To a Land Unknown
Synopsis
Displaced Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda are stuck in Athens. They live in a crowded group home with other migrants, and steal and save what they can to pay for fake passports that will take them to Germany. When Reda relapses into his addictions and spends all their savings, Chatila devises what seems like a foolproof smuggling operation to earn the money back fast. Then things go terribly awry, and the cousins must concoct an even more sinister scheme in order to save themselves and their families back home.
With an intimate and naturalistic lens on the cousins’ bond and shared dream of a better life, To a Land Unknown is a tightly drawn thriller that presents an audacious, moving testament to the dire circumstances faced by migrants in purgatory.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Geoff Arbourne, Mahdi Fleifel
- Mahdi Fleifel, Fyzal Boulifa, Jason McColgan
- Halim Sabbagh
- Thodoris Mihopoulos (GSC)
- Mahmood Bakri (Chatila), Aram Sabbagh (Reda), Angeliki Papoulia (Tatiana), Mohammad Alsurafa (Malik), Mouataz Alshalton (Abu Love), Mohammad Ghassan (Yasser), Monzer Reyahnah (Marwan)
- Nadah El Shazly
- Elisa Van Waeyenberge, François De Villers, Frank Barat, Sawsan Asfari
- Inside Out Films, Nakba Filmworks, Salaud Morisset, Salaud Morisset Deutschland, Homemade Films, Studio Ruba
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Santosh
Synopsis
As the result of an obscure government rule, the newly widowed Santosh has no choice but to take up her husband’s former post as a police officer in order to keep his pension. Then a lower-caste girl is found dead in rural Northern India, and Santosh finds herself at the center of an investigation under the tutelage of no-nonsense feminist inspector Sharma. As the intrigue deepens, Santosh must navigate a complicated web of corruption, misogyny, and murder.
A star turn from Shahana Goswami in the title role leads audiences through the twists and turns of Santosh’s exhilarating plot, making for an unforgettable, finely crafted study of power and those who wield it.
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Film Credits
- Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar De Ganay, Alan McAlex
- Sandhya Suri
- Maxime Pozzi-Garcia
- Lennert Hillege
- Shahana Goswami, Sunita Rajwar
- Luisa Gerstein
- Good Chaos, Razor Film Produktion, Haut et Court, BBC Film
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To a Land Unknown
Mahdi FleifelUnited Kingdom, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
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The Return
Synopsis
After 20 years away, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The king has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus faces death at the hands of these suitors, who see him as an obstacle to their pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus is also no longer the mighty warrior from years past, but he must rediscover his strength in order to win back all that he has lost.
Starring a forceful Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and a sublime Juliette Binoche as Penelope — 25 years after their Oscar-winning collaboration The English Patient — The Return transforms Homer’s famous Greek epic into a classic tale of Shakespearean intrigue, fueled by great passions, cunning political machinations, and extraordinary violence.
In Focus: Italy on Screen
This film is part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival’s In Focus: Italy on Screen collection, celebrating Italian cinema by harkening back to the best of the country’s filmmaking traditions while showcasing vibrant new work.
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Film Credits
- Uberto Pasolini, James Clayton, Roberto Sessa, Kostantinos Kontovrakis
- John Collee, Edward Bond, Uberto Pasolini
- David Charap
- Marius Panduru R.S.C.
- Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Charlie Plummer, Marwan Kenzari, Claudio Santamaria, Ángela Molina
- Rachel Portman
- Ralph Fiennes, Giorgos Karnavas, Torsten Poeck, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Nicholas Sandler, Keith Kehoe
- Picomedia, Rai Cinema, Heretic, Ithaca Films, Kabo Productions, Marvelous Productions, Redwave Films
- https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/the-return
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On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Synopsis
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across her uncle’s dead body. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.
Blending dark comedy with poetic realism, Nyoni critiques the traditional expectation to bury pain with the dead as a family of women refuses to feign grief. Featuring a striking visual style and haunting sound design, the film culminates in a defiant protest against silence and denial, suggesting that memory and truth will always endure.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Tim Cole
- Rungano Nyoni
- Nathan Nugent
- David Gallego ADFC
- Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri
- Lucrecia Dalt
- Element Pictures, BBC Film, Fremantle, A24
Sponsors
Black Perspectives Program Sponsor
International Competition Program Patron
Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation
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Hard Truths
Synopsis
For his 23rd film, legendary British filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the stark domestic dramas he’s known for, like his 1971 feature debut Bleak Moments (a ChicagoIFF Gold Hugo winner) and his blistering, Cannes-winning 1993 breakthrough Naked. Reunited with Leigh for the first time since his 1996 multiple Oscar nominee Secrets and Lies, the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. In stark contrast, Pansy’s easygoing younger sister Michele is a single mother whose family life and hair salon are brimming with warmth.
Fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous, Hard Truths takes us into the intensities of kinship, duty, and the most enduring of human mysteries: that even through lifetimes of hurt and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Georgina Lowe
- Mike Leigh
- Tania Reddin
- Dick Pope BSC
- Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Ani Nelson, Sophia Brown, Jonathan Livingstone
- Gary Yershon
- Richard Kondal, Jennifer Eriksson, Alison Thompson, Mark Gooder, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Javier Méndez, Javier Pons, Ollie Madden, Daniel Battsek, Gail Egan
- Cornerstone, Film4, Mediapro, Thin Man Films, Creativity Media
- https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/hard-truths
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