INTERNATIONAL CINEMA
INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

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INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

Semester Program

**For screening times check out our homepage where showtimes are listed and updated every week

September 4–5

Film still from Shaolin Soccer (2001). Image of a monk stopped, his foot on a soccer ball, preparing to make a goal.
Film still from Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (2023). Image of an older woman driving a car full of flowers.

SHAOLIN SOCCER (2001)*
Directed by Stephen Chow
Cantonese and Mandarin, 113 min.

Encore

 

Shaolin Soccer is a sports comedy where former Shaolin monk Sing reunites his brothers to form a soccer team. They combine their superhuman kung fu skills with the game to challenge a corrupt professional team. This film is a wildly entertaining ride and a tribute to Bruce Lee.

CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT (2023)*
Directed by Tomás Gómez Bustillo
Spanish, 84 min.

Encore

 

This whimsical film is a heartfelt and humorous exploration of misplaced devotion, the need for human connection, and the miracles found in everyday misadventures.

September 9–12

Film still from Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025). Image of a mother and daughter looking out the window.
Poster for the film, Eternal You (2024). Image of two figures hugging, one light, the other dark.
Film still from Chang'an (2024). Image of men in the clouds looking cheerful.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025)
Directed by Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang and Maïlys Vallade
French, 77 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Based on the autobiographical novel by Amélie Nothomp, this animated film poetically explores the world through the eyes of a three-year-old Belgian girl living in Japan.

ETERNAL YOU (2024)
Directed by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck
Korean and English, 87 min.

The Age of AI

 

This documentary explores the booming digital afterlife industry, where tech startups use AI to create realistic avatars of the deceased, raising profound ethical and psychological questions about commodifying grief and the consequences of playing God in the digital age.

CHANG'AN (2023)
Directed by Junwei Xie and Jing Zou
Mandarin, 168 min.

Poetry

 

Chang’an chronicles the friendship between legendary poets Li Bai and Gao Shi, tracking their shifting fortunes from the Tang Dynasty to its decline during the An Lushan Rebellion, integrating classic Chinese poetry to celebrate art, ambition, and enduring camaraderie.

September 16–19

Film still from Drifting Clouds (1996). Image of a man at a movie theater, holding a dog while talking to two women.
Film still from Belle (2021). Image of the main character, Belle in the web, message bubbles surround her.
Film still from Executive Order (2020). Image of three people at a bar, talking.

DRIFTING CLOUDS (1996)
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki
Finnish, 95 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Navigating a brutal recession with wry humor and immense dignity, this Finnish gem proves that resilience can be the ultimate feel-good act. It is a masterful, understated tribute to working-class love and the enduring human spirit

BELLE (2021)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Japanese, 121 min.

The Age of AI

 

Suzu, a shy teen, escapes her quiet rural life by entering "U," a massive global metaverse. As her radiant online persona, "Belle," she becomes a worldwide musical phenomenon. Her vibrant new life takes a dramatic turn when she crosses paths with a mysterious, hunted dragon.

EXECUTIVE ORDER (2020)*
Directed by Lázaro Ramos
Portuguese, 103 min.

Poetry

 

In a chilling near-future, Executive Order explores an authoritarian Brazil that mandates the forced exile of all Black citizens. The film delivers a striking and thought-provoking parable about structural racism and the fragility of human rights.

September 23–26

Film still from The Last Journey (2024). Image of two men pushing a yellow car on a road with a view of the ocean. An older man is sat inside of the car.
Film still from Artificial Justice (2024). Image of a man being scanned. Text identifying his position sits at the bottom left corner.
Film still from Hamnet (2025). Image of a crowd reaching up to an actor on a stage during a performance of the play, Hamlet.

THE LAST JOURNEY (2024)
Directed by Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson
Swedish, 95 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Desperate to rekindle his ailing father's passion for life, filmmaker Filip Hammar and his best friend Fredrik Wikingsson embark on a trip to France. This documentary balances humor and heartbreak. It is a life-affirming tribute to family, aging, and the enduring power of love.

ARTIFICIAL JUSTICE (2024)*
Directed by Simón Casal
Spanish, 98 min.

The Age of AI

 

When the government moves to replace judges with AI software, distinguished judge Carmen Costa is invited to assess the system — until its creator turns up dead. Casal's taut political thriller asks who really controls justice, and what we lose when we hand it to a machine.

HAMNET (2035)*
Directed by Chloé Zao
English, 125 min.

Poetry

 

In 16th-century Stratford, Agnes and William Shakespeare experience love, sorrow, and unimaginable loss. Chloé Zhao's luminous, grief-stricken drama asks how loss becomes art — and how a father's anguish echoes across centuries as Hamlet.

September 30 – October 3

Film still from Lorena, Light-Footed Woman (2018). Image of three woman walking down a dirt path in the mountains.
Film still from Los Olvidados (1950). Image of a boy standing at an open door, watching as another, younger, boy iron smiths.
Film still from Total Trust (2023). Image of a woman and son being filmed on a phone, the boy holding an iPad with an image of his father.
Film still from And, Towards Happy Alleys (2023). Image of a woman sitting on a salt flat, a man on a horse in the water in the distance.

LORENA, LIGHT FOOTED WOMAN (2018)
Directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo
Spanish, Tarahumara, 28 min.

 

In the mountains of Chihuahua, Lorena Ramírez herds goats, tends to her family, and runs ultramarathons in sandals and a traditional dress — and wins. This luminous short documentary celebrates a Rarámuri woman whose quiet life and feet carry the weight of an ancient culture.

LOS OLVIDADOS (1950)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Spanish, 80 min.

Roots and Routes

 

In the slums of Mexico City, street kids prey on the weak and on each other. Buñuel's unsparing masterpiece offers no redemption for the poor — only the brutal logic of survival. Surrealism flickers beneath the gritty surface. One of cinema's most haunting cries of social fury.

TOTAL TRUST (2023)
Directed by Jialing Zhang
Mandarin, 97 min.

The Age of AI

 

In China, big data and government power combine to perfect control over citizens. Three women fight for their rights against a surveillance state that employs facial recognition, big data analysis, and behavioural scoring systems. What does truth matter when the state can simply manufacture its own?

AND, TOWARDS HAPPY ALLEYS (2023)
Directed by Sreemoyee Singh
Persian, 75 min.

Poetry

 

An Indian filmmaker travels to Tehran, learns Farsi, and spends six years in conversation with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and others living under the shadow of censorship and imprisonment. A tender love letter to Iranian cinema, poetry, and the women refusing to be silenced.

October 7–10

Film still from Daughter of the Plains (2025). Image of a church standing in an empty plain.
Film still from Omaha (2025). Image of a girl looking out.
Film still from Happyend (2024). Image of two high school aged boys looking over the city, red boxes identify their positions.
Film still from Poetry (2010). Image of an older woman singing at karaoke.

DAUGHTER OF THE PLAINS (2025)
Directed by Doug Cunningham
English, 38 min.

 

A celebrated actress trades the spotlight for the plains of Montana, confronting the son — and the life — she walked away from twenty years ago. Daughter of the Plains is a quietly devastating portrait of guilt, longing, and the cost of the roads not taken.

OMAHA (2025)
Directed by Cole Webley
English, 83 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Set against the 2008 recession, Cole Webley's heartbreaking drama Omaha frames a desperate cross-country road trip through the eyes of two young children. As their father unspools, innocent vacation illusions shatter into a quiet, devastating realization of hidden homelessness.

HAPPYEND (2024)*
Directed by Neo Sora
Japanese, 113 min.

The Age of AI

 

In a near-future Tokyo shadowed by earthquake warnings and government surveillance, a group of high school friends navigate their final year as their bonds are tested by growing political unrest. Neo Sora's debut is a quietly urgent coming-of-age story about what it means to resist.

POETRY (2010)*
Directed by Lee Chang-dong
Korean, 139 min.

Poetry

 

Mija, a warm-hearted woman in her sixties, enrolls in a poetry class as early Alzheimer's begins to cloud her memory. When her teenage grandson becomes implicated in a devastating crime, she must reckon with beauty and complicity at the same time.

October 14–17

Film still from All That's Left of You (2025). Image of a family during a wedding, posing to get their photo taken.
Image of the film, Arco (2025). Image of two children flying, a multicolored background behind them.
Film still from A Poet (2025). Image of a man sitting, looking at a woman who is sat next to him.

ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOU (2025)*
Directed by Cherien Dabis
Arabic, English, Hebrew, 146 min.

Roots and Routes

 

When a Palestinian teenager is wounded during a West Bank protest, his mother begins to trace the decades of displacement, loss, and endurance that brought their family to this moment — from the Nakba of 1948 to the present. An intimate multigenerational saga.

ARCO (2025)
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu and Gilles Cazaux
French and English, 88 min.

The Age of AI

 

In 2075, robots raise children while wildfires rage outside protective domes. When a boy from a greener, distant future crash-lands into lonely Iris's world, their friendship becomes a hand-drawn fable — warm as Miyazaki, quietly urgent as the world it imagines.

A POET (2025)*
Directed by Simón Mesa Soto
Spanish, 123 min.

Poetry

 

In the backstreets of Medellín, a once-celebrated poet stumbles through failure with persistence. When he takes a gifted young woman under his wing, Simón Mesa Soto's deadpan tragicomedy becomes an irresistible — and quietly devastating — portrait of art, ego, and the hunger to create.

October 21–24

Film still from Once Upon My Mother (2025). Image of a mother holding her son.
Film still from Let the River Flow (2023). Image of two men sitting on the back of a car, the man on the right smoking.
Film still from The Learning Tree (1969). Image of a boy and girl talking and smiling as they stand under a tree.

ONCE UPON MY MOTHER (2025)
Directed by Ken Scott
French, 102 min.

Roots and Routes

 

A force-of-nature mother, a clubfoot diagnosis doctors call hopeless, and one stubborn promise: her son will walk, dance, and live a fabulous life. Set to Sylvie Vartan's music, this is a joyful portrait of a big, vibrant family whose love and chaos make them richer than any fortune.

LET THE RIVER FLOW (2023)*
Directed by Ole Giæver
Norwegian, Saami, Swedish, 118 min.

The Future of Nature

 

Summer 1979: a hydroelectric dam threatens to drown the Alta-Kautokeino river, the lifeblood of Sámi land. Ester, a young teacher who has long hidden her heritage, is pulled into the protest camps along its banks — and into a reckoning with the land, her people, and herself.

THE LEARNING TREE (1969)*
Directed by Gordon Parks
English, 107 min. 

Miscellaneous

 

Gordon Parks made history with this 1969 film — becoming the first Black director to helm a major Hollywood studio production. Adapting his own semi-autobiographical novel, Parks tells the story of a Black teenager's coming-of-age in the 1920s, also writing and scoring the film himself.

October 28–31 Halloween

Film still from Dracula (1931). Image of Dracula leaning over a sleeping woman.
Film still from Psycho (1960). Image of a woman's face, screaming.
Film still from I Walked With a Zombie (1943). Image of two women in a corn field, looking up.

DRÁCULA (1931)
Directed by George Melford
Spanish and Hungarian, 103 min.

 

Made under cover of darkness — literally, shot overnight — this Spanish-language Drácula is a hidden gem of early horror. George Melford's atmospheric, sensual take on the vampire legend, anchored by Carlos Villarías's hypnotic Count, has quietly become a cult favorite.

PSYCHO (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
English, 109 min.

 

With Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock shattered the rules of Hollywood storytelling: killing off his star, weaponizing the camera, and turning shock into art. Few films have left a deeper mark on American cinema; after Psycho, audiences, filmmakers, and the entire horror genre were never the same.

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
English, 69 min.

 

A Canadian nurse arrives at a Caribbean plantation to care for a man's catatonic wife and finds herself enveloped in voodoo, family secrets, and dreamlike dread. Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie transforms B-movie horror into eerie, atmospheric poetry, suffused with shadow and sorrow.

November 4–7

Film still from Ikiru (1952). Image of a man walking in the rain.
Film still from Pompei Below the Clouds (2025). Image of a man looking at scans on a light table.
Film still from The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025). Image of a woman with a headset.

IKIRU (1952)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Japanese, 143 min.

Roots and Routes

 

A bureaucrat learns he has only months to live and realizes he's never truly lived at all. Faced with his own mortality, he sets out to find meaning before it's too late. Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru is a profound meditation on mortality and grace.

POMPEI: BELOW THE CLOUDS (2025)
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
Italian, 115 min.

The Future of Nature

 

Gianfranco Rosi's black-and-white documentary captures Naples living under the shadow of Vesuvius. Archaeologists, teachers, and firefighters carry on amid the ever-present tremors of a city built on ash.

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (2025)*
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
Arabic and English, 89 min.

Miscellaneous

 

On January 29, 2024, Red Crescent volunteers received an emergency call: a young Palestinian girl trapped under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. This docudrama reconstructs that day using Hind's real recorded voice — a restrained, devastating act of remembrance and accountability.

November 11–14

Film still from Pelle the Conqueror (1987). Image of a young boy standing against a fence.
Film still from The Atomic Cafe (1982). Image of a person in a hazmat suit on a bike, an atomic bomb explosion edited in the background.
Film still from Wings (1985). Image of a World War II airplane in the air.

Pelle the Conqueror (1987)*
Directed by Bille August
Danish and Swedish, 157 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Pelle and his aging father Lasse arrive in 19th-century Denmark from Sweden, seeking work but finding only grueling labor and poverty on a remote farm. Bille August's sweeping epic of survival and dignity won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Palme d'Or.

THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982)*
Directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty
English, 86 min.

The Future of Nature

 

The Atomic Cafe weaves together decades of Cold War propaganda and civil defense footage into a haunting look at how America normalized nuclear fear. Cheerful newsreels sit uneasily beside "duck and cover" drills. It's a sobering time capsule of a nation preparing for a war that could end human life on Earth.

WINGS (1966)
Directed by Larisa Shepitko
Russian, 85 min.

Miscellaneous

 

Decades after flying combat missions in World War II, Nadia now runs a vocational school — restless, disconnected, and unable to find her place in peacetime. Wings is a haunting, quietly radical portrait of a woman caught between heroism's past and an unfulfilling present.

November 18–21

Film still from Flavors of Iraq (2025). Image of three men at a table, each smoking and drinking coffee.
Film still from Silent Friend (2025). Image of a man looking at devices that are monitoring a tree.
Film still from It Was Just an Accident (2025). Image of a bride and groom getting photos on a staircase, the banister railing covered in flowers.

FLAVORS OF IRAQ (2025)*
Directed by Léonard Cohen
French and Arabic, 95 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Feurat Alani revisits memories of his late father and Iraq's modern history — from Saddam's dictatorship through war and occupation — in this tender animated documentary. Léonard Cohen blends personal grief and national upheaval into vivid, sensory imagery.

SILENT FRIEND (2025)*
Directed by Ildikó Enyedi
German and English, 147 min.

The Future of Nature

 

A centuries-old ginkgo tree on a German university campus quietly binds three eras — 1908, 1972, and 2020 — each shot on different film stock. Silent Friend is a contemplative, beautiful meditation on plants, perception, and our connection to the living world.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (2025)*
Directed by Sepideh Farsi
English and Arabic, 113 min.

Miscellaneous

 

Created through a year of video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and photojournalist Fatma Hassona, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk offers a personal, intimate account of life under siege in Gaza.

November 25–28

THANKSGIVING, NO SCREENINGS THIS WEEK

December 2–5

Film still from The Wonders (2014). Image of a woman standing with her three daughters at the doorway, looking concerned.
Film still from Spirited Away (2001). Image of a girl at a market.
Film still from The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Image of a man bowing to royalty.

THE WONDERS (2014)*
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Italian, 110 min.

Roots and Routes

 

In rural Tuscany, a family of beekeepers — four daughters and their strict father — lives in near-total isolation, until a troubled teenage boy and a kitschy TV crew disrupt their world. Alice Rohrwacher's Cannes Grand Prix winner is a tender, dreamlike portrait of childhood and family.

 

SPIRITED AWAY (2001)*
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Japanese, 124 min.

The Future of Nature

 

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away follows a young girl trapped in a mysterious spirit world, where she must work, grow, and muster the courage to find her way home. A dazzling, Oscar-winning landmark of animation, beloved for its imagination, warmth, and timeless sense of wonder.

THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (1926)*
Directed by Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch
Silent, 80 min.

100 Years of Cinema

 

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving feature-length animated film. Lotte Reiniger's intricate silhouette animation, painstakingly hand-cut from paper, brings to life a fantastical tale drawn from One Thousand and One Nights. A beautiful landmark of early cinema.

 

INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

Semester Program

**For screening times check out our homepage where showtimes are listed and updated every week

September 4–5

Film still from Shaolin Soccer (2001). Image of a monk stopped, his foot on a soccer ball, preparing to make a goal.

SHAOLIN SOCCER (2001)*
Directed by Stephen Chow
Cantonese and Mandarin, 113 min.

Encore

 

Shaolin Soccer is a sports comedy where former Shaolin monk Sing reunites his brothers to form a soccer team. They combine their superhuman kung fu skills with the game to challenge a corrupt professional team. This film is a wildly entertaining ride and a tribute to Bruce Lee.

Film still from Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (2023). Image of an older woman driving a car full of flowers.

CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT (2023)*
Directed by Tomás Gómez Bustillo
Spanish, 84 min.

Encore

 

This whimsical film is a heartfelt and humorous exploration of misplaced devotion, the need for human connection, and the miracles found in everyday misadventures.

September 9–12

Film still from Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025). Image of a mother and daughter looking out the window.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025)
Directed by Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang and Maïlys Vallade
French, 77 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Based on the autobiographical novel by Amélie Nothomp, this animated film poetically explores the world through the eyes of a three-year-old Belgian girl living in Japan.

Poster for the film, Eternal You (2024). Image of two figures hugging, one light, the other dark.

ETERNAL YOU (2024)
Directed by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck
Korean and English, 87 min.

The Age of AI

 

This documentary explores the booming digital afterlife industry, where tech startups use AI to create realistic avatars of the deceased, raising profound ethical and psychological questions about commodifying grief and the consequences of playing God in the digital age.

Film still from Chang'an (2024). Image of men in the clouds looking cheerful.

CHANG'AN (2023)
Directed by Junwei Xie and Jing Zou
Mandarin, 168 min.

Poetry

 

Chang’an chronicles the friendship between legendary poets Li Bai and Gao Shi, tracking their shifting fortunes from the Tang Dynasty to its decline during the An Lushan Rebellion, integrating classic Chinese poetry to celebrate art, ambition, and enduring camaraderie.

September 16–19

Film still from Drifting Clouds (1996). Image of a man at a movie theater, holding a dog while talking to two women.

DRIFTING CLOUDS (1996)
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki
Finnish, 95 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Navigating a brutal recession with wry humor and immense dignity, this Finnish gem proves that resilience can be the ultimate feel-good act. It is a masterful, understated tribute to working-class love and the enduring human spirit

Film still from Belle (2021). Image of the main character, Belle in the web, message bubbles surround her.

BELLE (2021)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Japanese, 121 min.

The Age of AI

 

Suzu, a shy teen, escapes her quiet rural life by entering "U," a massive global metaverse. As her radiant online persona, "Belle," she becomes a worldwide musical phenomenon. Her vibrant new life takes a dramatic turn when she crosses paths with a mysterious, hunted dragon.

Film still from Executive Order (2020). Image of three people at a bar, talking.

EXECUTIVE ORDER (2020)*
Directed by Lázaro Ramos
Portuguese, 103 min.

Poetry

 

In a chilling near-future, Executive Order explores an authoritarian Brazil that mandates the forced exile of all Black citizens. The film delivers a striking and thought-provoking parable about structural racism and the fragility of human rights.

September 23–26

Film still from The Last Journey (2024). Image of two men pushing a yellow car on a road with a view of the ocean. An older man is sat inside of the car.

THE LAST JOURNEY (2024)
Directed by Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson
Swedish, 95 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Desperate to rekindle his ailing father's passion for life, filmmaker Filip Hammar and his best friend Fredrik Wikingsson embark on a trip to France. This documentary balances humor and heartbreak. It is a life-affirming tribute to family, aging, and the enduring power of love.

Film still from Artificial Justice (2024). Image of a man being scanned. Text identifying his position sits at the bottom left corner.

ARTIFICIAL JUSTICE (2024)*
Directed by Simón Casal
Spanish, 98 min.

The Age of AI

 

When the government moves to replace judges with AI software, distinguished judge Carmen Costa is invited to assess the system — until its creator turns up dead. Casal's taut political thriller asks who really controls justice, and what we lose when we hand it to a machine.

Film still from Hamnet (2025). Image of a crowd reaching up to an actor on a stage during a performance of the play, Hamlet.

HAMNET (2035)*
Directed by Chloé Zao
English, 125 min.

Poetry

 

In 16th-century Stratford, Agnes and William Shakespeare experience love, sorrow, and unimaginable loss. Chloé Zhao's luminous, grief-stricken drama asks how loss becomes art — and how a father's anguish echoes across centuries as Hamlet.

September 30 – October 3

Film still from Lorena, Light-Footed Woman (2018). Image of three woman walking down a dirt path in the mountains.

LORENA, LIGHT FOOTED WOMAN (2018)
Directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo
Spanish, Tarahumara, 28 min.

 

In the mountains of Chihuahua, Lorena Ramírez herds goats, tends to her family, and runs ultramarathons in sandals and a traditional dress — and wins. This luminous short documentary celebrates a Rarámuri woman whose quiet life and feet carry the weight of an ancient culture.

Film still from Los Olvidados (1950). Image of a boy standing at an open door, watching as another, younger, boy iron smiths.

LOS OLVIDADOS (1950)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Spanish, 80 min.

Roots and Routes

 

In the slums of Mexico City, street kids prey on the weak and on each other. Buñuel's unsparing masterpiece offers no redemption for the poor — only the brutal logic of survival. Surrealism flickers beneath the gritty surface. One of cinema's most haunting cries of social fury.

Film still from Total Trust (2023). Image of a woman and son being filmed on a phone, the boy holding an iPad with an image of his father.

TOTAL TRUST (2023)
Directed by Jialing Zhang
Mandarin, 97 min.

The Age of AI

 

In China, big data and government power combine to perfect control over citizens. Three women fight for their rights against a surveillance state that employs facial recognition, big data analysis, and behavioural scoring systems. What does truth matter when the state can simply manufacture its own?

Film still from And, Towards Happy Alleys (2023). Image of a woman sitting on a salt flat, a man on a horse in the water in the distance.

AND, TOWARDS HAPPY ALLEYS (2023)
Directed by Sreemoyee Singh
Persian, 75 min.

Poetry

 

An Indian filmmaker travels to Tehran, learns Farsi, and spends six years in conversation with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and others living under the shadow of censorship and imprisonment. A tender love letter to Iranian cinema, poetry, and the women refusing to be silenced.

October 7–10

Film still from Daughter of the Plains (2025). Image of a church standing in an empty plain.

DAUGHTER OF THE PLAINS (2025)
Directed by Doug Cunningham
English, 38 min.

 

A celebrated actress trades the spotlight for the plains of Montana, confronting the son — and the life — she walked away from twenty years ago. Daughter of the Plains is a quietly devastating portrait of guilt, longing, and the cost of the roads not taken.

Film still from Omaha (2025). Image of a girl looking out.

OMAHA (2025)
Directed by Cole Webley
English, 83 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Set against the 2008 recession, Cole Webley's heartbreaking drama Omaha frames a desperate cross-country road trip through the eyes of two young children. As their father unspools, innocent vacation illusions shatter into a quiet, devastating realization of hidden homelessness.

Film still from Happyend (2024). Image of two high school aged boys looking over the city, red boxes identify their positions.

HAPPYEND (2024)*
Directed by Neo Sora
Japanese, 113 min.

The Age of AI

 

In a near-future Tokyo shadowed by earthquake warnings and government surveillance, a group of high school friends navigate their final year as their bonds are tested by growing political unrest. Neo Sora's debut is a quietly urgent coming-of-age story about what it means to resist.

Film still from Poetry (2010). Image of an older woman singing at karaoke.

POETRY (2010)*
Directed by Lee Chang-dong
Korean, 139 min.

Poetry

 

Mija, a warm-hearted woman in her sixties, enrolls in a poetry class as early Alzheimer's begins to cloud her memory. When her teenage grandson becomes implicated in a devastating crime, she must reckon with beauty and complicity at the same time.

October 14–17

Film still from All That's Left of You (2025). Image of a family during a wedding, posing to get their photo taken.

ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOU (2025)*
Directed by Cherien Dabis
Arabic, English, Hebrew, 146 min.

Roots and Routes

 

When a Palestinian teenager is wounded during a West Bank protest, his mother begins to trace the decades of displacement, loss, and endurance that brought their family to this moment — from the Nakba of 1948 to the present. An intimate multigenerational saga.

Image of the film, Arco (2025). Image of two children flying, a multicolored background behind them.

ARCO (2025)
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu and Gilles Cazaux
French and English, 88 min.

The Age of AI

 

In 2075, robots raise children while wildfires rage outside protective domes. When a boy from a greener, distant future crash-lands into lonely Iris's world, their friendship becomes a hand-drawn fable — warm as Miyazaki, quietly urgent as the world it imagines.

Film still from A Poet (2025). Image of a man sitting, looking at a woman who is sat next to him.

A POET (2025)*
Directed by Simón Mesa Soto
Spanish, 123 min.

Poetry

 

In the backstreets of Medellín, a once-celebrated poet stumbles through failure with persistence. When he takes a gifted young woman under his wing, Simón Mesa Soto's deadpan tragicomedy becomes an irresistible — and quietly devastating — portrait of art, ego, and the hunger to create.

October 21–24

Film still from Once Upon My Mother (2025). Image of a mother holding her son.

ONCE UPON MY MOTHER (2025)
Directed by Ken Scott
French, 102 min.

Roots and Routes

 

A force-of-nature mother, a clubfoot diagnosis doctors call hopeless, and one stubborn promise: her son will walk, dance, and live a fabulous life. Set to Sylvie Vartan's music, this is a joyful portrait of a big, vibrant family whose love and chaos make them richer than any fortune.

Film still from Let the River Flow (2023). Image of two men sitting on the back of a car, the man on the right smoking.

LET THE RIVER FLOW (2023)*
Directed by Ole Giæver
Norwegian, Saami, Swedish, 118 min.

The Future of Nature

 

Summer 1979: a hydroelectric dam threatens to drown the Alta-Kautokeino river, the lifeblood of Sámi land. Ester, a young teacher who has long hidden her heritage, is pulled into the protest camps along its banks — and into a reckoning with the land, her people, and herself.

Film still from The Learning Tree (1969). Image of a boy and girl talking and smiling as they stand under a tree.

THE LEARNING TREE (1969)*
Directed by Gordon Parks
English, 107 min. 

Miscellaneous

 

Gordon Parks made history with this 1969 film — becoming the first Black director to helm a major Hollywood studio production. Adapting his own semi-autobiographical novel, Parks tells the story of a Black teenager's coming-of-age in the 1920s, also writing and scoring the film himself.

October 28–31 Halloween

Film still from Dracula (1931). Image of Dracula leaning over a sleeping woman.

DRÁCULA (1931)
Directed by George Melford
Spanish and Hungarian, 103 min.

 

Made under cover of darkness — literally, shot overnight — this Spanish-language Drácula is a hidden gem of early horror. George Melford's atmospheric, sensual take on the vampire legend, anchored by Carlos Villarías's hypnotic Count, has quietly become a cult favorite.

Film still from Psycho (1960). Image of a woman's face, screaming.

PSYCHO (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
English, 109 min.

 

With Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock shattered the rules of Hollywood storytelling: killing off his star, weaponizing the camera, and turning shock into art. Few films have left a deeper mark on American cinema; after Psycho, audiences, filmmakers, and the entire horror genre were never the same.

Film still from I Walked With a Zombie (1943). Image of two women in a corn field, looking up.

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
English, 69 min.

 

A Canadian nurse arrives at a Caribbean plantation to care for a man's catatonic wife and finds herself enveloped in voodoo, family secrets, and dreamlike dread. Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie transforms B-movie horror into eerie, atmospheric poetry, suffused with shadow and sorrow.

November 4–7

Film still from Ikiru (1952). Image of a man walking in the rain.

IKIRU (1952)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Japanese, 143 min.

Roots and Routes

 

A bureaucrat learns he has only months to live and realizes he's never truly lived at all. Faced with his own mortality, he sets out to find meaning before it's too late. Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru is a profound meditation on mortality and grace.

Film still from Pompei Below the Clouds (2025). Image of a man looking at scans on a light table.

POMPEI: BELOW THE CLOUDS (2025)
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
Italian, 115 min.

The Future of Nature

 

Gianfranco Rosi's black-and-white documentary captures Naples living under the shadow of Vesuvius. Archaeologists, teachers, and firefighters carry on amid the ever-present tremors of a city built on ash.

Film still from The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025). Image of a woman with a headset.

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (2025)*
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
Arabic and English, 89 min.

Miscellaneous

 

On January 29, 2024, Red Crescent volunteers received an emergency call: a young Palestinian girl trapped under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. This docudrama reconstructs that day using Hind's real recorded voice — a restrained, devastating act of remembrance and accountability.

November 11–14

Film still from Pelle the Conqueror (1987). Image of a young boy standing against a fence.

Pelle the Conqueror (1987)*
Directed by Bille August
Danish and Swedish, 157 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Pelle and his aging father Lasse arrive in 19th-century Denmark from Sweden, seeking work but finding only grueling labor and poverty on a remote farm. Bille August's sweeping epic of survival and dignity won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Palme d'Or.

Film still from The Atomic Cafe (1982). Image of a person in a hazmat suit on a bike, an atomic bomb explosion edited in the background.

THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982)*
Directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, and Pierce Rafferty
English, 86 min.

The Future of Nature

 

The Atomic Cafe weaves together decades of Cold War propaganda and civil defense footage into a haunting look at how America normalized nuclear fear. Cheerful newsreels sit uneasily beside "duck and cover" drills. It's a sobering time capsule of a nation preparing for a war that could end human life on Earth.

Film still from Wings (1985). Image of a World War II airplane in the air.

WINGS (1966)
Directed by Larisa Shepitko
Russian, 85 min.

Miscellaneous

 

Decades after flying combat missions in World War II, Nadia now runs a vocational school — restless, disconnected, and unable to find her place in peacetime. Wings is a haunting, quietly radical portrait of a woman caught between heroism's past and an unfulfilling present.

November 18–21

Film still from Flavors of Iraq (2025). Image of three men at a table, each smoking and drinking coffee.

FLAVORS OF IRAQ (2025)*
Directed by Léonard Cohen
French and Arabic, 95 min.

Roots and Routes

 

Feurat Alani revisits memories of his late father and Iraq's modern history — from Saddam's dictatorship through war and occupation — in this tender animated documentary. Léonard Cohen blends personal grief and national upheaval into vivid, sensory imagery.

Film still from Silent Friend (2025). Image of a man looking at devices that are monitoring a tree.

SILENT FRIEND (2025)*
Directed by Ildikó Enyedi
German and English, 147 min.

The Future of Nature

 

A centuries-old ginkgo tree on a German university campus quietly binds three eras — 1908, 1972, and 2020 — each shot on different film stock. Silent Friend is a contemplative, beautiful meditation on plants, perception, and our connection to the living world.

Film still from It Was Just an Accident (2025). Image of a bride and groom getting photos on a staircase, the banister railing covered in flowers.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (2025)*
Directed by Sepideh Farsi
English and Arabic, 113 min.

Miscellaneous

 

Created through a year of video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and photojournalist Fatma Hassona, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk offers a personal, intimate account of life under siege in Gaza.

November 25–28

THANKSGIVING, NO SCREENINGS THIS WEEK

December 2–5

Film still from The Wonders (2014). Image of a woman standing with her three daughters at the doorway, looking concerned.

THE WONDERS (2014)*
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Italian, 110 min.

Roots and Routes

 

In rural Tuscany, a family of beekeepers — four daughters and their strict father — lives in near-total isolation, until a troubled teenage boy and a kitschy TV crew disrupt their world. Alice Rohrwacher's Cannes Grand Prix winner is a tender, dreamlike portrait of childhood and family.

 

Film still from Spirited Away (2001). Image of a girl at a market.

SPIRITED AWAY (2001)*
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Japanese, 124 min.

The Future of Nature

 

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away follows a young girl trapped in a mysterious spirit world, where she must work, grow, and muster the courage to find her way home. A dazzling, Oscar-winning landmark of animation, beloved for its imagination, warmth, and timeless sense of wonder.

Film still from The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Image of a man bowing to royalty.

THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (1926)*
Directed by Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch
Silent, 80 min.

100 Years of Cinema

 

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving feature-length animated film. Lotte Reiniger's intricate silhouette animation, painstakingly hand-cut from paper, brings to life a fantastical tale drawn from One Thousand and One Nights. A beautiful landmark of early cinema.