USA
Director: Anna Musso

L Train is the story of Sunny, a teenaged African American girl. Her commute through an inner city Chicago winter reinforces a negativity in her, until one day an encounter with a young woman who is differently abled forces her to consider replacing her anger with compassion. L Train is a brief, humble reminder of what we all might miss every day.

11 min

The Netherlands
Director: Lisa Boerstra

Lisbeth and Angelique Raeven are twin sisters who comprise the somewhat notorious video and performance duo L.A. Raeven. Their complex and strained relationship unfolds in front of Lisa Boerstra’s intimate camera while they work and live through the creation of two new performance pieces. Inter-cutting scenes from earlier work and home videos from their childhood, viewers are privy to the daily routines and conversations at the home and studio they share.

Dutch with subtitles, 74 min

France / Germany
Director: Michale Boganim

To the citizens of Prypiat, April 26, 1986 began just like any other day. Anya (Olga Kurylenko, Quantum of Solace) and Piotr celebrate their marriage while young Valery spends time with his physicist father, oblivious to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that is irrevocably changing their lives. What follows is a lyrical, pathos-filled portrait of the next ten years of those powerless to separate themselves from the town and its defining tragedy.

French, Russian, Ukranian with subtitles, 107 min

USA
Director: Joe Maggio

The Chicago International Film Festival is honored to celebrate the latest creation from two giant Chicago institutions: Dennis Farina and the Steppenwolf Theater Company. Farina (Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Law and Order) gives the finest performance of his career as an aging hustler whose way of life is at a crossroads in this film shot in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. Written and directed by Festival veteran Joe Maggio and featuring members of the Steppenwolf ensemble, The Last Rites of Joe May is a prime example of the vitality of Chicago filmmaking.

103 min

Finland
Director: Aki Kaurismaki

Humanity and dead-pan wit triumph in Aki Kauriskmäki’s magical tale of an aging Bohemian shoeshine and a young African refugee. When fate lands Idrissa at Marcel Marx’s doorstep in the French port city of Le Havre, Marcel knows what has to be done. Enlisting the help of the whole neighbourhood of eccentrics and in defiance of all authority, he embarks on a risky plan to reconnect the boy with his mother.

French with subtitles, 93 min