Foreign Film Movie & Discussion

Join fellow film fans in the Little Theater at Lenox to watch and discuss engaging and thought-provoking foreign films. We'll view the movie and then have time for focused discussion led by Lisa Kjellander from the SLP Library. Sponsored by Friends of the St. Louis Park Library.

May 5: Babette's Feast (2013) Denmark

An exiled French chef taking refuge as a housekeeper in a small Danish village offers thanks by cooking up haute cuisine for a proudly ascetic 18th-century populace used to bread and soup.

May 12: The Rules of the Game (1939) France

Cloaked in a comedy of manners, this scathing critique of corrupt French society is about a weekend hunting party at which amorous escapades abound among the aristocratic guests, which are also mirrored by the activities of the servants downstairs.

May 19: Water (2007) India

The story of an 8-year-old forced to wed an older man. When the man dies, she is taken by her father to live in a home of other widows of all ages. According to religious law quoted at the top of the film, “A woman who remains chaste when her husband has died goes to heaven.” According to a follower of Gandhi in the film, locking widows away makes “one less mouth to feed, four less saris, and a free corner in the house. Disguised as religion, it’s just about money,” In the widows’ residence, the girl is protected by the beautiful Kalyani, who has been ordered into prostitution to help support the older widows. Kalyani attracts the son of a local Brahmin, the follower of Gandhi, who rejects beliefs about widowhood and intends to marry her.

May 26: Past Lives (2023) Korea

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

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August 18: Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Mexico

A dark fable set five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Eleven-year-old Ofelia comes face to face with the horrors of fascism when she and her pregnant mother are uprooted to the countryside, by her new stepfather - a sadistic captain in General Franco's army, who hunts down Republican guerrillas. This violent reality merges with a fantastical world when Ofelia meets a faun in a decaying labyrinth, and she is set on a strange mythic journey that is at once terrifying and beautiful.

August 25: Plan 75 (2022) Japan

Government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be euthanized to remedy an aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a Filipino laborer face life-and-death choices.

September 1: The Other Widow (2024) Israel

A dark comedic drama about Ella, a 34-year-old theater costume designer and mistress of a playwright who dies unexpectedly. While the preparations for the premiere are in full swing, Ella insists on attending his Shiva and dives into a world once forbidden to her. Things get complicated when she becomes too close to his loved ones, especially his wife.

September 8: Motorcycle Diaries (2005) Latin America

An inspirational adventure, based on the true story of two young men whose thrilling and dangerous road trip across Latin America becomes a life-changing journey of self-discovery.