SIFF 2017: Week Two Preview

Eight days into the festival and the SIFF is beginning to pick up steam, ready to plow through unheard of 80 degree weather this Memorial Day weekend and on into June. Here are some of the movies we’re looking forward to this week, May 26-June 1.

God of War – Sammo Hung and Vincent Zhao vs. Pirates. I should not need to say more.

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World – Documentary on the contributions of Native Ameircans like Link Wray, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Robbie Robertson to popular music.

Chronicles of Hari – Indian film about an actor who specializes in female roles on stage. Jhon reviewed it for us here.

Girl without Hands – French animated adaptation of a Grimm Brothers tale about a girl who, well, loses her hands, trying to escape from the Devil.

Finding Kukan – Doc about the search for the woman who may have been the primary creative force behind, a documentary on World War II China that won an Academy Award in 1941. Melissa reviewed it for us here.

The Little Hours – Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie and Kate Micucci as a gang of foul-mouthed nuns. I should not need to say more.

The Marseille Trilogy – As they did two years ago with Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, SIFF presents new restorations of three classic films on three consecutive days. This time it’s Marcel Pagnol’s early 1930s French series following the complicated lives of Marius and Fanny, two shopkeepers in love who can’t seem to end up together.

Godspeed – Taiwanese direct Chung Mong-hong’s blackly comic thriller about a taxi driver and a drug courier stars Hong Kong legend Michael Hui, in a performance that earned him several Best Actor nominations throughout Asia.

By the Time it Gets Dark – Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong’s mysterious exploration of the fracturing effects of the 1976 Thammasat University massacre. Evan reviewed it for us here.

The Ornithologist – Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues’s oddball quest film starts as the story of a man lost in the woods and somehow becomes an adaptation of the story of St. Anthony. Along the way he’s tricked by Chinese backpackers, falls in love with a young man named Jesus and stumbles across a primitive tribe of demons.