BAMPFA is pleased to partner with the Mill Valley Film Festival to present selected screenings from MVFF47 in the Barbro Osher Theater.
Read full descriptionPart political thriller, part character drama, and part clarion call to action, director Connie Field’s riveting documentary about a politician, a journalist, and a medical professional resisting Hungary’s authoritarian ruler, Viktor Orbán, is perfectly relevant for this political moment while also pointing out larger social truths that will always remain timeless.
Closed Captioned
Brimming with insight and inferred hope for future reparations, French Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop’s imaginative and pointed hybrid documentary depicts the story of twenty-six antiquities returned to Benin by France, the country’s former colonizer. Winner of the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Crafted with visual poetry and emotional empathy, Payal Kapadia’s drama shines a light on three nurses as they negotiate love and life in the teeming metropolis of Mumbai. Outstanding performances and cinematography that reflects the small but wondrous epiphanies of everyday lives anchor this Cannes Grand Prix winner.
Closed Captioned
Brooklyn filmmaker Michael Premo follows three impassioned right-wing activists through the 2020 election, the January 6 Capitol riot, and beyond. With unexpected nuance and intimacy, he captures his protagonists’ combustible blend of delusional cosplayer, stalwart patriot, and potential threat. January 6 isn’t the film’s climax, surprisingly, but a turning point in its protagonists’ political and personal evolutions.
Experience a poignant journey through 1992 Lima, Peru, under Alberto Fujimori’s regime. This intimate film portrays two sisters and their mother preparing to leave Peru, while the girls’ estranged father tries to reconnect. Blending childhood memories with sociopolitical commentary, it’s a moving story of familial bonds, resilience, and strength in adversity.
Oscar winner Steve McQueen brilliantly captures the human drama of life during the Blitz in World War II London, as young mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) evacuates her nine-year-old son to the English countryside for safety. The boy has other ideas and runs away, determined to make it back home to his beloved mother and grandfather.
Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) returns to the hardscrabble lives of Brits to tell the story of a wise-beyond-her-years tween who meets a free spirit named Bird. The film deftly develops their burgeoning friendship to explore various tensions within adolescent life. Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski costar.
Rungano Nyoni’s dazzling second feature, an award winner at Cannes, stars Susan Chardy as Shula, a woman who discovers the corpse of the uncle who caused her considerable pain. This darkly funny portrait of Zambia’s matriarchal society and sexual abuse’s emotional scars grippingly explores the younger generation’s desire to break free from the sins of the past.
Winner of the FIPRESECI prize at Cannes, this gripping drama-thriller stars Misagh Zareh as a seemingly honorable man who gets promoted to investigating judge—a job that requires him to sign the death warrants of protesters. The film is the latest angry provocation from writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof, who brilliantly details how Iran’s oppressive regime obliterates the souls of its citizens.
The brutal impact of climate change drives this beautiful, intense documentary from Bay Area filmmaker Natalie Zimmerman. Focused on the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, the film weaves breathtaking natural footage with the struggles of people navigating an environment that is slipping away.
Iris (Isabelle Huppert) is a woman abroad in Seoul, teaching French and English in an idiosyncratic fashion that allows her to pursue her own philosophical and personal interests. Linguistic collisions are Hong Sangsoo’s stock-in-trade, and the revelations that unfold over conversations in artificially constructed circumstances are a delight to behold.
Middle-aged widow Rosa lives a quiet life that is dominated by the ghosts of her long-ago marriage. As she tries to repair her relationship with her incarcerated son, reconnect with an old friend, and make a new life for herself, jarring revelations force her to face facts about her past and who she is today.
With shades of Joseph Losey’s The Servant and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, this scintillating directorial debut invites us into a middle-class household where an alteration to routine disturbs the equilibrium, revealing a microcosm of sociopolitical intricacies in a post-one-child China.
A mysterious incident between six-year-old Armand and his best friend, Jon, at school sparks a tense battle for redemption among parents and staff. Armand is a captivating exploration of human nature and parenthood, enhanced by an evocative score and striking cinematography.