Contemporary World Cinema
Our Contemporary World Cinema Series showcases films from the most recent festival circuit that haven’t screened in Calgary, parsing the critical discourse and following the development of key artists. Meticulously handpicked throughout the year, these selections bring fresh and important films to Calgary that would not make it here otherwise, and often never screen again. Last season we presented a diverse sampling of exciting and timely works from China, Switzerland, the Ukraine, Iran, and South Korea. You can be certain that equal riches are once again in store.
Series Films
Asako I & II (2018)
Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Nov 14, 2019
Asako is a young woman living in Osaka who falls for an attractive and inscrutable young man named Baku. A fling ensues. Alas, the relationship terminates on account of Baku’s sudden, mysterious, and eerily matter-of-fact disappearance. Flash forward, just over two years later. Asako is working at a coffee shop in Tokyo when she meets a bland salaryman named Ryôhei who happens to exactly resemble Baku.
I Was at home, but… (2019)
Directed by Angela Schanelec
Dec 19, 2019
Thirteen-year-old Phillip casually returns home to his widowed mother Astrid following a prolonged absence during which he camped out alone in the woods. What follows is a digressive, puzzle-box narrative, sometimes oneiric and irreal, sometimes played as absurd comedy, much of it circulating around intimations of family trauma and its legacies.
The Souvenir (2019)
Directed by Joanna Hogg
Jan 30, 2020
Crowned as the best film of 2019 by Sight and Sound, The Souvenir stars Honor Swinton Byrne (daughter of Tilda, in her breakthrough role) as a 1980s British film student who begins to find her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charismatic but untrustworthy man (Tom Burke), much to the behest of her strict mother (Tilda Swinton).
Fire Will Come (2019)
Directed by Oliver Laxe
Feb 20, 2020
The latest film from Oliver Laxe follows a middle-aged man named Amador Coro who returns from prison to his rural Galacian home after having provoked a fire. Life with his elderly mother, Benedicta, initially follows the calm rhythms of nature until one night, when a fire starts to devastate the region. At a brisk 85 minutes, this hypnotic tale of man versus nature is a slow burn that begs to be seen and heard on the big screen.
Vitalina Varela (2019)
Directed by Pedro Costa
Mar 12, 2020
A moody masterpiece from acclaimed director Pedro Costa, Vitalina Varela (2019) stars the titular non-professional actor in a heartbreaking performance based on her own life. Vitalina plays a Cape Verdean woman who has travelled to Lisbon to reunite with her husband, after two decades of separation, only to arrive mere days after his funeral. Alone in a strange forbidding land, she perseveres and begins to establish a new life.
Krabi, 2562 (2019)
Directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers
Indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19
An exciting collaboration from experimental film superstars Ben Rivers (Trees Down There) and Anocha Suwichakornpong (By The Time It Gets Dark), this unconventional documentary is an innovative dive into the world of a Thai tourist community, using fiction, interviews, and oral traditions to render a vibrant and trippy experience that begs to be seen on the big screen.
