Starting today, four or five films per day will screen in Sag Harbor throughout the weekend. On deck today:
DHEEPAN
1:00 pm | World Cinema | Tickets
Winner of the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the stirring new film from renowned French director Jacques Audiard (A PROPHET, RUST AND BONE) is a fascinating and timely observation on the immigrant experience. Finding himself on the losing side of the brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, a Tamil rebel fighter assumes the identity of a dead man in order to flee the country. Hoping to increase his chances of being granted asylum in Europe, he also finds a “wife” and a “daughter” to serve as his makeshift family.
MEDITERRANEA
3:30 pm | HIFF Narrative Competition | Tickets
Ayiva seizes the opportunity to leave Burkina Faso and find a better life for his daughter in Jonas Carpignano’s gripping feature debut. He and his best friend embark on the treacherous journey by boat, only to find that getting to dry land is merely half the battle. Expanding on his award-winning short, A CHJÀNA (HIFF 2014), Carpignano artfully presents a complex portrait of immigration with both urgency and a humanist approach to understanding life on the margins. Inspired by real events, MEDITERRANEA offers a profound and intimate look at the migrant crisis.
THE LADY IN THE VAN
6:00 pm | Spotlight Film | Rush
In this “mostly true” story, based on writer Alan Bennett’s memoir and popular West End play, the extraordinary Maggie Smith stars as Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric high-born woman living out of her van. When Alan (Alex Jennings) moves into his new London home, he soon discovers Miss Shepherd and reluctantly offers her his driveway as a temporary home. Fifteen years later, she is still there. THE LADY IN THE VAN is a hilariously witty story of two strangers who form an unlikely friendship and lasting bond despite their best attempts to be left alone.
BROOKLYN
8:30 pm | Spotlight Film | Rush
Waving good-bye to her mother and sister in Ireland, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) sets sail to follow her American dream in 1950s Brooklyn. With the support of a kind priest, Eilis finds work at an upscale department store and enrolls in school, but it’s only after she meets Tony (Emory Cohen) that she finally feels at home and romance heals her loneliness. When an unexpected tragedy forces Eilis to return home, she finds a renewed love for Ireland. John Crowley’s BROOKLYN is a beautiful tale of a young woman torn between two worlds. Featuring Emory Cohen: Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch.
