The Washington Diplomat

**Unless specific times are listed, please check the theater for times. Theater locations are subject to change.

Arabic

Alexandrie, Encore et Toujours
(Alexandria, Again and Forever)
Directed by Youssef Chahine
(France/Egypt, 1990, 100 min.)
In the third installment of “The Alexandria Trilogy,” Youssef Chahine plays a filmmaker who joins the rest of the Egyptian film industry in a hunger strike protesting the system’s inequities while pining for both the male lead from a previous film and the actress he hopes to cast in his next movie.
La Maison Française
Thu., July 2, 7 p.m.

Laila’s Birthday
(Eid Milad Laila)
Directed by Rashid Masharawi
(Palestine/Tunisia/Netherlands, 2008, 71 min.)
Abu Laila, a former judge forced to become a taxi driver, has nothing else on his mind than coming home for his 7-year-old daughter’s birthday, but daily life in Palestine has other plans.
AFI Silver Theatre
Through Fri., July 3

Bambara

Finzan
Directed by Cheikh Oumar Sissoko
(Mali, 1989, 107 min.)
Nanyuma was married against her will at age 15 to a 45-year-old man. Now a widow with two children at age 23, she faces the prospect of marrying the younger brother of her new suitor, according to Bamanan tradition.
La Maison Française
Fri., July 17, 7 p.m.

Cantonese
Ashes of Time Redux
(Dung Che Sai Duk)
Directed by Wong Kar-wai
(Hong Kong/China/Taiwan, 1994/2008, 93 min.)
Fourteen years after it was originally made, Wong Kar-wai re-cut a new, “definitive” version of his swordplay classic, in which a broken-hearted hit man moves to the desert and finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings. (Cantonese and Mandarin)
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., July 17, 7 p.m.,
Sun., July 19, 2 p.m.

Mr. Cinema
(Lo Kong Ching Chuen)
Directed by Samson Chiu
(Hong Kong, 2007, 117 min.)
Made in honor of the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, Samson Chiu’s tribute covers 40 years of the island’s history as seen through the eyes of a left-wing film projectionist and his family. (Cantonese, Mandarin and English)
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., July 24, 7 p.m.,
Sun., July 26, 2 p.m.

Sparrow
(Man Jeuk)
Directed by Johnnie To
(Hong Kong, 2008, 87 min.)
A gang of debonair pickpockets comes undone when a beautiful stranger enters their midst with a con of her own. (Cantonese and Mandarin)
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., July 10, 7 p.m.,
Sun., July 12, 2 p.m.

Czech
The Country Teacher
(Venkovsky Ucitel)
Directed by Bohdan Sláma
(Czech Republic/France/Germany, 2008, 117 min.)
Three people have an incidental encounter that triggers a revealing story of love, friendship and forgiveness.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

English
$9.99
Directed by Tatia Rosenthal
(Israel/Australia, 2008, 78 min.)
This stop-motion animated story follows people living in a Sydney apartment complex looking for meaning in their lives.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Amistad
Directed by Steven Spielberg
(U.S., 1997, 152 min.)
Following an 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship that is traveling toward the northeast coast of America, a courtroom tries the free man who led the revolt. (English, Mende and Spanish)
AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., July 20, 6:30 p.m.,
Tue., July 21, 6:30 p.m.

Blood: The Last Vampire
Directed by Chris Nahon
(Hong Kong/Japan/France/Argentina, 2009, 88 min.)
A vampire named Saya, who is part of covert government agency that hunts and destroys demons in a post-WWII Japan, is inserted in a military school to discover which of her classmates is a demon in disguise.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., July 10

Chéri
Directed by Stephen Frears
(U.K./Germany, 2009, 100 min.)
In this romantic drama set in 1920s Paris, the son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) who educated him in the ways of love.
AFI Silver Theatre
Opens Fri., July 3
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Food, Inc.
Directed by Robert Kenner
(U.S., 2008, 94 min.)
This documentary takes an unflinching look inside America’s corporate-controlled food industry.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Lawrence of Arabia
Directed by David Lean
(U.K., 1962, 216 min.)
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, T.E. Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. (English, Arabic and Turkish)
AFI Silver Theatre
Sundays, July 4 to Aug. 13, 7:30 p.m.

Moon
Directed by Duncan Jones
(U.K., 2009, 97 min.)
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where his only companion has been a talking computer.
Various area theaters
Opens Fri., July 10

Romancing the Stone
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
(U.S./Mexico, 1984, 106 min.)
A New York romance writer sets off to Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous treasure hunt with a reckless soldier of fortune.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., July 18, 12:30 p.m.,
Mon., July 20, 9:30 p.m.,
Thu., July 23, 4:45 p.m.

Saving Private Ryan
Directed by Steven Spielberg
(U.S., 1998, 170 min.)
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of US soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., July 3, 3:30 p.m.,
Sat., July 4, 1:30 p.m.,
Mon., July 6, 3:30 p.m.

Schindler’s List
Directed by Steven Spielberg
(U.S., 1993, 195 min.)
Oskar Schindler uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war, but witnessing the horrors endured by the Jews, he starts to save them. (Free screening)
AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., July 26, 1:30 p.m.

Tetro
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
(U.S./Italy/Spain/Argentina, 2009, 127 min.)
Bennie finds his long-estranged brother Tetro living in Buenos Aires but discovers that his sibling, once a brilliant writer, is now tormented and self-destructive in this bittersweet story of two brothers and the secrets of their highly creative Argentine-Italian family.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Unmistaken Child
Directed by Nati Baratz
(Israel, 2008, 102 min.)
After the death of a world-renowned Tibetan master in 2001 at age 84, his devoted disciple embarks on a four-year search for his master’s reincarnation, performing rarely seen ritualistic tests on children to determine the likelihood of reincarnation. (English, Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., July 3

Farsi

The Stoning of Soraya M.
Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh
(U.S., 2008, 116 min.)
In 1986 Iran, a man whose car breaks down in a remote area hears the story of a woman whose marriage to an abusive tyrant led to tragedy.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

French

The 400 Blows
(Les Quatre Cents Coups)
Directed by François Truffaut
(France, 1959, 99 min.)
In this intensely touching story, a misunderstood young adolescent is left without attention and delves into a life of petty crime. (French and English)
AFI Silver Theatre
July 3 to 7

Les Baliseurs du Désert
(Wanderers of the Desert)
Directed by Nacer Khemir
(Tunisia, 1984, 95 min.)
An old bus is blown along an almost invisible road where a young schoolteacher assigned to a remote village begins to see figures appearing like statues of salt — surveyors of the desert.
La Maison Française
Thu., July 16, 7 p.m.

Captain Achab
(Capitaine Achab)
Directed by Philippe Ramos
(France, 2008, 100 min.)
A young boy who reads the Bible in a hunting hut in the middle of the woods becomes the frightening captain of a whaling ship in the 1800s.
The Avalon Theatre
Wed., July 15, 8 p.m.

The Girl from Monaco
(La Fille de Monaco)
Directed by Anne Fontaine
(France, 2008, 95 min.)
A brilliant and neurotic attorney goes to Monaco to defend a famous criminal, but instead of focusing on the case, he falls for a beautiful she-devil.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., July 3

Jules and Jim
(Jules et Jim)
Directed by François Truffaut
(France, 1962, 105 min.)
In 1912 Paris, French bon vivant Jim meets insecure German Jules and they begin a decade-long love triangle with an independent French woman, though it never affects their friendship. (French, German and English)
AFI Silver Theatre
July 17 to 23

Séraphine
Directed by Martin Provost
(France/Belgium, 2008, 125 min.)
“Séraphine” vividly recounts the tragic story of French naïve painter Séraphine de Senlis, a humble servant who becomes a gifted, self-taught painter.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., July 17

Shoot the Piano Player
(Tirez sur le Pianiste)
Directed by François Truffaut
(France, 1960, 92 min.)
A shy pianist Charlie Kohler helps his crook brother, who is being chased by two gangsters, while opening up to the waitress who loves him.
AFI Silver Theatre
July 10 to 16

The Soft Skin
(Le Peau Douce)
Directed by François Truffaut
(France/Portugal, 1964, 113 min.)
A well-known married publisher and lecturer starts an affair with a flight attendant he cannot stay away from.
(French, Portuguese and English)
AFI Silver Theatre
July 24 to 30

Z
Directed by Costa-Gavras
(Algeria/France, 1969, 127 min.)
This edge-of-your-set action thriller closely parallels the real-life assassination of Gregorious Lambrakis, a Greek doctor, humanist and peace movement leader whose murder in 1963 by a group of right-wing terrorists led to an abortive public scandal.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., July 10

German

Polska Love Serenade
Directed by Monika Anna Wojtyllo
(Germany, 2008, 75 min.)
An encounter in Poland between a slick young attorney and an uncomplicated student may not be love at first sight, but the two choose to travel together and end up overcoming more than just mutual prejudices. (Screens with “Just Get Married” (Germany/Syria, 2004, 29 min.))
Goethe-Institut
Mon., July 6, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew
Turn Left at the End of the World
Directed by Avi Nesher
(Israel, 2004, 108 min.)
Moroccan immigrants (who think of themselves as French) aren’t too happy about the arrival of Indian immigrants (who think of themselves as British) in their dusty Israeli desert town during the sexual revolution of the 1960s, making for a captivating mix of old cultural mine fields. (Hebrew and French)
Washington DCJCC

Japanese
Departures
(Okiribito)
Directed by Yojiro Takita
(Japan, 2008, 130 min.)
Responding to a job advertisement, Daigo is shocked to discover that “working with departures” refers not to the international travel to which he aspires but with morticians hired to perform “encoffinments.”
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Tôkyô Sonata
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
(Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong, 2008, 119 min.)
A seemingly ordinary Japanese family disintegrates when the father abruptly loses his job in this gripping portrayal of the dark side of human nature and the social problems that confront contemporary Japan.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., July 17

Versus
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
(U.S./Japan, 2000, 119 min.)
Yakuza gangsters, zombies, an escaped convict still shackled to a severed hand: Ryuhei Kitamura’s gory delight is a must-see for connoisseurs of good trashy fun. (Japanese and English; mature audiences)
Freer Gallery of Art
Thu., July 30, 7 p.m.

Mandarin
All About Women
(Neui Yan Fau Pui)
Directed by Tsui Hark
(Hong Kong/China, 2008, 119 min.)
Tsui Hark’s screwball confection tells the intertwined stories of three women: a clumsy nerd who invents a pheromone patch to attract men, a beauty who attracts plenty of men but no real friends, and a tomboyish rocker who takes out her romantic frustrations through boxing. (Mandarin and Uighur)
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., July 31, 7 p.m.

Norwegian
O’Horten
Directed by Bent Hamer
(Norway/Germany/France, 2007, 90 min.)
A 67-year-old train engineer faces an existential threat to his orderly, solitary existence: retirement, which brings him a future of unlikely adventures.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Portuguese
Acts of Men
(Atos dos Homens)
Directed by Kiko Goifman
(Brazil/Germany/Netherlands, 2006, 76 min.)
“Acts of Men” tours Brazil’s once picturesque Baixada coastal region, notorious for vigilantism and “clean-up campaigns" that have been running wild for nearly half a century. (Screens with “Antonio das Mortes”)
National Gallery of Art
Sat., July 4, 3 p.m.

Antonio das Mortes
Directed by Glauber Rocha
(France/Brazil/W. Germany, 1969, 96 min.)
A mercenary killer of peasant rebel-bandits (cangaceiros), Antonio is slowly and steadily lured over to the peasant cause. (Screens with “Acts of Men.”
National Gallery of Art
Sat., July 4, 3 p.m.

They Don’t Wear Black Tie
(Eles Não Usam Black-Tie)
Directed by Leon Hirszman
(Brazil, 1981, 130 min.)
In a colorful working-class quarter in São Paulo, Tião and Maria, faithful lovers and friends, find their respective families caught in webs of poverty and factory strikes — and at odds with their forthcoming marriage.
National Gallery of Art
Sun., July 12, 4:30 p.m.

Russian
The Cigarette Girl from Mosselprom
(Papirosnitsa ot Mosselproma)
Directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky
(Soviet Union, 1924, 90 min.)
Cigarette seller Zina from a state-run Mosselprom shop attracts the attention of three men: a bookkeeper, cameraman and an American in Moscow on business, in this satire of city life. (Russian titles translated live)

Serbian
Red Colored Grey Truck
(Sivi Kamion Crvene Boje)
Directed by Srdjan Koljevic
(Serbia and Montenegro/Slovenia, 2004, 104 min.)
In the last days of peace in Yugoslavia, a totally color-blind Bosnian trucker and a pregnant Belgrade back-up singer find love on the run.
Goethe-Institut
Mon., July 13, 6:30 p.m.

Silent
‘A Santanotte
Directed by Elvira Notari
(Italy, 1922, 62 min.)
“‘A Santanotte” is a beautiful example of the Neapolitan film genre sceneggiata (scenes with songs) shot by Italy’s first woman director on location in Naples’ working-class neighborhoods.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., July 25, 1 p.m.

The Gaucho
Directed by F. Richard Jones
(U.S., 1927, 115 min.)
Douglas Fairbanks gives an electrifying performance as a rowdy Argentine cowboy proficient with pistols and señoritas who comes to rescue a town threatened by a sadistic general. (Featuring Ben Model on piano)
National Gallery of Art
Sun., July 26, 4:30 p.m.

Spanish
The Realm of Fortune
(El Imperio de la Fortuna)
Directed by Arturo Ripstein
(Mexico, 1985, 130 min.)
A poor Mexican peasant sets out with one injured gamecock to find his fortune in village gambling and cockfighting.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., July 18, 4 p.m.

Silvia Prieto
Directed by Martín Rejtman
(Argentina, 1999, 92 min.)
In this absurdist portrayal of life among Buenos Aires youth, Silvia is dissatisfied with her daily routine and decides to change her lifestyle, with near ruinous results.
National Gallery of Art
Sun., July 5, 4:30 p.m.

A Week Alone
(Una Semana Solos)
Directed by Célina Murga
(Argentina, 2008, 110 min.)
While the parents of a fashionable gated community are away, their teenage children take charge, behaving more or less as they please — until a stranger joins their life of conformity. (Preceded by “A Stain in the Water” (2005, 20 min.))
National Gallery of Art
Sun., July 19, 4:30 p.m.