraordinary lengths to tell stories with unique, even revolutionary methods. PLATFORM explores the unique and extraordinary tale of three sisters rejecting the assumptions placed upon them to become masters of Wushu, a Chinese martial art. They are not free from the conservatism of their country – they are forced to cover themselves entirely, unlike their opponents – but they do not shy from these problems, and succeed in spite of them.
While compelling in content, Sahar Mosayebi also proves herself very much a daughter of Iran’s history of engaging, well-crafted cinema. The editing is especially impressive, cutting together fights and training as though part of a choreographed action sequence. These scenes provide the documentary with a spark and the spirit of these fighters seems to infect the film itself – a welcome meeting of content and form. PLATFORM is more than a simple telling of a sporting success story, it is an inspirational, motivational film about what can be achieved with hard work and dedication.”—Milo Garner.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Sahar Mosayebi
Cast: Shahrbanou Mansourian; Elaheh Mansourian; Soheila Mansourian
Language: Persian, Mandarin
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes
The fates of an unlucky pig farmer, a feisty home-owner defending her property, a lovestruck busboy, a disenchanted rich girl, and an American expat pursuing the Chinese Dream converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs are found floating down the Huangpu River, towards a modernizing Shanghai in Cathy Yan’s (BIRDS OF PREY) debut feature.
Rental fee is $6.99
Director: Cathy Yan
Cast: Zazie Beetz, Mason Lee, Meng Li
Language: Chinese, English
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Alvin Ailey was a trailblazing pioneer who found salvation through dance. AILEY traces the full contours of this brilliant and enigmatic man whose search for the truth in movement resulted in enduring choreography that centers on the Black American experience with grace, strength, and unparalleled beauty. Told through Ailey’s own words and featuring evocative archival footage and interviews with those who intimately knew him, director Jamila Wignot weaves together a resonant biography of an elusive visionary.
Director: Jamila Wignot
Cast: Alvin Ailey, Bill T. Jones
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not Yet Rated
Run time: 1 hour 20 minutes
A young widower sidesteps grief, loss, and familial dysfunction when he steals his wife’s ashes and sets off on an impulsive odyssey through America’s heartland in the charming new road trip comedy, MONUMENTS.
Ted (David Sullivan) encounters a cast of eccentric characters, including his rival Howl (Javier Muñoz), who direct and misdirect him on his mission to find something he’d lost long before the death his wife Laura (Marguerite Moreau).
MONUMENTS infuses humor and hope into a story of mourning, loss, and marriage to create one of the best feel-good indie films of 2021.
Rental fee is $11.99
Director: Jack C. Newell
Cast: Marguerite Moreau, David Sullivan, Joel Murray
Language: English
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 35 minutes
In Stip, a small town in Macedonia, every January the local priest throws a wooden cross into the river and hundreds of men dive after it. Good fortune and prosperity are guaranteed to the man who retrieves it. This time, Petrunya dives into the water on a whim and manages to grab the cross before the others. Her competitors are furious – how dare a woman take part in their ritual? All hell breaks loose, but Petrunya holds her ground. She won her cross and will not give it up.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska
Cast: Zorica Nusheva, Labina Mitevska, Simeon Moni Damevski
Language: Macedonian
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Michael (Charlie Tahan, OZARK) is a recent graduate whose post-college plan is derailed when his girlfriend leaves him for a job in New York City. When the bus service hires a security guard to watch over the night shift, Michael comes face to tattooed face with Pineapple, a 300-pound punk rock Samoan.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Brandon LaGanke & John Carlucci
Cast: Charlie Tahan, Pineapple Tangaroa, Kara Hayward
Language: English
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Written and directed by Suzanne Lindon (Vincent Lindon’s daughter and 20 years-old at the time of production), SPRING BLOSSOM is charmingly refreshing, and oh so French coming of age story that heralds Lindon as a rising international filmmaker to be reckoned with.
Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon) is sixteen. She is bored with people her own age. From the outside, everything appears lovely in her charmed world, but the everyday monotony of school and her relationships with friends and family feels completely uninspired. Every day on her way to high school, she passes a theater. There, she meets a 35-year-old actor named Raphaël (Arnaud Valois, BPM (Beats Per Minute). Despite their age difference they find in each other an answer to their ennui and develop a strong connection. Immersed in the world of grown-ups and adult choices, Suzanne begins questioning the pitfalls of blossoming too quickly and missing out on life – the life of a 16-year-old, which she had struggled so much to enjoy in the same way as her peers.
SPRING BLOSSOM is a refreshing tale of young teen’s sense of curiosity and wonderment at first-love replete with freewheeling musical numbers that echo the song-and-dance routines of Jacques Demy’s beloved The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Suzanne Lindon
Cast: Suzanne Lindon, Arnaud Valois
Language: In French with English subtitles
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 15 minutes
The next generation of Romanian filmmaking talent finally arrives in the U.S. with Paul Negoescu and Two Lottery Tickets. A buddy comedy produced on a shoestring budget, starring three of the most recognizable faces in Romanian movies, Two Lottery Tickets suggests Pineapple Express by way of Abbas Kiarostami.
A winsome, riotous comedy of errors, Negoescu’s second feature is an audience-friendly social satire which merges a stoner’s shaggy-dog story with the sophisticated, intensely realistic style that has made the Romania cinema one of the most popular national film movements in the world.
Police, Adjective star Dragoș Bucur plays against type as Sile, an irresponsible carpenter who spends most afternoons at the pub, placing small bets, racking up a huge tab, and buying lottery tickets. He convinces his drinking buddy Dinel (Dorian Boguță), whose wife has just left him for an Italian, to play the lottery one hot afternoon. Borrowing a few Euro from Pompiliu (Alexandru Papadopol), the local conspiracy theorist, Dinel plays the numbers on the off chance that a win would bring back his wife.
After two petty criminals jack his fanny-pack and the winning ticket, the three guys spend what little money they have tracking down the thieves. Although all three guys are easy marks with zero talent for sleuthing, their wild goose chase around Dinel’s apartment complex precedes a road trip to Bucharest, where the two thugs might be about to cash in on the €6 million jackpot.
Unpretentious, well-acted, and consistently hilarious, Two Lottery Tickets is a breezy reminder of the eternal essentials for good comedy: smart performances, a clever and intuitive style, and an irresistibly, unpredictable yarn.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Paul Negoescu
Cast: Dorian Boguta, Dragos Bucur, Alexandru Papadopol
Language: Romanian
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 26 minutes
Antonio LeBlanc is a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou. He’s married to the love of his life, Kathy, and raising his beloved stepdaughter, Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must soon confront the ghosts of his past after learning that he could be deported from the only country he’s ever called home.
Director: Justin Chon
Cast: Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: R for language throughout and some violence
Run time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Based on filmmaker’s, Maria Sødah, own experiences — Hope is the story of Anja and Tomas, longtime romantic partners whose large, blended family is upended when Anja receives a grave medical diagnosis.
ANJA (43) lives with TOMAS (59) in a large family of biological children and stepchildren. For a number of years the two adults have grown independent of each other, with creative jobs in parallel worlds. When Anja gets a terminal cancer diagnosis, their modern life breaks down and exposes neglected love. Alone with her grief and her fears, Anja realizes that she needs Tomas’ full help and support. It’s their only chance. How else will their children find the strength once she is gone, if their parents are unable to weather the storm together? Anja and Tomas are thrown into a crash course in mutual trust, and eventually a joint struggle, to deal with this unexpected and premature death. By getting to know each other anew, they unconsciously become the principal characters in a love story where they finally learn to truly love each other after a long life together.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Maria Sødahl
Cast: Andrea Bræin Hovig, Stellan Skarsgård
Language: Norwegian with English subtitles
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Every Breath You Take is a searing psychological thriller about a psychiatrist (Casey Affleck), whose career is thrown into jeopardy when his patient takes her own life. When he invites his patient’s surviving brother (Sam Claflin) into his home to meet his wife (Michelle Monaghan) and daughter, his family life is suddenly torn apart.
Rental fee is $12.00
Director: Vaughn Stein
Cast: Veronica Ferres, India Eisley, Emily Alyn Lind
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Rating: R for some violence and language, and brief sexuality
Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Berlin-based Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s devastating and hypnotic This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is already one of the most esteemed African films ever to hit the international festival circuit, earning the Special Jury Prize for Visionary Filmmaking at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, before taking home Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Cinematography at Africa’s Academy Awards.
Deserving comparison with the work of Pedro Costa, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Souleymane Cissé, This Is Not a Burial marks the introduction of a major filmmaker and the final powerhouse performance of a remarkable actress.
The late Mary Twala Mhlongo, recognizable from Beyoncé’s blockbuster musical Black Is King, gives a heartbreaking career-capping performance as Mantoa, an 80-year-old woman who has lived in a small Lesotho village for her entire life. While preparing for her own death, she receives word of an accident that has killed her only son, leaving her entirely alone, with only the respect of her community, the traditions of her ancestors, and the courage of her convictions. When her community must relocate to make way for a nearby dam which would flood her family’s burial ground, Mantoa draws a line in the sand and becomes an unlikely political and spiritual leader.
Cryptic, impressionistic, and informed by magical realist literature, This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection contains some of the most striking visual compositions in contemporary cinema, all the more impressive considering this is the first feature-length film for both cinematographer Pierre de Villiers and production designer Leila Walter. The cumulative power of Mantoa’s sacrificial crusade, Mhlongo’s earthy performance, and Mosese’s visionary artistry announce an unmistakable landmark in African cinema.
Rental fee is $10.00
Director: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
Cast: Mary Twala Mhlongo, Jerry Mofokeng Wa Makhetha
Language: Sesotho with English subtitles
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 57 minutes
Adapted from British author Simon Mawer’s acclaimed novel inspired by the dramatic events of the 20th century and the birth of an iconic architectural gem, the Tugendhat Villa in Brno, the film tells a story of love, friendship and life-shaping decisions.
Rental fee is $7.00
Director: Julius Sevcík
Cast: Hanna Alström, Claes Bang, Alexandra Borbély
Language: Englsih
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes