DANS PARIS (2006)
INSIDE PARIS

A 30 year old man, Paul, lives with his wife in the countryside and has an unexplainable breakdown. He decides to return to his father's flat in Paris, takes over his younger brother's room and refuses to get out of bed. The family has to deal with this situation and every member reacts in a different way. The father, who is excessively worried about his son, would go to any extent to satisfy him. In the collective disinterest, he cooks, cleans, and prepares Christmas, trying to maintain a childhood bubble around his grown up children. At the same time, Paul's brother is outside, walking in the city and going from one girl to another. Between each date, he calls Paul on the phone and describes to him the city and the mild extravagance of his womanising. Women are in fact the missing pieces from this family. Behind the deep depression of Paul, the silence of his father and the laughs of his brother, there is the burden of the absent mother, and the sister's death. Inspired by the Nouvelle Vague, the film explores the intimacy of a family. It gives an extremely delicate approach of three idle and sensitive men linked by solidarity, humour and reserve.

Th. 19 Feb., 6:30pm, Wilson 402 Auditorium (map)
Dir: Christophe Honore, 93 min.

FRANTZ FANON: SA VIE, SON COMBAT, SON TRAVAIL (2004)
FRANTZ FANON: HIS LIFE, HIS STRUGGLE, HIS WORK

Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist, originally from Martinique, who became a spokesman for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism. During the Second World War, he volunteered as a soldier to help France, “the Mother Country,” against the Nazis. Embittered by his experience with racism in the French Army, he gravitated to radical politics, Sartrean existentialism and the philosophy of black consciousness known as négritude. His 1952 book, ''Black Skin, White Masks,'' offers a penetrating analysis of racism and oppression in colonized countries and of the ways in which it is internalised by its victims. While secretly aiding the rebels of the Algerian anti-colonial war as a doctor in Algeria, Fanon cared for victims and perpetrators alike, producing case notes that shed invaluable light on the psychic traumas of colonial war. Expelled from Algeria in 1956, Fanon moved to Tunis where he wrote for El Moudjahid, the rebel newspaper, founded Africa's first psychiatric clinic, and wrote several influential books on decolonization. Frantz Fanon, His Life, His Struggle, His Work reunites testimonies of friends, family and colleagues that he met during the different steps of his life and traces the short and intense life of one of the great thinkers of the 20th century.

Fri. 20 Feb., 6:00pm, Wilson 402 Auditorium (map)
Dir: Cheikh Djemai, 140 min.

LA QUESTION HUMAINE (2007)
HEARTBEAT DETECTOR

Simon is a psychologist in charge of human resources within a German multinational, SC Farb. He deals with hiring new employees but also with lay-offs, a task he conducts with rationality and efficiency. When managing director Karl Rose asks him to look into, and draw up the psychological portrait of, the company's general manager, Mathias Jüst, Simon gradually uncovers the dark history of the company. His investigation will lead to the discovery of SC Farb's shady conduct during World War II and the involvement of its key figures in the Holocaust. Simon, a rational individual with feet firmly planted on the ground, will soon be overwhelmed by what he learns. The past that he digs up, along with the discovery that he is being manipulated, will have a deep impact on him, physically and emotionally. He starts making connections between his role in the company - laying off employees who are no longer useful to the company, and the Holocaust, and he asks himself many questions: is he today's equivalent of a fascist? Who are the people he is 'discarding' in the name of business efficiency and profit? With Heartbeat Detector, Nicolas Klotz brings to the fore chilling questions about today's society and the structures of modern big business.

Sat. 21 Feb., 4:30pm, Clark 107 (map)
Dir: Nicolas Klotz, 144 min.

LA FAUTE A FIDEL (2006)
BLAME IT ON FIDEL

Anna is a nine-year old precocious girl. Her life is rather simple and comfortable, regulated by habits and order. Her family is wealthy, she goes to a private religious school and often visits her grandparents who have a wine estate in Bordeaux. One day, her father's sister is forced to leave Spain - her husband has just been killed by Franco's police force. This event is experienced as an electroshock by Anna's parents and they change their political views radically. Both become left-wing revolutionaries and Anna's stable life goes awry. Women's rights, freedom of speech, democracy and demonstration are now at the forefront of Anna's parents lives. At first, Anna is not interested in any of it. She strives to hold on to the comfort she is used to and she is very unhappy when the family moves to a smaller apartment. She also has to adapt to her parents' new lifestyle as they have less time to take care of her. Yet, she also tries to make sense of the larger political events that shake her life and she does not settle for the simplistic answers that adults give children.

Sat. 21 Feb., 7:45pm, Clark 107 (map)
Dir: Julie Gavras, 99 min.

REVES DE POUSSIERE (2006)
DREAMS OF DUST

Mocktar, a Nigerian peasant who lost his entire family in a terrible accident, tries to rebuild his life. He goes to Essakane, a dusty gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso, to look for work and to forget the past that haunts him. He is quickly introduced to the small community of miners and begins working in the dangerous tunnels of the mine. Little by little, Mocktar discovers that the gold rush ended twenty years before, and the inhabitants of this wasteland manage to exist simply from force of habit. In Essakane, the life of the whole population revolves around the irrational expectation of finding gold. Hope makes them surpass the threat of the mines. Among the inhabitants, the beautiful Coumba is still courageously struggling to raise her daughter. She takes care of her alone as her husband died in the mine. As he falls in love with Coumba, he fights not only to survive, but also to provide a better future for her and her child. He puts together enough money to prepare for their departure for France where Coumba's daughter will get a proper education and a chance of becoming someone.

Sun. 22 Feb., 7:00pm and 9:30pm, Newcomb Theater (map)
Dir: Laurent Salgues, 86 min.

(This film show in partnership with OFFScreen - showings are $3.)