World cinema has a great presence at the 2018 AFI FEST and international cinema film fans will be able to see some of the best films of current world cinema at this festival. Here are five films that we recommend to see from this series:
3 FACES (SE ROKH)
Chinese 2 11/14/2018, 6:15 p.m.
Country: Iran
Year: 2018
Director: Jafar Panahi
Screenwriter: Jafar Panahi
Producer: Jafar Panahi
Director of Photography: Amin Jafari
Editor: Mastaneh Mohajer
Cast: Behnaz Jafari, Marziyeh Rezaei, Narges Del Aram, Jafar Panahi, Maedeh Erteghaei
Running Time (minutes): 100
Language: Persian
https://youtu.be/OJ-MXnF8qz0
Eight years and four films into a 20-year government-imposed filmmaking ban, Jafar Panahi continues to expand on themes of artistic repression with his latest and most expressly feminist film in over a decade. 3 FACES is at once a gentle prodding at the absurdity of certain cultural traditions and a more somber indictment of their use as an assault on creative expression. Both fictionalized versions of themselves, Panahi and well-known Iranian actress Behnaz Jafari travel to a small village in northwest Iran to investigate the possible suicide of an aspiring young actress. Content to sit in the car while three generations of women contend with their dual oppression as women and actresses, Panahi traverses moral and ideological pathways through rural Iran with trademark heart, charm and intelligence. – Malin Kan
CAPERNAUM (CAPHARNAÜM)
Egyptian Theatre – Rigler 11/13/2018, 8:30 p.m. Chinese 311/14/2018, 3:30 p.m.
Country: Lebanon
Year: 2018
Director: Nadine Labaki
Screenwriters: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Kesrwany
Executive Producer: There are 16 executive producers in their press kit
Director of Photography: Christopher Aoun
Editors: Konstantin Bock, Laure Gardette
Music: Khaled Mouzanar
Cast: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawthar Al Haddad, Fadi Kamel Youssef, Cedra Izam, Alaa Chouchnieh, Nadine Labaki, Nour el Husseini, Elias Khoury
Running Time (minutes): 120
Language: Arabic, Amharic
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Nadine Labaki’s CAPERNAUM follows Zain as he journeys from gutsy, streetwise child to hardened 12-year-old adult: fleeing his abusive, negligent parents, surviving through his wits on the streets, taking care of Ethiopian refugee Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) and her baby son Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole), being jailed for a violent crime, and finally, seeking justice in a courtroom. Made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely parallel their own, and steeped in the quiet routines of ordinary people, CAPERNAUM is a film with an expansive palette: without warning it can ignite with emotional intensity, surprise with unexpected tenderness and inspire with flashes of poetic imagery.
DOGMAN
Egyptian Theatre – Rigler 11/13/2018, 5:00 p.m. Chinese 4 11/14/2018, 11:45 a.m.
Country: Italy, France
Year: 2018
Director: Matteo Garrone
Screenwriters: Ugo Chiti, Maurizio Braucci, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso
Producers: Matteo Garrone, Jean Labadie, Jeremy Thomas, Paolo Del Brocco
Executive Producer: Alessio Lazzareschi
Director of Photography: Nicolaj Brüel
Editor: Marco Spoletini
Production Designer: Dimitri Capuani
Music: Michele Braga
Cast: Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Nunzia Schiano, Adamo Dionisi, Francesco Acquaroli
Running Time (minutes): 102
Matteo Garrone’s latest film is a gripping drama about Marcello, a gentle yet cowardly dog groomer who finds himself caught up in Italy’s criminal underworld. Marcello forms a dangerous, one-sided relationship with former boxer and cokehead Simone, who terrorizes the community. Before long, Marcello is part of his reckless antics. It is only after Marcello takes the fall for one of Simone’s crimes that he decides to restore his dignity and a plan for revenge takes shape. DOGMAN’s realism captures Marcello’s chilling descent into darkness in this story inspired by true events. – Sarah Harris
FUGUE (FUGA)
Chinese 6 11/14/2018, 4:30 p.m.
Country: Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden
Year: 2018
Director: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Screenwriter: Gabriela Muskała
Producer: Agnieszka Kurzydlo
Executive Producer: Agnieszka Kurzydlo Agnieszka Kurzydlo
Director of Photography: Jakub Kijowski
Editor: Jarosław Kamiński
Production Designer: Jagna Dobesz
Music: Filip Míšek
Cast: Gabriela Muskała, Łukasz Simlat, Iwo RajskiMałgorzata Buczkowska, Zbigniew Waleryś, Halina Rasiakówna, Piotr Skiba
Running Time (minutes): 102
Language: Polish
After a two-year disappearance, free-spirited Alicja is reunited with her parents, husband and young son despite having no memory of them. Suddenly thrust back into a domestic life she has no recollection of choosing, Alicja struggles to reconcile her new and unfamiliar roles of dependability with the unshackled independence sprung by her recent mental break. With surreal, icy imagery and a seductively hypnotic atmosphere, director Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s sophomore feature burrows into the landscape of Alicja’s mind, excavating the societal burdens and duties expected of women, and whether personal freedom is truly attainable. After entrancing audiences with the 2016 horror-musical fairy tale THE LURE, Smoczyńska returns to AFI FEST with a dizzying psychological puzzle of identity and self-discovery. Mesmerizing from the jaw-dropping first frame to the last, FUGUE features a fiercely complex central performance by Gabriela Muskała, who also penned the film’s twisty screenplay. – Jesse Knight
NEVER LOOK AWAY (WERK OHNE AUTOR)
Chinese 4 11/14/2018, 2:45 p.m.
Country: Germany, Italy
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Producers: Jan Mojto, Quirin Berg, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Max Wiedemann, Christiane Henckel von Donnersmarck
Director of Photography: Caleb Deschanel
Editors: Patricia Rommel, Patrick Sanchez Smith
Production Designer: Silke Buhr
Music: Max Richter
Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Oliver Masucci Saskia Rosendahl
Running Time (minutes): 188
Language: German
Inspired by real events and spanning three eras of German history, NEVER LOOK AWAY tells the story of young art student, Kurt (Tom Schilling), who falls in love with fellow student Ellie (Paula Beer). Ellie’s father, Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a famous doctor, is dismayed at his daughter’s choice of boyfriend, and vows to destroy the relationship. What neither of them knows is that their lives are already connected through a terrible crime Seeband committed decades ago.