Starting its eighth season, the Foreign Film Series provides the Cedarville community an opportunity to view interesting and challenging films from around the world and to peer into often unfamiliar cultures through the eyes of the cultures themselves.
Finland/Drama
Thursday, February 16th, 7:30 p.m., BTS 104
» View IMDB Entry (7.3 stars)
» Rotten Tomatoes (73% fresh)
Leila, who’s serving a life sentence for murder, is unexpectedly pardoned and offered a job in a secluded parsonage reading and responding to letters for Father Jacob, a blind priest. With no other options, she reluctantly accepts the job. She bitterly resents helping the old priest and finds his praying over letters pointless. Slowly, the priest’s love and grace begins to chip away at Leila’s hard exterior until her personal sufferings are exposed leading Leila to personal renewal and spiritual redemption.
Kaarina Hazard, Heikki Nousianen
Director: Klaus Härö
"It's a story of faith expressed with simple grace and the small deeds of a pardoned sinner still searching for forgiveness. It is like a minimalist stage play -- three acts, two characters, quietly redemptive."
--Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
"There's a sparse elegance to writer-director Klaus Härö's Letters to Father Jacob, a lean, engrossing character study about loneliness, redemption and the power of faith."
--Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly
"A lean and intensely focused spiritual drama about faith, the dark night of the soul, and the redemptive power of love."
--Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
China/Documentary
Thursday, March 15th, 7:30 p.m., BTS 104
» View IMDB Entry (7.7 stars)
» Rotten Tomatoes (96% fresh)
Nanking is a powerful reminder of the heartbreaking cost of war and testament to the courage and conviction of those few determined to stand up against its horrors. Known as “the Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese army in 1937 invaded China’s capital city, unleashing a horrific onslaught of murder and rape. Incredibly, a small group of Westerners who stayed behind saved thousands. The film captures this controversial, fast-fading chapter in history through interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage and compelling readings of letters and diaries of Westerners who stayed behind.
Woody Harrelson, Stephen Dorff, Mariel Hemingway, Jürgen Prochnow, Michelle Krusiec
Director: Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
"Anyone who sees Nanking should know going in what a brutal story it is, but no one should miss it because of a restrictive rating."
--Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News
"Nanking is grim but ultimately uplifting, a reminder that even in dangerous times, brave individuals can hold the line against barbarism."
--Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Sheds light on particular wartime atrocities largely neglected in the collective memory."
--Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune
"Nanking both calls attention to a horrifying set of war crimes that remains little known in the West and crafts an impossible-but-true hymn to the power of the individual conscience."
--Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
Turkey/Drama
Thrusday, April 19th, 7:30 p.m., BTS 104
» View IMDB Entry (7.7 stars)
» Rotten Tomatoes (86% fresh)
When 17-year-old Meryem is raped, her village’s ancient customs require that she be killed in order for the dishonor to be expunged from her family. A distant cousin, Cemal, the son of the village leader, is given the task of taking her to Istanbul and killing her along the way. Together they embark on a surprising journey across traditional and modern-day Turkey as ancient customs clash with modern sensibilities.
Özgü Namal,Talat Bulut, Murat Han
Director: Abdullah Oguz
"This consistently gripping, visually intoxicating film stands as a landmark of contemporary Turkish cinema."
--Stephen Holden, New York Times
"When modernity meets the Middle Ages, something's gotta give!"
--Kam Williams, Sly Fox
"An engrossing, tender and compelling drama boasting exquisite cinematography and a radiant performance by the beautiful Ozgu Namal."
--Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
"Bliss personalizes the brutal custom of honor killing. Director and co-screenwriter Abdullah Oguz has skillfully created an intense view of the conflict between tradition and emotion in contemporary Turkey.
--Ed Scheid, Boxoffice Magazine