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Global Lens 2009

The Tufts University International Relations Program was proud to host a spectacular film series, Global Lens 2009, on campus this fall. Students young and old, from the Tufts Community, local Universities, and Medford, Somerville, Boston and surrounding communities, enjoyed interesting cultural films that inspired and educated. These events were free and open to the public.

The Global Lens film series is an annual, touring film program of eight to ten narrative feature films from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Each film is selected for its authentic voice, strong cinematics, and unique cultural perspective. For more information, visit www.globalfilm.org

Click on the links to learn more about Global Lens 2009 films, and to watch individual film trailers.

GETTING HOME (Luo Ye Gui Gen) Zhang Yang China, 2007 Mandarin, with subtitles in English Thurs, 10/15, 7:30pm Reception, 8:00pm-10:30pm Introduction and Showing, download flier Distler Performance Hall, Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center, 20 Talbot Ave., Medford Sat, 11/7, 8:00pm-10:00pm Mugar 200, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford

Synopsis
In this soulful and humane comedy, Zhao, a middle-aged construction worker, struggles to fulfill a dying co-worker's last wish to be buried in China's Three Gorges region. Setting out with his colleague's body in tow, Zhao travels hundreds of miles across extraordinary countryside, encountering a number of colorful adventures and characters -- and even discovering love in some unlikely quarters. Director Zhang Yang's humorous and moving tale of friendship offers a powerful, and sometimes slapstick, commentary on the value of community and human connectivity in modern China.

I AM FROM TITOV VELES (Jas Sum Od Titov Veles) Teona Strugar Mitevska Macedonia, 2007 Macedonian, with subtitles in English Thurs, 10/22, 9:00pm-11:00pm Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - limited seating Sat, 12/5, 7:00pm-9:00pm Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - NEW VENUE

Synopsis
Set in the quaint but scarred town of Veles, three sisters long to escape the suffocating environment of their dying community. Burdened by memories of their late father, each chooses a different path: Sapho struggles to secure a visa to Greece, Slavica desperately searches for a rich husband, and Afrodita harbors hopes for love and children. In this contemporary story of urban decay, director Teona Strugar Mitevska blends stark realism with memorable performances to create a vivid landscape of life and longing in post-communist Macedonia.

MUTUM Sandra Kogut Brazil, 2007 Portuguese, with subtitles in English Sun, 10/25, 2:00pm-4:00pm Education Showing with Discussion Asean Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford Thurs, 11/19, 8:00pm-10:00 Education Showing with Discussion Mugar 200, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford

Synopsis
Thiago is a sensitive and imaginative boy living on a small, hardscrabble farm in a remote region of Brazil. His life is filled not only with curiosity and youthful discovery, but also the reality of his parent's unhappy marriage and his father's abuse--all of which are one day changed by a chance encounter and unexpected gift. Director Sandra Kogut, in her poetic adaptation of the Brazilian short story Campo Geral, focuses on minute details of rural life to tell a bittersweet story of one boy's coming-of-age amidst events both great and small.

MY TIME WILL COME (Cuando Me Toque A Mi) Víctor Arregui Ecuador, 2008 Spanish, with subtitles in English Fri, 10/23, 8:00pm-10:00pm Asean Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford Fri, 11/20, 7:00pm-9:00pm Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - NEW VENUE

Synopsis
A predawn murder sets in motion a series of interlocking tragedies that eventually find their way to the city morgue's brooding Dr. Arturo Fernandez. Physically and emotionally isolated from the world around him, Arturo develops an oddly intimate relationship with the personal lives of his cases, gradually forcing him to confront his connection to the living, and the dead. Adapted from the novel De Que Nada Se Sabe, director Víctor Arregui's serpentine tale is a dark but sympathetic portrait of one man's solitude set against a richly textured rendering of Quito, Ecuador's capital city.

THE PHOTOGRAPH Nan Achnas Indonesia, 2007 Indonesian, with subtitles in English Fri, 10/16, 9:00pm-11:00pm CANCELLED Asean Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford Sat, 11/21, 7:00pm-9:00pm Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - NEW VENUE Wed, 12/2, 8:00pm-10:00pm Asean Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford

Synopsis
Sita is a spirited young woman working to support her family as a singer and prostitute in a local brothel. Always short of funds and bullied by her pimp, she convinces an elderly portrait photographer, Mr. Johan, to rent her a room; in failing health, Mr. Johan is desperate to find an apprentice to carry on his work before he dies. The unlikely bond that develops between Sita and Mr. Johan is the basis of writer-director Nan Achnas's visually brilliant and poignant human drama about the profound effect one life can have on another.

POSSIBLE LIVES (Las Vidas Posibles) Sandra Gugliotta Argentina, 2007 Spanish, with subtitles in English Sat, 10/24, 7:00pm-9:00pm Asean Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford Fri, 12/4, 7:00pm-9:00pm Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - NEW VENUE

Synopsis
After her husband mysteriously disappears during a business trip to Patagonia, Clara embarks on a desperate mission to find him. During her search, she makes a startling discovery: a man with an uncanny resemblance to her spouse, but with another name and a wife. Convinced the stranger may be her husband, she ignores entreaties to quit her search just as police discover a body that may be the real man she seeks. Shot amid majestic vistas and suffused with vibrant color and sexuality, director Sandra Gugliotta's feature is a haunting and suspenseful study of grief and letting go.

SLEEPWALKING LAND (Terra Sonâmbula) Teresa Prata Mozambique, 2007 Portuguese, with subtitles in English Sun, 10/18, 2:00pm-4:00pm Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - limited seating Fri, 11/6, 8:00pm-10:00pm Mugar 200, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford

Synopsis
In the midst of Mozambique's devastating civil war, Muidinga, an orphaned refugee, wanders the countryside in search of his mother. His only companion is an elderly storyteller, and the only guide to finding his mother is a dead man's diary. Together, the storyteller and diary lead him on a magical, and sometimes macabre, journey across war–torn landscapes to find the family he lost. Based on Mia Coutou's acclaimed Portuguese novel of the same name, Teresa Prata's transporting drama underscores the power of imagination in surviving, and ultimately overcoming, the catastrophe of war.

SONG FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS (Pesn' Juzhnykh Morej) Marat Sarulu Kazakhstan, 2008 Russian, with subtitles in English Sat, 10/17, 9:00pm-11:00pm Braker Hall Room 001, 8 Upper Campus Road, Medford Sun, 11/8, 2:00pm-4:00pm Education Screening with Discussion RESCHEDULED Sun, 12/6, 3:30-5:30pm - Education Screening with Discussion Olin Center Room 11, 180 Packard Ave, Medford

Synopsis
Two couples, one Russian and one Kazakh, live side by side in relative harmony in a beautiful yet semi-desolate region of the Great Steppe. But when the fair-skinned Russians give birth to a boy of decidedly darker skin, fifteen years of suspicion and acrimony arises between them, and can only be resolved by an ironic twist of family and fate. At times darkly somber, at other times tender and wistful-and buoyed throughout by a soundtrack of folk-inspired melodies-writer-director Marat Sarulu draws on Kazakhstan's epic history to create a gritty and deeply compassionate tale of humor and cultural insight.

THOSE THREE (An Seh) Naghi Nemati Iran, 2007 Farsi and Turkish, with subtitles in English Thurs, 11/5, 8:00pm-10:00pm Education Screening with Discussion Mugar 200, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford Sun, 11/22, 2:00pm-4:00pm Education Screening with Discussion Mugar 200, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford

Synopsis
Just one day from completing their military training, three conscripts desert their camp and escape into the frozen wilderness of Northern Iran. Travel through this mountainous, snowbound region is dangerous, but "those three" opt for the independence it promises and must now forge their way through an uncertain landscape, with only friendship to see them through. In this austere and mesmerizing debut feature, director Naghi Nemati's attention to the minutiae of human relationships is a quiet and deliberate meditation on the value of responsibility, connection and sacrifice.

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD Faouzi Bensaïdi Morocco, 2006 French and Arabic, with subtitles in English Wed, 11/18, 8:00pm-10:00pm Education Screening with Discussion Mugar 200, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford - NEW VENUE Sun, 12/6, 2:00pm-4:00pm Education Screening with Discussion Olin Center Room 12, 180 Packard Ave, Medford - limited seating

Synopsis
Souad is a prostitute whose best friend is Kenza, a tough traffic cop. Kamel is a stony–eyed contract killer who receives his hit orders via the Internet; he is also Souad's favorite customer. When Kenza falls in love with Kamel, the two begin a bizarre courtship doomed by their disparate lines of work, and a persistent cyber–snooping hacker who stumbles upon the site where Kamel receives his murderous contracts. Moroccan actor–director Faouzi Bensaïdi's promiscuously stylish film is a new vision of an old culture, unveiling an uncommon Casablanca caught in a world wide web of associations and consequences. [French and Arabic, with subtitles in English]

MARGARETTE'S FEAST Renato Falcão Brazil, 2002 Thurs, 12/3, 8:00-10:00pm Special Screening of Chairman’s Choice Asean Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford  Guest Host: Prof. Ryan Centner, Assistant Professor of Sociology, will introduce the evening

Synopsis
As moving pictures enter their third century, it somehow seems appropriate that Brazilian filmmaker Renato Falcão's debut feature, Margarette's Feast, is a black-and-white silent film. At once homage to a glorious cinematic past and an audacious present exploration of narrative and technique, Falcão plunges the viewer into a dramatic universe that initially seems familiar and then inexorably unsettling. Making dazzling use of exhilarating Brazilian music, intentionally under-lit photography that superbly evokes the look of early silent films, exuberant acting styles, and a cast of characters spanning the social spectrum that would be the envy of Dickens or Balzac, Margarette's Feast tells the incredible story of an Everyman (Hique Gomez) who loses his job and comes into possession of a miraculous suitcase that never runs out of money. The results of the fantastic changes in his life mirror the conflicting social strains of contemporary Brazil (which just elected its first truly man-of-the-people Leftist president), and both characters and audience are left breathless and shaken by the insidious tragedy revealed at the root of perfect fulfillment. It's as though Chaplin's Little Tramp found himself in Fassbinder's Alexanderplatz. Falcão's modern silent film gem is an ode to classic originals about tough-luck protagonists whose dreams become a miraculous--or possibly mistaken--reality. Pedro receives a seemingly bottomless bag of money as severance from his lost job, setting off a spending spree that culminates in an extravagant birthday feast for his wife Margarette. With lively Brazilian music and without the benefit of dialogue or even inter-titles, the great cast still manages to conjure the entire range of human emotions. - Bo Smith (Tribeca Film Festival)

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