LITTLE PALESTINE: DIARY OF A SIEGE

Lebanon, France, Qatar 2021 - DCP - 89 minutes, in Arabic with English subtitles

Director: Abdallah Al Khatib

Producers: Mohammad Ali Atassi, Jean-Laurent Csinidis

Print Courtesy: Lightdox

A tough, yet warm and humanity-loving film in a war zone? With after-the-fact echoes of Ukraine now echoing in some ways, LITTLE PALESTINE: DIARY OF A SIEGE takes us back just a small way in the world’s troubled history. During the Syrian civil war, Yarmouk, a district of Damascus, where thousands of Palestinians are refugees, was the site of fierce fighting. LITTLE PALESTINE is a filmed diary that follows the fate of civilians during the brutal siege imposed by the Syrian regime following these battles. Yarmoukborn filmmaker Abdallah Al-Khatib composes a love song to a place that, seemingly impossibly, resists the atrocities of war with dignity. —Ken Eisen Sponsored by Michael Brown

Sunday, July 10 3:15 P.M. | RR2

Thursday, July 14 6:15 P.M. | RR2

Eastern U.S. Premiere MILLIE LIES LOW

New Zealand 2022 - DCP - 100 minutes, in English

Director: Michelle Savill

Screenplay: Michelle Savill, Eli Kent

Producers: Desray Armstrong, Angela Littlejohn

Cast: Ana Scotney, Chris Alosio, Alice May Connolly

Print Courtesy: Reason8 Films

Nothing and everything happens in MILLIE LIES LOW, New Zealander Michelle Savill’s truly remarkable first feature. Just as her flight to New York is about to leave the gate, Millie insists she be let off the plane. In the moment, she gives no thought to the honor of her having won an internship at a prestigious architecture firm, nor the good friends who saw her off in celebration, nor her new status as a national media figure, stepping out to represent New Zealand on the world stage. Once disembarked, Millie is crestfallen to discover it is no small matter to rebook her flight unless she pays a hefty fee. She leaves the airport determined to find the money, even as she keeps her whereabouts a secret by posting on Instagram a generic image taken in flight above billowy clouds. But on the earth she never left, in a sort of hiding-out of her self-constructed embarrassment, Millie finds the money hard to get and an ever-increasing spiral of stories and images become necessary to invent to cover her tracks. MILLIE LIES LOW is compassionate yet wryly comic, a real discovery.

—Ken Eisen

Maine Premiere MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS

United Kingdom 2022 - DCP - 115 minutes, in English

Director: Anthony Fabian

Screenplay: Anthony Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, Olivia Hetreed

Producers: Guillaume Benski, Anthony Fabian, Xavier Marchand

Cast: Leslie Manville, Lambert Wilson, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Rose Williams, Anna Chancellor

Print Courtesy: Focus Features

Saturday, July 9 6:30 P.M. | WOH

In post-World War II London, Ada Harris (Oscar nominee Lesley Manville) earns a living cleaning houses. She’s led a lonely life since her beloved husband Eddie went missing in action, but she’s not the type to brood over any misfortune or to complain about her circumstances. But when the ever-pragmatic Ada spies an unimaginably lovely Christian Dior gown hanging in the master bedroom of a wealthy client, she’s surprised to feel an overwhelming pang of desire. Owning something so ethereal, so beautiful, a true work of art—why, that could really change things for a person, she instinctively feels. After taking on extra jobs and saving as much as she can—even trying her luck at the race track—Ada finally can afford to pay for a Dior dress. She makes her way to Paris to visit the House of Dior to turn her dream into reality. Yet when she arrives, Ada is met with a series of surprising setbacks, not least of which is Dior’s intimidating Madame Colbert (Academy Award nominee Isabelle Huppert), who bristles at the very notion of a common charlady wearing haute couture. Adapting author Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel Mrs. ’Arris Goes to Paris, for the screen, writer/director Anthony Fabian creates a winning modern-day fairytale in MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS. —Ken Eisen