Bunny Chow
John Barker, South Africa, 2006, 96 min., Afrikaans, English & Tsotsi-taal
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 4:30 p.m., Frontenac
Friday, Nov. 21, 2:30 p.m., Frontenac

In director Barker’s debut feature, aspiring comedians Kags, Joey and Dave make clear that life in Johannesburg is not just about hardship and townships. It’s also about hanging out with friends and celebrating life on a raucous road trip to Oppikoppi, South Africa’s largest music festival. Shot in handheld vérité style, in black-and-white, the edgily comic “Bunny Chow” – a reference to a local curry sandwich that serves as a metaphor for the city’s mix of races, cultures and attitudes – asks us to look at a nation through the eyes of its hopeful future rather than its tragic past.

The Class
(Entre les murs)
Laurent Cantet, France, 2008, 128 min., French
Saturday, Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m., Frontenac

Based on a best-selling autobiographical novel by François Begaudeau, “The Class” was the unanimous jury choice for the best-film Palm D’Or at the 2008 Cannes festival. Directed by the acclaimed Cantet (“Time Out,” “Human Resources”), the docudrama follows François (who plays himself) and his fellow teachers as they embark on a new year at a high school in a tough multicultural Paris neighborhood. Neither stuffy nor severe, François exhibits an extreme frankness that often surprises, but his classroom approach is put to the test when the students challenge his teaching methods. Screen Daily proclaims that “The Class” – the opening-night selection of the New York Film Festival – is “as fluid and thought-provoking as contemporary realist cinema can get.”
Sponsored by Alliance Française of St. Louis.

The Custodian
(El Custodio)
Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina, 2006, 93 min., Spanish
Thursday, Nov. 20, 9 p.m., Frontenac
Friday, Nov. 21, 4:45 p.m., Frontenac

As a bodyguard for a high-profile politician, Ruben is reduced to a mere shadow of a man: Every action in his life is regulated by a series of mundane routines, and he must trail behind his boss everywhere he goes, watching but never speaking. This compelling chronicle of a man without any true identity is shot exclusively from Ruben’s point of view, an approach that won “The Custodian” the 2006 Berlin Film Festival’s Alfred Bauer Award, given to innovative and daring works that break filmmaking’s traditional rules.

Days and Clouds
(Giorni e nuvole)
Silvio Soldini, Italy, 2007, 115 min., Italian
Friday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m., Frontenac
Saturday, Nov. 22, 9:15 p.m., Frontenac

In this new work by the director of “Bread and Tulips,” the affluent, sophisticated Elsa and Michele have enough money for Elsa to leave her job and fulfill an old dream of studying art history. After she graduates, however, their lives change: Michele confesses he hasn’t worked in two months and was fired by the company he founded. The growing distance between the couple threatens their most precious possession: the love that binds them. The New York Times calls “Days and Clouds” “a brave film simply for daring to portray a nightmare lurking in the minds of middle-aged workers” and declares it a “sad, very grown-up movie.”
Sponsored by Union Avenue Christian Church.

The Empire State Building Murders
William Karel, France/U.S., 2008, 73 min.
Saturday, Nov. 22, 4 p.m., Webster

Co-written by crime novelist and film obsessive Jerome Charyn (“Movieland,” “Gangsters and Gold Diggers”), this clever pastiche of old movie clips and new “documentary” footage recaptures a fascinating place and time: the Empire State Building in New York during the ’30s and ’40s. A French declaration of love for America and film noir, the film stands halfway between myth and reality, skillfully blurring fiction and nonfiction. With a dizzying plot and a voice-over narration worthy of the best noir, “The Empire State Building Murders” deftly combines scenes from dozens of classic Hollywood films – featuring such actors as James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Ben Gazzara, Kirk Douglas, Mickey Rooney and Lauren Bacall – to construct a fresh story that’s intercut with contemporary in-character interviews with many of the same actors. With director Karel and co-star Marsha Hunt.

Faro, Goddess of the Waters
(Faro, la reine des eaux)
Salif Traore, Mali, 2007, 96 min., Bambara
Sunday, Nov. 16, 4:30 p.m., Frontenac

In this assured directorial debut by the former assistant to Souleymane Cissé and Abderrahmane Sissako, an engineer returns to the rural village of his birth to uncover the identity of his father and initiate a waterworks project. However, because his arrival coincides with the drowning of a young villager, the village elders determine that Faro, the spirit who rules the waters, has been angered by the engineer’s return, and the only way to appease her anger is with sacrifice. This moving story deftly explores the conflicts between tradition and modernity in contemporary Africa while attesting to the power of one individual to effect change. With director Traore.

Fashion Victims
(Reine Geschmacksache)
Ingo Rasper, Germany, 2007, 105 min., German
Saturday, Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m., Frontenac
Monday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m., Frontenac

In this madcap comedy, a middle-aged traveling salesman of ladies’ fashion loses his driver’s license just as a young competitor threatens to steal his best customers. A desperate Wolfgang cancels his son’s holiday and presses him into service as an unwilling chauffeur, but the situation goes from bad to worse: The bank and taxman both pursue him, his wife leaves him, and his son not only comes out of the closet but also falls in love with his father’s rival. Family and foe meet in an uproarious showdown in which bullets and misunderstandings fly.

The Fish Fall in Love
(Mahiha Ashegh Mishavand)
Ali Raffi, Iran, 2006, 96 min., Farsi
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 12:30 p.m., Frontenac
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7:15 p.m., Frontenac

Atieh’s singular passion is food, and her small but popular restaurant on the sleepy Caspian coast is her pride and joy. But when Aziz, her former fiancé, appears after a 20-year absence, Atieh fears that he intends to close the restaurant. In a desperate effort to convince him otherwise, Atieh prepares his favorite dishes, one after the other. Loosely based on the Persian fable of “A Thousand and One Nights,” the film uses the language of food to paint a richly textured portrait of life and love on the northern coast of Iran.

The Flyboys
Rocco DeVilliers, U.S., 2008, 118 min.
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2 p.m., Brown, Free
Sunday, Nov. 23, 3:30 p.m., Frontenac

In this action-packed coming-of-age film – winner of a half-dozen audience awards at U.S. film festivals – 12-year-olds Jason and Kyle sneak aboard a mysterious plane at their small town’s airport. Forced to hide when two strangers suddenly arrive, the boys find themselves trapped and airborne over the open Arizona desert. Worse, they uncover a bomb in the luggage compartment. Bursting into the cabin to report their discovery, they find the plane empty, requiring the boys to land the plane themselves. But Jason and Kyle’s troubles are only beginning: Their actions have foiled a heist to steal millions of dollars from the mob. With producer Lisle Moore.

From Inside
John Bergin, U.S., 2008, 71 min.
Sunday, Nov. 23, 3:30 p.m., Tivoli 3

An animated film based on the haunting 1994 graphic novel by director Bergin, “From Inside” is the tale of Cee, a young pregnant woman who finds herself on a damaged train slowly making its way across a bleak, apocalyptic landscape. Flood, war and starvation threaten the passengers, and Cee struggles through the dangers while coping with the memory of her lost husband and the imminent birth of her child. Admirers of Chris Marker’s classic “La Jetee” will find “From Inside” a fascinating companion piece. A musician and artist, Bergin is the creator of the comic series “Golgothika.” With director Bergin.
Sponsored by Star Clipper