VISUAL ARTS

Belmont World Film 12th annual international film series, Found in Translation, features the US or New England premieres of eight films, each one in multiple languages or featuring some sort of translation. Culled from the world’s top international film festivals, they are produced or filmed in countries ranging from Argentina to Zambia. The directors also run the gamut from esteemed veterans such as Italy’s Taviani brothers to first time feature film directors such as Argentinian Daniela Seggiaro and Icelandic Sólveig Anspach. All films feature either post-film discussions by notable experts or culturally-related performances or cuisine.

The line-up includes:
Monday, March 11: Chinese Take-Away directed by Sebastián Borensztein (Argentina, no rating) New England Premiere
Monday, March 18: Caesar Must Die directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Italy, no rating) Massachusetts Premiere
Wednesday, March 27: Where the Water Meets the Sky directed by David Eberts (UK, no rating) shown with the short Hidden Truth New England premiere
Monday, April 1: Queen of Montreuil directed by Sólveig Anspach (France, no rating) East Coast Premiere
Monday, April 8: Beauty (aka Nosilatiaj. La Belezza) by Daniela Seggiaro (Argentina, no rating) East Coast Premiere
Monday, April 15: The Dead and the Living directed by Barbara Albert (Austria/Poland/Germany, no rating) US Premiere
Monday, April 22: Isztambul by Ferenc Török (Hungary/Netherlands/Ireland/Turkey, no rating) US Premiere
Monday, April 29: “Going Standby”: a special surprise screening to be announced from a recent international film festival

The festival opens with Chinese Take-Away preceded by a Chinese dinner (optional) featuring wines from Argentina at 6 PM. The Argentinian film stars Ricardo Darin (the Oscar winning The Secret of Their Eyes) as a bitter loner who collects news stories about rare freakish events. When he begrudgingly takes in a young Chinese immigrant in search of his long lost family, it sets off a series of events that has him stepping out of his tightly wound world.

In Caesar Must Die, the veteran directing team of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre Padrone) filmed the rehearsals and public presentation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar performed by inmates who are part of an acting program at a high security prison in Rome. Winner of the Golden Bear and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlin Film Festival (and shown just after the Ides of March!). Speaker: Peter Keough, Film Critic at the The Phoenix.

Narrated by Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, Where the Water Meets the Sky is a documentary about a courageous group of twenty-three women in rural Zambia who learn how to produce a film about an issue that has affected them all, but few will discuss: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS. Inspired by their ability to affect change with their first film, the women go on to make the short Hidden Truth, an intimate portrayal of the effects of domestic violence on women and children in the same community in Zambia. Speaker: Director David Eberts via Skype.

Queen of Montreuil is a bittersweet comedy about a young woman who tries to get her life back on track as a film director after her husband suddenly dies. Returning home to Montreuil with her husband’s ashes, she is greeted by the unexpected arrival of a couple of Icelanders, a sea lion, and a neighbor that she has always desired. Winner of the Lina Mangiacapre Award at the Venice Film Festival. Speaker: Tom Meek, President of the Boston Society of Film Critics.

Beauty (aka Nosilatiaj.La Belezza) is a poetic film in both Spanish and Wichi (the language of an indigeneous tribe in the north of Argentina). When her prized long hair is unjustly cut on the occasion of the quinceañera of a “criollo” (pure Spaniard born in Latin America) family’s daughter, a young Wichi girl, working as the family’s maid, loses faith in her cultural ties with the criollo world and defines her destiny. An official selection at the Berlin Film Festival.

In The Dead and the Living a young German woman embarks on an expedition into her family’s burdened past during World War II, setting her on a personal journey that takes her from Berlin to Romania via Vienna and Warsaw and into the abyss of modern European society. Official selection at the Viennale. Speaker: Igor Lukes, Professor of International Relations & History at Boston University.

In Isztambul Dutch actress Johanna ter Steege (The Vanishing) plays a Hungarian woman who literally goes into shock after her husband of thirty years leaves her, only to find renewed passion after hitchhiking her way to Istanbul.

Belmont World Film is sponsored year-round by Cambridge Reprographics, Rule Boston, and in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Sponsors of the “Found in Translation” series include Cambridge Reprographics, Big Picture Framing, Wicked Local, and the French Consulate of Boston.