600 MILES (600 Millas)
Gabriel Ripstein
Mexico, 2015
85 minutes, Color
In Person: Bestselling author George Pelecanos (April 17 only)
Gripping and gritty, 600 Miles is a nimble, intense thriller that delves into cross-border crime. Kristyan Ferrer is Arnulfo, a callow petty criminal who buys firearms in Arizona and smuggles them into Mexico for use by the cartels. The purchases are legal and hassle-free in the gun-happy state; the whole thing is easy money until Arnulfo and his accomplice encounter ATF agent Hank Harris (Tim Roth). The film becomes a dark journey southwards with Harris as captive and Arnulfo as kidnapper. This is a nail-biter, but it’s also a close-range portrait of a subculture told from a narrow perspective but with rich implications coming in from every corner. Roth plays a tightly coiled professional, Ferrer a desperate amateur, and the two actors sketch a duel of mismatched wits. This is a simple tale, but one told expertly; it’s a short-fuse trip with a bang at the end.—Vancouver International Film Festival (In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
THE LAST KING (Birkebeinerne)
Nils Gaup
Norway, 2016
100 minutes, Color
The year is 1204. Norway is torn apart in a civil war. The Norwegian king is fighting for survival against the church’s bishops, who will use any means available to obtain victory. While the king is on his deathbed, his only remaining heir is guarded in deep secret. Half the kingdom wants the boy dead, but two men will sacrifice everything to protect him. The two warriors set on a perilous journey through the harsh Norwegian winter landscape to rescue the two-year-old future king and his mother from a terrible fate. A new film by Oscar®-nominated director Nils Gaup (The Pathfinder), The Last King created quite a buzz at the Cannes and Berlin film festival markets for its director and its stars, Jakob Oftebro of Kon-Tiki and Kristofer Hivju of Game of Thrones.—Various sources (In Norwegian with English subtitles)
FESTIVAL PREVIEW | CINE CUBANO | CIRCLE AWARD | FIRST FEATURE | JUSTICE MATTERS
THE LIGHTER SIDE | RHYTHMS ON AND OFF THE SCREEN
MAGALLANES
Salvador Del Solar
Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, 2015
109 minutes, Color
MARSHLAND (La Isla Minima)
Alberto Rodriguez
Spain, 2014
105 minutes, Color
The opening scenes of Marshland place viewers soaring high above wetlands and farms that resemble a colorful Mondrian painting. On the ground, the quiet landscape in the south of Spain is foreboding and hiding many secrets. It is 1980, and Spain is still working through La Transición following the death of Francisco Franco. Armed soldiers patrol through a summer carnival. In one small town, young girls have been disappearing and a serial killer may be on the loose. Two detectives from Madrid arrive to investigate. Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) is a world-wise pragmatist. Pedro (Raúl Arévalo) is intensely idealistic. Although the cops mistrust each other, they must work together before another body is discovered. Complicating the task is the fact that both men have secrets of their own that come to the surface as the case plays out.—Dave Nuttycombe (In Spanish with English subtitles)
ONE FLOOR BELOW (Un etaj mai jos)
Radu Muntean
Romania, France, Sweden, Germany, 2015
93 minutes, Color
Sandu Patrascu has a peaceful life with his wife, son, and dog. On a routine day, he hears a violent argument between a man and a woman in a downstairs apartment. Patrascu walks away but later that day he learns that the woman is found dead. Patrascu suspects that his neighbor Vali Dima is involved but says nothing to the police. Dima in turn believes that Patrascu knows the truth and quietly starts to inject himself into Patrascu’s life in an almost casual, neighborly manner. Dima’s constant presence increases Patrascu’s moral dilemma. Patrascu is forced to suppress his true feelings, but his conscience tugs at him. Director Radu Muntean (Tuesday, After Christmas) skillfully keeps the tension on a tightrope and lets Patrascu’s rage simmer below the surface. One Floor Below is a masterful work from the recent Romanian New Wave.—Calgary International Film Festival (In Romanian with English subtitles)
A PATCH OF FOG
Michael Lennox
UK, 2015
92 minutes, Color
A Patch of Fog is an unnerving thriller, a modern-day morality tale, and a kind of anti-bromance detailing the relationship between a mildly kleptomaniacal professor and a troubled security guard. Sandy Duffy (Conleth Hill of Game of Thrones) leads a comfortable life in Belfast. He is a university professor and a regular guest on a popular television arts program, and his one novel, though published many years ago, is still in print and regarded a classic. Sandy has a habit of nicking things, and shoplifting has become the one thrill in his overly domesticated life. When Sandy gets caught by security guard Robert (Stephen Graham of Boardwalk Empire), his life is turned inside out. Every time the beleaguered professor is certain he’s shaken off his blackmailer, he is reminded that, in a world where so much is captured on camera, it’s hard to avoid leaving a trail.—Toronto International Film Festival
THE PEOPLE VS FRITZ BAUER (Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer)
Lars Kraume
Germany, 2015
105 minutes, Color
Few figures encapsulate the conflicted character of postwar Germany better than Fritz Bauer, the attorney general who helped bring the elusive Adolph Eichmann to trial in Israel. The People vs. Fritz Bauer is both a portrait of Bauer and a riveting historical thriller that chronicles the tremendous risks undertaken to apprehend the chief engineer of the Nazis’ Final Solution. It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolph Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service.—Tbilisi International Film Festival (In German, English, and Yiddish with English subtitles)