September 6-8
IN A BETTER WORLD/HÆVNEN*. Denmark, 2010 (drama/thriller, 119 min.) Dir: Susan Bier. With: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Markus Rygaard. Two Danish schoolchildren, one meek and unassertive, the other angry and vengeance-prone, forge a friendship with ugly consequences. Best Foreign Film: Oscar 2011/ Golden Globe 2011.

SOUL KITCHEN. Germany, 2009 (comedy, 99 min.) Dir: Fatih Akin. With: Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birol Ünel. German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant in Hamburg when he hires a more talented chef. Special Jury Prize, Venice FF 2009.

October 4-6
EVEN THE RAIN/TAMBIÉN LA LLUVIA*. Spain/France/Mexico, 2010 (drama, 103 min.) Dir: Icíar Bollaín. With: Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar, Karra Elejalde. The present collides with the past when citizens of Cochabamba, Bolivia, rise up against plans to privatize their water supply while a director and his crew shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus. Panorama Audience Award, Berlin IFF 2011.

THE VISITOR*. USA, 2007 (drama, 104 min.) Dir: Thomas McCarthy. With: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira. A college professor bored with his job befriends a young couple he found living in his Manhattan apartment and gains a better understanding of the problems faced by illegal immigrants. Nominee Best Leading Actor Oscar 2009.

November 8-10
THE FIRST GRADER. UK/USA/Kenya, 2010 (drama, 103 min.) Dir: Justin Chadwick. With: Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Sam Feuer. Determined to get an education, an 84 year-old Kenyan farmer and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter discovers the world of his young classmates while facing the hostility of his fellow adults. Based on a true story.

HUNGER*. UK/Ireland, 2008 (biography/drama, 96 min.) Dir: Steve McQueen. With: Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw, Brian Milligan, Michael Fassbender. In the 1980s, Bobby Sands leads a bitter hunger strike by IRA members in Belfast’s Maze Prison in support of their demands to be treated as political prisoners. Golden Camera, Cannes Festival 2008; Golden Hugo, Chicago IFF 2008.

December 6-8
LITTLE ROSE/ROZYCZKA Poland, 2010 (drama, 118 min.) Dir: Jan Kidawa-Blonski. With: Andrzej Seweryn, Magdalena Boczarska, Robert Wieckiewicz. Security-services official enlists his girlfriend to spy on a pubic intellectual in order to disgrace him. Inspired by real events in mid-1960s Poland. Screening sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Ottawa.

MID-AUGUST LUNCH/PRANZO DI FERRAGOSTO*. Italy, 2008 (comedy/drama, 75 min.) Dir: Gianni Di Gregorio. With: Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Marina Cacciotti. While going deeper into debt, a bachelor agrees to look after the whims of four feisty octogenarian women, including his mother, during Italy’s biggest summer holiday, Ferragosto

January 10-12
ANOTHER YEAR. UK, 2010 (comedy/drama, 129 min.) Dir: Mike Leigh. With: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville. As the seasons change, a married couple deals with the highs and lows of the lives of family members, friends, and colleagues.

THE LIGHT THIEF /SVETAKE*. France/Kyrgyzstan/Germany/ Netherlands, 2010 (drama, 80 min.) Dir: Aktan Abdykalykov. With: Aktan Abdykalykov, Taalaikan Abazova, Askat Sulaimanov. Comedy centring on a local electrician known as “Mr. Light” who attempts to uphold morality as corruption grips his small village..

February 7-9
TOKYO SONATA*. Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong, 2008 (drama, 120 min.) Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. With: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyôko Koizumi, Yû Koyanagi. An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company. Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, Cannes Festival 2008.

WINTER IN WARTIME*. Netherlands/Belgium, 2008 (war drama, 103 min.) Dir: Martin Koolhoven. With: Martijn Lakemeier, Jamie Campbell Bower , Yorick van Wageningen. In the last months of the Second World War, a 14-year-old boy faces difficult choices after helping a wounded British pilot and becoming involved with the Resistance.

March 6-8
BIUTIFUL*. Mexico/Spain, 2010 (drama, 148 min.) Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu. With: Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Hanaa Bouchaib. Dramatic journey of Uxbal, a conflicted man, who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. Nominee Best Foreign Film Oscar 2011; Best Actor, Cannes Festival 2010..

April 10-12
WHEN WE LEAVE./DIE FREMDE*. Germany, 2010 (drama, 119 min.) Dir: Feo Aladag. With: Sibel Kekilli, Nizam Schiller, Derya Alabora. Umay, a young woman of Turkish descent, finds herself in a life-threatening situation while fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against the resistance of her family.

BOY* New Zealand, 2010 (comedy/drama, 87 min.) Dir: Taika Waititi. With: James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu, Taika Waititi. Boy is an 11-year-old who lives on a farm with his gran, a goat, his younger brother and several cousins and discovers that his absent father is not the hero he thought he was..

May 8-10
WASTE LAND*. Brazil/UK, 2010 (documentary, 99 min.) Dir: Lucy Walker, Karen Harley, João Jardim. With: Vik Muniz. An uplifting social documentary based around the lives of garbage pickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and artist Vik Muniz who creates art out of recycled material. Nominee Best Feature Documentary Oscar 2011.

AGORA. Spain, 2009 (adventure/drama, 127 min.) Dir: Alejandro Amenábar. With: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac. In Roman Egypt, a slave turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist, Hypatia of Alexandria.

* English subtitles / Sous-titres anglais

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