Festival Winner Film Series will nudge your travel bug
BY MARLI GUZZETTA
This month, The Atheneum brings other nations to Nantucket with the Festival Winners Film Series - a monthly screening of foreign films that have been awarded prizes at film festivals all over the world. With movies from Norway, Japan, the Middle East and Canada, the series will continue through May and take all of the legwork out of making oneself a more multi-cultural and hip film viewer. It's also sure to light the fires of your off-season wanderlust. "MONSTER THURSDAY" (NORWAY, 2004)

Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Nominee - Sundance Film Festival 2005

Official Selection - Bergen International Film Festival 2004

Official Selection - Cleveland International Film Festival 2005

Official Selection - Iceland International Film Festival 2005 Astory of envy, love, friendship and transformation

- played out in metaphors of ocean tides and the dangers of surfing. Tord is a surfing golden boy with a beautiful new wife, Karen, who is pregnant, and a job that keeps him on the road. Tord's best friend, Even, is an underachiever with a horrible crush on Karen. When Tord takes off for business, he places Even in charge of Karen's welfare. Left alone in the wake of Tord's ascending success, Even takes the opportunity to clean himself up to impress Karen, who is feeling vulnerable as her delivery nears. The two develop feelings for one another that stare them in the face when Tord returns.

Saturday, September 23, 7 p.m.; Great Hall; Free

"UGETSU MONOGATARI" (JAPAN, 1953) If your only cultural references for Japanese narratives are video games and anime, consider "Ugetsu" required viewing. This 1953 classic takes place in civil war-torn 16th century Japan and follows two men wanting to find fame and fortune during war time, no matter the cost to their families. Film Forum recently hosted a six-film tribute (including "Ugetsu") to the film's director, Kenji Mizoguchi; and two weeks ago the New York Times' Terrence Raferty wrote that his films contained "more beauty and more elegant craftsmanship than most directors manage to get onto a movie screen in a lifetime."

Saturday, October 28, 7 p.m.; Great Hall; Free "THE SYRIAN BRIDE" (MIDDLE EAST, 2004) Winner FIPRESCI Prize, Grand Prix des Amériques, People's Choice Award, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Montreal World Film Festival 2004

Audience Award Winner - Locarno International Film Festival 2004

Audience Award Winner, Best Screenplay - Flanders International Film Festival 2004

"The Syrian Bride" tells the story of a woman living in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights whose marriage to a Syrian celebrity on the other side of the Syrian border is arranged. To consummate her marriage, she must say goodbye to her family interminably, because Syria does not recognize the occupied land. If she crosses the border, she may never be able to return.

Saturday, November 18, 7 p.m.; Great Hall; Free

"FAMILIA" (CANADA, 2005)

Official Selection - Locarno International Film Festival

Official Selection - Vancouver International Film Festival

Best Canadian Feature - Toronto International Film Festival Asingle mother runs from gambling debts and an unkempt life to the home of her childhood friend, also a single mother, in "Familia." The daughters of the two old friends form a friendship of their own in this film about challenging cycles of self-destructive behavior, with the occasional online sex tryst, secret life and pregnancy forcing each woman, young and old, to examine what she wants for her life. Saturday, December 16, 7 p.m.; Great Hall; Free

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