Direktøren for det Hele. Denmark | 2006 | 99min | Director: Lars von Trier
In Danish with English subtitles

Lars von Trier drops a screwball comedy into a spare Danish IT office, poking fun at the egotism of actors along the way, to make The Boss of It All, a thoroughly entertaining and delightful new work.

Iklimler. Turkey, France | 2006 | 101min | Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
In Turkish with English subtitles

During a sweltering summer vacation on the Aegean coast, the relationship between middle-aged professor Isa (played by Ceylan himself ) and his younger, television producer girlfriend Bahar (the luminous Ebru Ceylan, Ceylan’s real-life wife) brutally implodes. Climates is the Turkish filmmaker’s most gorgeous rumination yet on the fragility and complexity of human relationships.

Nyócker! Hungary | 2004 | 90min | Director: Áron Gauder
In Hungarian with English subtitles

Ingenious and foul-mouthed, the animated kids who live in the Hungarian hip-hop hood of The District! have a plan to make some dough by traveling back through time to trap mammoths in a pit, creating a rich oil deposit in the present time.

Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, Croatia | 2006 | 90min | Director: Jasmila Žbanić  
In Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Wisconsin Premiere

An extraordinary story of war’s aftermath unfolds in Jasmila Žbanić’s first feature, named for a Sarajevo neighborhood. The story, written by Žbanić, a survivor herself, explores both the overwhelming personal sacrifice of living through a war in your own city and the relationship between a single mother and her coming-of-age daughter which is, quite possibly, even harder.

USA, UK, Netherlands | 2006 | 110min | Director: Jasmine Dellal
In English, Romani, Spanish, Romanian, with English subtitles

The far-flung ancestry of great Gypsy music is delightful traced in this invigorating documentary about a traveling concert series of five performing groups with Roma roots. The film weaves together footage taken from performances as the tour crosses the United States, with exquisite stories of the musicians in their homelands, illuminating their own cultures.

Die Große Stille. Germany | 2006 | 162min | Director: Philip Gröning
In French, Latin with English subtitles

Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries. German filmmaker Philip Gröning lived in the monks’ quarters for six months—filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions.

Laitakaupungin Valot. Finland, Germany, France | 2006 | 80min | Director: Aki Kaurismäki
In Finnish with English subtitles

Like past Nordic festival films, Lights in the Dusk is a study of a lonely guy, detached from his community, and enjoys a similar kind of dark humor. Here, Koistinen is a reserved and withdrawn security guard, scorned by his coworkers and stoically accepting the hand that Fate has dealt. He meets Mirja, statuesque and blonde: will she show him the compassion and warmth that he needs, or will she change his life in more devious ways?

Les Amitiés Maléfiques. France | 2006 | 107min | Director: Emmanuel Bourdieu
In French with English subtitles

On the first day of a graduate literature program at the Sorbonne, Eloi and Alexandre meet André, a handsome and impossibly brilliant new student who captures the attention of nearly everybody. Seduced by his intelligence and charisma, the aspiring writers quickly fall under his influence and allow him to dominate their every action. A taut psychological thriller that would make Hitchcock proud.

UK, Denmark | 2006 | 113min | Director: Andrea Arnold

An exceedingly dark thriller set in the chilly concrete housing estates on the edges of Glasgow. Jackie (the astonishing Kate Dickie) works for the closed-circuit security agency that monitors the dingy streets, alerting the copper to criminal behavior happening in the neighborhood. This electronic surveillance seems to be the closest Jackie gets in relationships, which makes it all the more baffling when she drops everything to trail someone she’s seen on her video screen. Viewer discretion advised.

UK | 2006 | 90 min | Director: Christopher Smith

A perfectly cast team of office mates from a UK arms manufacturer have been packed off to the Hungarian countryside (fatefully, the location of a fair number of their own weapons sales) to the company’s new luxury lodge for a weekend of team building and bonding. With a wicked sense of pace, director Smith uses the cast’s superb chemistry and his own script laced with exceedingly funny dialogue to concoct a truly scary, truly witty masterpiece.

Stestí. Czech Republic, Germany | 2005 | 100min | Director: Bohdan Sláma
In Czech with English subtitles

Three adult friends share in each others’ emotional lives in this stunning Czech film, anchored by a solid, lovable performance from talented actor Pavel Liska (Up and Down, Lunacy).

A fost sau n-a fost? Romania | 2006 | 89min | Director: Aleksandar Manic
In Romanian with English subtitles

A biting critique of post-communist life in Romania delivered with wicked deadpan humor. The film revolves around lives of Manescu, a melancholy, hard-drinking history teacher, and Pisconi, a lonely retiree who makes ends meet by working as a Santa Claus for hire. The two men have been asked to appear on a local TV call-in show commemorating the fall of Communism in Romania.

Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle. France, Iceland | 2006 | 92min | Directors: Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno
Wisconsin Premiere

The international soccer superstar Zinédine Zidane is the subject, but this is not a conventional documentary of an athlete. It’s an entrancing real-time view of a match by training the camera (actually, 17 of them) on just one player.