The Washington Diplomat

International Film Clips

**All non-English films are with subtitles unless otherwise noted. Scheduled dates and times are subject to change. Please check with the theater for up-to-date information.

Czech

Divided We Fall
(Musime Si Pomáhat)
Directed by Jan Hrebejk
(Czech Republic, 2000, 122 min.)
Set during the Nazi occupation, a man takes in an escapee from a concentration camp— putting himself and his wife in danger—in this Oscar-nominated production that questions the choices we make when our very humanity is at stake. (In Czech, German and French)
Cinema Art Bethesda
Sun., June 9, 10:30 a.m.

Dari

Baran
(The Rain)
Directed by Majid Majidi
(Iran, 2001, 91 min.)
An Iranian construction worker falls in love with an Afghan refugee. This movie premiered at Filmfest DC. (In Dari and Farsi)
Cineplex Odeon Janus
Check theater for times

English

About a Boy
(UK/USA, 2002, 101 min.)
Directed by Chris and Paul Weitz
A cynical, immature man learns how to behave like a grown-u p from a young boy.
AMC Courthouse
AMC Hoffmann
Cineplex Odeon White Flint
Loews Rio
Loews Wheaton Plaza
Mazza Gallerie
Regal Rockville
UA Bethesda
Check theaters for times

Barry Lyndon
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
(UK, 1975, 187 min.)
Kubrick’s artful celebration of form over content is preceded by a lecture at 2 p.m. by Robert Kolker (Georgia Tech) focusing on the cinema of Kubrick and Orson Welles.
National Gallery of Art
Sun., June 16, 3:30 p.m.

The Cat’s Meow
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
(UK/Germany/Canada, 2001, 110 min.)
Based on a true scandal, the opening night film of Filmfest DC recreates a weekend cruise on William Randolph Hearst’s yacht in 1924 with Charlie Chaplin, Marion Davies and other personalities.
Cinema Arts
Cineplex Odeon Janus
Cineplex Odeon Shirlington
Landmark Bethesda Row
Regal Ballston Common
Check theaters for times

CQ
Directed by Roman Coppola
(USA/France/Luxembourg/Italy, 2001, 91 min.)
In 1969 Paris, a young American filmmaker works on documenting his personal life story while editing a “Barbarella”-like science fiction adventure. (In English, French and Italian)
Landmark Bethesda Row
Check theater for times

Enigma
Directed by Michael Apted
(UK/USA/Germany, 2001, 117 min.)
During World War II, a British genius struggles to decipher both a German code and the mysterious woman he loves. (In English and German)
Cinema Arts
Cineplex Odeon Outer Circle
Cineplex Odeon Shirlington
Landmark Bethesda Row
Check theaters for times

The Importance of Being Earnest
Directed by Oliver Parker
(UK/USA, 2002, 98 min.)
In Oscar Wilde’s final success, two young men living in 1890’s England have taken to bending the truth in order to put some excitement into their lives. Things start to go awry when they end up together in the country and their deceptions are discovered—threatening to spoil their romantic pursuits.
Cinema Arts
Landmark Bethesda Row
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The Longest Day
Directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton and Bernhard Wicki
(USA, 1962, 180 min.)
An all-star cast depicts the events leading up to and including the Normandy invasion, told from both the Allied and German perspectives. (In English, French and German)
Library of Congress
Thu., June 6, 6 p.m.

The Mystic Masseur
Directed by Ismail Merchant
(India/USA, 2001, 117 min.)
Set amid the large and prosperous Indian community in mid-20th-century Trinidad, the film is a magical, bittersweet fable about a young, aspiring author whose unexpected talents as a healer bring him local fame and enable him to realize his long-held ambitions as a writer.
Cineplex Odeon Dupont Circle
Check theater for times

Rain
Directed by Christine Jeffs
(New Zealand/USA, 2001, 92 min.)
Amid family troubles, a teenage girl comes of age in the 1970s. This movie premiered at Filmfest DC.
Visions
Opens Fri., June 14

Secret People
Directed by Thorald Dickinson
(UK, 1952, 87 min.)
Valentina Cortesa plays a refugee in a violent underground movement in London whose guilt over her actions is contrasted with the attitude of her lover, a hardened revolutionary.
Library of Congress
Thu., June 13, 7 p.m.

A Walk in the Night
Directed by Mickey Madoda Dube
(South Africa, 1998, 78 min.)
This film relives a terrible night in the fragile world of a young colored steelworker in Johannesburg, South Africa, where racial tensions continue to fester despite the overthrow of apartheid. (English and Afrikaans)
National Museum of African Art
Thu., June 6, 7 p.m.

Windtalkers
Directed by John Woo
(USA, 2002, 138 min.)
Two U.S. Marines in World War II are assigned to protect Navajo Marines who know a secret radio code. (In English and Navajo)
Theater TBA
Opens Fri., June 14

Farsi

The Actor
(Honarpisheh)
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(Iran, 1993, 85 min.)
When the wife of Iran’s king of comedy cannot conceive an heir, a mute gypsy is brought into the household to have a child and then, in theory, disappear. Screens with “Salaam Cinema.”
National Gallery of Art
Sun., June 2, 4 p.m.

The Apple
(Sib)
Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf
(Iran/France, 1998, 86 min.)
Sprung by social workers, 13-year-old twin girls, locked in their house for 11 years by their parents, begin to experience the world. The story is a dramatization of an actual case with the participants playing themselves.
AFI
Sun., June 2, 7 p.m.

Blackboards
(Takhté Siah)
Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf
(Iran/Italy/Japan, 2000, 85 min.)
A hybrid of drama and documentary set in the Kurdish mountains near the Iran-Iraq border, this unique story follows a group of nomadic teachers with large blackboards strapped to their backs in search of anyone willing to learn. Screens with “How Samira Made Blackboards.”
National Gallery of Art
Sat., June 15, 2 p.m.

The Day I Became a Woman
(Roozi Khe Zan Shodam)
Directed by Marzieh Meshkini
(Iran, 2000, 78 min.)
This series of three vignettes—all meditations on the near-impossibility of escaping assigned female roles in Muslim society—focus on women at different stages of their lives.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., June 1, 4:15 p.m.

Gabbeh
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(Iran/France, 1996, 75 min.)
Distinctive wool carpets of nomadic tribes, called Gabbeh, are embellished with motifs from the weavers’ lives. In this film, Gabbeh refers to a character whose story is told through these wool carpets bearing her name. Preceded by “Kish Tales” (1999, 26 min.).
National Gallery of Art
Sat., June 1, 2 p.m.

How Samira Made Blackboards
(Samira Cheghoneh ‘Takhté Siah’ Rol Sakht)
Directed by Maysam Makhmalbaf
(Iran, 2000, 76 min.)
It’s a family affair: Maysam, the brother of Samira Makhmalbaf—both children of famed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf—looks at the creation of his sister’s film, “Blackboards.” Screens with “Blackboards.” (In Farsi and English)
National Gallery of Art Sat., June 15, 2 p.m.

Luna Papa
Directed by Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov
(Tajikistan/Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Russia/France/Japan/Uzbekistan, 1999, 107 min.)
A young woman sets off on a raucous road trip with her eccentric family in a quest to save her honor by tracking down her unborn child’s father. (In Farsi and Russian)
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., June 7, 7 p.m.

Marriage of the Blessed
(Arousi-ye Khouban)
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(Iran, 1989, 75 min.)
Photojournalist Mahmoud Bigham returns from the war with Iraq shell shocked and battered. As he tries to resume his life he finds that no paper will publish his pictures of the poverty that the revolution has failed to stem. And with his fiancée’s father disapproval of their marriage, Bigham begins to wonder where he really is.
AFI
Sat., June 1, 6:30 p.m.
Sun., June 2, 1 p.m.

Once Upon a Time, Cinema
(Nassereddin Shah, Actor-e Cinema)
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(Iran, 1992, 90 min.)
A cinematographer attempts to pitch his film to a pompous Iranian monarch who winds up falling in love with the film’s star.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., June 8, 3 p.m.

Salaam Cinema
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(Iran, 1995, 70 min.)
When the director placed a casting call for 100 actors, 5,000 would-be stars showed up. After a near-riot, the auditions turned into a their own unscripted film, portraying the surreal panorama of film casting. Screens with “The Actor.”
National Gallery of Art
Sun., June 2, 4 p.m.

A Time for Drunken Horses
(Zamani Barayé Masti Asbha)
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
(Iran/France, 2000, 80 min.)
Three Kurdish children help smugglers along the Iran-Iraq border—terrain so rough packhorses have to be anti-freezed with booze, thus the title—in this suspenseful and lyric chronicle of survival. (Farsi and Kurdish). Screens with “Life in Fog (Zendegi Dar Meh),” (1999, 28 min.).
AFI
Sat., June 1, 8 p.m.

Time of Love
(Nobat e Asheghi)
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(Iran/Turkey, 1990, 75 min.)
The story of a young wife’s infidelity is told three times, with each retelling switching the victims and victimizers so that moral verdicts become as slippery as the tale itself. Preceded by “Images From the Ghajar Dynasty” (1984, 18 min.) and “Tales of an Island” (2000, 35 min.). (In Farsi and Turkish)
National Gallery of Art
Sun., June 9, 4 p.m.

French

The Lady and the Duke
(L’Anglaise et le Duc)
Directed by Eric Rohmer
(France/Germany, 2001, 129 min.)
Rohmer digitally inserts his actors in front of painted backdrops to present the French Revolution from the perspective of English aristocrat. (In French and English)
Theater TBA

Murderous Maids
(Les Blessures Assassins)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Denis
(France, 2000, 94 min.)
In France between the world wars, two sisters—working as servants—revolt violently against their employer.
Visions
Check theater for times

The Piano Teacher
(La Pianiste)
Directed by Michael Haneke
(Austria/France/Germany, 2001, 130 min.)
A piano teacher at a conservatory enters into an affair with one of her young students. This movie premiered at Filmfest DC.
Landmark Betheda Row
Visions
Check theaters for times

Sade
Directed by Benót Jacquot
(France, 2000, 100 min.)
During the Reign of Terror, the Marquis de Sade (Daniel Auteuil) is sent to Picpus, an exclusive, aristocratic, convent-turned-prison.
Visions
Opens Fri., June 7

Woubi Chéri
Directed by Laurent Bocahut
(France/Côte d’Ivoire, 1998, 62 min.)
Often funny, sometimes coarse, but always real, “Woubi Chérie” introduces audiences to gender pioneers who are constructing a distinct African homosexuality.
National Museum of African Art
Thu., June 20, 7 p.m.
Sat., June 22, 3 p.m.

German

Joan of Arc of Mongolia
Directed by Ulrike Ottinger
(W. Germany, 1989, 165 min.)
Seven women traveling on a reconstructed trans-Siberian express train are abducted by Mongolian warriors in this epic steeped in landscapes, mythology and the rituals of Mongol life.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., June 23, 2 p.m.

Hindi

Lagaan
(Land Tax)
Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker
(India, 2001, 225 min.)
This epic musical, a nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, presents a revolt by peasants against an unjust British-imposed tax. (In Hindi and English)
Theater TBA

Monsoon Wedding
Directed by Mira Nair
(India/USA/France/Italy, 2001, 114 min.)
In the quickly Westernizing city of New Delhi, a Punjabi family faces chaotic troubles as their eldest daughter’s wedding approaches. (In Hindi, English and Punjabi)
Cineplex Odeon Cinema
Cineplex Odeon Dupont Circle
Cineplex Odeon Shirlington
Cineplex Odeon White Flint
Loews Rio
Regal Ballston Common
Check theaters for times

Inuktitut

The Fast Runner
(Atanarjuat)
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk
(Canada, 2001, 172 min.)
For countless generations, Igloolik elders have kept the legend of Atanarjuat alive through oral history to teach young Inuit the dangers of setting personal desire above the needs of the group. This movie premiered at Filmfest DC.
Landmark Bethesda Row
Visions
Opens Fri., June 21

Italian

Cinema Paradiso: Director’s Cut
(Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
(Italy/France, 1988, 170 min.)
After nearly 30 years, a famous Italian film director returns home to his Sicilian village, bringing back memories of a childhood that inspired him.
Landmark Bethesda Row
Opens Fri., June 21

My Journey to Italy
(Il Mio Viaggio in Italia)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
(Italy/USA, 2001, 246 min.)
Scorsese offers personal, aesthetic, and sociological insights between extended excerpts from films by Roberto Rossellini (particularly “Open City”) as well as classics by Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio de Sica, Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. (In Italian, English, French and German)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Thu., June 27, 7 p.m.

Open City
(Roma, Città Aperta)
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
(Italy, 1945, 100 min.)
Rossellini used the streets of war-ravaged Rome, actual brown-out lighting conditions, salvaged film stock, black-screen pauses, and vérité camera work to introduce a sensibility that continues to influence cinematography and photography today. (In Italian and German)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Thu., June 20, 8 p.m.

Kazak

Three Brothers
(Tri Brata)
Directed by Serik Aprymov
(Kazakhstan, 2000, 80 min.)
A grown-up fairytale that centers on three children enchanted by tales of a magical lake told by a mysterious denizen in a train yard.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., June 2, 2 p.m.

Kyrgyzstani

Beshkempir: The Adopted Son
Directed by Aktan Abdykalykov
(Kyrgyzstan/France, 1998, 91 min.)
The first independent film made in Kyrgyzstan, Abdykalykov’s semiautobiographical coming-of-age tale of a boy who discovers he was adopted has drawn comparisons to the work of Satyajit Ray and Vittorio De Sica.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., June 16, 2 p.m.

Norwegian

Insomnia
Directed by Erik Skjoldbjerg
(Norway, 1997, 97 min.)
A Swedish detective finds himself investigating the murder of a young woman just beyond the Arctic Circle, where fog, 24-hour sunlight and suspicious Norwegian locals conspire to push him to the brink of sanity. (Norwegian and Swedish)
Visions
Fri.-Sat., May 31-June 1 and June 6-7, 12 a.m.

Portuguese

Saudade do Futuro
(Saudate for the Future)
Directed by César Paes
(Brazil/France/Belgium, 2000, 92 min.)
This kaleidoscopic documentary focuses on the street life and music in the megalopolitan city of São Paulo, Brazil.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Thu., June 6, 8 p.m. and Fri., June 7, 8 p.m.

Russian

Killer
(Tueur à Gages)
Directed by Darezhan Omirbayev
(Kazakhstan/France, 1998, 80 min.)
This chilling neo-film noir follows the misfortunes of a limousine driver in trouble with local gangsters after causing a traffic accident.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., June 14, 7 p.m.

Silent

Berlin, Symphony of a Great City
(Berlin, Die Sinfonie der Großstadt)
Directed by Walter Ruttmann
(Germany, 1927, 65 min.)
Ruttmann focuses on man, machine, monuments and activities related to leisure, commerce and transportation in this silent, innovative classic.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Thu., June 6, 12 p.m.

Man with a Movie Camera
(Chelovek s Kinoapparatom)
Directed by Dziga Vertov
(USSR, 1929, 80 min.)
Constructivist visual idioms and compositions express the exuberance of early Soviet Moscow.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Thu., June 13, 12 p.m.

Spanish

Nine Queens
(Nueve Reinas)
Directed by Fabián Bielinsky
(Argentina, 2001, 114 min.)
When an older con artist teams up with a novice, the chance of a lifetime comes along for a big score.
Cinema Arts
Cineplex Odeon Dupont Circle
Landmark Bethesda Row
Check theaters for times

Son of the Bride
(El Hijo de la Novia)
Directed by Juan José Campanella
(Argentina, 2001, 123 min.)
Forty-two-year-old Rafael is going through a crisis when a sequence of events causes him to re-evaluate his life.
Cineplex Odeon Janus
Landmark Bethesda Row
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Y Tu Mamá También
(And Your Mother Too)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
(Mexico/USA, 2001, 105 min.)
Two lusty, drugged-up teenage boys go on a road trip with an older woman who’s abandoned her cheating husband.
AMC Mazza Gallerie
Cinema Arts
Cineplex Odeon Dupont Circle
Cineplex Odeon Shirlington
Landmark Bethesda Row
Check theaters for times

Wolof

Hyenas
Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty
(Senegal, 1992, 113 min.)
In this provocative parable of human greed in contemporary Africa, hyenas—a symbol of corruption and decay—prowl an African village being corrupted by a vengeful wealthy woman and the Western values she has brought with her.
Library of Congress
Fri., June 7, 7 p.m.