Turtles Can Fly
Friday, April 11, 2008 @ 7 p.m.
Food Sponsor: Friends of the Guntersville Library
Too few films capture war from the point of view of the children who endure it--perhaps because it's awful to contemplate. But Turtles Can Fly manages to be both heartbreaking and galvanizing in its depiction of young Iraqis waiting for the U.S. Army to roll over their village on the border of Turkey. A boy called Satellite, so called because he knows how to hook up a satellite dish, divides his time turning himself into a big operator--he commands a small army of children who search the fields for land mines they can sell to the U.N.--and wooing a pretty but haunted girl named Agrin whose brother has no arms but can see the future. Satellite's mixture of scheming and genuine compassion drives the movie forward; it's impossible not to become engrossed in his courage and ambition, even as the world crumbles around him. Since the U.S. has linked its fate with that troubled country, learning a little about the Iraqi people would be good for everyone involved; fortunately, Turtles Can Fly is more than just an educational opportunity. Rich humor helps balance the harrowing circumstances, making the movie a riveting experience. --Bret Fetzer, www.amazon.com. Won the Peace Film Award at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, 2004, Iran, 98 minutes. In Kurdish with English subtitles.
Volver
Friday, May 9, 2008 @ 7 p.m.
Food Sponsor: Friends of the Guntersville Library
Spanish for "Coming Back," Volver is a return to the all-female format of All About My Mother. Unlike Pedro Almodóvar's previous two pictures, the story revolves around a group of women in Madrid and his native La Mancha. (The cast received a collective best actress award at Cannes.) Raimunda (a zaftig Penélope Cruz) is the engine powering this heartfelt, yet humorous vehicle. When husband Paco is murdered, Raimunda makes like Mildred Pierce to deflect attention away from daughter Paula. After telling everyone the lout has left, she struggles to conceal his body. The other women in her life all have secrets of their own. Her sister, Sole, for instance, has taken in their mother, Irene. Since Irene perished in a fire, is this person a ghost or simply a woman who looks like her? Then there's their childhood friend, Agustina, who is desperate to find out why her mother disappeared after the blaze. Was she responsible? Almodóvar deftly blends the ghost story with the murder mystery in his tribute to the Italian neo-realist films of the 1950s. The resilient Raimunda is a throwback to the earthy heroines of Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. The latter appears in Luchino Visconti's Bellissima, which shows up on Sole's television one night (thus confirming the link). If Almodóvar’s 16th feature lacks the emotional punch of the more audacious Talk to Her, it's less heavy-handed than Bad Education and Cruz is a revelation. --Kathleen C. Fennessy, www.amazon.com. Won the 2007 Silver Condor for Best Foreign Film, Spanish Language, at the Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards. Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, 2007, Spain, 121 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Up and Down
Friday, June 13, 2008 @ 7 p.m.
Food Sponsor: Friends of the Guntersville Library
Visually inventive and soaked in Old World fatalism, the absurdist Czech gem Up and Down is the rare movie that doesn't reveal its hand until deep into the game. It presents itself as a Pulp Fiction-style gangster comedy minus the Tarantino-esque hard violence, then devolves into a domestic comedy of bad manners, and then -- in the last third -- a light goes on and we realize what director Jan Hrebejk was up to all along. Without spoiling the potential thrill of being suckered, it's possible to say the hamstrung police officers, pitifully minor crooks, mild-smiling perps and self-styled victims who populate this roundelay are more involved with one another than through a stretch of coincidence. What has the professor's estranged wife to do with Franta the regretful soccer hooligan whose record of misdemeanors prevents him from becoming more than a rental cop or starting a family with his baby-hungry but barren girlfriend Mila? Stay tuned and all will be revealed. –Review by Philip Martin, http://www.ardemgaz.com. Won Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay at the Czech Lions in Prague. Directed by Jan Hrebejk, 2004, Czech Republic, 108 minutes. In Czech with English subtitles.
All films are shown at the Guntersville Public Library, 1240 O’Brig Ave. in Guntersville, Alabama.
For more information: (256) 571-7595