Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center - California Film Institute

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
A SELECTION OF OSCAR ® SUBMISSIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
U.S Premiere
Keep Smiling (Gaigimet)
GEORGIA
Friday January 11, 6:30 / Saturday, January 12, 3:00
This hilarious satire from female writer-director Rusudan
Chkonia follows ten highly desperate housewives who
enter a beauty contest in the hopes of nabbing a coveted
apartment and $25,000 prize. But dreams are quick to
vanish as realization dawns that the competition is a
complete farce, and they are subjected to media hounds,
chauvinist pigs and their own domestic nightmares. 94 min.
Blancanieves
SPAIN
Friday, January 11, 8:30
A gorgeous, black-and-white homage to the Golden Age
of Europe’s silent cinema, the intoxicating Blancanieves
relocates the tale of Snow White to a sweepingly romantic
vision of 1920s Spain, where young Carmen escapes from
her wicked stepmother to find fame as a matador, joining a
traveling troupe of bullfighting dwarves and rising to fame
under the stage name Blancanieves. 104 min.
Our Children (À perdre la raison)
BELGIUM
Saturday, January 12, 6:00
Émilie Dequenne won an award at Cannes for her
stunning performance as a lonely and isolated young
mother caught in a strange and increasingly stultifying
love triangle between her husband (Tahar Rahim) and a
wealthy physician (Niels Arestrup). Director Joachim
Lafosse deftly tackles the tough subjects of immigration,
cross-cultural relations and “green-card marriage” in this
expertly-crafted suspense drama. 111 min.
Pieta
SOUTH KOREA
Saturday, January 12, 8:30
Overlord of a small ramshackle industrial district in Seoul,
young loan-shark Kang-do (Lee Jung-jin) exacts his pound
of flesh – literally – from those who will not pay up with
interest. When a beautiful and mysterious woman (Cho
Min-soo) appears claiming to be his mother, Kang-do’s
transformation brings shocking results. Director Kim
Ki-duk won top prize at the 2012 Venice Film Festival for
this electrifying commentary on loneliness, alienation and
greed. 104 min.
The Delay
URUGUAY
Sunday, January 13, 4:30
Harried single mom María barely has a moment to herself
between working in a garment factory, taking sewing jobs
on the side, and caring for her three young children and her
80-year-old father Agustin, who is senile and increasingly
fragile. Unable to get Agustin placed in a proper facility,
María makes a desperate move, in Rodrigo Pia’s sensitive
exploration of family bonds pushed to the point of breaking.
94 min.
Nairobi Half Life
KENYA
Sunday, January 13, 6:30
Despite his parents’ wishes, Mwas leaves his small village
and embarks on a journey to Kenya’s capital to pursue
a career in acting, but he quickly learns why the city is
nicknamed “Nairobbery.” A few innocent mistakes land
him in jail, then in a gang, and as he learns how to survive,
Mwas is torn between his new lifestyle of theft and his
dream of becoming an actor. 99 min.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11 TO THURSDAY, JANUARY 17
Each year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invites dozens of countries to submit a single film for consideration in the category of Foreign
Language Film. This year 71 films have been accepted for competition and for the tenth consecutive year, the Smith Rafael Film Center presents a choice
sampling. This is a rare opportunity to view some of the most distinguished works in international cinema, many of which are film festival prizewinners.
Sponsored by the
Consulate General of Spain
Kauwboy
War Witch (Rebelle)
CANADA
Sunday, January 13, 8:30
This vibrant saga of a child soldier locates humanity and
hope in a brutal world. Fourteen-year-old Komona finds
her childhood abruptly, interrupted as soldiers take
her away with other adolescents for training in guerilla
warfare. Visually transporting, especially in surreal dream
sequences, the film grounds its humane core in a deep
appreciation of African myth and culture. 90 min.
Special CFI Members’ Screening
Kon-Tiki
NORWAY
Monday, January 14, 6:30
Invitation Only - Join CFI Today!
Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Golden
Globe-nominated epic dramatizes the amazing adventures
of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who crossed the
Pacific in 1947 with five men on a balsa wood raft, relying
solely on the stars, currents and a simple radio to guide
them from Peru to Polynesia. Beautiful cinematography
complements this tale of courage, conviction and bravado.
118 min.
The Intouchables
FRANCE
Monday, January 14, 9:00
In this sidesplitting and poignant comedy of manners,
directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano cast two of
France’s top contemporary actors. When quadriplegic
aristocrat Philippe (François Cluzet) hires Driss (Omar Sy),
a ne’er-do-well from the wrong side of the Métro tracks as
his live-in caregiver, all hell breaks loose in this delightful
odd-couple tale. 112 min.
When Day Breaks
(Kad svane dan)
SERBIA
Tuesday, January 15, 6:30
A discovery at the site of a Nazi death camp leads a retired
music professor to find out the secret of his true origins, in
this moving drama from director Goran Paskaljevi. What
do you do when you find out you’re not who you thought you
were? Shock soon gives way to a determination to fulfill
the shattered dreams that he has inherited- an iron resolve
that infuses him with new purpose and a second lease on
life. 90 min.
SERIES PROGRAMMED BY KAREN DAVIS AND JANIS PLOTKIN
The Third Half (Treto poluvreme)
MACEDONIA
Tuesday, January 15, 8:30
Director Darko Mitrevski’s beautiful and haunting love
story begins on the eve of Nazi invasion, when star soccer
forward Kosta falls for the stunning Rebecca, and the
young lovers suffer the scorn of their religious and class
differences, especially from Rebecca’s father, a prominent
Sephardic Jewish banker. Kosta dreams of taking the
Macedonian Football Club to the Olympics until Nazi tanks
roll in and the game changes for everyone. 113 min.
Clandestine Childhood
(Infancia clandestina)
ARGENTINA
Wednesday, January 16, 6:30
Thursday, January 17, 8:15
Set in 1979 during Argentina’s military dictatorship,
Benjamín Ávila’s mesmerizing, semi-autobiographical
story follows the travails of a fifth-grader who is forced
to live under an assumed identity in order to protect
his passionate resistance-fighter parents. Clandestine
Childhood is a gripping, intensely personal account of a
turbulent time and a meditation on the skewed perceptions
of memory. 108 min.
The Deep (Djúpi)
ICELAND
Wednesday, January 16, 8:30
On March 11, 1984, a fishing boat sailing from the Westmann
Islands sank in the frigid waters off the south coast of
Iceland. Director Baltasar Kormákur’s gripping tale of one
man’s incredible determination to survive is taken directly
from the accounts of the lone survivor of the disaster, who
swam nearly seven kilometers across the freezing water to
shore, where his journey did not end. 91 min.
Kauwboy
NETHERLANDS
Thursday, January 17, 6:30
The Deep Our Children
Blancanieves
Ten-year-old Jojo lives with his sometimes erratic father,
a security guard of few words. Missing his absent mother,
a country singer, he finds an unexpected friend in an
abandoned baby bird. A tender portrait of a boy trying to
come to terms with a family that isn’t what it once was,
this bittersweet but ultimately joyful portrait of acceptance
and love was awarded Best First Feature at the 2012 Berlin
Film Festival. 77 min.