NEW FEATURES

Tuesday, July 12 9:30 P.M. | RR1

Sunday, July 17 3:30 P.M. | WOH

New England Premiere

The Big Payback

USA 2022 - DCP - 88 minutes, in English

Directors: Erika Alexander, Whitney Dow

Producers: Ben Arnon, Xan Parker

Print Courtesy: Ben Arnon

In Evanston, Illinois, freshly elected city Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons makes a risky promise to her constituents: that her city will fix the age-old disparities in the community by paying reparations to its Black residents. While Evanston is a somewhat progressive college town, it’s also a city influenced by the infamous redlining practices of nearby Chicago. And even Simmons’ political idol, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, must face down inexorable Congressional obstinance in her push to get a vote on a national reparations bill that has been stuck in committee for decades. But Simmons bravely pushes to earmark the dollars even before the legislation is approved. Still, she isn’t prepared for the siege of attacks from forces resisting the idea of such reparations. THE BIG PAYBACK follows a courageous and righteous woman with the power to inspire. —Ken Eisen Sponsored by Nancy Sanford

Saturday, July 9 6:15 P.M. | RR2

Monday, July 11 3:30 P.M. | WOH

Eastern U.S. Premiere THE STORY OF MY WIFE

Hungary, Germany, France, Italy 2021 - DCP - 169 minutes, in English

Director, Screenplay: Ildikó Enyedi

Producers: Mónika Mécs, Ernő Mesterházy, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, Flaminio Zadra, Pilar Saavedra Perrotta, Stéphane Parthenay, Robin Boespflug-Vonier, András Muhi

Cast: Léa Seydoux, Gijs Naber, Louis Garrel

Print Courtesy: Films Boutique

MIFF favorite and guest Ildikó Enyedi’s (MY 20TH CENTURY, ON BODY AND SOUL) latest film is her most ambitious film ever. It’s a complete, delightful, fantastic success, a compound of Enyedi’s terrific filmmaking and star Léa Seydoux’s (the dazzling French actress both of European films such as BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR and international/Hollywood blockbusters such as NO TIME TO DIE) brilliance and charisma, and a terrific premise that resonates in ways large and small and current, though THE STORY OF MY WIFE is set just after World War II, and based on a long-celebrated novel. Jacob Störr, a hardened Dutch sea captain, impulsively and boastfully makes a bet that he will marry the first woman to walk into the café he’s in. That woman turns out to be Izzy and, though as gorgeous as she is smart, she may not be quite what he had in mind. “We made this film about love, passion, adventure, about the thousand colors of light—a shamelessly emotional tale about what it means to be a man, about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a human,” says Enyedi. —Ken Eisen

Maine Premiere TOM MEDINA

France 2021 - DCP - 100 minutes, in French with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay, Producer: Tony Gatlif

Cast: David Murgia, Slimane Dazi, Karoline Rose Sun

Print Courtesy: Les Films du Losange

From the director of the nonpareil music movie LATCHO DROM, Tony Gatlif, our greatest chronicler and capturer of the Rom experience, comes his new film, full of exuberance, honesty and life, TOM MEDINA, a film inspired by his own youth. A juvenile tribunal sends Tom Medina to Camargue, a region in France’s deep south, into the care of Ulysse, a kind-hearted man who lives in harmony with nature. Inhabited by visions, fascinated by bulls and horses, Tom becomes an apprentice guardian, under Ulysse’s guidance. He gives up stealing, is hungry for knowledge, and aspires to change.

Sunday, July 10 3:00 P.M. | RR3

Sunday, July 17 12:15 P.M. | RR2

Revolted by the unwavering hostility he faces; Tom continues to battle his seeming destiny. Then

TOM MEDINA is, like its subject, a bit wild and a lot charming. —Ken

Eastern U.S. Premiere TOO PUNK TO DIE

France 2021 - DCP - 56 minutes, in French with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Eugénie Grandval

Print Courtesy: Eugénie Grandval

Saturday, July 9 9:30 P.M. | RR1 Saturday, July 16 6:00 P.M. | RR3

In 1980, Gilles Bertin founded the punk band “Camera Silens” in France. Years of music, heroin addiction in squats, anarchy and robberies followed. He was one of the brains behind the legendary French Brinks robbery in 1988. Disguised as gendarmes, an improbable team of robbers— punks, anarchists and drug addicts—pulled off a storybook heist, getting away with 1.7 million francs with not a shot fired. Most of the them were arrested and convicted, but Bertin escaped and assumed a very different identity. 30 years later, long after everyone thought he was dead, he reappeared in Toulouse, turning himself in to start another new life (or a second old one). TOO PUNK TO DIE is the story of an extraordinary trajectory within the “No Future” generation. In telling Bertin’s amazing story, director Eugénie Grandval takes us to the 80’s, when rock and punk bands were screaming their disillusioned rage and revolution was frustrated but still faintly in the air, like smoke after a lingering cigarette.

—Ken Eisen