world cinema
world cinema
world cinema
v(ision)fest
Happy-Go-Lucky
Heart of Fire (Feuerherz)
Hello, Stranger (Cher-eum man-nan
Hi De Ho Show
SPOTLIGHT • Director Mike Leigh recalibrates his incisive exploration of working-class grit and grapple in this brightly colored character study of perhaps the happiest person in London. Meet Poppy (Sally Hawkins): a free-spirited, single, 30-year-old primary school teacher. Like a human rainbow, she is perpetually cheerful and good humored. A painful round of physical therapy can make her laugh; the theft of her beloved bicycle is met with a simple, “I didn’t get to say goodbye.” But not everyone responds to Poppy’s good cheer with equal appreciation, including her uptight driving instructor, Scott. Hawkins’ exceptional performance (winner of the Silver Bear award for Best Actress at the Berlinale) embodies all that is at once endearing and irritating in Poppy’s persona as she encounters a series of people and events that challenge even her unfathomable optimism, raising the question, Just how hard is it to be happy? US Premiere
In 1981, Eritrea was in the midst of a battle for independence from Ethiopia, but no battle was as violent as the one the Eritrean rebels waged against each other. A young girl named Awet is taken from the warm nest of a Catholic orphanage and delivered to the rebels as a future warrior. Awet’s passion for the rebellion strikes a chord with the leaders, who treat her kindly for it, but in a roving war zone there’s little nurturing to be offered, and Awet faces atrocities and contradictions that prove the world outside the orphanage is indeed unsafe for one developing her own independence. Masterful pacing and elegant, understated direction by Luigi Falorni (The Story of the Weeping Camel) mark this beautifully made film, as well as an incredible performance by Letekidan Micael as Awet, a naïve yet strong girl capable of making her own way.
sa-ram-deul)
FOCUS: ASIA • Every year, dozens of North Koreans gain citizenship in the south to pursue dreams of a brighter tomorrow. As Kim DongHyun’s dramedy depicts, it isn’t geographical relocation so much as culture shock that subsequently sends immigrants into a tizzy. Passing his refugee-center exam, Jin-Wook (Park In-Soo) starts a new life in Seoul. All too soon, however, he is overwhelmingly lonely, lost and—after a trip to the local megastore to buy a blanket—totally unprepared for capitalism. A taxi driver who defected a decade earlier finally helps Jin-Wook get his bearings, and when he meets a Vietnamese traveler looking for his girlfriend, Jin-Wook gets the chance to pay his good fortune forward. Part wry road movie and part fish-out-ofwater parable, this gentle film looks at the Korean divide with humor and affection. No matter where you are, it seems human kindness is around the corner.
Village Music is alive and well and coming to a festival near you! The inimitable John Goddard, grand master of all things musical, mentor to musicians monolithic and multifarious and maestro of the movin’ and shakin’ image returns with an all-new, eye-popping, brainwarping Hi De Ho Show. This year’s theme: All I ever learned I learned from television. Goddard’s veejayed music clip show considers all things televisual, exploring what happens to music when you put it on, in or take it out of the box: lipsynching; live performances; first appearances by major artists; people doing what they don’t normally do; people we never would have heard of if not for TV. Oh, and some odd, well, couplings (imagine: Tom Jones and . . . Janis Joplin). And how about Bette Davis doing rock ’n’ roll? Makes you wonder whatever happened to Baby Jane, right? As ever, anything can happen at the Hi De Ho Show. All Goddard promises is “oddball stuff, major stuff. It’s just . . . stuff!”
—David Fear
—Zoë Elton
Director/Screenwriter Kim Dong-Hyun Producers Kim Dong-Hyun, Park Jin-Soo Cinematographer On Jeong-Ok Editor Lee Do Hyun Cast Park In-Soo, Choi Hee-JIn, Quang Su, Bang Young, JIn Yong-Wook, Kim Song-Il, Woo Don-Gi Print Source Indiestory
Saturday, October 4, 9:30 pm
—Joanne Parsont Director/Screenwriter Mike Leigh Producer Simon Channing Williams Cinematographer Dick Pope Editor Jim Clark Cast Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Andrea Riseborough Print Source Miramax Films
UK 2008 118 MINS Tuesday, October 7, 6:30 pm
—Sara Schieron Director Luigi Falorni Producers Andreas Bareiss, Sven Burgemeister, Gloria Burkert, Bevnd Burgemeister Screenwriters Luigi Falorni, Gabriele Kister Cinematographer Judith Kaufmann Editors Claudia Gladzjejewski, Hubert von Spreti Cast Letekidan Micael, Solomie Micael, Seble Tilahun, Daniel Seyoum, Mekdes Wegene, Samuel Semere Print Source Seventh Art Releasing
SPOT07R, Rafael
Germany/Italy/Austria/France 2008 94 MINS
Thursday, October 9, 9:30 pm
Saturday, October 11, 3:00 pm
HAPP09S, Sequoia
HEAR11S, Sequoia
* For Spotlight event information, see page 11.
Sunday, October 12, 6:45 pm
Sponsored by Frantoio Ristorante & Olive Oil Co.
HE AR12T, 142 Throckmorton
HIDE04S, Sequoia Saturday, October 11, 9:00 pm HIDE11R, Rafael
South Korea 2007 113 MINS Thursday, October 9, 6:30 pm HELL09R, Rafael Sunday, October 12, 7:00 pm HELL12R, Rafael Presented in association with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
87 tickets 877.874.6833
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9/18/08 5:14:50 AM