Foreign Film Series
The Foreign Film Series provides the Cedarville community an opportunity to view interesting and challenging films from around the world. The series allows viewers to peer into often unfamiliar cultures through the eyes of the cultures themselves.
Ireland/Drama
Ireland/Drama
Date/Location: August 31st, 6:30 and 9:00 p.m., BTS 104
In Ireland’s submission to the 2023 Academy Award for the International Feature Film, nine-year-old Cáit is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her. She blossoms in their care, but in a house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
Director: Colm Bairéad
Performers: Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett
Reviews:
Reviews: “The Quiet Girl unfurls gently... it seems so simple but leads only to possibilities, and one word – said twice – that will be engraved upon your heart.” –Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
“Through heart-wrenching, nuanced and arresting performances by Clinch, Crowley and Bennett, The Quiet Girl technically lives up to its name, but speaks volumes about the transformative power of what it means to be loved.” –Anne T. Donahue, Globe and Mail
“A genuine work of art by a genuinely empathetic artist, and one of the single most moving, heartfelt, and heartbreaking movies from any country in the last decade. That only sounds like hyperbole until you see it.” –David Fear, Rolling Stone
“There is a pervasive sense of unspoken menace lurking just outside the frame (or somewhere in the near past or future). But it is also a celebration of uncomplicated human kindness.” –Donald Clarke, Irish Times
“An unexpectedly beautiful assembly of narrative, image, and sound which takes its cue from the title to build quietly to an emotional catharsis.” –Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
Ireland/Drama
Date/Location: September 28th, 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., BTS 104
Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh, Belfast is a poignant story of love, laughter, and loss in one boy’s childhood amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s. Buddy’s family lives in a largely Protestant district with a few Catholic families, but one day his community and everything he thought he understood about life is suddenly turned upside down. Buddy’s family gets caught in the mayhem and must decide to stay or leave the only place they have ever called home. Through it all, his passionate parents (Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) and quick-witted grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds) keep the joy alive through music and the magic of movies in this story that reminds us that no matter how far you go, you never forget where you came from..
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Performers: Jude Hill, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds
Reviews:
“Whimsical in the most imaginative sense, their conversations make it very easy to give [Kenneth Branagh] the benefit of the doubt. If the reality was not like this, it should have been.” –Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald
Kenneth Branagh makes a masterful memoir of his tumultuous Irish boyhood . . . set during the Protestant-Catholic conflicts of the late 1960s, the film is both specific and universal, grand and intimate, sweetly romantic and shockingly violent.” –Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“Possibly the most uplifting film ever made about a time of unending violence, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast comes with a bruised heart and an unquenchable spirit of optimism.” –Philip De Semlyen, Time Out
“There is something genuinely bold in giving a movie about Belfast in 1969 the warm glow of the everyday. It reminds us that life goes on.” –Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine
“Branagh skillfully shows us the world through Buddy's eyes, though we understand more than he does. Sometimes that is amusing. Sometimes it is heart-wrenching.” –Mell Minow, Movie Mom
Bhutan/Drama
Date/Location: November 2nd, 6:30 and 9:15 p.m., BTS 104
A young teacher in modern Bhutan, Ugyen, shirks his duties while planning to go to Australia to become a singer. As a reprimand, his superiors send him to the most remote school in the world, in a village called Lunana, to complete his service. He finds himself exiled from his Westernized comforts after an arduous eight-day trek just to get there. There he finds no electricity, no textbooks, not even a blackboard. Though poor, the villagers extend a warm welcome to their new teacher, but he faces the daunting task of teaching the village children without any supplies. He wants to quit and go home, but he begins to learn of the hardship in the lives of the beautiful children he teaches and begins to be transformed through the amazing spiritual strength of the villagers.
Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji
Performers:Sherab Dorji, Ugyen Norbu Lhendup, Kelden Lhamo Gurung, Pem Zam
Reviews:
“There are lots of gently beautiful moments in ¬Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, the first film from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan to be nominated for an Oscar.” –Stephen Romei, The Australian
“A reminder of how cinema can connect us to what matters most in life, sharing a specific story from a part of the world most of us will never experience, but zoning in on matters of the heart that resonate in a universal way.” –Ronda Racha Penrice, The Wrap
“It struck a nimble balance between low-key humor and life-affirming drama.” –Claudia Puig, FilmWeek
“The film is a fable, to be sure, and one that unfolds at a leisurely pace, not a tough-minded psychological drama. But it’s sharp-witted as well as soulful, reasonably suspenseful, and brings news from a little-known area of the world.” –Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
“This is a warm and involving exploration of the clash between community and individualism, pitting an ancient culture against modern aspirations. And with its terrific cast of characters, the movie feels like it's a gift to the world.” –Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall