Five-night event starts Monday at library

Dave Mabell

Lethbridge Herald

dmabell@lethbridgeherald.com

Three Oscar-nominated features are included in the city’s annual Foreign Film Festival.

The five-night event, free for all interested, will open with an international festival winner on election day, Monday, at the downtown library.

“This year features world-class cinema at its best,” says event organizer Sheila Braund.

The films will be screened at 7 p.m. each night in the Theatre Gallery, with seating on a first-come basis.

“Foreign language films have the amazing ability to help us glimpse and understand life in other parts of the world,” Braund says.

Most of this year’s selections have played at the international festival in Toronto, she adds, or they were nominated for an Oscar.

Launching the festival on Monday will be “Frantz,” named the top film at the Venice International Film Festival last year. It’s described as “a haunting tale of love and reconciliation” in a small German town in the aftermath of the First World War.

On Tuesday a Persian film, “The Salesman” focuses on a couple in Tehran. Writer-director Asghar Farhadi received a “best foreign film” nomination for it in this year’s Oscar competitions.

“Toni Erdman,” the feature on Wednesday, is a comedy about a retired music teacher and his daughter living in Bucharest.

It was also nominated for an Oscar this year.

A collaborative English, French, German and Armenian film, “The Promise” will be shown on Thursday. It’s the story of a love triangle caught up in the atrocities of war during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

And then ringing down the curtain Friday, it’s the Swedish film “A Man Called Ove.” Festival planners says it’s “a feel-good movie” that follows the life of an old curmudgeon and his strict principles.

It, too, was nominated for a “best foreign” Oscar this year.

Braund says the annual event serves to highlight the library’s foreign film collection.

“The festival offers cineophiles the chance to view some of the best foreign films, guaranteeing an ultimate week of binge viewing.”