39th Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival – May 15-23, 2020

Adam
Director: Maryam Touzani | Morocco, France, Belgium | Arabic | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
In Morocco, a pregnant woman is found sleeping on the streets by a lonely widow in this generous and empathetic debut feature. The prize-winning Adam launched in the “Un Certain Regard” section of Cannes and is “an unabashed love letter to motherhood as well as to the skills of her two leads.” –Variety

And the Birds Rained Down (Il pleuvait des oiseaux)
Director: Louise Archambault | Canada | French | Fiction Feature
SOLD OUT
Three elderly men, living in deliberate isolation in the woods by a remote lake in Canada find their lives becoming increasingly threatened by society, by nature, and by time itself. When two women suddenly arrive, a photographer and a runaway octogenarian, their way of life will never be the same. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Jocelyne Saucier.

Arab Blues (Un divan à Tunis)
Director: Manele Labidi | Tunisia, France | French, Arabic | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Back home after having lived in Paris since she was 10, psychoanalyst Selma opens a counseling practice in Tunis only to find her clients are as challenging to her as she is to them. With its cast of rich characters, Manele Labidi’s wonderful comedy is at once moving and hilarious.

Aurora
Director: Miia Tervo | Finland | Finnish, English, Persian | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
When Aurora meets Iranian immigrant Darien, he immediately proposes marriage in order to stay in Finland with his daughter. When she counters by telling him to give her €3,000 and she’ll find him a wife, little does she realize that she’s going to fall for the man.

The Barefoot Emperor
Directors: Jessica Woodworth, Peter Brosens | Belgium, The Netherlands, Croatia, Bulgaria | English, French, Dutch, German | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
A sequel to the enormously popular mockumentary King of the Belgians (which closed the 2017 MSPIFF) sees the hilariously misfortunate Belgian King Nicolas III suddenly crowned Emperor of Europe.

Beyond the Horizon (Le milieu de l'horizon)
Director: Delphine Lehericey | Switzerland, Belgium | French | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
It’s the summer of 1976, and Gus’s farm family is feeling the effects--physically and financially--of a summers-long drought. When his mother’s divorced friend Cecile arrives, it piques the young man’s curiosity and strains the family to its breaking point in this gorgeous coming-of-age film.

Binti
Director: Frederike Migom | Belgium, The Netherlands | Dutch | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
12-year-old Binti has thousands of followers on social media, but on paper she ‘doesn’t exist’. Living as asylum seekers in Belgium, Binti and her Congolese father flee deportation and encounter a lonely boy and his mum who invite them in. Recommended for Age 10+

Bombay Rose
Director: Gitanjali Rao | India, United Kingdom, France, Qatar | English, Hindi | Animated Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Six years in the making, this lush animated feature debut from Gitanjali Rao is a fascinating mixture of stark realism, a satire of Bollywood films, and the fantastic elements of Indian mythology.

Bridge
Director: Spencer Patzman | USA, MN Made | English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Friday, May 22 at 7:00pm
On August 1st, 2007, the sudden collapse of the I-35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis shaped a community. Spencer Patzman’s debut documentary follows the many personal stories of one tragedy and the countless ways it is felt more than 12 years later.

The County (Héraðið)
Director: Grímur Hákonarson | Iceland, Denmark, Germany, France | Icelandic | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
After the death of her dairy farmer husband, a middle-aged woman courageously sacrifices her livelihood to speak out against the corruption and injustice at work in her community in this audience-pleasing, humanist drama. From the director of the 2015 audience favorite Rams.

Coup 53
Director: Taghi Amirani | United Kingdom, USA, Iran | English, Persian, Italian, French | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch Saturday, May 16: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM & Friday, May 22: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | Live Q&A Saturday, May 16 at 4:00pm
Celebrated documentarian Taghi Amirani turns his camera to the summer of 1953, when Britain and the United States participated in a coup d'etat, overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Iran, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossaddegh, and installing the despotic Shah of Iran.

The Crossing (Flukten over grensen)
Director: Johanne Helgeland | Norway | Norwegian | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
10-year-old Gerda and her brother Otto are not enjoying the usual Christmas celebration. It’s 1942, and their parents are helping the Norwegian resistance during the worst winter of the Second World War. When the parents are arrested, the children must escape to neutral Sweden, along with two Jewish children they discovered hiding.

The Dilemma of Desire
Director: Maria Finitzo | USA | English | Documentary Feature | SNEAK PREVIEW
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
A documentary exploring female sexual desire and the ways in which society both ignores and actively suppresses discussion of the clitoris and women’s desires, The Dilemma of Desire is certain to inspire, amuse and confront.

The Father
Directors: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov | Bulgaria, Greece | Bulgarian | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
After his mother’s funeral, Pavel and his dad, Vassil, take a road trip to visit a shaman who can help them understand mysterious phone calls that might just be coming from the beyond. “This off-the-map road movie is a humane, compassionate, character-driven delight." –The Hollywood Reporter

Fire Will Come (O Que Arde)
Director: Oliver Laxe | Spain, France, Luxembourg | Spanish, Galician | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Released from prison, Amador returns to his mother’s mountainous home in Galicia. There, in almost total isolation, he wonders if his worst impulses will return.

A Girl Missing (よこがお)
Director: Koji Fukada | Japan, France | Japanese | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Ichiko is a nurse whose years-long work with the Oisho family has made her feel very much as though she is one of their own flesh and blood. That is, until the family’s youngest daughter is abducted, and the prime suspect is Ichiko’s own nephew.

Gloria Mundi
Director: Robert Guédiguian | France, Italy | French | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
A family struggles with life in Marseilles’s gig economy in Robert Guédiguian’s moving drama, his 19th film in collaboration with his wife Ariane Ascaride, who stars.

H Is for Happiness
Director: John Sheedy | Australia | English | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
In a quirky Australian romantic dramedy, a peculiar 12-year-old, Candice Phee, meets a kindred spirit, Douglas Benson From Another Dimension. In spite of her family’s struggles, Candice marches to a different drummer in a heartwarming tale of the power of love. Recommended for Age 11+

I Am Not Alone
Director: Garin Hovannisian | Armenia | Armenian, English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm
In this stirring documentary, Nikol Pashinyan, journalist and politician, stands up against Armenia’s Republican Party as they try to keep their leader, Serzh Sargsyan in power through whatever means possible by trying to subvert term limits.

Influence
Director: Diana Neille, Richard Poplak | South Africa, Canada | English, Spanish | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
A look at Bell Pottinger (BP), a reputation-management firm founded by Lord Tim Bell, and famous (or infamous) for helping to spin the truth about some of the worst dictators, companies, and leaders in the world.

Jumbo
Director: Zoé Wittock | France | French | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Jeanne is a misfit to say the least. Introverted, she stays in her room, ignoring her outgoing mother’s pleas to go on dates with men, and fiddles instead with her scale models of the rides at the amusement park where she works. Then one day, she finds her true love: Jumbo, the park’s newest thrill ride.

Just Don't Think I'll Scream (Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle)
Director: Frank Beauvais | France | French | Experimental Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Ruminating on a self-imposed seclusion in an Alsatian village, renowned short film director and curator Frank Beauvais lovingly assembled footage from 400 films he watched while avoiding the world. The result is a stunning film essay about grief, anger, and loneliness.

Kuessipan
Director: Myriam Verreault | Canada | French, Innu | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
In this beautiful coming-of-age story, Shaniss and Mikuan, two young women, both from Quebec’s Innu community, are inseparable. That is, until Mikuan falls in love, not only with writing but with a white man, and nothing will ever be the same.

Land of My Father (아버지의 땅)
Director: Matthew Koshmrl | USA, South Korea, MN Made | Japanese, Korean | Documentary Feature | SNEAK PREVIEW | Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Monday, May 18 at 7:00pm
Byeong-man, a farmer whose father was enslaved during Japan's occupation of Korea, protests the Japanese government's claim over the disputed island territory of Dokdo. Kyeong Sook, a woman who lived on Dokdo with her father, struggles to keep his legacy alive after the Korean government mysteriously erased their history. Set in the unresolved trauma of the Japanese occupation of Korea, Land of My Father (아버지의 땅) is a story about two lives that are intertwined with a remote disputed island.

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji | Bhutan | Dzongkha | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 18 - May 23 11:59 PM
Ugyen is a twenty-something man living in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, who yearns to move to Australia and pursue his dream of singing. But first he must finish a year of government-sponsored teaching in the most remote part of the country.

Maria's Paradise (Marian paratiisi)
Director: Zaida Bergroth | Finland, Estonia | Finnish | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Salome is a young woman, orphaned at a very young age, and taken-in by cult leader Maria Åkerblom. Knowing nothing but the ways of this fervent religious group, Salome goes on a trip and meets Malin, who helps her see through the deceit for the first time.

Medicating Normal
Director: Lynn Cunningham, Wendy Ractliffe | USA | English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A and panel discussion Thursday, May 21 at 7pm
Most people are aware of the nation’s opioid crisis, but there are millions of Americans who are also physiologically dependent on commonly prescribed psychiatric medications that are being taken as prescribed by their doctors. From prescriptions to alleviate emotional distress to pain relievers and other drugs, big pharma is working hard to make sure every citizen is taking some kind of pill.

Nina of the Woods
Director: Charlie Griak | USA, MN Made | English | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Wednesday, May 20 at 8:30pm
Nina is an aspiring actress from a small, rural town. Hired to give some authenticity to a reality show tailing Bigfoot near her hometown, Nina is excited--as any actor would be--to work on a larger stage. But the forest has secrets of its own, pushing Nina and her crew to confront larger realities in this haunting and ruminative feature.

Okavango
Director: Dereck Joubert, Beverly Joubert | Botswana, South Africa, Austria | English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert create this cinematic “love letter” to one of the most intriguing natural sites in the world: the Okavango River Delta, where the river empties not into a sea or lake but merely into a basin of land, creating one of the most fascinating ecosystems in Africa.

Our Lady of the Nile (Notre-Dame du Nil)
Director: Atiq Rahimi | Rwanda, France, Belgium | French, Kinyarwanda | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
A coming-of-age tale of upper-class Rwandan schoolgirls—Hutus and Tutsis—whose prejudices and petty grievances at a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school explode into full-scale violence, foreshadowing the genocide over 20 years later.

Out of Tune (De frivillige)
Director: Frederikke Aspöck | Denmark | Danish | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Jailed for financial misdeeds, Markus assumes he can use his connections and money to get a decent life in prison. When he’s beaten by a gang, he demands to be moved to the isolation wing with the most vulnerable prisoners. And then his Machiavellian plans really come to a boil.

Patrick (De Patrick)
Director: Tim Mielants | Belgium | Dutch, French, English, German | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
In this endearing, oddball comedy, socially awkward Patrick works as the handyman on his parents’ naturist (read: nudist) campsite. His free time is spent in a rigidly ordered workshop where he designs and creates furniture. Soon, two major blows strike: his father dies and his favorite hammer goes missing.

Pelican Blood (Pelikanblut)
Director: Katrin Gebbe | Germany | German | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Wiebke (Nina Hoss) is a single mother raising Nicolina, her adopted daughter, in the German countryside. As a family, the pair decides to adopt another girl, five-year-old Raya, from Bulgaria. But Raya is discovered to have an attachment disorder, and her behavior goes from strange to violent.

The Perfect Patient (Quick)
Director: Mikael Håfström | Sweden | Swedish | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Based on true events, this thriller combines gripping Nordic noir with a humanistic story about a relentless and resourceful search for the truth as an investigative reporter unmasks the biggest legal scandal in Swedish history.

Public Trust
Director: David Garrett Byars | USA | English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Tuesday, May 19 at 7:00pm
There are 640 million acres of public land in the United States. But there are powerful forces, both in government and in corporate America, eager to plunder this bounty. David Garrett Byars’s eye-opening documentary travels to Alaska, into the red rock canyons of southern Utah, and to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, and exposes a land war going on under our very noses.

Raise Your Voice
Director: Maribeth Romslo | USA, MN Made | English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Sunday, May 17 at 7:00pm
This moving documentary follows the passionate reporters of The Eagle Eye (the student run newspaper at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) and their fight to report freely on issues as diverse as gun culture, global warming, and civil rights.

The Seer and The Unseen
Director: Sara Dosa | Iceland, USA | Icelandic, English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Ragnhildur “Ragga” Jónsdóttir is an elf whisperer. Iceland’s huldufólk (elves, trolls, sprites) have a human champion in Ragga, who is now using her status to try and stop a highway across a lava field that is home to these creatures in this respectful and fascinating documentary.

Son-Mother (Pesar-Madar)
Director: Mahnaz Mohammadi | Iran, Czech Republic | Farsi | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
On the edge of financial ruin, a desperate widow finally accepts a marriage proposal whose consequences could destroy her son.

Song Without a Name (Canción sin nombre)
Director: Melina León | Peru, Spain, Chile, USA | Spanish, Quechua | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Lima, Peru, 1988. Georgiana, on the verge of giving birth to her first child, leaves her small Andean village in the hopes of getting free medical care in the city. Upon giving birth in a small clinic, the staff remove her baby and it vanishes.

The Spy (Spionen)
Director: Jens Jonsson | Norway | Norwegian, English | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch Friday, May 15 ONLY: 11:00 AM - 11:59 PM | OPENING PRESENTATION
Sonja Wigert is one of Norway’s greatest actresses, starring in a number of films in the 1930s and winning worldwide acclaim. When the war breaks out, she finds herself in neutral Stockholm, until her father is imprisoned, forcing her into a game of cat-and-mouse with the Nazis.

Stories I Didn't Know
Director: Rita Davern, Melody Gilbert | USA, MN Made | English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch Sunday, May 17 at 2:00 PM through May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A with the Filmmakers and the Film’s Subjects Sunday, May 17 at 5:00pm
As a child from St. Paul, MN, Rita Davern was always told, with pride, how her family once owned Pike Island at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. While researching her ancestors' immigration from Ireland, she begins to explore the complicated legacy of settling on Dakota land, and her quest for reconciliation begins in this eye-opening documentary.

Sune vs. Sune
Director: Jon Holmberg | Sweden | Swedish | Fiction Feature
Recommended for Age 10+ Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Eager to start fourth grade, Sune is suddenly confronted by the worst thing imaginable: another kid named Sune! A comedy interspersed with memorable sci-fi fantasy scenes amps up the everyday indignities and insecurities of Swedish family life.

A Thief's Daughter (La hija de un ladrón)
Director: Belén Funes | Spain | Spanish, Catalan | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
With a 6-month-old baby whose father works abroad, 22-year-old Sara is doing all she can to keep her head above water. She takes public transit between low-paying jobs, but remains eager and confident. Enter Manuel, her father, fresh out of prison, seeking to re-enter his daughter’s life.

Those Who Remained
Director: Barnabás Tóth | Hungary | Hungarian | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
In post-WWII Budapest, 16-year-old Holocaust survivor Klára still believes that her parents will return. When she meets Aladár, a 42-year-old doctor who lost his wife and two children in the death camps, she finds someone to live for. A tender, delicate story about the healing power of love.

To the Ends of the Earth (旅のおわり世界のはじまり)
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Japan, Uzbekistan, Qatar | Japanese, Uzbek | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
Celebrating 25 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Uzbekistan, Yoko (J-Pop star Atusko Maeda), a reporter, heads to the landlocked country with a crew to file tourism reports. There, Yoko harbors a dream of becoming a singer while going through the motions of her job in this alienating place.

Tuscaloosa
Director: Philip Harder | USA, MN Made | English | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Saturday, May 16 at 7:00pm
In 1972, young Billy Mitchell is facing the draft, life after college, first love and a family mystery that may involve murder. A lush period piece from Minneapolis director Philip Harder.

Veins of the World
Director: Byambasuren Davaa | Mongolia, Germany | Mongolian | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM
When his father dies suddenly, Amra and his mother Zaya have to find a way to survive on the often harsh Mongolian steppes. To make matters worse, gold mining threatens both their livelihood herding goats… and Amra’s dream to be on Mongolia’s Got Talent.

The Voice (Glas)
Director: Ognjen Sviličić | Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia | Croatian | Fiction Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Sunday, May 17 at 1:00pm
When his mother accepts a job on a cruise ship, her teenage son Goran is forced to attend a Catholic boarding school in rural Croatia in order to get straightened out. But his rebelliousness is not contained, and the school will stop at nothing to iron out his wayward attitude.

Ways of Being Home ~ Between Northfield & Maltrata
Director: Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo | USA, Mexico, MN Made | Spanish, English | Documentary Feature
Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Live Q&A Saturday, May 23 at 1:00pm
Ways of Being Home explores the immigrant experience from the perspective of the Mexican community living in Northfield, a college town in southern Minnesota. Most members of this immigrant community, about 70% or more, trace their roots back to Maltrata, a small agricultural municipality nestled in the mountains of the state of Veracruz.

Women in Blue
Director: Deirdre Fishel | USA, MN Made | English | Documentary Feature | SNEAK PREVIEW
Available to Watch Saturday, May 23 ONLY: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM | CLOSING PRESENTATION | Live Q&A Saturday, May 23 at 7:00pm
Following three female police officers in Minneapolis, Women in Blue charts their progress and efforts to remake the department to become more inclusive. When the killing of Justine Damond results in the resignation of Chief Harteau, it threatens the gains women have made in the department.