Sensitive 12-year-old Alf is the low man on his class’s totem pole, and he’s sick of it. Forming a secret alliance with another student who has also grown weary of being bullied, he hatches a plan to throw a wrench into the well-oiled gears of the school social order.
The Promised Land Bastarden
Synopsis
In 18th-century Denmark, Ludvig Kahlen (played by a rugged, windswept Mads Mikkelsen) lives with purpose and determination. After retiring from the army, he hopes to curry favor with the Danish king by embarking on a quest to settle and cultivate the unforgiving Jutland. All previous attempts to tame the heath have ended in utter failure, and the soil is thought to be hostile to crops.The harsh natural conditions aren’t the only thing standing in Ludwig’s way, however, and he soon begins to butt heads with a local landowner who worries that the settlers’ successful harvest will diminish his own power and influence.
Majestic landscape photography is punctuated with bursts of thrilling action as The Promised Land’s characters careen towards bloody confrontation.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Louise Vesth
- Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel
- Oliviér Bugge Coutté
- Rasmus Videbæk
- Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Gustav Lindh, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Simon Bennebjerg
- Zentropa Entertainment
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Synopsis
Seven-year-old Sol spends the day at her grandfather’s house, helping her sprawling family prepare a birthday party for her dying father, Tonatiuh. Behind the closed doors of his bedroom, Tona attempts to gather the strength for a celebration he never wanted, yet may be his last. As the daylight fades, complex webs of family tensions begin to tangle and break as each of Tona’s loved ones is overwhelmed by the duality of this celebration of life and death.
The childlike illusion of a harmonious family fades from Sol’s vision, and as the celebration comes to a close, she must learn to embrace the essence of letting go. A film whose spirituality transcends its story, Tótem is a warm and delicate meditation on life and loss.
Screenings & Events
Digging Deeper into Movies with Nick Davis
Sat, Oct 14 @ 12:00pm
Join Northwestern Professor and film critic Nick Davis for an interactive conversation before the Oct 14 screening of Tótem.
Free and open to the public.
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Media
Film Credits
- Tatiana Graullera, Lila Avilés, Louise Riousse
- Lila Avilés
- Omar Guzmán
- Diego Tenorio
- Naíma Sentíes, Montserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasé, Saori Gurza, Mateo García Elizondo, Teresita Sánchez, Juan Francisco Maldonado, Iazua Larios, Alberto Amador
- Thomas Becka
- Limerencia Films, Laterna, Paloma Productions, Alpha Violet Production
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
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Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Radu JudeRomania, Luxembourg, France, Croatia
Learn more...
Paradise is Burning Paradiset Brinner
Synopsis
In a working-class Swedish neighborhood, 16-year-old Laura cares for her two younger sisters, left on their own by an absent mother. For the trio and their friends, summer is wild, indulgent, and anarchic, full of ritual and mischief. But when social services schedules a meeting with their mother — who is nowhere to be found — Laura must find someone to step in or the girls risk being separated in foster care. Keeping the impending threat a secret from her sisters creates a palpable tension and conflict, sending each of them on an individual journey of discovery and connection. As the meeting with social services draws nearer, the boundaries of the girls’ radical freedom are tested by the harsh realities of growing up.
Echoing the chaotic freedom of films like The Florida Project, Mika Gustafson’s striking fiction debut is as bold as it is tender, a refreshingly forthright coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of sisterhood.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Nima Yousefi, Marco Valerio Fusco, Micaela Fusco, Maria Stevnbak Westergren, Venla Hellstedt, Jenni Jauri
- Mika Gustafson, Alex Öhrstrand
- Anders Skov
- Sine Vadstrup Brooker
- Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, Safira Mossberg, Ida Engvoll, Mitja Siren
- Giorgio Giampà
- Hobab, Intramovies, Toolbox Films, Tuffi Films
- https://www.intramovies.com/production/paradise-is-burning/
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
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Club Zero
Synopsis
Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner (Little Joe) returns to the director’s chair with a provocative thriller out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Crimson Peak) stars as Ms. Novak, a nutrition teacher at an elite prep school whose dogma of “conscious eating” quickly devolves into cult-like conformity for a group of seven teens. By the time their parents realize how extreme this so-called “Club Zero” has become, it may be too late to break Ms. Novak’s spell over her students.
A mannered, impeccably constructed combination of dry satire and gross-out body horror, Club Zero takes aim at Instagram “wellness” culture and social conformity. A typically controversial statement from an iconoclastic director, it’s bound to be the one of the most talked-about films at this year’s Festival.
Content Considerations
Potentially disturbing images of disordered eating
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Philippe Bober, Mike Goodridge, Johannes Schubert, Bruno Wagner
- Jessica Hausner, Géraldine Bajard
- Karina Ressler
- Martin Gschlacht
- Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen
- Markus Binder
- Barth Brosseau, Kristin Irving, Alex C. Lo, Eva Yates, Vladimir Zemtsov
- Coop99 filmproduktion and Coproduction Office, Coproduction Office Ltd., Essential Films, Parisienne de Production, Paloma Productions, Gold Rush Films, Cinema Inutile, Austrian Film Institute, BBC Film, FISA - Film Industry Support Austria, ORF Film/Fernseh – Abkommen, Eurimages - Council of Europe, Vienna Film Fund, Gold Rush Pictures, ZDF/Arte, Arte France Cinéma, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Doha Film Institute, TRT Sinema, The Danish Film Institute, DR, Film Funding Lower Austria, Obala Art Centar, CNC, Aide au Cinéma du Monde, Institut Français
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