With a title that nods to Jean-Luc Godard's La chinoise and a multinational cast centering on a young Bosnian-Palestinian-Jordanian woman artist living in the shadows of the Twin Towers, Zeina Durra's whip-smart debut isn't playing by the standard rules of American romantic comedies. Asya's artwork tends towards political provocation, though her New York City nightlife is strictly bourgeois chic. During one long night on the town, she meets a Ph.D. student from Mexico City whose easygoing charm provides the perfect foil for her self-conscious identity politics. A comedy of radical solidarity and designer purses, shifting easily between Lower East Side lofts, Lebanese American grocers, Chinatown clubs, and Mexican American house parties, The Imperialists Are Still Alive! is a quintessential New York story. Stir in some dusky 16mm cinematography and assured ensemble scenes (and even a cameo by Metropolitan's Whit Stillman), and you end up with an altogether winning throwback to a chancier era of American independent cinema.