79TH Non-English Language Film Submissions

Thirty-something Jérémie (Nicolas Maury) is at a crossroads. His love life is in shambles, as his incurable jealousy has finally driven his lover away.

The family tragicomedy Bố già (Dad, I'm Sorry) has already broken a record by becoming the highest-grossing Vietnamese movie of all time, with grosses of about $20 million; it is also the first Vietnamese film to collect $1 million at the U. S.

Alain Delange (Grégoire Colin) is a French airport auditor assigned to make sure the airport of Artsakh Republic conforms to international standards before opening. It had been shot down due to a conflict with its neighboring countries and the hostility between them continues to exist.

“Don't ask me to start fast and strong! I always start slow and then eventually catch up – all I did in my life is coming from behind and catching up!” That's what So Wa Wai yells in despair to his mother, when she pushes him to start faster in the 200-hundred-meter dash in the Honk Kong film Zero to Hero. Written and directed by Jimmy Wan, the film is based on the true story of Paralympic champion So Wa Wai, who raced for Hong Kong as a sprinter in five special Olympic games between 1996 and 2012.

Meet Manu and Jean-Gab, (played by the French comedy act David Marsais and Grégoire Ludig), two broke halfwit losers hanging out on the Côte d’Azur, ready for any opportunity to make some money. When they unexpectedly get an offer to earn €500 to transport a mysterious suitcase, the buddies steal an old Mercedes to get to their destination.

France de Meurs is a star reporter and anchor for a top news channel. In a way, she is a cross between Christiane Amanpour and Marie Colvin, only not as honest and not as tragic, at least at the beginning.

Filmed in Switzerland by French director Elie Grappe, who co-wrote the story with Raphaëlle Desplechin, Swiss entry Olga is Grappe’s full-length feature film directorial debut. This 85-minute movie is the story of a teenage Ukrainian gymnast en route to the Olympics who is forced to leave her native country because of political unrest.

The latest offering by filmmaker Artykpai Suyundukov, titled Shambala, is based on the 1970 novel, “The White Ship”, by Kyrgyz literary figure, Chingiz Aitmatov. The heartbreaking story chronicles the life of 8-year-old Shambala (Artur Amanaliev) who’s raised by his grandparents following the death of his mother and the absence of his father.

A couple of years ago, a call for teaching Arabic at French schools sparked a heated debate in France, with the right-wing critics warning that the Semitic language would expose the young French Arabs to extreme ideas and possibly terrorism. In her second feature, A Tale of Love and Desire, Tunisian writer-director Leyla Bouzid shows the world and her lead character, an 18-year-old French-Algerian university student named Ahmed, that Arabic is a sensual and erotic language.

In Margrete - Queen of the North we find ourselves in 1361, where a very young Margaret is witnessing the dead and wounded soldiers on the battlefield of Visby in Sweden. Cut to 1402 and Margrete has become Queen Margrete of Denmark and is negotiating with Norwegians and Swedes to create peace in the Nordic countries.