November 30 – December 19, 2023 @ AFI Silver
Now in its 36th year, the AFI European Union Film Showcase continues its tradition of bringing the best in European cinema to Washington, DC-area audiences. This year’s lineup features 51 films representing all 27 EU member states, including award winners, regional box-office hits, debut works by up-and-coming talents and new works by leading auteurs, plus 21 of the top contenders for this year’s Academy Award® for Best International Feature Film and seven U.S. premieres.
Showcase program: click here
📍AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
8633 Colesville Rd
Silver Spring, MD 20910
This year the Italian Cultural Institute of Washington is presenting the following titles:
LA CHIMERA
Special Features: Special Presentation
English expat archaeologist Arthur (Josh O’Connor) has gone to seed. Having relocated to Tuscany in the early 1980s, he fell in love with Beniamina, the daughter of aging local aristocrat Flora (Isabella Rossellini). But Beniamina has died, leaving Arthur a lost soul, though one with the gift of second sight: he can use a dousing rod to locate Etruscan tombs and their treasure hoards with uncanny precision. Along with a motley crew of graverobbers, Arthur takes part in finding and selling antiquities illegally to the mysterious local dealer Spartaco (Alba Rohrwacher), a money-making adventure for the carefree members of the gang, but just a way to keep booze and cigarettes in supply for the morose Arthur. Official Selection, 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Run Time: 130 Minutes
Genre: Adventure comedy
Showtimes
Saturday, December 02, 2023 at 06:45 PM
Thursday, December 07, 2023 at 07:00 PM
ME CAPTAIN (IO CAPITANO)
Special Features: 2024 Oscar® Selection, Italy. Special Presentation
Musician-turned-actor Seydou Sarr gives an impressive performance as Seydou, a Senegalese teenager who lives in a cramped house in Dakar with his mother and younger sisters. Along with his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall), Seydou has been working odd jobs and saving money, preparing for a move to Italy, with dreams of pursuing a music career. Along the way, they will contend with shakedowns from corrupt border guards, mistreatment from human traffickers, a dangerous crossing of the Sahara Desert and imprisonment, abuse and modern-day slavery in Libya. Winner, Best Director, 2023 Venice Film Festival.
Directed by Matteo Garrone
Run Time: 121 Minutes
Genre: Drama
Showtimes
Saturday, December 09, 2023 at 07:00 PM
Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 07:00 PM
KIDNAPPED: THE ABDUCTION OF EDGARDO MORTARA (RAPITO)
Special Features: Special Presentation
Bologna, 1858. A well-to-do Jewish family suffers an unfathomable fate when their seven-year-old son, Edgardo, is ripped from their arms. Secretly baptized at birth by a concerned maid, he must now be raised a Catholic. Under instruction of the Papal State, which forbids Christians to be raised by non-Christians, he is abducted and taken to the Vatican to be put under the care of Pope Pius IX himself.
Directed by Marco Bellocchio
Run Time: 134 Minutes
Genre: Historical drama
Showtimes
Friday, December 15, 2023 at 07:00 PM
Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at 07:00 PM