Films & Schedules - Oscar Submissions

A taut, involving drama centered around the mysterious disappearance of a young woman.

Ahmad, divorced from his German wife, has recently returned to Tehran. Looking forward to joining a group of old university friends for a weekend getaway on the Caspian Sea, he reflects that perhaps it is time to find an Iranian wife. One of the group, Sepided, has invited someone new, an attractive teacher named Elly, who she thinks just might be a match for Ahmad. But as the lighthearted gathering settles in, Elly mysteriously disappears from their seaside bungalow. As lies and deception compound into catastrophe, About Elly focuses on the behavior and values of the Iranian middle class, illustrating how convention, conformity, and tradition can be restrictive, even among those who fool themselves into thinking they are not guided by them.

Filmography: Beautiful City (04), Fireworks Wednesday (06).

Winner of the Best Narrative Feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival and this year’s Iranian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

119 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Middle Eastern.

A powerful crime drama set in Jaffa’s multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood, a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

Winner of the Best Film, Director, and Screenplay awards at this year’s Israeli Film Academy ceremony, this powerful collaboration between Shani (Israeli) and Copti (Palestinian) offers a unique perspective on the myriad complexities of the greater Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ajami is a tough Jaffa neighborhood, rife with tension. In this multi-ethnic stew, a powerful Bedouin clan wages a violent vendetta against a poor family that has offended its honor. A teenage worker from the occupied territories desperately tries to raise money to help his ailing mother. A Jewish police detective struggles with the disappearance of his brother. An affluent Palestinian and his Jewish girlfriend dream about the future. As these gripping stories intersect, we witness the dramatic collisions in a world of sustained, machismo-fueled chaos.

First Feature Film.

This year’s Israeli submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest.

120 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Jewish, Middle Eastern.

This quirky tale pits a scamming hustler and his wrestler sidekick against the inhabitants of a small Uruguayan town.

A combination of quirky dark drama and deadpan satire plays out in this stylish tale of a washed-up wrestler and a smooth conman in a sleepy village in South America. “Prince” Orsini, an impresario, arrives in a small town with his protégé, a one-time German wrestling champion named Jacob Van Oppen. Orsini’s scheme is to use Jacob’s status to lure locals into duels with him, promising a large cash sum to anybody who can pin him in three minutes. In reality, the matches are fixed to protect Jacob’s reputation—and Orsini’s income. The pair’s plan is threatened when an opponent is too drunk to wrestle, and femme fatale Adriana, eying the non-existent $1,000 prize, offers up her muscular husband as the replacement opponent. Jacob, nursing sore muscles, a nasty cough, and an even nastier alcohol habit, is in trouble. “Brechner’s ambitious debut is something like a retro The Wrestler by way of the Coen brothers.”—Variety.

First Feature Film.

This year’s Uruguayan submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

110 Minutes    

Interests: New Directors, Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Spanish Language, Latino.

A suspenseful psychological thriller, Chameleon centers on a clever con man who targets lonely, disillusioned women, playing on their romantic fantasies. But can the con man be conned if love gets in the way?

Gábor cleans offices. Working nights, he rarely has any contact with his employers, yet he learns everything about them by thoroughly analyzing their garbage. Nobody suspects that Gábor is in fact a con man who carefully chooses his victims by the trash they leave behind, and usually targets disillusioned, lonely women. In a few months he destroys all their romantic illusions by taking all of their savings. When he gets a job at a psychologist’s office, Gábor meets Hanna, an injured dancer from a wealthy family. Insecure and vulnerable, Hanna seems to be the perfect victim. Gábor pretends to be a doctor who can cure her body and her soul. Everything goes according to plan until Gábor falls in love, and must choose between his beloved and her money. A suspenseful psychological thriller, Chameleon is this year’s Hungarian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Filmography: Just Sex and Nothing Else (05), Children of Glory (06).

104 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Comedy.

Dawson, Isla 10 focuses on the imprisonment of advisors close to the deposed socialist government of president Salvador Allende. The men were jailed and endured hellish conditions on the island, the world's southernmost concentration camp, for more than a year.

After the military coup in 1973, deposed President Salvador Allende’s closest collaborators and ministers were locked up in a concentration camp on Dawson Island, lying at the western entrance to the Strait of Magellan. They are assigned numbers instead of names. Their lives are spared thanks to pressure from the International Red Cross, but they are not spared from torture and forced labor. Thirty years later, some survivors return to the island and rediscover the place where they learned to survive in such extreme conditions. Miguel Littin, who spent many years living in exile and to whom writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez dedicated his book “Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin,” took inspiration for his drama from the autobiography by Sergio Bitar, one of Allende’s ministers.

Filmography: The Promised Land (71), Letter From Marusia (76), Alsino and the Condor (82), The Shipwreck (94), The Last Man (05).

This year’s Chilean submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

117 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Spanish Language, History.

The life and career of opera star Mei Lenfeng is the subject of Chen Kaige's opulent period drama which traces Mei from childhood through his career-threatening refusal to perform during the occupation.

Chen Kaige’s opulent period drama tells the story of Mei Lanfang (1894–1961), a Peking opera singer of such virtuosity that his fame spread worldwide and his admirers included Charlie Chaplin and Sergei Eisenstein, who filmed him. Descended from an acting family, Mei was so popular he soon became a rival to veteran actor Swallow 13, and the two faced off in a musical “duel” from which Mei emerged the victor. His fame spread and in the late 1920s he even performed on Broadway. But when disaster struck with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Mei’s refusal to sing in public under the occupation proved career threatening. Neatly conveying the fragile social position of opera performers of the early part of the last century, when they were regarded as little better than prostitutes, Chen offers an engaging portrait of Mei’s amazing talent.

Selected Filmography: King of the Children (87), Farewell My Concubine (93), Temptress Moon (96), The Promise (05).

Sponsored by Hotel deLuxe.

147 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Asian, History.

Marthe and Michel live with their kids on the edge of a near-completed freeway. When the road is suddenly opened up to traffic, the noise and pollution threatens to destroy the family unit. Ursula Meier's absurd comedy—a "road movie in reverse"—brilliantly redefines the meaning of home.

With just the right touches of farce and drama, Home is what Meier has termed “a road movie in reverse.” An ordinary middle class family lives an ordinary life in their ordinary house that sits next to an unused highway. With no neighbors or cars for miles, they live a typical day-to-day existence. Michel (Olivier Gourmet) goes to work by getting into his car on the other side of the empty stretch of road that seems to lead nowhere. Marthe (Isabelle Huppert) maintains a calm household while her teenage daughter listens to music and suns herself next to the guardrails. Life is good—or at least average. But when the highway is suddenly opened and cars whizzing by become the norm, the family’s dynamic changes: dad’s stressed, mom’s freaking out, and things spiral out of control. Ultimately, the family needs to redefine what “home” means.

Filmography: Sleepless (99), Table Manners (01), Strong Shoulders (02).

In French with English subtitles.

Sponsored by Consulate General of Switzerland, San Francisco.

95 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, French Language.

When Leila is pardoned after serving 12 years of a life sentence, she agrees to work as an assistant to Father Jacob, answering the letters of those who write asking for his help. Although she regards the pastor’s correspondence as pointless, the letters ultimately play a role in her redemption.

A simple but transcendent story about faith and human frailty, Letters to Father Jacob achieves a state of grace. Surprised when she is pardoned 12 years into a life sentence, hard-bitten killer Leila (Kaarina Hazard) takes the prison warden’s suggestion and winds up at the ramshackle rural parsonage of Father Jacob. The blind elderly man needs an assistant to pursue his main joy in life: answering the letters of those who write to ask for his help. Although Leila regards the pastor’s correspondence as pointless, it ultimately plays a role in her own redemption and heart-rending self-forgiveness.

Filmography: As If I Didn’t Exist (02), Mother of Mine (05), The New Man (07).

This year’s Finnish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

85 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.

The Misfortunates examines the unconventional adolescence of thirteen year old Gunther and his dysfunctional family. A bawdy film full of pathos and humor that ponders what it takes to raise a child.

Thirteen-year-old Gunther represents the youngest generation of a line of proud, hard-drinking Strobbe men. Told in flashback from Gunther’s perspective as an unsuccessful writer in his early thirties, van Groeningen’s black comedy ruminates over Gunther’s ribald, chaotic adolescence under the “guidance” of three bawdy uncles, an ever-boozing dad, one put-upon grandmother, and unbounded collective dysfunction. Adapted from an acclaimed novel by Dimitri Verhulst and directed with deftness and verve by van Groeningen, The Misfortunates combines equal amounts of heart, soul, and pathos as it ponders whether, in the absence of other virtues, love is enough to raise a child. “Blackout drinking, compulsive gambling, non-stop whoring, and chronic fighting. Not exactly solid citizen types.”—Hollywood Reporter.

Filmography: Steve + Sky (04), With Friends Like These (07).

This year’s Belgian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

108 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Comedy.

Mother is the story of an over protective mothers’ undying love and devotion for her mentally handicapped son.

“Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. After his madcap allegorical monster movie The Host, Bong Joon-ho returns with an even more startling genre film. Mother begins as a cartoonish, almost slapstick comedy about a village idiot and his insanely doting, long-widowed parent. Midway through, the movie takes a serious turn as the 27-year-old child is railroaded into prison for the murder of a local school girl; then, in its last third, Mother unexpectedly spirals into a chilling psychological drama, as its unstoppable, devoted maternal protector appoints herself the case’s chief investigator and mutates into a cosmic force of nature, giving perhaps the performance of the year.”—New York Film Festival.

Filmography: Barking Dogs Never Bite (01), Memories of Murder (03), The Host (06).

This year’s South Korean submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by Oregon Korea Foundation.

129 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Asian.

A shocking crime brings together a frightened girl and a battle-hardened cop in this drama from writer and director Ryoichi Kimizuka.

When two children are found murdered, an 18-year-old high school student becomes the prime suspect and the case quickly becomes a media sensation. As both the press and an angry public descend on the home of the accused, the family finds itself at the mercy of strangers. A veteran police detective is assigned to look after Saori, the 15-year-old sister of the accused. While he initially regards the assignment as frivolous, it isn’t long before he sees what kind of toll the attention has taken on the family. When the detective feels Saori is no longer safe in Tokyo, he takes her to the country to escape, but they soon discover that no place is safe from the prying eyes of the tabloid press and the people who read it.

Filmography: The Suspect: Muroi Shinji (05).

This year’s Japanese submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

118 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.

Police, Adjective follows a morally conflicted, undercover cop as he stakes out a young boy accused of selling drugs.

Winner of the Jury Prize (Un Certain Regard) and Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the latest film from Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest, PIFF 31) starts out with an absurdly comic police sting operation—one designed to catch a lone high school student in the act of selling drugs. Cristi, the cop assigned to the case, realizes the futility of the mission, but his attempts to convince his bureaucratic superiors are met with contempt, derision, and the reminder that it is not his place to question the letter of the law. But letters and laws are very much on Porumboiu’s mind, as the observational style of the film’s first part gives way to an exhilarating verbal joust between cop and police chief about conscience, personal morality, and the true meaning of the things one sees and how one chooses to describe them. “The truth of my character lies in the small things, in his daily routine and in a certain time of being and reacting.”—Corneliu Porumboiu.

Filmography: 12:08 East of Bucharest (06).

Sponsored by Romanian American Society Portland Iasi Sister City Association.

115 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Comedy.

Sentenced to prison at age 19, A Prophet is the story of a seemingly shy and weak boy who slowly rises in the ranks of the prison’s reigning Corsican gang, all the while secretly devising his own plans.

Frenchman Malik El Djebena, part Arab, part Corsican, is condemned to six years in prison. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the other convicts. He is 19 years old and cannot read or write. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang currently ruling the prison, he is given a number of “missions” to carry out, which toughen him up and gain the gang leader’s confidence in the process. Malik is a fast learner and rises up the prison ranks, all the while secretly devising his own plans. “Audiard’s rich thriller is elegantly structured, arresting in its detailing of a little-known subculture, filled with fascinating characters, and gripping from beginning to end.”—Film Comment.

Selected Filmography: A Self-Made Hero (96), The Beat That My Heart Skipped (04).

Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival, and this year’s French submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Co-sponsored by Alliance Française de Portland and TV5MONDE, and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

150 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, French Language.

Set in Nazi-occupied Prague, Protector focuses on the fraying marriage of a radio personality and his Jewish wife. The film asks many questions about love and morality, most importantly, "Who would you betray to save the one you love?"

Set in Nazi-occupied Prague in the late 1930s, Protector is a stylish drama focusing on the marriage of radio journalist Emil (Marek Daniel) and his Jewish wife Hana (Jana Plodková), a famous film star forced to give up her career. While she must lay low, Emil seizes a chance for his own advancement and becomes the official mouthpiece of the Reich. While his position offers a measure of protection to Hana in an increasingly dangerous anti-semitic environment, there is a price to be paid. Their fraying relationship reaches a crisis point after the famed assassination of SS Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, for which Emil becomes a suspect. In Protector, writer/director Najbrt observes a couple suddenly divided along wartime lines to pose the question, “Who would you betray to save the one you love?”

Filmography: Champions (84), Invention of Beauty (94).

This year’s Czech submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

98 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Jewish.

A darkly comic story of three generations of Polish women and the mysterious young man whose presence sparks a series of surprising events that change all of their lives.

Lankosz’s darkly comic film tells the story of three generations of women living together at the peak of Stalinist terror in 1950s Poland. In the middle of the capital, the foundations of the Palace of Culture are being raised. Sabina has just turned 30 and her mother is trying to find her a husband. Her grandmother has rated the candidates, yet Sabina isn’t interested in any of them. One day, under dramatic circumstances, she meets Bronislaw, a young man with the looks of a peasant movie star. Though Bronislaw is vulgar, Sabina can’t help but fall for him, and thus sets in motion a series of surprising events that will change the lives of all three women and reveal the darker side of their natures.

First Feature Film.

Winner of the Best Film and Audience Awards at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Critics Award at the Warsaw Film Festival. This year’s Polish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, Los Angeles.

101 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions.

Financial concerns tempt an ex-con to return to his smuggling ways in this taut psychological thriller.

Ex-con Kristófer, recently released from a jail term for smuggling alcohol while working on a freighter, now works as a lowly-paid security guard. Bored with his dreary existence and struggling to support his family, he is tempted when his friend Steingrímur offers to help him get back his old job on the ship—which would provide the opportunity to do one last smuggling job on a freighter between Reykjavik and Rotterdam. Contending not only with the suspicious local police, but also with a captain who mistrusts him and a psychopathic Dutch criminal, Kristófer sets out on his mission to solve his financial woes. Reykjavik-Rotterdam’s gritty naturalism is evocatively realized by the work of Jar City cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson and hardened performances from a fine cast.

Filmography: SLC-25 (90), Remote Control (92), Pearls and Swine (97).

This year’s Icelandic submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

88 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.

A Danish village with many secrets is the setting for this blackly comic thriller. When Robert, a Copenhagen policeman, tries to help the beautiful Ingelise escape her abusive husband, the stage is set for a glorious flaunting of conventions and a melding of noir, comedy, and thriller.

A southern Danish village hides as many secrets as the nearby bog in this blackly comic thriller about the universal nature of compromise and corruption. When tightly wound cop Robert is transferred to a small border town where outsiders either adapt or disappear, he finds that the clannish locals scorn by-the-book law enforcement and rely instead on their own unique brand of frontier justice. When another outsider, the alluring Ingelise, tries to enlist Robert’s help in escaping from her abusive husband, the stage seems to be set for a predictable love triangle. Cleverly defying expectations as it knowingly toys with genre conventions, Terribly Happy sustains a unique tone that smoothly incorporates Western, noir, horror, and psychological thriller with creative flair.

Filmography: Someone Like Hodder (03).

Winner of six Danish Bodil (Danish Oscars) and this year’s Danish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by West Cafe.

95 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.

Ward No. 6 is the modern update of Chekhov’s tale of a psych-ward doctor turned patient in his own asylum.

A major box office and critical hit in Russia, and this year’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Ward No. 6 is a bold, modern update of Chekhov’s tale of a psych-ward doctor turned patient in his own asylum. Filming in an actual mental hospital, the directors interview real patients with actors only incidentally wandering in and out of the frame. Used by Chekhov as a metaphor for a man’s disappointment with the promises of science, the story now reconsiders that disappointment as a loss of faith in the nation’s future.

Gornovsky Filmography: Son (04), 20 Cigarettes (07).

Shakhnazarov Filmography: Jazzmen (83), Dreams (93), The Rider Named Death (04).

In May the Film Center will be presenting “Celebrating Chekhov on the Russian Screen."

83 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.

Ignacio Carrillo, a retired musician, journeys to return his supposedly cursed accordion to his old teacher. Along the way, he picks up a teenage boy who dreams of becoming a wandering musician like Ignacio. This touching odd-couple story mixes the evocative landscapes of Colombia with the magic of its music to tell a timeless tale.

Ignacio Carrillo, old and retired, has spent his life traveling through the villages of Northern Colombia playing traditional songs on his accordion, a legendary instrument that was said to be cursed because it had supposedly been won in a musical duel with the devil himself. When his wife suddenly dies, he bitterly vows to never play again and decides to make one last journey—to return the accordion to the man who gave it to him, his teacher and mentor. Setting out on his donkey, he is set upon by a young teenager with romantic dreams of becoming a nomadic minstrel like Ignacio. Reluctant to take him along, Ignacio relents, but in the course of their journey tries to convince him that the life of a minstrel can only lead to solitude and sadness. This touching odd-couple story mixes the evocative landscapes of Colombia with the magic of its music to tell a timeless tale.

Filmography: The Wandering Shadows (02).

This year’s Colombian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

117 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Global Classroom, Spanish Language, Latino, Music.