EU Film Festival 2015

STARRING EUROPE: NEW FILMS FROM THE EU

Egyptian & Aero Theatres - September 24-27

THURSDAY - SEP. 24 - 6:00 PM
Opening Night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood
Reception followed by 8 EU Shorts
More info: http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/eu-shorts-program

The program continues at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica:

FRIDAY - SEP. 25 - 7:30 PM - Double feature!

 

GODS

BOGOWIE

2014, 120 min, Poland, Dir: Lukasz Palkowski

In 1985, Zbigniew Religa became the first surgeon in Poland to successfully transplant a human heart, and this riveting biopic underlines the achievement, made in the face of skepticism and government bureaucracy. Tomasz Kot is sensational as the chain-smoking Religa, and GODS earned six Eagles at the Polish Film Awards including Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actor. “You wouldn’t think a film about cardiology in Poland would be such a kick, but BOGOWIE … is a fast-paced, soapy pleasure, sort of like ‘ER’ or ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ but with the 1980s setting adding a judicious dollop of iron-curtain period kitsch.” - Leslie Felperin, The Guardian. In Polish with English subtitles.

FLOWERS

LOREAK

2014, 99 min, Spain, Dir: Jon Garaño, Jose Mari Goenaga

The anonymous bouquet Ane (Nagore Aranburu) receives each week connects her to two other women - a coworker’s wife (Itziar Ituño) and his mother (Feroz Award winner Itziar Aizpuru). This moving and occasionally melancholy look at love and its aftereffects was a Best Film nominee at the Goya Awards – a first for a Basque-language film – and won the Cine Latino Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival. In Basque with English subtitles.

SATURDAY - SEP. 26 - 7:30 PM - Double feature!

THE LESSON
UROK    

2014, Film Movement, 105 min, Bulgaria, Dir: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

Life is tough for teachers everywhere but even more so in Bulgaria, where Nade (Margita Gosheva, in a very strong performance) must turn to a loan shark when her family’s house is threatened with foreclosure. Based on a true story, this absorbing drama won the Sofia City of Film Grand Prix and the Audience Award for Best Film at the Sofia International Film Festival. In Bulgarian with English subtitles.

THEY HAVE ESCAPED

HE OVAT PAENNEET

2014, 102 min, Finland, Dir: J.-P. Valkeapää

Misfits Joni (Teppo Manner) and Raisa (Roosa Söderholm) flee a halfway house for troubled youth and hit the road to search for a buried fortune – a journey that takes several dark and surreal turns. Winner of four Jussi Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction. In Finnish with English subtitles.

SUNDAY - SEP. 27 - 4:00 PM

THE LESSON
IZLAIDUMA GADS    

2014, 108 min, Latvia, Dir: Andris Gauja

Coming off of a divorce, Zane (Inga Alsina-Lasmane) throws herself into her work at a Latvian high school, where she teaches a rather resistant class of seniors. But Zane is faced with a difficult decision when she realizes she’s falling in love with one of her students. In Latvian and Russian with English subtitles.

SUNDAY - SEP. 27 - 7:30 PM - Double feature!

MAMMEJONG

2015, 85 min, Luxembourg, Dir: Jacques Molitor

Flëpp (Max Thommes) has always been a mama’s boy – until Leena (Maja Juric) arrives. Can the mysterious young runaway coax Flëpp from the unhealthy orbit of his manic-depressive mother and into a world beyond his small hometown? In Luxembourgish and English with English subtitles.

IN THE CROSSWIND

RISTTUULES

2014, 90 min, Estonia, Dir: Martti Helde

During the Soviet Union’s occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, tens of thousands of people were forcibly resettled or sent to Siberian gulags. Told through the eyes of Erna (Laura Peterson), whose real-life diary provides most of the narration, this elegy to these forgotten victims takes an unusual visual approach: Shot in B&W, the camera moves around stationary actors in striking tableaux vivants. In Estonian with English subtitles.