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Film Countries Archives: United Kingdom

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An activist wearing blue makeup and flowers on his head raises his fist.

Flores del otro Patio [short film]

  Jorge Cadena

  Colombia, Switzerland     15 minutes

Synopsis

A group of queer activists in the north of Colombia uses fearless performance art and direct action to protest the region’s largest coal mine. Visually lush vignettes are punctuated with urgent hand-held moments of action, reflecting the care and chaos the protestors must hold simultaneously in the fight to save their region from ecological disaster.

This film screens as part of the Shorts 5: Drama – Breaking Points program.

  

 Spanish with subtitles 

Content Considerations
Violence
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An idilic scene of a forest and a lake. A family lounges on the shore nearby, while some swim.

The Zone of Interest

  Jonathan Glazer

  United Kingdom, Poland, United States     105 minutes

Synopsis

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig strive to build a dream life for their family in a house next to the camp. The two play host to all manner of guests, tend to a lavish garden, and take in the surrounding natural beauty, all the while the horrors of the Holocaust rage just beyond their garden wall. As the war nears its end, Hedwig refuses to abandon her “idyllic” homelife, while her husband works to further distinguish himself among the Nazi rank-and-file, both existing in a state of moral squalor and permanent denial.

Scathing, incisive, and unforgettable, The Zone of Interest is a masterpiece of the medium. Crafted with exacting precision by visionary director Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin), the film poses timely questions and uncovers uncomfortable truths about the banality of evil and humanity’s capacity for willful ignorance.

  

 German with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   James Wilson, Ewa Puszczyńska
  •   Jonathan Glazer
  •   Paul Watts
  •   Łukasz Żal
  •   Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller
  •   Mica Levi

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A civil rights march. People standing arm in arm and walk in unity.

Rustin

George C. Wolfe
United States
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A blurred image of two people walking down a beach, and another person with a camera on a tripod.

in water

Hong Sangsoo
South Korea
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A child in a snowsuit lays down on a snowy hill surrouded by people going up and down with sleds.

Occupied City

Steve McQueen
The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States
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A man in a tuxedo is seated at a mirrored table. His face is reflected up at him between the table settings.

Saltburn

  Emerald Fennell

  United Kingdom     127 minutes

Synopsis

Scholarship student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) struggles to find his place as a new student at Oxford. On a chance meeting, he befriends Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), the most popular, charming, and handsome student in school. When Oliver tells Felix that he has no home to return to for the summer, Felix invites him to his aristocratic family’s country estate, Saltburn. As an outsider drawn into the shimmering world of the eccentric Cattons and their life of excess, Oliver begins to feel at home in this lifestyle, drawing closer to each member of the family. But when his fascination starts to verge on obsession, buried truths are unearthed, and this summer will become one he will never forget.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) and an exceptional star-studded cast bring us a beautifully wicked and subversive tale of privilege and desire.

  

 English 

Filmmaker Emerald Fennell, a white woman with long hair wearing a pair of large headphones around her neck,, laughs while on set.Tribute to Emerald Fennell

This screening includes an in-person tribute to director Emerald Fennell and presentation of the Chicago International Film Festival’s Visionary Award.

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Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Emerald Fennell, p.g.a; Margot Robbie, p.g.a; Josey McNamara, p.g.a
  •   Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, Carey Mulligan

Sponsors

Comedy Program Sponsor

Logo: The Second City 329x75

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A man and woman lay in the grass, gazing at each other.

Banel & Adama

Ramata-Toulaye Sy
Senegal, France, Mali
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A young boy smiles, his back to the bright blue sky, with his arms and legs spread as if tossed in the air.

We Grown Now

Minhal Baig
United States
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Shorts 6: Comedy – Awkward Laughs

Various
Canada, Chile, Iran, United States
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A woman stands at the base of a winding staircase in a grand entryway, the furniture covered with sheets.

Raging Grace

  Paris Zarcilla

  United Kingdom     99 minutes

Synopsis

In a posh London neighborhood, undocumented Filipina worker Joy arrives at her latest job with her young daughter Grace smuggled in her suitcase. As Grace hides in an upstairs bedroom, Joy takes care of the estate’s patriarch, Mr. Garrett, who’s bedridden and slowly dying of cancer. Then an ominous revelation emerges, threatening to destroy everything that Joy has strived for in her new life.

In this bold and frightening portrait of race, class, and power, British-Filipino filmmaker Paris Zarcilla skillfully mixes tongue-in-cheek social commentary with plenty of jump scares and haunted-house thrills. Called a “coming of rage” story by its director, the film builds to ever greater heights of thrills and blood-splattered carnage, as mother and daughter attempt to break out of the cycle of exploitation that has long trapped their people.

  

 English, Tagalog with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Chi Thai
  •   Paris Zarcilla
  •   Christopher C.F. Chow
  •   Max Eigenmann, Jaeden Paige Boadilla, Leanne Best, David Hayman
  •   Jon Clarke
  •   Last Conker

Sponsors

Film Supporter

Logo: Music Box Theatre 160x125

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A man with blood splattered down the side of his face yells as two people standing behind him look straight ahead in shock.

Infested

Sébastien Vaniček
France
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A teenager standing in the background looks at another teenager, who is out of focus, eating.

Consumer [short film]

Stephanie Izsak
Canada
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A woman wearing a vibrant green wig and elaborate makeup, blows smoke into the air from a cigarette.

The People’s Joker

Vera Drew
United States, Canada, Scotland
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A man in the passanger seat of a car looks backwards over his shoulder past camera.

Pet Shop Days

  Olmo Schnabel

  United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Mexico     100 minutes

Synopsis

In an act of desperation, impulsive black sheep Alejandro (Dario Yazbek Bernal) flees his home in Mexico. On the run from his unforgiving father, Alejandro ends up in New York City. There, he meets Jack, a pet store worker whose own, similarly wealthy family life is fracturing after his father (Willem Dafoe) betrayed his mother (Emmanuelle Seigner). Together, the two young men enter a whirlwind romance, sending them into a dead-end world of passion, drugs, and depravity.

With Pet Shop Days, first-time feature director Olmo Schnabel, son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, has crafted a gritty throwback to American independent cinema. (No wonder Martin Scorsese signed on as an executive producer.) Imbued with raw emotion and propulsive pacing, and led by an explosive performance by Yazbek Bernal (Gael’s half-brother) as the wild and wounded Alejandro, Pet Shop Days is a riveting portrait of lost young men in search of connection.

  

 English, Spanish with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Galen Core, Alex Coco, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Gabriele Moratti, Marie Savare de Laitre
  •   Jack Irv, Olmo Schnabel, Galen Core
  •   Sophie Corra
  •   Hunter Zimny
  •   Jack Irv, Darío Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard, Maribel Verdú, Jordi Mollà, Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Seigner, Louis Cancelmi
  •   Eli Keszler
  •   Giovanni Corrado, Raffaella Viscardi, Moreno Zani, Malcom Pagani, Renato Ragosta, Livio Strazzera, Theo Niarchos, Aimone Ripa Di Meana, PJ Van Sandwijk, Peter Brant Jr., Michel Franco, Reka Posta, Jeremy O. Harris, Martin Scorsese
  •   TWIN, MeMo Films, Storyteller Productions, Tenderstories, 3 Marys Entertainment, ELA Films

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A bearded man seated before a desk holds up his fist to show a tattoo on his forearm.

Terrestrial Verses

Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami
Iran
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In a large brick waiting room, 4 people sit across a table from two others, all dressed professionally.

Housekeeping for Beginners

Goran Stolevski
North Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo
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A man and woman crouch in a green forrest, a book lays open between them.

Here

Bas Devos
Belgium
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