Foreign Language Film Submissions 2019

Spider (a name that refers to the fascist web of subversion which worked to oust Chile’s president Salvador Allende) is a historical thriller that explores the evolution of radical political activism as well as a dangerously charged love triangle. The film opens in present-day Santiago, Chile.

Indian writer/director Ritesh Batra’s Photograph follows his popular The Lunchbox (2013), after a tenure in Hollywood. Woven through a seemingly linear narrative, Photograph subtly presents the audience with contemplations on love and memory.

Lebanon, June 1982. It is the end of the year for 11-year-old Wissam at his private boarding school on the outskirts of Beirut.

For decades it’s been rumored that women desire bad boys and whether true or not, this well-known trope has been the basis for countless popular movies worldwide. Now celebrated Dutch actress Halina Reijn makes a courageous directorial debut with Instinct, which explores this phenomenon through the eyes of a psychologist.

"We decide for ourselves what will hurt," a father says to 15-year-old Trond as he is injured while working in the Norwegian wilderness in the summer. But several years later, when Trond returns to the same place as an older man, he learns that this is, in fact, not the case.

“My solemn gaze roved over your innocent face,” it says in a framed poem that Abdol-Hamid (Hootan Shakiba) brought to the woman he wants to marry at the beginning of Narges Abyar’s When the Moon Was Full. Faezeh (Elnaz Shakerdoost) catches his attention while shopping at the market in Zehedan, in southeastern Iran, and he is obviously smitten.

It is strange how the decade-long economic crisis in Greece has given rise to an unlikely beneficiary: women. Nikos Labôt’s feature Her Job details such a story.

Wild League (Дикая лига) is a Russian sports drama based on real events in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century which led to the birth of the first semi-professional soccer league, initially made up of players who had previously only played streetball. The picture was co-directed by Russian director Andrey Bogatyrev and American director Art Camacho.

Winner of the best director award for Anca Damian at the 2018 Warsaw International Film Festival, the Romanian film Moon Hotel Kabul is a drama starring Florin Piersic Jr. and Ofelia Popii.

Medical transport driver Vic is late, but it’s not his fault. Roads are closed for a protest, and no one else can shuttle his Russian grandfather and émigré friends to a funeral.