Spring film festival brings foreign movies to MSSU
Feb. 4—The Harrison and June Kash International Film Festival is in full swing this semester at Missouri Southern State University.
The films were selected for screening by faculty across the campus. They will be shown at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays in MSSU's Cornell Auditorium or Bookhouse Cinema, 715 E. Langston Hughes-Broadway in Joplin. They are free and open to all community members.
This year's festival lineup includes:
—"The Killer" (Hong Kong, 1989), Feb. 7, Cornell Auditorium.
Mob assassin Jeffrey (Chow Yun-Fat) is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. When beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie (Sally Yeh) is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman (Danny Lee) to make things right.
The film was selected by Michael Howarth, director of the honors program: "Considered one of the best action films ever made, 'The Killer' owns up to its infamous tagline: 'One Vicious Hitman. One Fierce Cop. Ten Thousand Bullets.' As melodramatic as it is thrilling, the film is more than a series of bloody and operatic shootouts, using sensational violence to explore classic themes like loyalty and brotherhood."
—"Border" (Sweden/Denmark, 2018), Feb. 14, Bookhouse Cinema.
Tina (Eva Melander) is a border guard who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man with a smell that confounds her detection, she is forced to confront hugely disturbing insights about herself and humankind.
The film was selected by Bookhouse Cinema co-owner Holly Crane: "Ali Abbasi's 'Border' is a shocking Nordic crime thriller told as a contemporary fairy tale. The contrast of themes runs through the story with a sweet romance and beautiful nature scenes contrasted by eerie suspicion laid on every character and some utterly gruesome crime. 'Border' is engrossing from the first scene."
—"Journey From the Fall" (Vietnam, 2006), Feb. 21, Cornell Auditorium.
The film traces the story of one family's struggle for survival in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon to Communist forces in April 1975. After Long, an officer in the South Vietnamese Army, is imprisoned in a North Vietnamese re-education camp, his family escapes Vietnam by boat in the hopes of starting a new life in Southern California.
It was selected by history professor Steve Wagner: "This film tells an important story about the largely forgotten aftermath of the U.S. war in Vietnam. It is also an important reminder of the hardships experienced by many of the immigrants who seek refuge in the United States."
—"Breathless" (France, 1960), Feb. 28, Bookhouse Cinema.
A small-time crook chased by the police after stealing a car shoots one of them and flees. Back in Paris he finds an American girlfriend and succeeds in seducing her. He convinces her to go to Italy with him. But the police have discovered the murderer's identity and are on his trail.
The film was selected by Zak Watson, chair of the language and literature department: "Jean-Luc Godard's film was revolutionary cinema at its release in 1960, noted particularly for its jump cuts and refusal of traditional cinema narrative, and it still feels cool and transgressive today. It's one of my favorites for its playfulness, its tonal shifts and its refusal to give viewers the easy illusion of character depth."
—"Fanaa" (India, 2006), March 7, Cornell Auditorium.
To choose between right or wrong is simple, but what defines one's life is the decision between the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils. This is the advice that Zooni Ali Beg (Kajol) receives from her father just as she is about to venture out into the world on her own for the very first time. Little does she know that these very words will shape her life. Zooni, a blind Kashmiri girl, meets Rehan Qadri (Aamir Khan), a local Delhi tour guide and an incorrigible flirt. Her friends warn her against this good-for-nothing roadside Romeo, but she chooses to ignore them. It is now her time to discover life and love.
The film was selected by Jody Jensen, assistant professor of English: "Kunal Kohli's 'Fanaa' is categorized as action, drama, romance and thriller. Sometimes all at once. It's a film full of surprises, plot twists, laughter and lightheartedness, and challenged histories. I've never been to a showing of this film where the audience did not gasp out loud, speak back to the screen and leave reconsidering the boundaries of relationships and the muddled space between the binaries of good and evil."
—"Embrace of the Serpent" (Colombia, 2015), March 14, Bookhouse Cinema.
Through parallel story threads set 40 years apart, this absorbing odyssey follows two Western scientists who travel deep into the Amazon jungle looking for a rare plant that possesses healing powers, with enigmatic shaman Karamakate as their guide.
The film was selected by Bill Fischer, associate professor of history: "This film examines one of the most horrifying periods of South American history: the early 20th century rubber boom in the western Amazon. Spanning multiple decades and told in an occasionally dreamlike and abstract fashion, the film echoes 'Heart of Darkness' or any other story in which Westerners venture into a dangerous and remote area. But what makes 'Embrace of the Serpent' special is that it turns that narrative on its head: the protagonist in this film is not any of the explorers, but an Indigenous shaman who has experienced multiple waves of outsiders seeking various kinds of personal gain without any true understanding of the forest or its people."
