Author Archive | Alex Kamody

For the first time ever, the Athena Cinema will be revealing exclusive SNEAK PEEKS of feature films programmed for the 42nd Athens International Film + Video Festival, which takes place during April 3rd-9th.

A Swedish family travels to the French Alps to enjoy a few days of skiing and spend some precious time with each other. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche turns everything upside down. With diners fleeing in all directions, mother Ebba calls for her husband Tomas as she tries to protect their children. Tomas, meanwhile, is running for his life. Reality returns to embarrassed laughter, the anticipated disaster having failed to occur, and yet the family’s world has been shaken to its core, a question mark hanging over their father in particular. Tomas and Ebba’s marriage now hangs in the balance as Tomas struggles desperately to reclaim his role as family patriarch.

“Force Majeure is both funny and sad, often in the same glance-averted instant. See it with someone you’d trust to stick around in an avalanche. It’s one of the highlights of 2014.” -Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

“The film is beautifully made, with great visuals of the hotel’s fine, loneliness-inflicting interiors, and mountain-high slopes where families don’t talk to each other very much.” -Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

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120 MIN

In New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city’s history, an immigrant and his family try to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.

“‘A Most Violent Year’ is an engrossing, often beautiful film, and a breakout opportunity for Isaac, whose similarly self-contained performance as a sadly self-aware folk singer in ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ was unfortunately overlooked last year.” -Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

“Recognize J.C. Chandor as one of the most exciting writers and directors working today – after all of three films.” -Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

“It’s the kind of uncompromising movie we don’t see much of anymore. And it makes you nostalgic for a time when the world was worse and the movies were better.” -Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly

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125 MIN

CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND is a documentary that uncovers the current plight of the 100,000 unaccompanied minors entering the United States every year. This film gives this timely political debate about the U.S.-Mexico border a human face by exploring the story of Maria de Jesus (13) and her cousin Rene (12) as they attempt to cross the US/Mexico border alone to reunite with their mothers in the Midwest. Focusing on minors crossing through the Sonora Desert area in Nogales, Arizona, this film explores every detail of these children’s journey as well as the journeys of other children the filmmakers meet on the way.

CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND uncovers in an intimate and personal way where they are coming from, what their journeys have been like and how they’ve gone about it, through to the arrival at their destination — their new home, The United States of America.

Film introductions by professors Katarzyna Marciniak and Michael Gillespie.

Sponsored by The College of Arts and Sciences, Making and Breaking the Law Theme, and the Wealth and Poverty Theme.

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39 MIN

Fabria (Jasmin Tabatabai), prosecuted in Iran because of her love for a women, flees to Germany. But, her application for asylum is turned down. Her desperate prospects are improved by the suicide of her fellow-inmate Siamak: she assumes his identity and using his temporary permit of sojourn, is send to a province village. At first glance her survival seems to be assured, but in the refugee home she is obliged to uphold her male disguise in cramped quarters and a single mistake could blow up her cover. In order to pay for forged documents, she takes an illegal job in a sauerkraut factory, where she meets Anne, who is very solicitous about Siamak’s well-being and derives some kind of pleasure from the strange foreigner. While spending more and more time together, they become dangerously close and Anne begins to suspect Fariba’s true identity.

“A serious and well-paced drama.” – John Anderson, Newsday

Film introductions by professors Katarzyna Marciniak and Michael Gillespie.

Sponsored by The College of Arts and Sciences, Making and Breaking the Law Theme, and the Wealth and Poverty Theme.

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97 MIN

Rating: Unrated

When Memo Cruz’s family is victim of a drone attack he finds himself with no option but to head towards the U.S./Mexico border, but migrant workers cannot cross. Memo ends up in a strange digital factory in Mexico where he connects his body to a robot in America. Memo’s search for a better future leads him to love, loss, and a confrontation with a mysterious figure from his past.

“Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, Sleep Dealer is a welcome surprise.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“Sleep Dealer is an unusually thoughtful science fiction film, using the speculative energy of the genre to explore some troubling and complex contemporary issues.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times

Film introductions by professors Katarzyna Marciniak and Michael Gillespie.

Sponsored by The College of Arts and Sciences, Making and Breaking the Law Theme, and the Wealth and Poverty Theme.

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90 MIN