2020 Film Selections…
Our Film Selection Committee is narrowing down the final selections from the 70 or so films submitted for our 5-day 2020 Festival. As our films are finalized they will be added to the day-by-day pages. Check back for updates.
Save Up to $33* Over Individual Tickets — Buy A Festival Pass!
$55.00!
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019 — 5:00 PM @ CINE (88 MIN)
Guest Speaker Prof. Karen Myrhe
Karen Myrhe, Associate Professor of Chinese at UGA has a broad knowledge of Chinese history and culture (with a special interest in Chinese ghosts and monsters!). Perhaps it is not very well known, but China—Shanghai in particular—was a destination for some Jews seeking to escape pre-World War II Europe. Happily, Karen has agreed to help us understand some of the broader context of what must have been a dramatic clash of cultures.
“Above the Drowning Sea”
The film recounts the dramatic escape of Jews from Nazi Europe to China. When no country would take them, a door opened in far-away Shanghai, an “open city” in chaos from foreign invasion and civil war. Ho Feng Shan, the Chinese Consul in Vienna, defied his own government and the Gestapo to help the refugees. Jewish refugees and the Chinese who helped them recount their terrors and the remarkable friendships forged across cultures. Truly a story that could have been ripped from today’s headlines, the film celebrates the heroism of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances.
Director: René Balcer & Nicola Zavaglia
Country: Canada
Language(s): English, Chinese
Genres: Documentary
Runtime: 88 minutes • 2017
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019 — 7:00 PM @ CINE (113 MIN)
“The Interpreter”
80-year-old Ali Ungar comes across a book by a former SS officer describing his wartime activities in Slovakia. He realises his parents were executed by him. He sets out to take revenge but finds instead his 70-year-old son, Georg, a retired teacher. Georg, who had avoided his father all his life, decides to find out more about him and offers Ali to be his interpreter. The two old men, in everything opposite, embark on a bittersweet journey to meet surviving witnesses of the wartime tragedy. They discover a country eager to forget its past. They realise their memories are fragments mixed with their imagination and interpretation. They connect in silence and manage to discover their own identity
Director: Marin Sulik
Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria
Language(s): German, Slovak, Russian, English with English subtitles
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Running Time: 113 minutes • 2018
*Single tickets will be sold 15 minutes prior to showtime, subject to availability. Savings of up to $33 over regular Athens Ciné single ticket prices.