Get a great film fix at the Shuswap Film Society’s 28th International Film Festival, which runs from Friday, Feb. 17 to Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Salmar Classic Theatre.
The Festival opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday with 20th Century Women, a story of three women who explore love and cultural change in Southern California during the late 1970s.
The film society is touring the world during the festival and invites film patrons to dress as a tourist (tacky or not) on opening night when world-class refreshments will be served. Prizes and entertainment start at 7:30 p.m. The film will be shown again at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb 20.
• The Violin Teacher, 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23: This movie tells the story of Laerte (Lázaro Ramos), a talented violinist who, after failing to be admitted into the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, is forced to give music classes to teenagers in a public school at Heliopolis. The transforming power of music and the friendship opens the door into a new world.
• Chevalier, Saturday, Feb. 18, 1:30 p.m.: In the middle of the Aegean Sea, six men on a fishing trip on a luxury yacht decide to play a game in which things will be compared and measured. Songs will be butchered and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry.
• Miss Sloane, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23: In the high-stakes world of political power-brokers, Elizabeth Sloane is the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in Washington, DC. But, in taking on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds winning may come at too high a price.
• Old Stone (Lao Shi), 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Feb. 19: A psychological thriller about a taxi driver battling bureaucracy and legal manipulation in China. The movie draws subtle contrasts between old social nets and the new selfishness.
• I, Daniel Blake, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22: In the midst of his own inhuman treatment by a soulless bureaucracy, Daniel tries to help a single mother with two young children who is also crushed by the system.
• Koneline: Our Land Beautiful, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19: This is a sensual, cinematic celebration of northwestern British Columbia and all the dreamers who move across it. Set deep in the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, Koneline captures beauty and complexity as one of Canada’s vast wildernesses undergoes irrevocable change.
• A Quiet Passion, 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24: This is the story of American poet Emily Dickinson, from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist.
• The Salesman, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24: Forced to leave their collapsing house, Iranian actors Ranaa and Emad, rent a new apartment from one of their fellow performers, unaware that the previous tenant had been a woman of ill repute.
• Elle, 7:30 Sunday, Feb. 19, 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21: Head of a successful company, Michèle brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes her life forever.
• The Carer, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21: An ailing actor finds a new lease on life when a forthright Hungarian would-be actress becomes his care giver and he discovers they speak the same language: Shakespeare.
• The Eagle Huntress, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22: This spellbinding documentary follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old nomadic Mongolian girl who is fighting to become the first female eagle hunter in twelve generations of her Kazakh family.
• Burn Your Maps, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25:
Eight-year-old Wes becomes convinced he is a goat herder from Mongolia so he heads there with the help of a crowd-funding campaign. Refreshments and handmade chocolates will be served at 6:30 p.m. prior to this movie.
Tickets and film passes are available at Wearabouts or (cash only) at the door of the Salmar Classic Theatre.
Support the Cans Film Festival by taking non-perishable food items to the films.
A “Surreal Lunch” will be served at the art gallery on Hudson Avenue from noon to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19.
