By Joanne Sargent
Special to the Observer
Our 33rd annual Shuswap International Film Festival starts this weekend, with nine days of movies from around the world.
For opening night, Friday, Feb. 17 at 7:30, we’ve chosen the feel-good documentary, Blind Ambition. This is the true story of four refugees who fled Zimbabwe, with harrowing stories of escape, for South Africa. Having no previous exposure to wine, the unlikely foursome become sommeliers and represent Zimbabwe at a global wine-tasting competition. This movie won the Audience Award at Tribeca (NY) and Sydney Film Festivals.
Saturday we’re showing four movies, starting at 10:30 with Belgium/Netherlands’ Close, about a beautiful friendship between two pubescent boys that is shattered by schoolyard bullying. At 1:30, from Canada, we present the Alberta-shot Guitar Lessons, about a teenager and a grumpy oilman who grow up over music. At 4 p.m., from the other side of Canada — Sable Island, Nova Scotia — is the magnificent Geographies of Solitude, the winner of the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award. The Polish drama EO plays at 7:30, and shows the world, good and bad, as seen through the eyes of a donkey, but it’s definitely not a kid’s movie. EO is nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.
There are four movies playing Sunday as well, with the Canadian comedy-drama Rosie, a film about family, love and misfits, shot in Montreal, showing at 10:30. Riceboy Sleeps, a story of a Korean mother and son, shot in the suburbs of Vancouver, plays at 1:30. At 4:00, from Romania, is Intregalde, which follows humanitarian aid workers who pick up an elderly hitchhiker and then get stranded. Ali and Ava, about two lonely people with baggage who form an unlikely connection, is from the UK and plays at 7:30.
Several of the movies have second showings through the week and there are four other excellent movies I haven’t mentioned. We have matinees at 4 and shows at 7:30 each night, with closing night next Saturday. Please check out the full schedule at shuswapfilm.net or pick up a program.
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