16th Annual AT&T St. Louis
International Film Festival
Features
Mahek
Kranti Kanade, India, 2007, 80 min.
Hindi and English with English subtitles
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2:30 p.m., Plaza Frontenac
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 12:30 p.m., Plaza Frontenac
Young Mahek has big dreams and whiles away the hours daydreaming about becoming the next female prime minister of India, saving others from harm, starring in the school play, and scoring a top prize at the science fair. Unfortunately, she isn’t exactly sure how to accomplish these things, and her daydreaming begins to conflict with her daily life. Under the tutelage of a mysterious fairy godmother, Mahek sets out to make her dreams come true – and learns that hard work and dedication lead to the sweetest triumphs of all.
Manual of Love
(Manuale d’amore)
Giovanni Veronesi, Italy, 2005, 117 min.
Italian with English subtitles
Friday, Nov. 16, 9:45 p.m., Plaza Frontenac
Saturday, Nov. 17, 2:15 p.m., Plaza Frontenac
This Italian box-office smash is a charming, bittersweet comedy, a refreshingly modern portrayal of love in all its incarnations that features some of Italy’s brightest stars. The fluctuating fortunes of relationships are chronicled through four intertwining episodes in a structure reminiscent of “commedie all’italiana” of the ‘60s, each one played out by a different couple. The elusive, sometimes painful, always funny nature of love links the stories, which chronicle the dreamlike stage of falling in love, the heartwrenching midlife crisis, the impulsive and frenetic epiphany of betrayal, and the lonesome but ultimately revitalizing free-fall of abandonment.
Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress at 2005 David di Donatello Awards, Italy
Sponsored by Italian Film Festival of St. Louis
The Melon Route
(Put lubenica)
Branko Schmidt, Croatia, 2006, 89 min.
Croatian, Bosnian, and Chinese with English subtitles
Friday, Nov. 9, 9:30 p.m., Plaza Frontenac
Saturday, Nov. 10, 4:30 p.m., Plaza Frontenac
The film is inspired by the true story of 12 illegal Chinese immigrants who drowned in the River Sava, on the border of Bosnia and Croatia on the so-called Melon Route. Mirko, an ex-Croatian Army soldier who lost everything in the war, makes a meager living from the local mafia by smuggling people over the river to the West. When his overloaded boat capsizes and all but one of the smuggled Chinese people in it drown, he enters a tenuous relationship rife with linguistic and cultural barriers with the young Chinese woman who survives.
Best Actor and Best Art Direction at 2006 Pula Film Festival, Croatia; Best Feature at 2006 Dubrovnik International Film Festival, Croatia
Plays with the short “Muertas”
The Memory Thief
Gil Kofman, USA, 2006, 95 min.
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2:30 p.m., Tivoli Theatre
“The Memory Thief” is a mesmerizing, audacious psychological thriller in the tradition of “Taxi Driver.” Lukas, an aimless, haunted young man in contemporary LA, buries painful thoughts of his own past in the humdrum routine of his job as a tollbooth clerk. A chance encounter with a Holocaust survivor suddenly brings into focus a world and an identity he embraces with frightening intensity: the victimized Jews of World War II. As he begins to enthusiastically act out and explore his newfound obsession, Lukas discovers that survivor’s guilt isn’t just for the Jews anymore.
Director Kofman will attend.
The Method
(El Método)
Marcelo Piñeyro, Argentina/Spain, 2005, 115 min.
Spanish with English subtitles
Sunday, Nov. 11, 7:15 p.m., Saint Louis Art Museum
A mysterious corporation has a job vacancy, and seven eager people are interviewed for the position. They are shown into a room where they are informed that they will all partake in a bizarre test known as the Grönholm Method. Through a series of odd questions, what-if scenarios, and increasingly bizarre tests, the applicants are dismissed one by one. The tension increases as people begin to take matters personally, and things soon get out of hand as the competition to win the position becomes sharper.
Best Supporting Actor and Best Adpapted Screenplay at 2006 Goya Awards, Spain; Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress at 2006 Spanish Actors Union
My Friends Tigger and Pooh: Super Sleuth Christmas Movie
Don MacKinnon, USA, 2007, 45 min.
Saturday, Nov. 17, 1:30 p.m., COCA
This special program features a sneak preview of the upcoming original DVD from the Disney Channel hit “My Friends Tigger and Pooh.” On Christmas Eve, Pooh and the gang finds one of Santa’s reindeer tangled in a string of jingle bells. Fearing that Santa won’t be able to deliver presents without his reindeer, they set off to return the deer to the North Pole. When they get stranded, they build shelter to spend the night and learn that the spirit of Christmas is all about being together.
Co-writers Nicole Dubuc and Brian Hohlfeld, a St. Louis native, will attend.
Sponsored by Judee and Richard Sauget & the Gateway Grizzlies Baseball Team, Sauget, IL
The Naked Kiss
Samuel Fuller, USA, 1964, 90 min.
Saturday, Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m., Webster University
Free
Cinema St. Louis honoree James Gunn offers a personal favorite: a pulpy classic from director Samuel Fuller (“The Steel Helmet,” “The Big Red One”). Kelly (Constance Towers), a prostitute, finds redemption in the town of Grantville, where she meets Griff, a police captain, with whom she spends a romantic afternoon. Although traumatized by a past experience – the so-called Naked Kiss – Kelly lands a job as a nurse in a hospital for handicapped children and ultimately finds contentment with Grant, her new fiancé and Griff’s partner. But a shocking event soon threatens both her fragile happiness and mental health.
Cinema St. Louis Award honoree Gunn will introduce and discuss the film.
Sponsored by Pirate Pictures
Nina’s Heavenly Delights
Pratibha Parmar, UK, 2006, 94 min.
Sunday, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m., Tivoli Theatre
“Nina’s Heavenly Delights” is a surprising love story in which Scottish humor meets Bollywood spectacle. The film follows the mixed fortunes of a Glaswegian family and their award-winning Indian restaurant. Although she left home years earlier to avoid an arranged marriage to the son of a rival restaurant owner, Nina is forced to return when her father dies suddenly. She’s soon reunited with childhood friend Bobbi, a wannabe Bollywood drag queen, and introduced to Lisa, a charismatic young woman who is engaged to her brother. In the turbulent days that follow, the prodigal daughter embarks on a personal mission to win the Best of the West Curry Competition for an unprecedented third time, but her feelings are thrown into turmoil when Nina realizes that she is falling in love with Lisa.
No Regret
(Huhwihaji anha)
Hee-il Leesong, South Korea, 2006, 113 min.
Korean with English subtitles
Sunday, Nov. 11, 9:45 p.m., Tivoli Theatre
This bold film addresses the somewhat taboo topic of homosexuality in contemporary Korea. Sumin is an orphan trying to balance work in a factory with his studies at an art college and a part-time evening job as a personal driver. One night, a rich young businessman, Jaemin, unsuccessfully tries to proposition him during one of his driving jobs. They meet again the next day during a round of redundancy cuts at the factory where Sumin works. Jaemin is in fact the boss’s son and makes an attempt to save Sumin’s job, but the younger man refuses on principle. Eventually, Sumin is seduced into working as a male prostitute in a boy-brothel as Jaemin’s obsession with him grows, leaving Jaemin helpless in the face of his overwhelming desire. This is a film of bold sexuality, where unexpected passion, desire, and misunderstandings wreak havoc on lives with an operatic intensity.
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