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Documentary/Iran
Date: August 27, 7 p.m.
Location: SSC Theater

Description:
Sunless Shadows looks at the lives of teenaged girls in an Iranian juvenile detention center. Each of the film’s principal subjects is serving time for the murder of a male family member. One by one the filmmaker invites them to go into a room alone, push the red button on the camera and address their accomplices or their victims. Sunless Shadows presents a picture of the disenfranchised in an aggressively male-dominated society and of the prison that ironically shelters them from it.

Director: Mehrdad Oskouei

Reviews:

“Sunless Shadows never gives off the impression of extracting feelings from its subjects: Rather, it receptively gives them a platform they've hitherto been denied.” –Guy Lodge, Variety

“Oskouei allows the women to treat his camera as a confessional, positioning his film as a map between them and their own souls.” –Soham Gadre, Film Inquiry

“With unobtrusive direction and restrained judgment (though the inhumane inequities are clear), Sunless Shadows offers unparalleled, poignant insight into Iranian society.” –Diane Carson, KDHX St. Louis

“A startling, raw confrontation with Iran's patriarchy.” –Kristen Yoonsoo Kim, The New York Times

“Mehrdad Oskouei's documentary is striking for the way its subjects describe horrific forms of violence in the plainest of language.” –Diego Semerene, Slant Magazine

“No convicted murderers could look less fearsome than the demure subjects of this low-key but startling documentary from Iran's Mehrdad Oskouei.” –Jake Wilson, The Age

Drama/Japan
Date: October 29, 7 p.m.
Location: SSC Theater

Description:
Ryota is a successful workaholic businessman. When he learns that his biological son was switched with another boy after birth, he faces the difficult decision to choose his biological son or the boy he and his wife have raised as their own.

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Performers: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki, Lily Franky

Reviews:

“At the end of [Kore-eda’s] films we feel like we have grown alongside these characters.” –Bianca Garner, Filmotomy

“Always gentle, always composed, the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda also register quiet devastation, often within the family. The stirring -- the earthquake, even -- usually happens beneath the surface of calm.” –Kong Rithdee, Bangkok Post

“It's a set-up that's the stuff of sensationalist headlines, but under Kore-eda's measured watch, it becomes a tender, thoughtful and moving look at the complex bonds that underpin families.” –Cara Nash, Filmink

“Sensitively performed and directed, Like Father, Like Son is a series of acutely observed insights into its themes and its social setting, as well as a close study of human nature faced with some complex issues.” –Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

“A film of great nuance and substance that sucks you into its story without apparent effort.” –Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress

“The performances and subtle directing in the latter part of the film make Like Father, Like Son a thoughtful, graceful meditation on fatherhood.” –Charles Ealy, Austin American-Statesman

“Writer and director Hirokazu Koreeda does not pretend that there are easy answers in his film, which at times plays almost like a fable. But the emotions and heartbreak are always grounded in reality.” –Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

“If, like me, you find that the decision to be made here has an obvious solution, [it] takes its time arriving at it. But it is the way in which Ryota comes to understand the way fathers shape their sons that makes Like Father, Like Son worthwhile.” –Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

Genre: Comedy-Drama/Spain
Date: November 19, 7 p.m.
Location: SSC Theater

Description:
Emilio, his daughter Julia, and his granddaughter Blanca embark on a peculiar and revealing journey. Before Emilio’s memory fails him completely, the family will help him search for the love of his youth.

Director: Maria Ripoll

Performers: Oscar Martinez, Inma Cuesta, Mafalda Carbonell

Reviews:

“[Live Twice, Love Once] is tender and dramatically comical. –Janire Zurbano, Cinemania

“As with any great comedy, the drama quota is here to reinforce empathy with characters drawn with rigor, who grow incessantly before our eyes.” –Mirito Torreito, Fotogramas

“Live Twice, Love Once” is both heart-wrenching and heartwarming. –Keith Garlington, Keith & the Movies

“Live Twice, Love Once, an award-winner in Spain, is a mature film that deals effectively with both family separation and reconciliation in sorrowful times.” –Renee Schonfeld, Common Sense Media