#MoviesOmU: Movies in English and other original foreign languages in Leipzig, November 11-18

//

Here’s our regular listing of films being shown in English and other original foreign languages, and sometimes German with foreign partnerships, at Leipzig cinemas for this movie week. Although not dubbed, the movies often come with German or even English subtitles, so you might still be able to access the film if you don’t know the language being spoken. This is the case with the film festivals playing here at the moment.

Which brings us to our highlight: It’s a movie week of international and cultural diversity! The 21st edition of the “French Days” and the new “Kurdish Days” film fests start in town; meanwhile, the 6th edition of the “Latin American Days” film fest continues, with an impressively big selection of movies. The most interesting-sounding films, to me, are the documentaries from Mexico in the latter festival (I’ve included trailers for you from a couple of those, among a few others). The festivals this week give us older movies and classics as well as newer movies.

Also, for fans of Woody Allen, his latest, Irrational Man, opens this weekend in OmU. And the MLK film Selma returns.

What the labels we list mean: OmU – Original with German subtitles; OmeU – Original with English subtitles; OF – Original film; OV – Original version; Im Original – In the original and often 3D.

Ana Beatriz

“French Days” Fest, @ Schaubühne Lindenfels:

  • L’ombre des Femmes [Im Schatten der Frauen] – Drama, romance | France, Switzerland 2015 | Director: Philippe Garrel | French, OmU

Wed 18.11 @ 19:00

“Pierre and Manon are a pair of poor documentary makers, who scrape by with odd jobs. When Pierre meets young trainee Elisabeth, he falls for her, but wants to keep Manon at the same time. But the new girl in his life finds out that Manon has a lover. When she tells Pierre, the time comes for difficult decisions all round.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Kalkutta – Documentary | France 1969 | Director: Louis Malle | French, OmU

Wed 18.11 @ 21:30

“With minimal narration by the director and very little context this is a kaleidoscope of stunning visuals from Calcutta, a city of 8,000,000 in the late 1960’s: rich and poor, exotic and mundane, secular and religious, children and adults, animate and inanimate. Given only the images, the viewer can read any meaning she or he wants into the film.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

“Kurdish Days” Fest @ Cineding:

  • Half Moon – Comedy, drama, music | France, Iraq, Iran, Austria 2006 | Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Kurdish/Persian, OmU

Thu 12.11 @ 19:00

“Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Der Imker – Documentary | Switzerland 2013 | Director: Mano Khalil | Kurdish/German, OmU

Thu 12.11 @ 22:00

“Mano Khalil tells the touching story of Ibrahim Gezer. The Turkish-Kurdish conflict has taken everything from him: his wife and children, his home and over five hundred lives. The only thing left to him is his love for bees and unshakable confidence in human beings, regardless of origin. After a harrowing odyssey, the beekeeper, thanks to his passion, finds life again in Switzerland.” MORE FROM MOVIE WEB SITE

—–

  • Min Dît – Drama, politics | Germany, Turkey 2009 | Director: Miraz Bezar | Kurdish/Turkish, OmU

Fri 13.11 @ 19:00

“Ten-year old Gulistan and her younger brother Firat live happily with their parents in Diyarbakir, the heart of Turkish Kurdistan. Tragedy strikes when their mother and father are shot down by paramilitary gunmen before their eyes. Traumatised and orphaned, Gulistan, Firat and their infant sister are placed in the care of their young, politically-active aunt Yekbun who soon disappears without a trace. Eventually, the children have to fend for themselves on the streets.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand [Schildkröten können fliegen] – Drama | Iraq, Iran, France 2004 | Director: Bahman Ghobadi | OmU, Kurdish/Arabic/English

Fri 13.11 @ 22:00

“At the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, the boy Satellite is the leader of the kids. He commands them to safety and collects American mines in the fields to sell them in the street market and he installs antennae for the villagers. When he goes to buy an antenna to get the news about the imminent American invasion, nobody speaks English and Satellite, who knows a couple of words, is assigned to translate. When the orphans Agrin and her armless brother Hengov and the blind toddler Riga come from Halabcheh to the camp, Satellite falls in an unrequited love for Egrin. But the girl is traumatized by a cruel raid in her home, when her parents were murdered and she was raped.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Bekas – Drama | Sweden, Finland, Iraq 2012 | Director: Karzan Kader | Kurdish, OmU

Sat 14.11 @ 19:00

“This is a story about two homeless brothers (Zana, 7) and (Dana, 10) who live on the edge of survival. In the beginning of the story they catch a glimpse of Superman through a hole in the wall at the local cinema. Zana and Dana decide that they want to go to America and live with Superman. Once they get there he can solve all their problems, make their lives easy and punish everyone that has been mean to them.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • My Sweet Pepper Land – Western, drama | France, Germany, Iraq 2013 | Director: Hiner Saleem | Kurdish/Arabic/Turkish, OmU

Sat 14.11 @ 22:00

“Baran, a Kurdish independence war hero, is now sheriff in Erbil, the capital city. No longer feeling useful in this society now at peace, he thinks about quitting the police force, but instead agrees to be stationed in a small valley, at the very borders of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq. It is a lawless territory, right at the heart of illegal drug, medication and alcohol trafficking. Having arrived in the small village, he refuses to bow down to Aga Azzi, the seriously corrupt tribal chief and absolute ruler of the area. Baran meets Govend, the village school teacher, who is also rejected by the villagers. Like Baran, she represents another law, that of the young and autonomous Kurdish state. Govend is all the more vulnerable as she is not a married woman.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

“Latin American Days” Fest

  • La Niña de Tacones Amarillos [Das Mädchen mit den gelben Absätzen] – Drama | Argentina 2015 | Director: Maria Luján Loioco | Spanish, OmeU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Thu 12.11 @ 21:30

Sun 15.11 @ 20:00

“In the small town of Tumbaya, a large hotel is being built. For residents, this means a cultural shock that the 15-year-old Isabel immediately feels. While working with her mother on their plot, Isabel gradually recognizes the effect she has on men. She puts her charms to use and eventually starts an affair with one of the incoming workers. Their behavior reflects the ambivalent relationship between the villagers and the newcomers: Desire collides with the loss of innocence to each other.” MORE FROM CINEMA WEB SITE

—–

  • El botón de nácar [Der Perlmuttknopf] – Documentary | Chile, France, Spain 2014 | Director: Patricio Guzmán | Spanish, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Thu 12.11 @ 19:30

“The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • La Buena Vida [Das gute Leben] – Documentary | Germany, Switzerland, Colombia, Netherlands 2014 | Director: Jens Schanze | Spanish/Wayuu, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Sun 15.11, Tue 17.11 @ 19:00

“Jairo Fuentes is the young leader of the community of Tamaquito, a village in the forests of northern Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need to survive. But the Wayúu community’s way of life is being destroyed by the El Cerrejón coal mine. In Germany, the United Kingdom and Israel, in the Netherlands, Turkey, Japan and the USA, coal from El Cerrejón feeds the power stations which generate the electricity to keep our lives fast-paced, bright and warm. Determined to save his community from the forced displacement which has already swept away other villages, Jairo Fuentes sets out to negotiate with the mine’s operators.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Félix: Autoficciones de un traficante [Félix: Aus dem Leben eines Schleppers] – Documentary | Mexico 2012 | Director: Adriana Trujillo | Spanish/English, OmeU

Cineding:

Wed 18.11 @ 21:30

“Felix is a home-movie actor and human trafficker in Tijuana. He has managed to live, work and validate his immigration status in the United States without ceasing to transgress the border, hiring Americans to carry out the job and fooling the strict governmental controls set up by the United States. Felix has lived through the transformation of ‘the line’ that divides these two countries and has managed to tell his story through multiple low budget films in which he reveals his actions, strategies and methods. Felix, exposes, for the first time, the world of human trafficking from the eyes of a smuggler. The documentary is the construction of a character who is also an actor portraying his own self.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • El Club – Drama | Chile 2015 | Director: Pablo Larraín | Spanish, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Fri 13.11 @ 20:30

Cineding:

Mon 16.11 @ 22:00

“A crisis counselor is sent by the Catholic Church to a small Chilean beach town where disgraced priests and nuns, suspected of crimes ranging from child abuse to baby-snatching from unwed mothers, live secluded, after an incident occurs.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Iglú – Drama, queer | Chile 2013 | Director: Diego Ruiz | Spanish, OmeU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Sat 14.11 @ 19:30

Tue 17.11 @ 21:30

“It’s 2013 and DANIEL works as a storyboard artist in an advertising agency. In this place he meets CAMILA and develops an endearing friendship that gives his life a new meaning. Through his comics, Daniel will draw his past and the complex relationship he had with PAULA, therapist that helped him get out of an acute drug dependence and MARCO, his charismatic ex partner. As Paula did at the time, Camila helps Daniel to face the present with new challenges and questions about his sexuality, family and life.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Los Ángeles – Crime, drama, thriller | Germany 2013 | Director: Damian Harper | Spanish/indigenous languages, OmU

Cineding:

Tue 17.11 @ 22:00

“MATEO (17) prepares to migrate to Los Angeles in order to support his humble family in their small Zapotec village in southern Mexico; yet before he can depart the leader of the local gang demands that he commits murder to become a member.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Llévate mis amores – Documentary | Mexico 2014 | Director: Arturo González Villaseñor | Spanish, OmeU

Cineding:

Tue 17.11 @ 20:00

Wed 18.11 @ 19:30

“An intimate insight into the Patronas, a group of Mexican women who, every day since 1995, make food and toss it – still warm – to the migrants who travel atop the freight train The Beast as it makes its way to the U.S. This documentary is a personal diary that draws a border between the life they were given, and the life they chose. A brave and remarkable example of love and solidarity that contrasts with the violence of one of the cruelest stretches in the world for undocumented travelers.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Cuatro Lunas [Four Moons] – Drama, romance, queer | Mexico 2014 | Director: Sergio Tovar Velarde | Spanish, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Wed 11.11 @ 19:30

Sat 14.11 @ 20:00

“Four stories about love and self-acceptance: An eleven year-old boy struggles to keep secret the attraction he feels towards his male cousin. Two former childhood friends reunite and start a relationship that gets complicated due to one of them’s fear of getting caught. A gay long lasting relationship is in jeopardy when a third man comes along. An old family man is obsessed with a young male prostitute and tries to raise the money to afford the experience.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Hoje eu Quero Voltar Sozinho [Heute gehe ich allein nach Hause] – Drama, coming-of-age, queer | Brazil 2014 | Director: Daniel Ribeiro | Portuguese, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Wed 11.11 @ 22:00

Mon 16.11 @ 21:30

“Leonardo is a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Ohne Rast. Ohne Eile – Documentary | Germany/Argentina 2015 | Director: Viviana Uriona | OmU

Cineding:

Mon 16.11 @ 20:00

“If this were not a documentary, but a French comic book, which tells a fictional story, one could also start as follows: We are in the year 2012.All of Argentina is occupied by multinational agribusinesses. All of Argentina? No! An indigenous-populated region called Monte does not ceaseto resist the invader. This apparent association with the Asterix comics is chosen not for purely humorous reasons. It applies to the men and women of the farm workers’ movement MoCASeVC, featured in the film; with the difference that it is not being fought here with potions and muscle strength, but with dedication to the cause, belief, love, and not to be neglected with patience and understanding.” … MORE FROM PLAYER:WEB 

—–

  • Pink Pact – Queer, comedy, drama | Brazil 2014 | Director: Alexandre Carvalho | Portuguese, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Fri 13.11 @ 21:30

Sun 15.11 @ 21:15

“A group of friends make a pact together to come out of the closet after one of them is assaulted during São Paulo’s Gay Parade.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Cuando la Tierra se Convierte en Mercancía [Wenn das Land zur Ware wird] – Documentary | Mexico, Germany 2013 | Director: Zwischenzeit e.V. | OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Fri 13.11 @ 19:30

“The livelihood of the indigenous communities in South America is threatened by neoliberal and technology development projects, the cult of monocultures, infrastructure development and tourism projects. The documentary looks at forms of peaceful resistance of affected communities as well as urban regions and consumption patterns in the global North.” MORE INFO FROM PLAYER:WEB

—–

  • Conducta [Wir werden sein wie Che] – Drama | Cuba 2014 | Director: Ernesto Daranas | Spanish, OmU

Schaubühne Lindenfels:

Sat 14.11 @ 22:00

Mon 16.11 @ 19:30

“Aging teacher Carmela has a special place in her heart for pupils from broken families, and is confronted by the headmaster for this. The poor 12-year-old Chala and beloved Yeni both have severe troubles at home.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

Other features opening this week (or specials):

SPECIAL – RETURNING TO TOWN!

  • Selma – Biography, history, drama | UK/USA 2014 | Director: Ava DuVernay | English, OF

Regina Palast:

Thu 12.11 @ 12:00

“The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

NEW!

  • Irrational Man – Drama, thriller | USA 2015 | Director: Woody Allen | English, OmU

Passage Kinos:

Sat 14.11 @ 22:50
Sun 15.11 @ 19:30
Mon 16.11 @ 19:30

“A tormented philosophy professor finds the will to live when he commits an existential act.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse [Scouts vs. Zombies] – Horror, comedy | USA 2015 | Director: Christopher Landon | English, OF

Regina Palast:

Mon 16.11 @ 20:00

“Three scouts, on the eve of their last camp-out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.” MORE FROM IMDB

—–

Features continuing this week:

  • Spectre (James Bond) – Action, adventure, thriller | US, UK 2015 | Director: Sam Mendes | English

Passage Kinos:

(OmU)

Wed 11.11 @ 21:00

Thu 12.11, Fri 13.11, Sat 14.11, Wed 18.11 @ 20:45

Tue 17.11 @ 21:15

(OF)

Sun 15.11, Mon 16.11 @ 20:45

Cinestar:

(OF)

Wed 11.11 @ 22:35

Fri 13.11 @ 16:00

Sun 15.11 @ 19:00, 22:30

Cineplex:

(OF)

Sat 14.11 @ 19:30

Schauburg:

(OmU)

Mon 16.11 @ 20:00

—–

  • Macbeth – Drama | UK, France, USA 2015 | Director: Justin Kurzel | English, OmU

Passage Kinos:

Sun 15.11, Mon 16.11 @ 19:00

Yes, it’s the Shakespeare story; but might be fresh somehow and certainly visually appealing: “Macbeth, a Thane of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.” With Marion Cotillard. MORE FROM IMDB

—–

  • Body – Drama | Poland 2015 | Director: Malgorzata Szumowska | Polish, OmU

Cinémathèque in der naTo:

Thu 12.11 @ 22:00

—–

  • Hockney Documentary, biography | Britain, USA 2014 | Director: Randall Wright | English, OmU

Luru Kino:

Wed 18.11 @ 17:00

—–

One day only, this Wednesday:

  • Miasto 44 [Warschauer Aufstand] – History, drama, romance | Poland 2014 | Director: Jan Komasa | Polish, OmU

Cinémathèque in der naTo:

Wed 11.11 @ 20:00 – FREE ENTRY

—–

  • Turbo Kid – Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi | Canada, New Zealand 2015 | Directors: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell | English, OmU

Luru Kino:

Wed 11.11 @ 21:00

—–

  • The Look of Silence Documentary, politics | Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway, Germany, Britain, USA 2014 | Director: Joshua Oppenheimer | Indonesian, OmU

Cineding:

Wed 11.11 @ 22:00

—————————

For movies playing in Leipzig also dubbed in German, visit Player:Web.

A Global Studies doctoral degree holder and former newspaper reporter, avid eater, pseudo-philosopher and poet, occasion-propelled singer, semi-professional socializer, movie addict, Brazilian-American nomad. In this space, she will share some of her experiences and (mis)adventures regarding various topics, with special attention to social issues.

Default thumbnail
Previous Story

4 myths about refugees and asylum-seekers

Default thumbnail
Next Story

Leipzig Events: We show you the way to indulge, and what day to repent

Latest from Culture / Entertainment