International Film Series

Spring 2012

Sponsored by the University of Richmond's Media Resource Center and the Office of International Education.

Free and open to the public, all films, including ChinaFest Weekend, are shown in the Ukrop Auditorium, a new 225-seat facility in the Robins School of Business, at the University of Richmond. Friday showings are at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday showings are at 7:30 p.m. The films are shown in the original language with English subtitles.

Parking Information

A limited number of visitor parking spaces are available in lot R10 (adjacent to the Robins School of Business). Visitors can also obtain a guest parking pass by contacting University Parking Services at (804) 289-8703, email parking@richmond.edu or complete the online visitor vehicle registration form at http://police.richmond.edu/parking/registration/visitor.html.

Friday, Jan. 20 and Sunday, Jan. 22
The Colors of the Mountain (Los colores de la montaña)
Columbia, 2010, directed by Carlos César Arbeláez 
90 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews / 

The Colors of the Mountain follows 9-year-old Manuel and his friends as they try to recover their prized belonging, a soccer ball, from a minefield next to their playing field. Shot almost entirely from the children's perspective, Arbeláez tackles universal themes of conflict - with an avoidance of outright displays of violence - and its impact on ordinary people without getting mired in specific politics.

Friday, Jan. 27 and Sunday, Jan. 29
How I Ended This Summer (Kak ya provel etim letom)
Russia, 2010, directed by Alexei Popogrebsky
124 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews /

How I Ended This Summer is a gripping survival drama and psychological thriller set in an isolated Siberian weather station. Meteorologists Pavel, an inexperienced but energetic college graduate and Sergei, a grizzled veteran, metaphorically represent the old Russia and the new. When Sergei leaves the station to go fishing, Pavel receives dire news radioed in from home, but he keeps the information to himself. Deceit and paranoia escalate until it leads, inevitably, to confrontation in this merciless contemplation of the fragile human psyche under siege. The stunning photography creates a work of chilling beauty. The two leads won Best Actor awards at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.

Friday, Feb. 3 and Sunday, Feb. 5
The Names of Love (Le Nom Des Gens)
France, 2011, directed by Michel Leclerc
102 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews /

Free-spirited Baya uses seduction to convert conservative men to her left-wing lifestyle, which generally works quite well, until she meets Arthur Martin, a discreet forty-something Avian specialist. Their star-crossed affair develops in an ingenious story structure where Baya and Arthur, as children, explain their ancestral backgrounds: Baya's father is an Algerian immigrant, her mother is a French leftist and Arthur's Jewish mother escaped the Holocaust by being hidden under a non-Jewish name in an orphanage. Though firmly rooted in the romantic-comedy genre, The Names of Love pokes serious fun at ethnic and religious stereotyping based on names and appearances, as well as the supercharged political climate in France.

Friday, Feb. 17 and Sunday, Feb. 19
The Night of Truth (La Nuit de la Vérité)
Burkina Faso, 2006, directed by Fanta Regina Nacro
100 min., NR
Trailer not available / Reviews /

The Night of Truth, the first ever sub-Saharan African feature directed by a woman, is a powerful tale of the aftermath of a fictionalized civil war. After ten-years of fighting, the governing Nayaks and rebellious Bonande are determined to end the conflict. A celebration is arranged, but the formalities of the event boost tensions on both sides. The evening comes to a climax when someone beats drums'a sign of a call to arms' during the festivities, which triggers feelings of distrust and fear. Within the shadow of genocide, the director astutely ends the film on a note of quiet optimism that suggests the possibility for peaceful co-existence.

**Double Feature**

Friday, Feb. 24 and Sunday, Feb. 26
Circo
Mexico, 2011, directed by Aaron Shock
75 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews /

"Circo Mexico" is a small family-run carnival that's been making its way through Mexico for years. Tino Ponce, wanting to please his father and continue the family business, has recruited his young children as performers while laboring night and day to maintain the circus's faltering financial fortunes. But a growing resentment between Tino and his wife suggests troubles on the horizon. This marvel of a documentary details the brutal regimen of circus life, and sheds light on the Ponce family's inner dynamics, revealing generational divides and the instability of a country, and a family, torn between past and present.

Friday, Feb. 24 and Sunday, Feb. 26
Clowns (I Clowns)
Italy, 1970, directed by Federico Fellini
92 min., Rated G
Trailer not available / Reviews

In his made for TV film, Frederico Fellini's The Clowns is a pseudo-documentary that pays heartfelt tribute to clowns, pokes fun at everyone, including himself, and spoofs documentaries. The film reflects on the tumultuous nature of the filmmaker, whose mood swings very from jubilation to melancholy over the passing of an era when clowns were respected all over the world. It's an easy film to be drawn to: the visuals are pure Fellini-esque; the story is accessible; and the closing message leaves the viewer with the notion that we must be our own clowns in this much too serious world. This film was recently restored by Raro Video on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Friday, March 16 and Sunday, March 18
The Human Resources Manager
Israel, 2011, directed by Eran Riklis
103 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews /

The Human Resources Manager of Jerusalem's largest bakery is in trouble. He's separated from his wife, distanced from his daughter and stuck in a job he hates. When one of his female employees, Yulia, is killed in a suicide bombing and her body remains unclaimed, the bakery is accused of inhumanity and indifference. To make things right, the manager embarks on a complex journey, accompanied by an awkward cast of characters, to Yulia's remains to her family in Romania. Far from home, and on a mission to honor a woman he didn't even know but has somehow grown to admire, the Human Resources Manager rediscovers his own humanity and his ability to truly care for human resources.

Friday, March 23 and Sunday, March 25
Hospitalité
Japan, 2009, directed by Koji Fukuda
95 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews

Hospitalité, a dry, dark comedy, capitalizes on Japan's insularity, social rigors, and cramped living spaces to orchestrate a nuanced and surprisingly insightful gem. When a strange man weasels himself into the quiet lives of a family living above their small printing factory, he launches a campaign of charm and blackmail to turn their lives upside down. Before long, marriage bonds are shaken and a cast of eclectic foreigners sends the intolerant neighborhood into a tailspin. The film swiftly moves from a simple narrative to an absurdist, almost theatrical play, all in the confines of a small home in downtown Tokyo.

Friday, March 30 and Sunday, April 1
In a Better World (Hævnen)
Denmark/Sweden, 2011, directed by Susanne Bier
112 min., NR
Trailer / Reviews /

In a Better World, 2011 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film, is a powerful movie about courage and strength, as well as man's capacity for violence. The film follows two intertwining stories. One story concerns two Danish schoolchildren - Elias, meek and assertive and Christian, angry and vengeance-prone who forge a friendship to combat the school bully. The other story is about Anton, who runs a free medical clinic in an unnamed African country exploited by a vicious warlord, and Claus, a recent widower, who is so grief-stricken that he's isolated himself from his son.  The stark contrast highlights the films honest depiction of the emotional and physical harm human beings are capable of inflicting on one another and whether they have it within themselves to truly forgive those who trespass against them.

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