11 Highlights Of The European Union Film Fest, Picked By The Curators

By Joel Wicklund in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 29, 2016 9:31PM

The Chicago European Union Film Festival is older than the euro and just a few years younger than the formal establishment of the union itself. But as its 19th edition approaches (March 4 to 31), what's more impressive than the longevity of the Gene Siskel Film Center's annual event is its growing vitality.

It is the city's second largest global cinema showcase, but despite a more limited geographic coverage, many area movie lovers now hold it in higher esteem than the Chicago International Film Festival.

A few years back, Newcity's Ray Pride wrote, "It may be the best film festival in Chicago in terms of curatorial focus, concentrated scale, quality of attractions and ease of attendance...". Last year, on his White City Cinema blog, film scholar and author Michael Glover Smith (Flickering Empire) claimed, "The evidence is undeniable: year in and year out, the EUFF brings in the films that local cinephiles are most excited to see, the ones that are routinely missing from the Chicago International Film Festival's fall lineup."

It's clear that the EUFF is now firmly established as an essential part of Chicago movie culture. Most of the credit for that goes to the Film Center's longtime ace programmers, Barbara Scharres and Marty Rubin. In anticipation of the nearly month-long festival, each told Chicagoist about a handful of movies they're personally excited about from the 62-film slate. All of the movies are Chicago theatrical premieres.

The Paradise Suite (March 4 & 5): The opening night feature is this Dutch-Swedish co-production that features intertwining stories and a multinational cast, including Burkinabé actor, dancer and musician Issaka Sawadogo.

"The film addresses some of the prominent social problems of Europe right now, including sex trafficking, drugs, and war crimes," says Scharres. "Those themes all come together in these very dark stories." (Sawadogo is scheduled to participate in a post-film discussion both nights and will attend the opening night reception on March 4.)

Liza, The Fox-Fairy (March 5 & 10): If the trailer is any indication, this Hungarian fantasy film will live up to Scharres' description of it as "one of the wackiest films in the festival this year. It's a combination of a sort of lovelorn tale and Japanese pop culture. It's darkly funny and very playful."

Love Island (March 5 & 14): This Croatian feature has a strong Chicago connection, as acclaimed novelist Aleksandar Hemon (The Lazarus Project, The Making of Zombie Wars), who co-wrote the screenplay, calls the Windy City home. According to Scharres, this absurdist comedy touches on "sexual kinks [and] betrayals in a semi-comic context. It's a lot of fun." Any movie that features Bollywood-style musical sequences along with tunes by German rockers The Scorpions and Rammstein commands curiosity. (Hemon is scheduled to appear for Q&As at both screenings.)

Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (March 11 & 12): The icon of Hollywood and European cinema is depicted through archival footage, interviews with those who knew her (including daughter Isabella Rossellini), and her own letters and diary entries as read by Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex Machina). Rubin says, "It's the interplay between the dazzling subject's own words and those of her conflicted children that gives bite to this documentary portrait."

Wondrous Boccaccio (March 11 & 16): Italian filmmaking siblings Vittorio and Paolo Taviani have been making movies together for over 60 years, including such acclaimed features as The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982) and Padre Padrone (1977). Their latest adapts five stories from Boccaccio's The Decameron. "Typical of the Tavianis, this is a very lush, colorful film," Scharres promises.

Viva (March 13 & 14): Irish filmmaker Paddy Breathnach (I Went Down) is the unexpected director of this drama about drag queens, set in and around a Cuban nightclub. Shot on location in Havana and entirely in Spanish (though written by Breathnach's fellow Irishman Mark O'Halloran), Viva is yet another cultural globe-hopper on the EUFF schedule. Scharres calls it "a colorful and moving, powerful tale." (O'Halloran will be at both screenings to talk about the film.)

B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 (March 18 & 23): Here, a decade in the post-punk counterculture of West Germany is "filtered through the curious eyes of a British visitor who came, saw, and was conquered," according to Rubin. Documentary footage and reenactments bring to life the memories of promoter/engineer/enthusiast Mark Reeder. There are also glimpses of other notables who came to soak up the scene, including Nick Cave, Keith Haring, Tilda Swinton...and, yes, David Hasselhoff.

"Not the best film in the fest, but, to be honest, the one I enjoyed the most," Rubin says.

Land of Songs (March 19 & 21): This Lithuanian documentary highlights dying regional music, focusing on five elderly women who are the last to sing traditional folk songs passed down from previous generations. "It sounds pretty square," Rubin says, "But a deep undertow of melancholy and loss keeps this elegiac doc from being merely an exercise in nostalgia." (Director Aldona Watts will be at both screenings to discuss the film.)

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (March 25 & 31): Rubin calls this French film noir, steeped in the tradition of European thrillers from the '60s and '70s, "a guilty pleasure, far from perfect, but sexy and stylish, and it'll look great on the big screen." Director Joann Sfar previously attracted international art house audiences with Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

My Big Night (March 26 & 30): A New Year's Eve TV special sets the stage for an increasingly crazy intersection of events in the latest from the director of darkly comic spectacles like Day of the Beast and The Last Circus. "Overstuffed and over-the-top," Rubin says, "But that's what one expects from Spanish gonzo auteur Álex de la Iglesia. And the show-biz parodies, especially from ageless icon Raphael and up-and-comer Mario Casas, are muy sabrosos."

The Measure of a Man (March 26): Both Scharres and Rubin are sky-high on the performance of Vincent Lindon in this naturalistic French drama about a middle-aged former factory worker navigating the dehumanizing effects of the modern working world. Rubin calls it "a Zen-like performance, in which 'nothing' is everything." Lindon earned Best Actor honors at last year's Cannes Film Festival for this role.

Beyond these personal picks, the EUFF schedule includes new films by British master Terence Davies (The Long Day Closes, The Deep Blue Sea), art film favorite Aleksandr Sokurov (Russian Ark), and the final film from Chantal Akerman, a giant of avant-garde cinema who died unexpectedly last fall. All 28 EU nations are represented in the festival. For the complete schedule and ticket and festival pass information, click here.