Film Countries Archives: France

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Shorts 8: Drama

  Various

  China, Croatia, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Palestine, Philippines, Spain     89 minutes

Synopsis

In these five shorts, exceptional international filmmakers explore subjects ranging from sex and war to grief and hippos. Whether employing dark humor or grounded realism, these stories speak to the complexities of the human experience.

In a building housing an old cinema on its last legs, a child discovers their true identity through the magic of the movies and the quiet curiosities of everyday life in Honey, My Love, So Sweet. In Hippopotami, a young girl sets out on a highly anticipated trip to the zoo when she comes to understand a new side of her parents’ inner lives. When their father dies, two brothers must return home to face their complicated past and find a way to move beyond their history in I’m Glad You’re Dead Now. The Cow takes place in occupied Croatia in 1991, where an army major reluctantly cares for a left-behind bovine in a hastily abandoned home, forcing him to face his repressed guilt. In Made of Sugar, Maria, a neurodivergent woman, decides to claim autonomy over her own body, refusing the societal norms and structural barriers telling her she can’t.

 Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Filipino, Mandarin Chinese, Tagalog 

Content Considerations

Screenings & Events

Screening

Sat, Oct 25 @ 8:00pm

at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 01
Venue information...

Scheduled to Attend:
Hippopotami producer Ying Lou;
Honey, My Love, So Sweet producer Jelsy Arcales;
Made of Sugar director Clàudia Cedó;
The Cow director Pavo Marinkovic & actor Stjepan Perić

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A man with a grey beard looks up towards the sky intensely. Behind him is the sea and the sunset on the horizon.

I’m Glad You’re Dead Now

  Tawfeek Barhom

  France, Greece, Palestine     13 minutes

Synopsis

When their father dies, two brothers must return home to face their complicated past and find a way to move beyond their history. Palestinian actor Tawfeek Barhom makes his directorial debut starring alongside his real-life brother in this incredibly powerful tale of grief that won the Short Film Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

This film screens as part of Shorts Program 8: Drama.

  

 Arabic 

Film Credits

  •   Tawfeek Barhom, Akis Polizos, Stylianos Kotionis, Alexandre Perrier
  •   Tawfeek Barhom
  •   Lambis Charalambidis
  •   Giorgos Valsamis
  •   Tawfeek Barhom, Ashraf Barhom
  •   Andy Shortwave

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A group of people stand on a hill, looking at a white tent pitched in the valley below.

Nuestra Tierra Landmarks

  Lucrecia Martel

  Argentina, U.S., Mexico, France, Netherlands, Denmark     122 minutes

Synopsis

From acclaimed Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel, known for her poetic and dreamy class-conscious dramas (La Cienaga, The Holy Girl, The Headless Woman) comes a very different, but no less compelling, portrait of inequality. Martel chronicles the trial of three men who entered the Indigenous community of Chuschagasta in northern Argentina to take ownership of the land and then killed the community’s leader, Javier Chocobar. Drawing on vivid archival video of the incident, caught on cellphone cameras, Martel closely follows the story of the crime, its punishment, and its far-reaching consequences.

Part courtroom drama and part lyrical look at the past, present, and future of the Chuschagasta people, Nuestra Tierra provides a broader context for the murderous act and offers a space for members of the community to reclaim their lives from a government that has long tried to deny not only their rights to the land but even their very existence. With a keen eye for symbolic details and for the tensions between tradition and modernity, nature and technology, Martel also tells a larger tale about the perennial struggles and injustices embedded in contemporary society.

 Spanish with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Screening

Sat, Oct 25 @ 4:00pm

at Logan Center for the Arts, Screening Room
Venue information...

Screening

Sun, Oct 26 @ 5:30pm

at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 01
Venue information...

Film Credits

  •   Benjamin Domenech, Santiago Galelli, Matías Roveda, Joslyn Barnes, Julio Chavezmontes, Javier Leoz
  •   Lucrecia Martel, María Alché
  •   Jeronimo Pérez Rioja, Miguel Schverdfinger
  •   Ernesto de Carvalho
  •   Comunidad Chuschagasta
  •   Alfonso Olguín
  •   Danny Glover, Lynda Weinman, Susan Rockefeller, Tony Tabatznik, Maxyne Franklin, Brenda Coughlin, Marco Perego, Michael Cerenzie, Natalia Meta
  •   Rei Pictures, Piano, Pio & Co, Louverture Films, Lemming Film, Snowglobe

Sponsors

Program Partner

Logo: WTTW (2019)

Program Patron

Cynthia Stone Raskin

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Seen in black and white, a man in sunglasses sits on a bench, smoking.

Nouvelle Vague

  Richard Linklater

  France     105 minutes

Synopsis

Nouvelle Vague is Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater’s love letter to the spellbinding magic of French cinema, reimagining the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary Breathless, which ultimately cemented Godard as a pioneer of the French New Wave. As critic-turned-director Godard makes and breaks the rules, as a mix of fresh faces and daring talents—including Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg, Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Guillaume Marbeck as Godard himself—bring his spontaneous, electric film to life. Capturing the youthful dynamism and creative chaos at the heart of one of the world’s most beloved and influential movies, Nouvelle Vague transports us to the streets of 1959 Paris for an ode to the power of cinema to transform our lives.

Screening in 35mm.

 French with subtitles

Also Playing at the Festival

Seen in black and white, a man and a woman walk down a city street while the man smokes.

Breathless (1960)

Sun, Oct 19 @ 12:00pm | Gene Siskel Film Center

Don’t miss a special screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s breakthrough film Breathless, which follows small-time crook Michel, who steals a car, murders a policeman, and then reconnects with old flame Patricia in Paris. Screening in 35mm.

Learn more

Screenings & Events

Screening

Sun, Oct 19 @ 2:30pm

at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 1
Venue information...

This screening is not eligible for redemption with a Moviegoer or Passport Pass.

Accessibility options for this screening:
  • T-Coil Devices available
Learn about accessibility options...

Screening

Sun, Oct 26 @ 7:45pm

at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 1
Venue information...

This screening is not eligible for redemption with a Moviegoer or Passport Pass.

Accessibility options for this screening:
  • T-Coil Devices available
Learn about accessibility options...

Media

Film Credits

  •   Laurent Pétin, Michèle Pétin (Halberstadt)
  •   Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo Jr., Michèle Halberstadt, Laetitia Masson
  •   Catherine Schwartz
  •   David Chambille
  •   Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, Aubry Dullin
  •   Emmanuel Montamat, John Sloss, Mike Blizzard
  •   ARP Productions in association with Detour Film production

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A tender embrace: a blonde woman in a red sweater holds a young girl, eyes closed, against her shoulder in a moment of quiet solace.

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo La misteriosa mirada del flamenco

  Diego Céspedes

  Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium     110 minutes

Synopsis

The Chilean desert, 1982. It is rumored that a single loving gaze between two men is how the plague spreads—an illness both mysterious and lethal that is tearing through a remote mining town. At the center of the paranoia is a community on the margins: a home where eleven-year-old Lidia grows up among a fierce and loving queer family. As fear and violence begin to spread even faster than the plague, Lidia sets out to find the truth about this mythical epidemic to protect her beloved kin.

With sensuous magical realism and poetic tenderness set against the harsh desert backdrop, director Diego Céspedes draws us into a pivotal moment in queer history as lived by its most marginalized and misunderstood protagonists. An ode to the care and resilience of trans family, this breathtaking debut never loses sight of the power of love in the face of dire circumstances.

 Spanish with subtitles

Content Considerations

Screenings & Events

Screening

Sat, Oct 18 @ 8:15pm

at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 2
Venue information...

Scheduled to Attend:
Director Diego Céspedes
Accessibility options for this screening:
  • T-Coil Devices available
Learn about accessibility options...

Media

Film Credits

  •   Giancarlo Nasi, Justin Pechberty, Damien Megherbi
  •   Diego Céspedes
  •   Martial Salomon
  •   Angello Faccini Rueda
  •   Tamara Cortés, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca, Claudia Cabezas, Luis Dubó
  •   Florencia Di Concilio
  •   Quijote Films, Les Valseurs, Weydemann Bros. GMBH Germany, Irusoin, Wrong Men

Sponsors

With support from

Logo: German Film Office 141x125Logo: Goete Institut - 86x100

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