New Directors/New Films
March 24–April 3, 2005
Now in its thirty-fourth year, the renowned New Directors/New Films festival, presented jointly by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, introduces New York audiences to the work of emerging or not-yet-established filmmakers from around the world, many of whom introduce their films. This year, the Festival takes place both at The Museum of Modern Art and at Lincoln Center, where the festival opens at Alice Tully Hall on March 23.
Please note: Tickets for MoMA screenings only are available at the lobby information desk and at the Film and Media desk. MoMA Members do not receive free admission to New Directors/New Films screenings. Ticketing information for other venues is available at www.filmlinc.com.
New Directors/New Films was organized by a selection committee comprising Mary Lea Bandy, Chief Curator, Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, and Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media, The Museum of Modern Art; and Marian Masone, Associate Director of Programming, Joanna Ney, Producer, Special Projects, and Richard Peña, Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Sponsored by National Geographic Traveler and Audi. The festival is made possible through the generosity of the Julien J. Studley Foundation and the Irene Diamond Fund. Additional support is provided by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, HBO Films, and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
ATH = Alice Tully Hall; WRT = Walter Reade Theater; MoMA = MoMA’s Titus 1 Theater
The Hero. 2004. Angola/Portugal/France. Directed by Zeze Gamboa. Post-colonial Angola is the subject of this delicately wrought drama of a people in recovery, moving from the trauma of war into the hard-won light of peace. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Gamboa’s feature debut explores the woes of his native country, where the past is seen as a time of loss and the present a daily struggle. Charting the lives of four characters, the filmmaker brings us close to ex-soldier Vitorio, on the list for a prosthetic leg to replace the one blown off by a landmine; Maria Barbara, who caters to men who mistreat her and yearns for her missing son; young Manu who has been left without parents and gets into trouble in the streets; and Joana, a schoolteacher luckier than the others but cynical about the possibilities of political justice. Skillfully weaving their stories together, Gamboa provides a portrait of a society reaching for its identity and a heart-warming tale of emotional rebirth through community. 97 min. A California Newsreel release.
Wednesday, March 23, 8:00 p.m. ATH; Thursday, March 24, 6:00 p.m. MoMA
Sequins. 2004. France. Directed by Eléonore Faucher. In a small town, people will talk. So when Claire, only seventeen years old, discovers she’s pregnant, she escapes to a nearby town, finding refuge with a quiet outsider who takes her under her wing and teaches her a trade—fine embroidery for Parisian designers. Mme. Melikian (played to perfection by the wondrous Ariane Ascaride) has been mourning the death of her son in a motorcycle accident. Claire, emulating the skills of her mentor, learns the craft with steps that are at first tentative but surer as time goes on. And in another sort of apprenticeship, she readies herself—physically and emotionally—for her baby. Through their growing bond, Mme. Melikian comes to terms with her own loss. First-time filmmaker Eléonore Faucher, who wrote the screenplay with Gaëlle Macé, has created an atmosphere of simple elegance where, among the beautiful beads and brocades, two women help each other find the true meaning of their lives. 88 min. A New Yorker Films release.
Thursday, March 24, 6:00 p.m. ATH; Saturday, March 26, 9:00 p.m. MoMA
Mila from Mars. 2004. Bulgaria. Directed by Sophia Zornitsa. Mila from Mars is both a cinematic ballad and virtual western from Eastern Europe. A young woman fleeing an abusive relationship finds herself in a border town, pregnant, alone, and, contrary to her well-earned suspicion, welcomed. The population of this frontier community is small, homogenous, and enterprising. Mila, who has not known much kindness, is made uncomfortable by the succor the town provides and goes into emotional hiding. By the time the baby is born, however, Mila has a new life and love. But her past is never far behind. Writer-director Sophia Zornitsa studied at New York’s School of Visual Arts before forming an artists’ collective in Bulgaria, and the proof of their innovation is Mila’s propulsive inventiveness. The film is not just about style, though—it’s about the genuine kindness of strangers and life’s unexpected turns. At the recent Sarajevo Film Festival, the jury headed by Mike Leigh awarded the ensemble cast of townspeople a special prize. 95 min. Preceded by La Vie d'un Chien (formerly The Life of a Dog). 2004. USA. In John Harden’s homage to Chris Marker, a scientist changes himself into a dog with a secret formula. When he changes back his troubles begin. 13 min.
Thursday, March 24, 6:00 p.m. WRT; Thursday, March 24, 8:45 p.m. WRT; Saturday, March 26, 3:30 p.m. MoMA
Somersault. 2004. Australia. Directed by Cate Shortland. Shortland’s first feature is an evocative study of a difficult coming of age. Heidi (the gorgeous Abbie Cornish) is a sixteen-year-old Australian girl whose reckless sexuality gets her into trouble at home. Caught in a compromising situation by her mother, she takes to the road, feeling she can never be forgiven. Driven by a need to belong, she survives by shacking up with whatever stranger will take her in. In the stark, snowy ski town of Lake Jindabyne, she meets Joe (Sam Worthington), a handsome farm owner’s son with a divided nature, to whom she is instantly attracted. For one thing, he is not an easy conquest; reserved and withholding, he flirts but keeps his distance. As their tenuous relationship deepens, it grows more conflicted, exposing their mutual insecurities, leading to near-disaster for both. What makes this story so compelling is that Heidi—often manipulative and scarily impulsive—has the makings of a really good person. In this barren, glacial outpost, her character is put to the test. 106 min. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Thursday, March 24, 8:30 p.m. ATH; Friday, March 25, 6:00 p.m. MoMA
Our Brand Is Crisis. 2005. USA. Directed by Rachel Boynton. In this astonishingly candid and bullet-paced documentary, American political consultants advise a former Bolivian president on his campaign for re-election. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, aka Goni, is seen by his American strategists as a progressive idealist trying to liberalize business practices and strengthen the democratic process. However, to many Bolivians, he is a Clintonesque neo-liberal who has allied himself too closely with the U.S. With the polls showing little chance of re-election, Goni hires the firm run by Stan Greenberg and James Carville, who bring all their skills and powers of persuasion down to La Paz to influence the election. How they do this and how the candidate, his party, and the Bolivian electorate respond are the most exciting revelations of a film that plays out almost like a fictional adventure story. Rachel Boynton was given remarkable access to this high-stakes client/consultant give-and-take and, in her incisive debut feature, she makes highly compelling use of it. Asking whether marketplace strategies can be applied to the “spreading of democracy,” Boynton comes up with some troubling observations. 85 min.
Thursday, March 24, 8:45 p.m. MoMA; Saturday, March 26, 3:45 p.m. WRT
Le Grand Voyage. 2004. France/Morocco. Directed by Ismael Ferroukhi. Partly out of duty, partly out of a sense of adventure, Reda (Nicolas Cazalé), a young French man, agrees to accompany his Moroccan father (veteran actor Mohamed Majid) on the hajj—the pilgrimage to Mecca that’s one of the five pillars of Islam. The only catch: the journey from France to Saudi Arabia will be by car. So one morning, after a tearful family farewell, the two set out. Along the way they’ll cross national borders, seas, even continents, but no distance will be greater than the one they cross in order to come to terms with each other. Director Ismael Ferroukhi (who co-wrote Cédric Kahn’s Trop de Bonheur, ND/NF 1995) deftly handles their cultural and generational collisions, and the journey for both men becomes a process of continuing self-discovery. The filmmakers received rare permission to shoot the final part of the film in Mecca—and the images they captured are amazing. 108 min. A Film Movement release.
Friday, March 25 at 6:00 p.m. ATH; Saturday, March 26, 6:15 p.m. MoMA
Two Great Sheep. 2004. China. Directed by Liu Hao. Liu Hao brings a sophisticated perspective to the Chinese countryside in this caustic yet bittersweet fable. Uncle Deshan is an old farmer living a hardscrabble life on the outskirts of a remote village in a poor mountainous area. One day, two rare foreign sheep appear like mythological beings on Deshan and his wife’s threshold. These two great sheep, seemingly heaven sent, are gifts from the local government meant to improve the farmer’s life and the village’s meager economy. Overnight, Uncle Deshan is the talk and envy of his community. But these heavenly creatures are capricious beings requiring special food and care. They become surrogate children on whom all manner of attention is lavished by the doting parents - until an incident occurs that causes the municipal leaders to retaliate. A parable of life in rural China, with subtle political overtones. 100 min.
Friday, March 25, 6:00 p.m. WRT; Friday, March 25 at 8:45 p.m. WRT; Sunday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. MoMA
Junebug. 2005. USA. Directed by Phil Morrison. Madeline (Embeth Davidtz) is a go-getting art gallery owner from Chicago, recently married to George, a near-perfect specimen of Southern manhood (Alessandro Nivola), and their sex-life is, well, super-sexy. When Madeline needs to close a deal with a reclusive North Carolina artist, George takes the opportunity to introduce her to his family: prickly mother Peg (the superb Celia Weston); taciturn father Eugene (Scott Wilson); cranky brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie), who can’t measure up to perfect George; and Johnny’s very pregnant, childlike wife Ashley (Amy Adams is a revelation!), who is awestruck by her thin and glamorous Yankee sister-in-law. The presence of an outsider in their midst exposes how fragile a family’s dynamics can be when hidden resentments and deep anxieties surface. Director Phil Morrison and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan give their characters a striking regional authenticity. A miracle of a film graced with a perfect cast, whose road to self-discovery is full of insightful and humorous detours. 102 min. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Friday, March 25, 9:00 p.m. ATH; Sunday, March 27, 1:00 p.m. MoMA
Duck Season. 2004. Mexico. Directed by Fernando Eimbcke. In the middle of another boring Sunday, left home alone by their parents, pals Flama and Moko order a pizza and have thumbs at the ready for video games. Things don’t go as planned, however. The pizza shows up seconds beyond the guaranteed delivery time and a showdown with the delivery man over payment ensues. The only way to break the stalemate is a video game face-off. Meanwhile, Rita, a young girl from down the hall, wants to bake her own birthday cake in their oven. Suddenly, the power in the building fails. Until the lights come back on, the kids while away the time by revealing their hopes and fears to one another. Director Fernando Eimbcke casts a sharp light on adolescent explorations of love and friendship, loneliness and estrangement in this finely crafted feature film debut. 87 min. Preceded by The Raftman's Razor. 2004. USA. Keith Bearden’s misadventures of a do-nothing superhero, tailor made for a pair of geeky teenagers. 7 min.
Friday, March 25, 8:45 p.m. MoMA; Saturday, March 26, 6:15 p.m. WRT; Saturday, March 26, 9:00 p.m. WRT
Live-In Maid. 2004. Argentina/Spain. Directed by Jorge Gaggero. The current economic and social crisis in Argentina is the backdrop for this beautifully calibrated study of a master-servant relationship. Beba (Norma Aleandro) is a rich, spoiled socialite on the brink of a breakdown, having failed in her marriage and business schemes. Her only support is her faithful live-in maid, Dora (Norma Argentina). But Dora wants her own life. She hasn’t been paid in six months, but how do you let go of a thirty-year alliance, even one built on pretense? Making his directorial debut, Jorge Gaggero invests his taut script with warmth, compassion, and brilliant comic timing, making what is essentially a dueling dance for two into a hugely entertaining and satisfying drama. The two Normas—the first an Oscar-winner and Argentine legend; the second a former maid turned expert actress—electrify the screen with diva dramatics that recall Hollywood’s golden days. 83 min. Preceded by Elephants Never Forget. 2004. Venezuela/Mexico. An amiable fish peddler chats up two teenagers in a truck as if they were strangers. But they know him only too well… Directed by Lorenzo Vigas Castes. 13 min.
Saturday, March 26, 3:30 p.m. ATH; Sunday, March 27, 9:00 p.m. MoMA
Murderball. 2005. USA. Directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro. Welcome to the world of “quad rugby,” an international (and growing) sport in which the athletes, all various kinds of quadriplegics, ride around in fortified wheelchairs scoring points and smashing into their opponents. The U.S. team had ruled the roost, but in 2003 Team Canada beat them. Canada is coached by Joe Soares, a former U.S. quad rugby star who, after having been cut from the squad, vowed revenge. Can the U.S. make a comeback, or is it Team Canada’s time? A heart-stopping sports thriller, Murderball also provides a fascinating look into the lives of the players—their relationships with their families, friends, and lovers, and what each day is like when even the simplest task can be an enormous and complicated undertaking. Co-directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro were given remarkably intimate access to their subjects, and the result is a portrait of uncommon sensitivity and insight. 85 min. A THINKFilm release.
Saturday, March 26, 6:00 p.m. ATH; Sunday, March 27, 12:00 p.m. WRT
They Came Back. 2004. France. Directed by Robin Campillo. One morning, the inhabitants of a small French city wake up to discover groups of the recently deceased walking back into town. Was it a meteor that caused this, or a burst of radiation? No one knows, and there’s no time to find out; after emotional reunions with their loved ones, the newly awakened dead are soon looking to return to the lives they once led. But their jobs have been given away, widowed partners have moved on, and Social Services isn’t prepared for the sudden jump in those needing help. Debut director Robin Campillo—who co-authored the screenplay for Laurent Cantet’s Time Out—has created an elegant, deeply provocative work that cleverly uses elements of classical sci-fi to reflect on down-to-earth, contemporary issues. 102 min.
Saturday, March 26, 9:00 p.m. ATH; Sunday, March 27, 3:30 p.m. WRT
Darwin's Nightmare. 2004. Austria/France/Belgium. Directed by Hubert Sauper. The dusky blue waters of Lake Victoria stretch lazily across the verdant plains of Tanzania, but beneath the placid surface a massacre has taken place. In the 1960s, the Nile perch, an enormous variant of the American variety, was experimentally introduced into the lake, and since then it has wiped out practically all other marine life. While spelling disaster for local communities, the situation has proved a bonanza for the multinational fish factories that process and ship tons of perch abroad. Thus does globalization feed its lucrative foreign markets while the locals starve to death. Hubert Sauper’s fascinating film reveals the effects of this “un-natural disaster”—the consequences of reckless economic development that cared little for local ecology and even less for the people whose lives would be affected. 115 min.
Sunday, March 27, 3:45 p.m. MoMA; Monday, March 28, 6:00 p.m. WRT
Certi Bambini. 2004. Italy. Directed by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi. On the streets of Naples are walking time bombs—drifting kids (boys mainly) without families or dreams. One is Rosario (a heartbreaking performance by Gianluca Di Gennaro), who divides his time between caring for his grandmother, dropping by a social welfare center, and running with his street pals, until that delicate balance is upset and he is primed to explode. Italian filmmakers are acknowledged masters at capturing the physical environment, yet the greatest achievement of this searing new work by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi is how it lets us in on Rosario's emotional landscape as well. A work of great power and insight that shows how alive the neo-realist tradition continues to be. 94 min.
Sunday, March 27, 6:15 p.m. WRT; Sunday, March 27, 9:00 p.m. WRT; Monday, March 28, 8:30 p.m. MoMA
The Welts. 2004. Poland. Directed by Magdalena Piekorz. A psychological drama in the best tradition of Eastern European filmmaking (think Krzysztof Zanussi, who produced), Magdalena Piekorz’s debut feature shows impressive handling of existential and political themes. A box office hit in Poland, the film tells the story of an abused boy’s difficulty growing into a healthy man. Wojciech‘s troubled childhood with an autocratic father mirrors the Communist regimentation and Catholic suppression of 80s Poland. The education of Wojciech in the first half is handled with a striking visual flair and pointed irony. The second half demonstrates Freud’s credo: “The Child is the Father of the Man”, but goes further, to complete—however ambiguously—this ambitious chronicle of history and personal fate. 91 min.
Monday, March 28, 6:00 p.m. MoMA; Tuesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m. WRT; Tuesday, March 29, 8:30 p.m. WRT
Young Rebels. 2005. USA/Cuba. Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden. What is hip-hop when you take it out of American inner cities—subtracting the drugs, the crime, the bling and substituting a struggling socialist economy and revolutionary spirit? In Cuba, you get a bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings sharing $2 quarts of rum and shooting the breeze about everything from U.S. imperialism to Eminem’s ‘I’m Shady.’ Filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Gowanus, Brooklyn, ND/NF '04) investigate the scene by following artists and producers preparing for the annual National Hip-Hop Festival. For years an independent event, the festival got co-opted in 2003 by a state institution. Lines have now been drawn, throwing artists, producers, and fans into a heated debate on what it means to be an artist in Cuba today. 70 min. Preceded by The Gospel of the Creole Pig. 2004. Haiti. In poetic meter, Michelange Quay lays out—and strips bare—the West’s economic and cultural pillaging of the Third World. 19 min.
Monday, March 28, 9:00 p.m. WRT; Saturday, April 2, 9:15 p.m. MoMA
Clorox, Ammonia and Coffee. 2004. Norway. Directed by Mona J. Hoel. A wickedly humorous film about a serious fact—“we fly too little and clean too much.” In a small community where work and duty are valued above all, Maria, a pregnant, suddenly single mother and fish-counter assistant, finds herself in urgent need of a lot of money. When she robs Jesus, a local shopkeeper, everyone’s double lives are exposed and so are the flaws—human or societal—that make them necessary. The characters, supported by fine performances, develop into intimate and heartbreaking individuals trapped in complex, messy lives. The anarchic wit gives way to surreal stylistic flourishes befitting the breezy albeit pointed, social critique in writer-director Mona J. Hoel’s smartly scripted film. 105 min. Preceded by Egotrip. Me, myself and I. 2004. Germany. Directed by Urs Domingo Gnad. 3 min.
Tuesday, March 29, 6:00 p.m. ATH; Wednesday, March 30, 9:00 p.m. MoMA
Private. 2004. Italy. Directed by Saverio Costanzo. Costanzo's award-winning debut feature is amazingly suspenseful. Off a road between Israeli settlements and a Palestinian village live an educated and modestly affluent Palestinian couple and their five children. One day, Israeli soldiers, under the command of an edgy officer, take the house over as an observation post. They divide it so that the kitchen is shared, the living room becomes the family's confines, and the upstairs is off-limits military territory, where trespass could result in death. Based on true-life situations and photographed in a raw direct-cinema style with a top-notch cast of Israeli and Palestinian actors, Private was shot with Calabria standing in for the West Bank, where the safety of the Israeli actors could not be guaranteed. Private is an intimate psychodrama in which unlikely parties cohabit and adjust under pressure. Its themes of pacification, smoldering rage, and absurdity apply to war zones everywhere. 92 min. An Avatar Films release.
Tuesday, March 29, 9:00 p.m. ATH; Thursday, March 31, 6:00 p.m. WRT
The Devil and Daniel Johnston. 2005. USA. Directed by Jeff Feuerzeig. There are many stories about the pitfalls of creativity, but few so compelling as Jeff Feuerzeig’s heartbreaking study of one music genius’s near miss. As a teenager, Daniel Johnston had an incredibly active imagination, drawing ingenious comic book-type images, making clever Super 8 films, and writing inspired music. About the same time, he started to show signs of manic depression with delusions of grandeur. While his Christian fundamentalist family supported him, they really didn’t know what to do. And Daniel couldn’t help himself. He finally made the music scene in Austin, Texas. But just as things were looking up—including a spot on MTV—his demons reared their ugly heads. Combining home movies, old concert footage and audiotapes, Feuerzeig, who won best documentary director at the 05 Sundance Film Festival, creates a raucous, poignant portrait of an underground artist who keeps playing his music any which way he can, while loyal family and friends watch their loved one slip away. 109 min.
Wednesday, March 30, 6:00 p.m. MoMA; Friday, April 1, 8:45 p.m. MoMA
Kontroll. 2004. Hungary. Directed by Nimród Antal. A slapstick tale of redemption set in the Budapest subway system, Kontroll centers around the brooding, charismatic Bulcsú and his return to grace. Once a promising young professional above ground, Bulcsú now spends his days and nights wandering the tunnels as the reluctant leader of a ragtag group of ticket inspectors. Lower, even, than traffic police, they sally forth daily to fight sad and hilarious uphill battles against hostile straphangers, abusive punks, pimps, pickpockets, and drunken tarts. Other more troubling antagonists include rival gangs of inspectors, the elusive Bootsie the Sprayer, and a malevolent hooded angel of darkness whom Bulcsú confronts in the film's final showdown. Funny as it is—the film won an award at the recent U.S. Comedy Arts Festival—Nimród Antal's Kontroll is also a poignant tale of one lost soul's journey toward love and salvation. 105 min. A THINKFilm release.
Wednesday, March 30, 6:00 p.m. WRT; Wednesday, March 30, 8:45 p.m. WRT; Thursday, March 31, 9:00 p.m. MoMA
Games of Love and Chance (formerly L'Esquive). 2004. France. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. The film’s original French title comes from a fencing term meaning the quick move to get out of harm's way—something its teenage protagonist, Krimo, does not do. After a long friendship, Krimo recognizes his love for the feisty Lydia, and maneuvers his way into the school play in which she stars. This is not your typical American high-school comedy, but a reality-based romance set in the anonymous housing complexes that ring Paris. The inhabitants are, for the most part, North African and disadvantaged and the play an eighteenth-century comedy whose language is as far from contemporary French slang as Shakespeare is from rap. French filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche (La Faute à Voltaire ND/NF 2001), originally from Tunisia returns with a refreshing neo-Cassavetes view of marginal adolescents absorbing high culture while awkwardly experiencing love. Winner of four Cesars, including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay, and Most Promising Actress. 115 min. A New Yorker Films release.
Thursday, March 31, 6:00 p.m. MoMA; Sunday, April 3, 6:00 p.m. MoMA
South of the Clouds. 2004. China. Directed by Zhu Wen. Xu Daqin, a middle-aged man living in a northern city with a badgering daughter, harbors an unfulfilled dream. When his best buddy dies, Xu determines to travel to Yunnan Province, in the glorious mountains of southwestern China near Tibet. This region holds a deep meaning for him: it is where he might have lived had he not been forced into an unsatisfying marriage and humdrum existence in the prosaic north. But his initially pleasant journey takes him only as far as mysterious Lugu Lake, with its primitive matriarchal culture and strong Tibetan Buddhist tradition, where his character and beliefs are tested. Director Zhu Wen has made a profoundly moving and unsettling film that explores generational and cultural divides in contemporary China. 100 min. Preceded by Music Palace. 2005. USA. New York’s last Chinatown movie theater is about to close, its caretakers ruefully look at the life that was. Directed by Eric Lin. 9 min.
Thursday, March 31, 8:30 p.m. WRT; Saturday, April 2, 3:15 p.m. MoMA
Starlit High Noon. 2005. Japan. Directed by Nakagawa Yosuke. Lian Song is an angelic hit man with a double life: he carries out his assignments in Taipei, then hides out in Okinawa until things cool down. He has money but no car, preferring to bike to and from his cool bachelor pad that boasts a refrigerator stocked with a staggering variety of imported beers and bottled water. A natural loner with a romantic bent, Lian is admired by one young woman but instead woos the sad-eyed Yukiko. The elaborate meal he prepares for her should turn an indifferent woman into a lover. Yet, Yukiko, like Lian, has a secret history of her own… Director Nakagawa Yosuke dazzles with this minimalist tale of extraordinary visual beauty. A romance without a kiss, a thriller without bloodshed, a droll mystery with its own unique rhythm, this original work is filmmaking at its most personal. 92 min. Preceded by On a Wednesday Night in Tokyo. 2004. Germany. Could also be a Tuesday. Directed by Jan Verbeek. 6 min.
Friday, April 1, 6:00 p.m. MoMA; Sunday, April 3, 3:15 p.m. MoMA
Primo Amore. 2004. Italy. Directed by Matteo Garrone. For Vittorio, an accomplished goldsmith with very exacting standards, finding a partner is no small challenge. He requires a woman whose mind and body are in perfect symmetry. Through a classified ad, he meets Sonia, an artist’s model who is as pliable as he is intransigent. She weighs 125 pounds, normal for her physical type, but Vittorio thinks she can do better. Much better. He desires to shape her body and mind to his ideal so that, like the gold from his fiery furnace, she will emerge in her quintessential state. In a country house near Verona, the two lovers are drawn into a dangerous obsessive liaison. This unusual love story, based on true events, is the work of Matteo Garrone (The Embalmer, ND/NF 2003), one of Italy’s most promising filmmakers, who combines a naturalistic narrative style with a gothic sensibility. Vitaliano Trevisan, a writer by profession, gives a scarily controlled performance is the film’s Pygmalion and the heartbreaking Michela Cescon is his all-too-human Galatea in this keen psychological drama. 94 min. A Strand Releasing release.
Saturday, April 2, 12:30 p.m. MoMA; Sunday, April 3, 9:00 p.m. MoMA
Agnes and His Brothers. 2004. Germany. Directed by Oskar Roehler. Writer/director Roehler (No Place to Go, ND/NF 2001) returns with a bone-dry comedy about male hysteria, which can be read as a metaphor for Germany today. Agnes is a broad and colorful portrait of a most peculiar group of men—three brothers, their father, and one of their sons—whose social dysfunctions constantly subvert any chance of domesticity. Roehler, in homage to Fassbinder, whose In the Year of Thirteen Moons was in part the inspiration, has created a provocative and surprising work that recalls the deliciously lurid melodramas of Douglas Sirk. Moritz Bleibtrau, best known for his performance in Run Lola Run (ND/NF 1999), plays one brother, a chronic masturbator, while Martin Weiss portrays Agnes, a brother who is now a beautiful sister, and Herbert Knaup is Werner, a leader of the Green Party, whose political skills are of no use in his bickering suburban marriage and fraying relationship with his delinquent adolescent son. 115 min. Preceded by Ryan. 2004. Canada. In this Oscar-winning short Chris Landreth traces the fractured and disturbing world of a broken man once considered a genius. 14 min.
Saturday, April 2, 6:00 p.m. MoMA; Sunday, April 3, 12:00 p.m. MoMA
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