The Beauty of the Donkey La Beauté de l'Âne
Synopsis
Award-winning Swiss Albanian filmmaker Dea Gjinovci (2020’s Wake Up on Mars) returns to the bucolic Kosovo town of her father’s youth—a place he hasn’t seen in 60 years—for this lyrical journey into the past at once wistful and tragic. Together, they recreate his childhood memories, making sets that resemble his former home and with scenes acted out by the local villagers. Through this collective creative project, 1950s Kosovo springs to life in a series of beautifully realized vignettes that prompt Gjinovci’s father to reflect on times of innocence, of violence (when the country persecuted the Albanian population), and of loss, enabling him to finally reckon with the disappearance of his mother decades before.
This evocative mix of memory and reenactment allows father and daughter to uncover shocking truths about their family history and to come to terms with a legacy of oppression. A touching narrative of resilience and catharsis, The Beauty of the Donkey is also a sensitive and bittersweet testament to the power of stories to bring back people and places that history and political strife have tried to erase.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Sun, Oct 19 @ 2:45pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 01
Venue information...
Director Dea Gjinovci, Production Designer Aurélia Martin, and Executive Director Maida Lynn
Screening
Mon, Oct 20 @ 2:00pm
at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 2
Venue information...
Director Dea Gjinovci, Production Designer Aurélia Martin, and Executive Director Maida Lynn
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Media
Film Credits
- Dea Gjinovci, Palmyre Badinier
- Dea Gjinovci
- Lizi Gelber
- Maxime Kathari
- Asllan Gjinovci, Leart Gjinovci
- Gael Kyriakidis
- Maida Lynn
- Astrae Productions
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The Currents Las Corrientes
Synopsis
Lina, an accomplished Argentinian designer and artist, walks alone around the wintery Swiss town where she has just received an award. In a sudden and dangerous impulse, she plunges from a bridge into the icy river, emerging unhurt but shaken. Back in Buenos Aires, she is confronted with a crippling phobia of water, yet she feels unable to admit to her loving husband and young daughter what she is going through. Estranged from the world she has built for herself, she begins to reach out to reconnect with a painful and distant past life that she had hoped to forever leave behind.
Milagros Mumenthaler crafts an intimate, emotional portrait of a woman coming undone—one that approaches trauma with profound empathy and paints Lina’s surreal interiority with the full breadth of its complexity. A haunting, lyrical meditation on identity, belonging, and motherhood, The Currents journeys through memory with delicate grace.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Mon, Oct 20 @ 5:30pm
at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 1
Venue information...
Director Milagros Mumenthaler
T-Coil Devices available
Screening
Tue, Oct 21 @ 5:30pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 04
Venue information...
Director Milagros Mumenthaler
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Media
Film Credits
- Alina Film, Ruda Cine
- Milagros Mumenthaler
- Gion-Reto Killias
- Gabriel Sandru
- Isabel Aimé González Sola, Esteban Bigliardi
- Alina Film, Ruda Cine
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Shorts 5: Comedy
Synopsis
Laugh away the woes of the world with this eclectic collection of comedies. From the absurd anxieties of wannabe filmmakers to the ridiculous delusions of the recently dumped, these stories are insightful, unexpected, and delightfully irreverent.
In Nervous Energy, two fiercely ambitious aspiring filmmakers make a pact to break up with their boyfriends to free them up for the next phase of their careers. In 1:10, a schoolyard tussle between two friends escalates when the kids’ self-righteous and macho fathers get involved. Heartsick follows Jess who, spiraling from a recent breakup, writes a detailed email to her ex about how well she is doing, with a few embellishments here and there. When Jamie finds a mysterious trombone case one night—the contents of which might change his life forever—he convenes an emergency meeting with his friends in Moonluck Wonton. In Duck Duck Goose, recently divorced Juju is pressured by her mother to make an impression as an eligible wife while attending a funeral. A couple is put to the test, literally, when they agree to participate in a joint therapy session that will be observed by an international panel of psychology experts in Exam.
Screenings & Events
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1:10
Synopsis
A schoolyard tussle between two friends escalates when the kids’ self-righteous and macho fathers get involved. Through an astute observational lens, the hustle and bustle of elementary school-aged children is humorously and poignantly juxtaposed with the absurd dynamics of grown men who have yet to grow up.
This film screens as part of Shorts Program 5: Comedy.
Film Credits
- Jaelle-Marie Grossklaus
- Sinan Taner
- Sinan Taner, Nevin George
- Manuel Karel Seiler
- Leonardo Nigro, Annina Walt, Manuela Biedermann, Serkan Tastemur, Wanda Wylowa, Cihan Inan, Stefan Schönholzer, Giorgo Picenoni, Simon Garleff
- Sinan Taner
- Zurich University of the Arts - Department of Performing Arts and Film
Shorts 9: Family Friendly Animation
Synopsis
Clever animated shorts from across four continents appear in this delightful family program full of polar bears, empty cans of tuna, and beloved grandparents. Presented as a relaxed screening and recommended for cinema-enthusiasts ages 8 years and older.
An empty tuna can and his kitchen friends battle an evil package of spaghetti in Tsuna the Empty Can – Meatball and Spaghetti. In Pow! Jake struggles to keep playing video games while his family attends an intertribal gathering. On the Mat Outside My Door is a poem to an intrusive and ultimately loveable rat. After losing his grandfather, Mundinho meets a whale who lessens his grief in Yore Gramps and the Whale. Snow Bear follows the adventures of a polar bear who must make a new friend in his changing environment. A long car trip made worse by bickering parents shifts into an epic adventure in Are We There Yet? Lily asks “What could be scarier than the meanest teacher in school? ” A teenage boy finds common ground with his grandfather during their weekly visits in Wednesdays with Gramps.
Screenings & Events
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Shorts 10: Outré
VariousArgentina, Belgium, Canada, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, U.S.
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212 W Van Buren St., Suite 400
