AMC 600 N. MICHIGAN 9 | 600 N. Michigan Avenue

6:00PM | Theater #8
Silver Hugo Winner in New Directors Competition: KING OF PING PONG (Sweden)
Director: Jens Jonsson • Sweden
Winner of the World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance, King of Ping Pong is a shrewd, chilly and offbeat observation of one boy’s struggles to grow up despite grim circumstances. Overweight teen Rille is already dealing with his divorced parents, harassment from bullies, an unrequited love for a local girl, and his little brother’s excessive popularity—and that’s before his long-absent father drops back into his life. Swedish with English subtitles. 107 min.

6:10PM | Theater #9
Gold Hugo Winner in New Directors Competition: DEAD GIRL'S FEAST (Brazil)
Director: Matheus Nachtergaele • Brazil
Every year, pilgrims pour into a small community in the upper Amazon to worship at the mystical shrine of a little girl who went missing 20 years ago. The faithful await her life-changing revelations, channeled through an enigmatic local known as the Saint, but the little girl’s brother has grown tired of the exploitation of his sister’s memory by the Saint’s profiteering father. Soon, he’ll uncover an astonishing secret about them both. Portuguese with English subtitles. 115 min.

6:15PM | Theater #6
Silver Hugo Winner for Best Direction: TERRIBLY HAPPY (Denmark)
Director: Henrik Ruben Genz • Denmark
Winner of the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Genz’s stylish and atmospheric Terribly Happy blends elements of drama, crime, Western, and horror in the story of a Copenhagen policeman reassigned to a provincial town whose denizens hide some troubling secrets. “I wanted the film to be experienced as a nightmare in a surreal, parallel world,” the Oscar®-nominated director has said. Danish with English subtitles. 90 min.

6:30PM | Theater #7
Back by popular demand: The Zone (Mexico)
Director: Rodrigo Plá • mexiCo On the eve of Alejandro’s 16th birthday, three teenage thieves infiltrate La Zona—Mexico City’s most exclusive gated community—resulting in the murder of Alejandro’s neighbor, the accidental death of a security guard, and the vigilante murder of two would-be thieves. Fortified with an intricate series of security measures, the seemingly autonomous community exists outside of police jurisdiction, leaving the surviving thief trapped within La Zona’s vengeful borders. Spanish with English subtitles. 95 min.

8:10PM | Theater #6
Back by Popular Demand: Honey I'm in Love (Canada)
Director: Claude Meunier • Canada
Can one throw away the past and fall in love after 40? The opening question of this contemporary tale of family and romance may sound droll, but whimsy only decorates a deeply ironic inquiry into the conventions against which we struggle in our desire for happiness. A philandering father, a suicidal daughter, a detached son, and a socially conscious mother are the atoms of this truly atomic nuclear family—and each has a finger on the button. French with English subtitles. 100 min.

8:15PM | Theater #8
Back by Popular Demand: Sparrow (Hong Kong)
Director: Johnnie To • Hong Kong, China
Mixing elements from crime dramas, classic Hollywood romances, and musicals, Hong Kong maverick Johnnie To’s (Election) joyous Sparrow follows Kei (superstar Simon Yam) and his small band of master pickpockets as they find themselves in over their heads after becoming infatuated with a mysterious young woman (Kelly Lin). Shot in vibrant colors and propelled by its charismatic cast and catchy score, Sparrow is a rare cinematic treat. Cantonese with English subtitles. 87 min.

8:30PM | Theater #7
Back by Popular Demand: The Mermaid (Russia)
Director: Anna Melikyan • Russia
An Amélie-like fairy tale rich in a mesmerizing magic (literally) all its own, The Mermaid’s heart is Alisa, a lonely little girl from a seaside town who takes a rebellious vow of silence at the age of five. Approaching her 18th birthday, Alisa is forced to relocate to Moscow, where a chance encounter with a free-spirited salesman of lunar real estate inspires her to speak again—and compete for his affection. Russian with English subtitles. 114 min.

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AMC River East 21 | 322 E.Illinois Street

6:00PM | Theater #9
Back by Popular Demand: The Boy in Striped Pajamas (USA)
Eight-year-old Bruno is the sheltered son of a Nazi officer whose promotion takes the family from their comfortable home in Berlin to a desolate area where the lonely boy finds nothing to do and no one to play with. Crushed by boredom and compelled by curiosity, Bruno ignores his mother’s repeated instructions not to explore the back garden and heads for the “farm” he has seen in the near distance. There he meets Shmuel, a boy his own age who lives a parallel, alien existence on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Bruno’s encounter with the boy in the striped pajamas leads him from innocence to a dawning awareness of the adult world around them as his meetings with Shmuel develop into a friendship with devastating consequences. 93 min

6:15PM | Theater #11
Silver Plaque Winner: Quiet Chaos (Italy/UK)
Director: Antonello Grimaldi • Italy/UK
Charismatic actor Nanni Moretti stars in this memorable, muchlauded (it scored 18 nominations at Italy’s Oscars) drama about career-minded TV executive Pietro, who suddenly finds himself a widower with a young daughter to raise. Shell-shocked, Pietro finds some unlikely aides along his journey through grief. Moretti plays Pietro’s struggle to express emotion with a mature, understated poignancy rarely captured on film. Italian with English subtitles. 105 min.

6:30PM | Theater #7
Award-winning shorts: SHORTS 4: Intimate Relations
Pixelation and coloration produce the image of a young woman in FROM HEAD TO TOE (CANADA). SELF PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME AND OTHER WORKS (USA) rediscovers the photography of Sylvia Plachy. Three young delinquents take an unforgettable trip to the beach in A GOOD DAY FOR A SWIM (ROMANIA). HOKKAIDO HOTBAllS (SINGAPORE) presents a lunchtime showdown between two committed hotball lovers. A nocturnal world engulfs a strange boy and his mother in SON (UK). Man and sheep form an unlikely friendship in PETER AND BEN (UK). SURFACE (PORTUGAL) follows one man’s crossing from the old world into the unknown. A youngster finds himself in dire straights when his shoe goes missing in ODD SHOE (UK). Temperatures rise between a frustrated couple in SICK SEX (USA). 91 min.

7:00PM | Theater #5
Back By Popular Demand: TOKYO! (France/Japan/Germany/South Korea)
Directors: Joon-ho Bong, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
Self-discovery abounds in Tokyo!, a city-sketch triptych by directors Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Leos Carax (The Lovers on the Bridge), and Joon-ho Bong (The Host). Delving into the quiet lives of Japan’s most explosive city, Tokyo! takes you inside the private worlds of a professional recluse, a maniacal underground dweller, and a young woman who discovers that sometimes happiness is found in the slimmest spaces between buildings. Japanese, French with English subtitles. 90 min.

8:20PM | Theater 9
Back By Popular Demand: Of Boys and Men (USA)
Director: Carl Seaton • USA
When the matriarch (Angela Bassett) of a Chicago family dies suddenly in a car accident, no one takes it harder than her husband, Holden (Robert Townsend, who also produced), and her youngest son, Z (newcomer Dante Boens). With distraught Holden struggling to confront his shortcomings as a family man, and Z drawing the attention of a local “hustler” (Faizon Love), each must make an emotional journey toward true manhood. 90 min.

8:20PM | Theater #11
Gold Hugo: Best Film, Main Competition; Silver Hugo: Best Actor: HUNGER (UK/Ireland)
Director: Steve McQueen • UK
The death of IRA leader Bobby Sands is richly dramatized in the first feature by British artist Steve McQueen. The film is relentless in its portrayal of the hunger strikes and “dirty protests” staged by prisoners demanding special political prisoner status. Named best first feature at Cannes, Hunger has generated controversy for its brutally frank depiction of the horrors of Northern Ireland’s HM Prison Maze. 96 min.

8:30PM | Theater #7
Silver Hugo: Docufest Competition: They Killed Sister Dorothy (USA/Brazil)
Director: Daniel Junge • USA/Brazil
For 72-year-old Sister Dorothy, a Catholic nun from Ohio, being in the Amazon rainforest was “like walking in God’s arms.” Moving to Brazil in 1967 to work with the poor, Dorothy later became the passionate champion of a government initiative to stop local deforestation and promote sustainable living. So why was this “Angel of the Amazon” found shot seven times on the forest floor in 2005? Martin Sheen narrates. English, Portuguese with English subtitles. 95 min.

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