Festival Archives: Chicago Intl Film Festival

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A man stands in the center of a darkened studio set with bright lights shining down on him as an audience watches.

Late Night With the Devil

  Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes

  United States, United Arab Emirates, Australia     87 minutes

Synopsis

Jack Delroy, a fictional ’70s talk show host played by rising horror star (and Chicago native) David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad, Oppenheimer), is in trouble. Jack and his show Night Owls were once the biggest names in late night. But now, with his personal life marred by tragedy and his ratings in free fall, he’s struggling to keep up. So Jack and his producers cook up a controversial plan for their 1977 Halloween special: A live possession, as performed by parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and 13-year-old Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a Satanic mass suicide. What could possibly go wrong?

Told in a found-footage style that purports to cobble together rediscovered master tapes with dailies from a French documentary crew, Late Night with the Devil harnesses the anything-goes excitement of live television and combines it with the sinister aura of ’70s exorcism movies to unleash a demon into the airwaves.

  

 English 

headshot: David DastmalchianActor Spotlight

We chatted with actor David Dastmalchian about Late Night With the Devil, making indie projects, his roots as a Chicago-based actor, and more.

Read the interview…

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Derek Dauchy, Mat Govini, Steven Schneider, Roy Lee, Adam White, John Molloy
  •   Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
  •   Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
  •   Matthew Temple
  •   David Dastmalchian, Ian Bliss, Ingrid Torelli, Fayssal Bazzi, Rhys Auteri
  •   Glenn Richards
  •   Ben Ross, Rami Yasin, David Dastmalchian, Joel Anderson, Julie Ryan
  •   Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Spooky Pictures

Sponsors

Film Supporter

Logo: Music Box Theatre 160x125

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The black and white image of a man in glasses leans against his vintage car.

Limbo

  Ivan Sen

  Australia     104 minutes

Synopsis

Detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) arrives in a small mining town in the Australian outback to investigate the unsolved murder of an Indigenous girl twenty years in the past. Armed with little evidence, he must attempt to gain the trust of the reclusive community. But the girl’s jaded family is reluctant to talk to any cop — especially a white one. Traversing the bleak stretches of road between the town’s opal caves and caravans, Hurley’s own demons combine with the traumas of the community to forge an unlikely and intimate bond.

In Limbo, Indigenous Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen exhibits a masterful eye for stunning black-and-white cinematography, illuminating the vast and unforgiving landscape and setting an eerie and desolate tone. This remote outback noir is both a detective story and a nuanced study of the prejudices faced by Australia’s Indigenous communities.

  

 English 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   David Jowsey, Rachel Higgins, Greer Simpkin, Ivan Sen
  •   Ivan Sen
  •   Ivan Sen
  •   Ivan Sen
  •   Simon Baker, Rob Collins, Natasha Wanganeen, Nicholas Hope, Mark Coe, Joshua Warrior
  •   Ivan Sen
  •   Bunya Productions

Sponsors

Film Supporters

Sara and James Star

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A dark haired woman leans over the shoulder of another woman, her shoulder strap sliding down, as they look out a window.

Living Bad Viver Mal

  João Canijo

  Portugal, France     125 minutes

Synopsis

A decaying hotel on the Portuguese coast welcomes its weekend guests: a man struggling to balance his time between his wife and mother, a woman embarking on an affair with her son-in-law, and a mother attempting to control her daughter’s every decision. During their respective stays, the vacationers observe the hotel’s scarred, resentful staff as their own familial dramas play out for all to see.

 Portuguese with subtitles

A woman emraces a girl, kissing the side of her head, and holds a small black dog in her other arm.A masterwork of overlapping perspectives, Living Bad is the reverse shot of Bad Living (also included in this year’s program). Taken together, the two form a rich narrative labyrinth as the events of the story are observed from different angles and interpreted through the lens of different characters. The result is a cinematic experience of unprecedented depth.

Learn more about Bad Living

[spoiler title="Content Considerations"]Self harm[/spoiler]Learn about Festival content considerations...

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Pedro Borges
  •   João Canijo
  •   João Braz
  •   Leonor Teles
  •   Nuno Lopes, Filipa Areosa, Leonor Silveira, Rafael Morais, Lia Carvalho, Beatriz Batarda, Leonor Vasconcelos, Carolina Amaral
  •   Pedro Borges
  •   Midas Filmes
  •   https://malviver-vivermal.pt/

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A young boy, wearing smeared red lipstick, lays back in bed holding back tears. A older woman lay next to him, comforting.

Lost Country

  Vladimir Perišić

  Serbia, France, Luxemburg, Croatia     98 minutes

Synopsis

Serbia, 1996. 15-year-old Stefan is torn. His close relationship with his mother, the television spokesperson for the authoritarian Milosevic regime, is causing him grief at school.  An election is approaching, and the nation — and his classmates — expect foul play from the party in power. When it becomes clear that the vote has been rigged, the students take to the streets to protest the fraudulent results, and the party meets the demonstrations with violence. His mother’s obvious corruption makes Stefan’s friends doubt his loyalty to their cause, forcing him to decide between his family and his generation.

Clean, incisive cinematography and intricate production design with a clear eye for period detail backdrop this passionate, politically-charged coming-of-age saga. A powerful performance anchors the proceedings, as actor Jovan Ginic’s bewildered stare conveys the complex pains of uncertain youth.

 Serbian with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Janja Kralj, Nadia Turincev, Omar El Kadi, Vladimir Perišić
  •   Vladimir Perišić, Alice Winocour
  •   Martial Salomon, Jelena Maksimović
  •   Sarah Blum, Louise Botkay Courcier
  •   Jovan Ginić, Jasna Đuričić, Miodrag Jovanović
  •   Alen & Nenad Sinkauz
  •   Janja Kralj, Nadia Turincev, Omar El Kadi, Vladimir Perišić
  •   Kinoelektron, Easy Riders

Sponsors

New Directors Program Sponsors

Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation

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A person with a mustache, wearing blush and frills, smiles over their shoulder behind them.

Lubo

  Giorgio Diritti

  Italy, Switzerland     175 minutes

Synopsis

Lubo, a traveling busker, is conscripted into the Swiss army to defend against a potential German attack. While serving, he receives the news that his wife has died and his three small children have been taken by the state as a part of a national reeducation program for Yenisch children. He flees his unit, adopts a new identity, and begins a desperate search to reunite his fractured family.

Featuring stunning production design and a sterling performance from Franz Rogowski (Transit, Passages), the film tracks Lubo’s odyssey as he uncovers the shocking truth about his children. Based on real-life events, the film is both an emotional character study and a penetrating historical epic.

 Italian, Jenisch, Swiss-German with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Marco Cohen, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, Giorgio Diritti, Francesca Scorzonii, Christof Neracher, Claudio Falconi, Alberto Fusco, Andrea Masera
  •   Giorgio Diritti, Fredo Valla
  •   Paolo Cottignola (AMC BFE), Giorgio Diritti
  •   Benjamin Maier
  •   Franz Rogowski, Christophe Sermet, Valentina Bellè, Noémi Besedes, Cecilia Steiner, Joel Basman
  •   Marco Biscarini
  •   Simone Bachini, Alessandro Mascheroni
  •   Indiana Production, Aranciafilm, Rai Cinema, hugofilm features, Proxima Milano