Foreign Language Film Submissions 2018

At first sight, La noche de 12 años (A Twelve-Year Night) could pass as a story of survival. The real story of three political prisoners in Uruguay who, in 1972, were taken from their prison cells in a secret military operation that lasted twelve years.

The River represents the third chapter in director's Emir Baigazin’s “Aslan trilogy”, following Uroki Garmonii and Ranenyy Angel (Aslan being their main character's name). It's the story of a family of five boys, aged approximately 6 to 16, who live in the middle of a remote desert landscape in Kazakhstan.

The feature film debut from Israeli director Ofir Raul Graizer should come with a warning. “Do not enter this theater when hungry.

Million Loves in Me, directed by Sampson Yuen Yun Hong, is inspired by a headline case in Hong Kong: a 45-year-old woman, Katy, was charged with animal cruelty when the police discovered she was hoarding more than a hundred dogs and cats in her apartment. In the film, a Malaysian production in Cantonese and Mandarin shot in Hong Kong, Katy's mother (played by Hong Kong actress Lo Koon-Lan) is suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, an illness she developed after being abandoned by her husband and son, who spends her time splurging on fancy restaurants, jewelry, and puppies.

Lazzaro Felice (Happy as Lazzaro), written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won for best screenplay. It tells the story, or modern parable, of Lazzaro, (Lazarus) who, like his biblical counterpart, is a kind young man who is miraculously reawakened by a wolf, decades after falling off a cliff.

Burning is a 2018 South Korean mystery-suspense drama directed by Lee Chan-Dong who is also a screenwriter and novelist. It is the first film directed by Lee in eight years.