SFIFF 57 is off and running; here are the must-see films
A scene from Tonislav Hristov’s documentary “Soul Food Stories,” screening twice at SFIFF 57 (April 24-May 8, 2014). The women in the village of Satovcha, Bulgaria— Orthodox Bulgarians, Muslim Turks, Pomacs and a few gypsies—still gather to prepare “banitsa” a traditional Bulgarian pastry (with many Balkan variants) comprised of filo dough that is hand-pulled until it is just millimeters thick and then filled with a mix of crushed cheese (Bulgarian sirene), yoghurt and eggs. They also use the time to discuss their limited access to the men’s social club. Photo: courtesy Taskovski Films, Ltd.
The 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF 57) opened Thursday and runs for 15 days, featuring 168 films and live events from 56 countries in 40 languages—74 narrative features, 29 documentary features, 65 shorts, 14 juried awards, and over 100 participating filmmakers. So, how to choose? On Tuesday (click here to read), I covered the festival’s big nights and special programming. To further narrow the field, here’s my list of must-see films. If a film sounds interesting, don’t dally in pre-purchasing tickets, as most of the films will go to rush. (Click here to see which films are at rush now; the list is updated constantly.)
ARThound’s Top Picks—
Costa Rican director, Neto Villalobos’ debut feature comedy “All About the Feathers,” (2013), is about a security guard who is obsessed with fighting cocks and acquires and befriends a rooster he names “Rocky.” Villalobos used a small crew of nonprofessional actors and no roosters are shown fighting. Photo: courtesy San Francisco Film Society
All About the Feathers (Neto Vittalobos, 2013, 85 min) First-time Costa Rican director Neto Vittalobos has knocked it out of the park with this delightfully absurdist comedy about a security guard Chalo (Allan Cascante) in a small Costa Rican town who becomes almost co-dependent with “Rocky,” his fighting cock who happens to have gorgeous feathers. Chalo sees dollar signs as he dreams of Rocky pecking out the eyes of other roosters in a cockfighting event, the town’s main form of entertainment. But, just as you soon as you can figure out how to say “You can’t count your chickens before they hatch,” in Spanish, complications ensue and Chalo is out on the street trying to survive with a large noisy rooster. (Screens: Fri, April 25, 6:30 p.m., BAM/PFA, Sun, April 27, 8:45 p.m. and Tues, April 29, 6:15 p.m., both at Sundance Kabuki)
Berkeley native, Sara Dosa’s “The Last Season” makes its world premiere on Friday, April 25th, at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF 57) which runs April 24- May 8, 2014. The documentary examines the bonds between some 200 seasonal workers, mostly Asian, who set up a temporary camp each fall in tiny town of Chemult, Oregon, to forage for a rare mushroom that is prized in Asia for its distinctive spicy aroma. Dosa, her film crew, and Cambodian immigrant Kuoy Loch will be in attendance. Photo: courtesy San Francisco Film Society
The Last Season (Sara Dosa, USA, 78 min) World Premiere The lives of some 200 seasonal Asian workers—allies and enemies from Southeast Asian wars— unfold as they set up a temporary camp each fall in the tiny town of Chemult, Oregon, to forage for a rare mushroom that is prized in Japan for its distinctive spicy aroma. From this unexpected forest world and its temporary tent city, filmmaker Sara Dosa explores the legacy of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge, poetically tells the story of a migrant community at the whims of the global economy. (Screens: Fri, April 25, 6:45 p.m., Sundance Kabuki, Sun, April 27, 12:30 p.m., BAM/PFA, Sun, May 5, 3:30 p.m., Sundance Kabuki)
Manuscripts Don’t Burn (Dast-Neveshtehaa Nemisoosand) (Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2013, 127 min) Based on a true story, this gripping thriller tells the story of a failed effort by the Iranian government to murder almost two dozen journalists in 1995. The story is told through the journey of two hired killers who, years later, are intimidating and interrogating witnesses of the failed mass murder on behalf of the repressive regime. Shot on location in Iran, the film blatantly defies Rasoulof’s 20-year ban from filmmaking and serves as a chilling indictment of contemporary Iran. This is Rasoulof’s third film to screen at SFIFF ( The White Meadows (2010) SFIFF 53; Goodbye (2011) SFIFF 55) but he has yet to make an appearance. One the great masters of Iranian film, Rasoulof is a great storyteller and his films are loaded with images that are both picturesque and eerily disturbing. (Screens: Fri, April 25, 8:40 p.m., BAM/PFA, Sun, April 27, 4 p.m. and Tues, April 29, 9 p.m. both at Sundance Kabuki)
A scene from Johannes Holzhausen’s perceptive documentary, “The Great Museum” (2014), which peers into Vienna’s famed Kunsthistorisches Museum in the midst of an ambitious remodeling and reinstallation. Photo: courtesy Navigator Film
The Great Museum (Das große museum) US Premiere (Johannes Holzhausen, 2014, 95 min) —An elegant tribute to the curators, conservators, administrators and marketers who keep Vienna’s venerable Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM), in delicate balance so that the world’s cultural heritage is preserved and modern audiences find the exhibits relevant and engaging. Home to the vast collection put together by the Hapsburg dynasty, the stately KHM is one the world’s most important museums. Last year, SFIFF 56 offered Jem Cohen’s delicate Museum Hours (2012), which captured a random encounter between a middle-aged KHM guard and a museum visitor, giving us a glimpse of the institution’s glorious Dutch and Flemish paintings and inserting KHM into the film as enigmatic character.
Documentary filmmaker Holzhausen, who studied art history for six years before entering film school, offers more of a window into the museum’s day-to-day routine. He focuses on its employees’ micro-dramas—from the managing director to the cleaning services team. For example, a conservator who discovers that a Rubens painting has been painted over several times; an art historian who experiences the thrill and frustration of an auction, and the chief financial officer who thinks the “3” on the new promotional material looks “aggressive”. The film also tackles some profound issues: Is it possible to reconcile the conservation with timely presentation? What is art’s role in the representation of national identity in politics and tourism? The film’s precise camera work (Joerg Burger, Attila Boa) and poignant editing (Dieter Pichler) serve to create an atmosphere of patient observation and reflection. Holzhausen’s working rule—“only show the pieces of art in the context of work being done and never on their own.” (extracted from interview in press kit) (Screens: Sat, April 26, 6:30 p.m., New People)
A scene from Zaza Urushadze’s “Tangerines” (2013) which is set in 1992 in war torn Abkhazia, a hand’s throw from Soochi. The film addresses long-standing ethnic conflicts that were stirred with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. An old Estonian man, who is helping his elderly neighbor harvest his annual tangerine crop, ends up caring for two wounded men who are blood enemies. Shot in the mountainous western Georgia region of Guria, the film features gorgeous cinematography. Photo: courtesy San Francisco Film Society
Tangerines (Zaza Urushadze, Georgia/Estonia, 2013, 84 min) An old man caught in the brutal 1992 conflict over Georgia’s Abkhazia region finds himself nursing two wounded soldiers from opposing sides in his small house and struggling to navigate any form of truce between these blood rivals. Gorgeously filmed in Georgia’s mountainous coastal region, this slow-paced and perceptive antiwar tale observes the growing conflict from a tangerine orchard on a remote mountain. Recent events in the Ukraine make Tangerines especially relevant. (Screens: Sat, April 26, 2014, 9 p.m. and Sun, April 27, 6:15 p.m., both at Sundance Kabuki, and Tues, May 6, 8:30 p.m., BAM/PFA)
A scene from Tonislav Hristov’s documentary “Soul Food Stories,” (2013) which focuses on everyday life in a small Bulgarian village. Screening twice at SFIFF 57. Photo: courtesy San Francisco Film Society
Soul Food Stories (Istoria za hranata i dushata) (Tonislav Hristov, Bulgaria/Finland, 2013, 69 min) U.S. Premiere “Everything bad comes from TV. It taught our women to argue with us.” That’s the opening line of Tonislav Hristov’s Bulgarian documentary Soul Food Stories, which serves as warm clever exploration of gender, tradition and community in the tiny Southwestern Bulgarian village of Satovcha. The elderly inhabitants are Muslim, Christian, Roma and atheist Communists and there’s also a Finnish family, the first tourists to stay longer than 10 days in Satovchka. Theyare all united by a love of food, a respect for the land and by the friendly clubs they have set up. The films zeros in seven members of one of these clubs—all men—who meet regularly and say they can solve all the world’s problems over a good meal. They cherish their space and are trying to decide whether or not to allow the women of Satovcha more acess to the clubhouse. Beautifully shot, the film unfolds like a simple but sumptuous 10-course meal, with observations on food preparation and religious diversity generously laced into the recipes. (Screens: Wed, April 30, 2014, 6 p.m., Sundance Kabuki, Sat, May 3, 3:30 p.m., New People Cinema, Tuesday, May 6, Sundance Kabuki
Of Horses and Men (Hross í oss) (Benedikt Erlingsson, 2013, 81 min) Laced with explicit equine sex, gaited trotting ponies and chock full of gorgeously shot vistas of the Icelandic landscape, actor Benedikt Erlingsson’s directorial debut is a delightfully comedic exploration of the base animal instincts in all of us. Set in a rural highlands community where horses (and drinking) are a crucial part of the social interaction, the director shows us the world of his human characters through their horses’ expressive eyes. The old proverb “pride cometh before a great fall” seems particularly well-suited to the stubborn and irrational Nordic characters in these interlacing vignettes. Erlingsson was brought up in downtown Reykjavík, but as a teen, he worked several summers on a horse farm in the highlands of northern Iceland. Iceland’s Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. (Screens: Fri, May 2, 4:30 p.m. and Sat, May 3, 8:45 p.m. and Sun, May 5, 6 p.m.—all at Sundance Kabuki)
SFIFF 57 Details:
When: SFIFF 57 runs April 24-May 8, 2014.
Where: Four Screening Venues: Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post Street, San Francisco; New People Cinema, 1746 Post Street, San Francisco; Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Theatre, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. Salon and Event Venues (all San Francisco): Filmhouse, 1426 Fillmore Street, Suite 300 (near Ellis), Disney Family Museum, 104 Montgomery Street (near Lincoln), The Chapel, 777 Valencia Street (at 18th Street) , The Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center, 1290 Sutter Street (at Van Ness), Roe Restaurant, 651 Howard Street; Public Works, 161 Erie Street (at Mission)
Tickets: $15 for most films. Special events generally start at $20 or $35. Two screening passes—the popular CINEVOUCHER 10-pack ($140 general public and $120 for Film Society members) and the exclusive CINEVISA early admittance to every screening, party, and program (with exception of Film Society Awards Night). ($1200 Film Society members and $1500 general public). How to buy tickets—purchase online at www.festival.sffs.org or in person during the festival at Sundance Kabuki, New People Cinema. Purchase day of show, cash only tickets at Pacific Film Archive and Castro Theatre.
Advance ticket purchases absolutely recommended as many screenings go to Rush. Click here to see which films are currently at rush (the list is updated frequently).
Arrive Early! Ticket and pass holders must arrive 15 minutes prior to show time to guarantee admission.
Rush tickets: Last-minute or rush tickets may be available on a first served basis to those waiting in line for cash only about 10 minutes before show time. If you want rush tickets, plan to line up at least 45 minutes prior to screening time.
More info: For full schedule, info, tickets visit www.festival.sffs.org. or call (415) 561-5000.
The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival opens Thursday night with a captivating family drama and continues with 14 days of film from all corners of the globe
A scene from Joshua Oppenheimer’s “Act of Killing,” a documentary executive produced by Werner Herzog, that paints an extraordinary portrayal of the Indonesian genocide. In Indonesia, a land ruled by gangsters, death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes and the filmmakers challenge them to re-enact their real-life mass killings in the style of the American movies they love. Playing at SFIFF 56. Photo: courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society
The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF56) opens Thursday and runs for 15 days, featuring 158 films and live events from 51 countries—67 narrative features, 28 documentary features, 63 shorts, over a dozen juried awards, and over 100 participating filmmakers present. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, this is THE premiere festival for film in the Bay Area and is well-known for its emphasis on experimental storytelling, its support of new filmmakers and for championing independent films that are unlikely to screen elsewhere in the Bay Area. One of the joys of attending SFIFF is getting to see these films the way they were meant to be seen–on a big screen, in digital projection—and, in many cases, getting to participate in Q&A’s with their directors and actors, most of whom reside in other countries. SFIFF also distinguishes itself with excellent live onstage special events that feature filmmakers in enthralling moderated discussions. While its parties are great, this festival is all about film. In addition to this festival overview, stay turned to ARThound for coverage of Iranian films and art-related films.
BIG NIGHTS:
This year both opening and closing night films address relationships and family and the dirty little secrets that can drive huge wedges in supposedly sacred bonds. OPENING NIGHT (Thursday, April 24) kicks off with Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s emotional drama What Maisie Knew (USA 2012) starring Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan and Alexander Skarsgård. The film explores the collateral damage
Juliette Moore and Onata Aprile in a scene from Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s “What Maisie Knew” which opens the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 25 – May 9, 2013. Photo: courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society
of divorce through the eyes of six year-old Maisie (Onata Aprile) who is silent but, like a sponge, soaks up all the toxic waste her negligent parents put out. When they do succeed in splitting, they re-partner rapidly. Maisie attaches quite readily to her mother’s new husband, Lincoln, a bartender (Alexander Skarsgård) who has no obvious child-rearing skills but rises to the occasion. Not surprisingly, this crushing portrait of affluence, indifference, self-absorption, hope and innocence shows that you can’t choose the family you are born into but you’d be better off if you could. (opens SFIFF56 on Thursday, April 25, 2013, 7 p.m. Castro Theatre, followed by a gala party at Temple Nightclub )
This year’s CENTERPIECE is Saturday, May 4, and celebrates Jacob Kornbluth and his insightful Inequality For All (USA 2013), featuring local UC Berkeley economist Robert Reich, one of the world’s leading experts on work and the economy, Clinton’s former Labor Secretary and named one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last decade by Time magazine. This powerful documentary, winner of the Special Jury Award at this year’s Sundance festival, makes the argument that capitalism has fatally abandoned the middle classes while making the super-rich even richer. Based on Reich’s bestselling Aftershock (2011, Vintage Press) which explores the roots of American economic stagnation and blames lack of middle class prosperity and spending, the highly entertaining film is billed as An Inconvenient Truth of the economy. (Screens Saturday, May 4, 6:30 PM, Kabuki, followed by a party at Roe nightclub from 8:30 -11 PM)
A scene from Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight,” which follows Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy), who first met on a train to Vienna (“Before Sunrise”) and reconnected in Paris nine years later (“Before Sunset”), and now another nine years have passed and they are navigating the complications of careers, kids, a long-term committed relationship and unfulfilled dreams. Closing night film at SFIFF 56. Photo: courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society
CLOSING NIGHT: The festival closes with a live on-stage discussion featuring celebrated indie director Richard Linklater (Bernie, SFIFF55 2012) and actress Julie Delpy in conversation about their latest film Before Midnight (USA 2013), the third film in Linklater’s romantic trilogy starring Delpy and Ethan Hawke. The film was raved about at Sundance. It’s now eighteen years later and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Delpy), the couple who met on that train from Budapest to Vienna in Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995), are vacationing in Greece and living in Paris as a middle-aged couple with two twin girls, and negotiating all the minefields of a committed long-term relationship. He’s got a young son living in the States with his remarried ex-wife and the pressure of holding it all together and remaining true to their own creative drives has left them exhausted. Before Midnight catches the couple in random conversation that oscillates between clever banter and passive-aggressive swipes and then, suddenly, takes the plunge to full-on below-the-belt game-changing blows. All unfolds as they are vacationing in Greece—beautiful, troubled, ancient, modern—it too becomes a character in the film. Before Midnight screens as the Closing Night film at the Castro Theatre on May 9. The screening and conversation will be followed by a celebration party.
ARThound’s top picks:
Below are capsule reviews of my top picks from this year’s line-up. Thematically, you can go in any direction your taste takes you. This festival has something for everyone. I am focusing on films that tell great and important stories that you aren’t likely to see screened anywhere else. Stayed tuned to ARThound for full reviews in the coming days.
Jem Cohen, recipient of the 2013 POV Award at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 25 – May 9, 2013. Photo: courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society
Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, (2012, USA 107 min) New York based filmmaker Jem Cohen, who over the past 30 years has made over 60 films, will be presented with this year’s POV Award (2013 Persistence of Vision Award). Cohen will appear in conversation before a screening of his latest feature film Museum Hours, a delicately-paced but psychologically vivid film where ideas and environment are as important as the actors. The story captures a random encounter between Johann (Robert Sommer) a middle-aged museum guard at Vienna’s grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum, who, over the years, has nearly melded into his splendid surroundings and watches the visiting crowds looking at art works with detachment, and Anne (Canadian songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara), a woman of roughly the same age who’s visiting Vienna out of duty—she tending to her dear ill cousin and coping with grief. Sensing Anne’s isolation in the big city, a physically overwhelming sensation that reflects her inner turmoil, Johann breaks from his normal detachment and quickly bonds with her and keeps her company around Vienna. The museum itself also becomes a character, revealing itself and its rich treasures and, in turn, stimulating a rich dialogue between these two seemingly very ordinary individuals who have a remarkably palpable rapport. In much the same way that one can pass by or become completely engrossed in a painting, Johann and Anne come into sharp focus as individuals, discussing an accumulation of topics best summarized as the art of living life. (POV Award, conversation and screening Sunday, April 28, 2013, 5:30 PM Kabuki)
The Act of Killing: (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Norway, England, 2012, 116 minutes) In this chilling and highly-inventive new documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), the filmmakers give us Indonesia, like it’s never been seen before. In 1965-66, Suharto’s anti-communist purge following a failed coup attempt led to the slaughter of an estimated 500,000 people, alleged to be communists. The pretext for this mass genocide was the assassination of six army generals on the night of October 1, 1965 by The Thirtieth of September Movement made up of some disaffected junior Indonesian Armed Forces Officers. Suharto launched a counter-attack and drove the Movement from Jakarta and then accused the Communist Party of masterminding the Movement. He then went on to orchestrate a purge of all persons deemed Communists. Under Suharto’s rule, anti-communism became the state religion, complete with sacred sites, rituals and dates and a sophisticated campaign of controlling the media and planting false stories presenting the opposition as murderers collectively responsible for exaggerated crimes against the State. The mass killings were skipped over in most Indonesian history books and have received little introspection by Indonesians and comparatively little international attention. Until Now. The filmmakers brazenly invited the death squad leaders who carried out these killings, and are now celebrated heroes, to reenact the real life mass killing in the style of the movies they love best. The result—“An extraordinary portrayal of genocide. To the inevitable question: what were they thinking, Joshua Oppenheimer provides an answer. Its starts as a dreamscape, an attempt to allow the perpetrators to re-enact what they did, then something truly amazing happens. The dream dissolves into night mare and then into bitter reality.” (Errol Morris) (Screens Sat, April 27, 9:15 PM, Kabuki AND Thursday, May 2, 8:55 PM BAM/PFA)
A River Changes Course (Kalyanee Mam, Cambodia/USA 2012, 83 min, GGA Documentary Feature Contender): If you’ve been to Cambodia, chances are you landed in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap via a transfer from Hanoi or Thailand and hit the breathtaking Angkor Wat, one of the most spectacular sites on earth, and then left. No matter how little time you spent there though, it’s impossible to overlook the pace of development that is displacing traditional culture and the life and work patterns of the vast majority of Cambodians. Kalyanee Mam’s new documentary, shot in gorgeous cinéma vérité style, is a moving and intimate portrait of the rapidly vanishing world of rural rice farmers and fisherman told through three Cambodian families who are struggling in the face of rapid and uneven modernization.
A scene from Kalyanee Mam’s award-winning documentary “A River Changes Course,” playing at SFIFF 56. In a small village outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Khieu Mok must leave and find work in a garment factory to support her familyʼs mounting debt. But life in the city proves no better and Khieu finds herself torn between her obligations to send money home and her duty to be at home with her family. Photo: Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society
Mam spent many months deep in the Cambodian countryside capturing the daily rhythms of life there. She built trusting relationships with and then filmed two female breadwinners and a fishing family, all challenged by the plight of diminishing yields and increasing costs of living. Her thoughtful film was the first by a Cambodian to have its premiere at Sundance, where it was won the World Cinema Grand jury Awrd. The Yale and UCLA Law School-educated cinematographer for the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, does not believe the answer to her native country’s problems lie in retaining all old traditions though. This child of refugees who escaped Pol Pot’s hellish regime and ultimately landed in the U.S.. gives the path forward thoughtful consideration. (Screens Saturday, April 27, 7 PM, Kabuki AND Monday, April 29 6:30 PM, BAM/PFA AND Sunday, May 5 1 PM, New People)
Downpour (Ragbar): (Bahram Beyzaie, Iran, 1971, 128 min) Every year SFIFF screens a recently restored classic of world cinema and this year it’s acclaimed Iranian filmmaker, playwright, stage director and producer Bahram Beyzaie’s 1971 debut feature Downpour. The film was the first Iranian feature to cast a woman in a role other than a prostitute or cabaret girl and ushered in a new filmmaking movement in Iran. The story revolves around Mr. Hekmati, an educated teacher who is transferred to a school in the south of Tehran, a poor conservative area. His pupils are unruly and he is forced to expel one of them. The next day, the boy’s sister, `Atefeh, comes to the school and, thinking that Mr. Hekmati is the headmaster, protests the expulsion. Another student sees them together and spreads rumors that Mr. Hekmati and `Atefeh are having a love affair. While trying to set the record straight, he suddenly finds he really is in love with her. Caught between the hyperactive imaginations of his students and the idle gossip of neighborhood busybodies, the idealistic Mr. Hekmati quickly finds himself at the center of controversy. Soon all eyes in the community are on him.
A scene from Bahram Beyzaie’s “Downpour” (1971), hailed as one of the great Iranian films for its poetic approach to editing, dialogue and context. Restored by World Cinema Foundation in 2011, the film screens at SFIFF 56 with Beyzaie in attendance. Photo: courtesy San Francisco Film Society
“The tone puts me in mind of what I love best in the Italian neorealist pictures,” writes Martin Scorsese, “and the story has the beauty of an ancient fable—you can feel Beyzaie’s background in Persian literature, theater and poetry.” This screening presents the film as restored in 2011 by the World Cinema Foundation at Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna/L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory. (Screens Sunday, April 28, 12:15 PM, Kabuki AND Sunday, May 5, 3:20 PM BAM/PFA) Bahram Beyzaie will attend and participate in a Q&A following the April 28th screening.
The Daughter (Alexander Kasatkin, Natalia Nazarova, Russia, 2012, 111 minutes) Life in the unforgiving provinces is a well-explored theme in Russian literature and film. Russian duo Natalia Nazarova and Alexander Kasatkin, (Listening to Silence, 2007) throw a serial killer into a provincial village to liven things up for naïve 16 year-old Inna (Maria Smolnikova) who’s strict widowed father (Oleg Tkachev) keeps her on a tight leash. Enter the rebellious and fun vixen Masha (Yana Osipova), a girl from a slightly larger town, who quickly educates Inna about alcohol, sex and how to have fun. Also new to the village is the family of an Orthodox priest, brimming with traditional Christian virtues and values, and Inna falls for the priest’s son, Il’ia (Igor’ Mazepa). Meanwhile a serial killer is on the prowl and the suspense builds as those close to Inna are killed and implicated. Filmed in Elat’ma and Kasimovo, two small villages in Russia’s Riazan’ region, the film’s evocation of the slowed rhythms of rural life, lingering traditions and modern impingements create a bleak post-Perestroika commentary, with the lingering question of what the role of the Orthodox church should be. (Screens Friday, April 26, 6:15 PM and Sunday, April 28, 1 PM both at Kabuki AND Monday, May 6, 9 PM at BAM/PFA)
SFIFF56 DETAILS: SFIFF 56 runs April 25-May 9, 2013. 5 Screening Venues: Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post Street, San Francisco; New People Cinema, 1746 Post Street, San Francisco; Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Theatre, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. Event Venues (all San Francisco): Bimbos 365 Club, 1025 Columbus Avenue; Roe, 651 Howard Street; Rouge, 1500 Broadway; Ruby Skye, 420 Mason Street; Temple Nightclub and Ki Restaurant, 540 Howard Street
Tickets: $15 for most films with a variety of multiple screening passes. Special events generally start at $20
More info: (415) 561-5000, www.festival.sffs.org
ARThound 