By Joanne Sargent
Contributor
This weekend marks the beginning of Shuswap Film Society’s 31st annual International Film Festival.
How international is it? Well, for tonight (Friday) at 7:30 p.m., we begin the festival’s opening night with an Australian comedy, Top End Wedding, where a prenuptial couple sets out on a road trip to find the bride’s mother.
This sets our opening night theme as Aussie or road trip – arrive at 6:30 p.m. for appies and bevvies and, if you feel like it, dress for the theme.
On Saturday the festival presents Antigone, a Canadian film about an immigrant’s experience with the justice system, followed by The Climb, an American movie about a friendship between two men despite a betrayal.
Next is Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, a France/Italy co-production about the attraction between an artist and her subject, and Hope Gap from the UK, where we see the fallout of a marriage break-up.
Read more: It Must Be Heaven, a meditative look at home and identity, to play Salmar
Read more: VIDEO: From Pitt to ‘1917,’ what to anticipate at Sunday’s Oscars
Sunday morning we start with The Doctor’s Case from Canada, a Holmes and Watson mystery shot at Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, then a film from France and Belgium, Just To Be Sure, a dramedy of a family facing crises.
Also Sunday, from Canada, we have White Lie, where a woman fakes being a cancer sufferer, and from Germany a film titled Balloon, which depicts a daring escape attempt from what was East Germany.
The final four movies are Corpus Christie from Poland, in which a self-declared minister creates his own church; Canada’s Haida Modern, a profile of accomplished Haida artist Robert Davidson; Bombshell, a Canada/U.S. movie about women taking down a news tycoon; and Alice And The Mayor from France/Belgium, where a newbie hired by the mayor causes friction at city hall.
The festival runs until Feb. 29 and there are matinees at 4 p.m. daily, as well as 7:30 p.m. shows, throughout the week.
Most movies have more than one showing so please check the program or shuswapfilm.net for all showtimes. Screenings are at the Salmar Classic Cinema.
