Synopsis

Set in Chicago’s Kyrgyz community, this tense drama follows a Kyrgyz family thrown into turmoil as they try to find their footing in the U.S. Eric, the prodigal son, is a working truck driver trying to save enough money to buy a house for his wife Mira and his mother. This plan is complicated, though, when his mounting gambling debts begin to catch up with him. Suddenly left to her own devices, Mira is forced to navigate a maze of immigration appointments, interpersonal strife, and suspicion.

Documentary-turned-fiction filmmaker Nurzhamal Karamoloeva crafts an urgent and compelling story about a community on edge. Fresh and vital, Only Heaven Knows portrays a people struggling to assimilate, as they endure the perils of pursuing the American Dream—an ideal that can quickly turn combustible.

Synopsis

Budapest, 1957. In the aftermath of a quelled uprising against the ruling Communist party, a young Jewish boy named Andor and his mother are struggling to make ends meet. Both work at a local general store, living in fear of the regime’s violent reprisals against friends and coworkers involved in the failed revolution. When a menacing, brutish man appears in town, claiming to be Andor’s father, the boy is plunged into personal crisis as he’s forced to come to grips with a new and unwelcome family history.

Director László Nemes (Son of Saul) sets this tender, heartbreaking coming-of-age tale amid a violent historical backdrop, balancing the intimate and internal against the grand sweep of history. The struggles of Andor and his family mirror the tumultuous reckoning of the post-WWII world, as Orphan bears witness to the tyrannies of the period through the eyes of a child.

Screening in 35mm.

Synopsis

Palestine 1936: Rising numbers of Jewish immigrants are arriving to escape persecution in Europe just as Palestinian villages are uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year colonial rule. The region is reaching a breaking point, spiraling toward an inevitable collision that will be a decisive turning point for the British Empire and the future of the land.

Within this tumultuous setting, Palestine 36 follows several characters caught up in the conflict. Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest, while young Afra tries to navigate the seismic changes with the aid of her grandmother. Meanwhile, a dissatisfied port worker finds the pressures of earning a living drawing him into the rebel movement. In this powerful and suspenseful work of historical fiction, starring such notable actors as Hiam Abbass and Jeremy Irons, renowned filmmaker Annemarie Jacir (Wajib, When I Saw You, and Like Twenty Impossibles, a winner at the Festival in 2023) uses a wide cinematic canvas to offer context, humanity, and complexity to a story that is still tragically unfolding.

Synopsis

In the heart of suburban Melbourne, a quiet Nigerian shoe salesman named Azubuike leads a humble life, selling soles while attempting to stay connected with his sister and their close-knit Igbo Christian congregation. Experiencing a recent waning of faith, fueled by an unexpected financial setback, Azubuike begins to interrogate not only his spiritual identity but also his purpose in life. At the same time, he must attempt to forge closer ties with his distant yet perceptive adolescent son Obinna, who has just begun living with him full time.

As father and son navigate the uneasy terrain between tradition and transformation, they find themselves confronting their perceptions of each other. Bolstered by the grace offered by their communities, they start to move toward common ground. A meditation on inheritance and dislocation, Pasa Faho unfolds as a heartwarming tale of reconnection, resilience, and the quiet beauty of starting again.

Synopsis

At an all-boys water polo camp, anxious twelve-year-old Ben tries to find his niche amid the social hierarchy. The pecking order quickly becomes clear: At the top, the charismatic camp veteran Jake; at the bottom, Eli, an awkward misfit shunned by the others for being allegedly afflicted with a contagious “plague,” marked by red blotches that could be acne, or… something else. As Ben navigates between his desire for acceptance and sympathy for Eli, he is forced to confront his own complicity in the malevolence of adolescence, and whether it is better to be cruel or cast out.

Skillfully blurring the lines between reality and horror, The Plague is a tense and suspenseful coming-of-age thriller. The setting is also pitch-perfect: Few things evoke more terror than a teenage boys’ locker room. With breakout performances from young actors Everett Blunck and Kayo Martin, and a strong supporting turn from Joel Edgerton as a camp director ill-equipped to tamp down the rising mayhem, this stylish and unnerving film brilliantly exposes the sickness of social pressure.