56th San Francisco International Film Festival

Past Films

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  In the Fog

  Friday, April 26 6:30 PM

  Sergei Loznitsa (Germany/Latvia/Russia/Netherlands/Belarus, 2012). Two partisans plan to kill a Belorussian railway worker suspected of Nazi sympathies in this dreamlike movie, but what actually ends up happening among the three men is a complicated story involving guilt, betrayal, and defiance. (128 mins)

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  The Kill Team

  Friday, April 26 9 pm

  Dan Krauss (U.S., 2012). In this chilling documentary, Bay Area-based Dan Krauss explores the deeply disturbing story of U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan in 2009 who were convicted of murdering innocent civilians. (79 mins)

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  Penance

  Saturday, April 27 12:30pm

  Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan, 2012). (Shokuzai). Kiyoshi Kurosawa's epic new work, told in five parts over five hours, is a riveting drama about a mother whose daughter is killed and the four childhood friends who witnessed the crime. Shown with a 10-minute intermission. (300 mins)

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  The Mattei Affair

  Saturday, April 27 6:15pm

  Francesco Rosi (Italy, 1972). (Il caso Mattei). A newly restored version of Rosi's crackling political thriller based on the life and mysterious death of Italy's legendary postwar energy czar, Enrico Mattei. As revelatory now as it was in 1972; “a massively underrated masterpiece” (Alex Cox). (116 mins)

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  Shorts 5: Experimental: Artifacts and Artificial Acts

  Saturday, April 27 8:45pm

  James Sansing in person. Nine recent experimental films look at troubling facts and surprising moments with beauty and inventiveness. Includes new films by Deborah Stratman, Katherin McInnis, Bobby Abate, Ali Cherri, Karen Yaskinksky, James Sansing, Peter Rose, Lonnie von Brummelen and Siebren de Haan, and Scott Stark. (89 mins)

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  Markéta Lazarová

  Sunday, April 28 12:30pm

  Frantisek Vlácil (Czech Republic, 1966). In memory of George Gund III (1937–2013). An elliptical story of rivalry and revenge in medieval Bohemia, this rarely seen work evokes Kurosawa or Mizoguchi: intense, poetic, and devastatingly cinematic. (162 mins)

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  The Pirogue

  Sunday, April 28 3:45pm

  Moussa Touré (France/Senegal/Germany, 2012). (La pirogue). Senegalese director Moussa Touré offers an unvarnished glimpse into a common but often deadly immigrant journey, taking us on a perilous sea voyage with thirty West African immigrants heading for Spain. (87 mins)

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  Key of Life

  Sunday, April 28 6:10pm

  Kenji Uchida (Japan, 2012), (Kagi dorobo no mesoddo). Kenji Uchida in person. A depressed and unemployed actor switches lives with a Yakuza assassin in Kenji Uchida's brilliantly conceived and executed Japanese screwball comedy. (128 mins)

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  Rosie

  Sunday, April 28 9 pm

  Marcel Gisler (Switzerland, 2013). Jaded gay novelist Lorenz returns home to provincial Switzerland to care for his ailing mother (scene-stealing Sibylle Brunner) in this gently humorous crowd-pleaser-nominated for six Swiss Film Awards-that deftly disentangles the familial and romantic ties that bind. (106 mins)

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  A River Changes Course

  Monday, April 29 6:30pm

  Kalyanee Mam (Cambodia/U.S., 2012). (Kbang tuk tonle). Kalyanee Mam and editor Chris Brown in person. In vivid cinema-vérité style, Bay Area filmmaker Kalyanee Mam presents an intimate and moving portrait of the vanishing world of rural farmers and fishermen in Cambodia. (83 mins)

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  Leviathan

  Monday, April 29 8:45pm

  Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Veréna Paravel (France/U.K./U.S., 2012). A thrilling adventure both on the high seas and in documentary storytelling, Leviathan immerses viewers in the waterlogged world of fishermen toiling in the dead of night on a creaking trawler off the coast of Massachusetts. (87 mins)

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  La Sirga

  Tuesday, April 30 6:30pm

  William Vega (Colombia/France/Mexico, 2012). A shy teenage orphan seeks shelter on the shores of a mist-shrouded lagoon in this coming-of-age tale set in the lonely, enchanted landscapes of the high Andes. (88 mins)

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  Sofia's Last Ambulance

  Tuesday, April 30 8:50pm

  Ilian Metev (Germany/Bulgaria/Croatia, 2012). (Poslednata lineika na Sofia). On the front lines of a degraded emergency-care system in Sofia, Bulgaria, an over-extended, yet emphatically humane, paramedic crew hurtles frantically from one call to the next in a dilapidated ambulance. (75 mins)

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  Memories Look at Me

  Wednesday, May 1 6:30pm

  Song Fang (China, 2012). (Ji yi wang zhe wo). In this strong feature debut, Song Fang directs and plays herself as she visits her parents in Nanjing and they muse on life, death, and tradition. (87 mins)

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  They'll Come Back

  Wednesday, May 1 8:45pm

  Marcelo Lordello (Brazil, 2012). (Eles voltam). Marcelo Lordello in person. A potent exploration of class and adolescence, They'll Come Back is a beautifully shot modern fable that tells the story of Cris, a privileged twelve-year-old who embarks on a journey that will open her eyes to a world she never knew. (105 mins)

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  Something in the Air

  Thursday, May 2 6:30pm

  Olivier Assayas (France, 2012). (Après mai). The latest from French master Olivier Assayas chronicles the period following the May '68 riots in Paris through the eyes of a group of young political idealists trying to make sense of their world through art. (122 mins)

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  The Act of Killing

  Thursday, May 2 8:55pm

  Joshua Oppenheimer (Denmark/Norway/U.K., 2012). “I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal and frightening in at least a decade,” says Werner Herzog of this flabbergasting documentary in which notorious death-squad chiefs brazenly reenact heinous crimes they committed during the Indonesian genocide of the mid-1960s. (116 mins)

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  Just the Wind

  Friday, May 3 6:30pm

  Bence Fliegauf (Hungary/Germany/France, 2012). As rumors of a right-wing death squad fill their community, a marginalized Hungarian Romany family goes about its daily routines in this powerful, intimate work based on true events. (87 mins)

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  Shepard & Dark

  Friday, May 3 8:40pm

  Treva Wurmfeld (U.S., 2012). Treva Wurmfeld and producer Amy Hobby in person. With warmth and candor, director Treva Wurmfeld probes the intimate dimensions of the friendship between playwright/actor Sam Shepard and his close friend, archivist Johnny. (92 mins)

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  Salma

  Saturday, May 4 2pm

  Kim Longinotto (U.K./India, 2013). Veteran British documentarian Kim Longinotto's latest work is the remarkable story of a South Indian Muslim woman who endured a twenty-five-year imprisonment by her own family before becoming the most famous female poet in the Tamil language. (90 mins)

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  Chimeras

  Saturday, May 4 4:15pm

  Mika Mattila (Finland, 2013). Mika Mattila in person. This revelatory and visually striking documentary follows a pair of artists-painter/sculptor Wang Guangyi and photographer Liu Gang-as they grapple with their place and purpose in a new China of pervasive materialism and Western influence. (86 mins)

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  Night Across the Street

  Saturday, May 4 6:30pm

  Raúl Ruiz (France/Chile, 2012). (La noche de enfrente). This posthumously released film, shot in Ruiz's native Chile, brings back the elegance of his straight-faced surrealism in the story of a man nearing death who conjures up his childhood heroes. (113 mins)

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  Spend It All

  Saturday, May 4 8:45pm

  Les Blank (U.S.). Three newly restored 16mm films by Les Blank: the West Coast premiere of the restoration of Spend it All, a documentary celebrating Cajun food, music, and culture, and world premieres of the restorations of the rarely seen Chicken Real (1970) and Christopher Tree (a.k.a. Spontaneous Sound, 1972). (73 mins)

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  After Tiller

  Sunday, May 5 1pm

  Martha Shane, Lana Wilson (U.S., 2013). Martha Shane, Lana Wilson, and editor Greg O'Toole in person. In the wake of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, only four late-term abortion providers remain in the United States. This thought provoking documentary examines the personal and ethical imperatives that drive these physicians to continue in the face of legal and personal harassment. (88 mins)

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  Downpour

  Sunday, May 5 3:20pm

  Bahram Beyzaie (Iran, 1971). Bahram Beyzaie in person. A teacher is transferred to a poor, conservative area-and becomes involved with a student's beautiful older sister-in this major work of pre-Revolutionary Iranian cinema, shot independently on the streets of Tehran in 1971. (128 mins)

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  Good Ol' Freda

  Sunday, May 5 6:30pm

  Ryan White (U.S./U.K., 2012). A film rich in archival footage that follows the Beatles from Liverpudlian phenomenon to worldwide sensation through the eyes of the band's secretary, Freda Kelly. (86 mins)

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  Big Sur

  Sunday, May 5 8:45pm

  Michael Polish (U.S., 2012). Jean-Marc Barr is a middle-aged, alcoholic Jack Kerouac trying to outrun his demons as he reunites with old friends in San Francisco and attempts to dry out in a Big Sur cabin in Michael Polish's deft, poetic adaptation of the writer's 1962 novel. (90 mins)

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  Fatal Assistance

  Monday, May 6 6:30pm

  Raoul Peck (France/Haiti/U.S./Belgium, 2013). Filmed over two years, Haitian-born Raoul Peck's powerful exposé examines the staggering failures, global and local, that have stranded a vulnerable nation in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake. (100 mins)

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  The Daughter

  Monday, May 6 9pm

  Alexander Kasatkin, Natalya Nazarova (Russia, 2012). (Córka). A serial killer targeting teenage girls is on the loose in a parochial Russian village in this aesthetically austere yet emotionally explosive coming-of-age tale. (111 mins)

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  Rent a Family Inc.

  Tuesday, May 7 6:30pm

  Kaspar Astrup Schröder (Denmark, 2012). (Lej en familie A/S). This absorbing and offbeat documentary revolves around a Japanese man who operates a professional stand-in business that rents out fake relatives to a rapidly growing Japanese customer base “desperate to cover up a secret.” (77 mins)

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  The Cleaner

  Tuesday, May 7 8:40pm

  Adrián Saba (Peru, 2012). (El limpiador). As a mysterious epidemic eviscerates Lima's adult population-but spares its children-a solitary middle-aged forensic worker discovers an orphaned boy at one of his cleanup sites. A gently haunted and affecting study of social alienation and redemption. (95 mins)

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  Inori

  Wednesday, May 8 6:30pm

  Pedro González-Rubio (Japan, 2012). In this blend of documentary and narrative, González-Rubio (Alamar) follows the few remaining inhabitants of an isolated Japanese town as they pray to their gods, collect flowers for graves, and worry about “crossing the great river.” With Thomas Gleeson's short Home. (83 mins)

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  Mai Morire

  Wednesday, May 8 8:40pm

  Enrique Rivero (Mexico, 2012). In the ethereal, nearly pre-Columbian landscapes of the Mexican town of Xochimilco, a stoic woman returns home to care for her ninety-nine-year-old mother in this haunting and meditative film. (83 mins)

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  Let the Fire Burn

  Thursday, May 9 6:30pm

  Jason Osder (U.S., 2013). Jason Osder and editor Nels Bangerter. Composed entirely of archival footage, this penetrating documentary reconstructs the decade-long conflict between the radical emancipatory group MOVE and the police and city officials of Philadelphia. (94 mins)

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  Il futuro

  Thursday, May 9 8:50pm

  Alicia Scherson (Chile/Germany/Italy/Spain, 2012). An orphaned brother and sister stumble upon an opportunity they can't refuse-seemingly easy money by way of a former Mr. Universe turned reclusive movie star-in this adaptation of a Roberto Bolaño novella. (99 mins)

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