UPCOMING SCREENINGS
Algonquin Theatre, Main Street Huntsville - 7pm for all films
MONDAY, MAY 5, 2025
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
2025 Academy Award Nominee - Best International Feature Film
"A thriller of propulsive skill and blunt emotional force, marrying the muscularity of an action film to the psychological intensity of a chamber drama." New Yorker
The Seed of the Sacred Fig was one of the most anticipated premieres in Cannes due to the backstory of its creation as a film shot in secret in Iran, that led to its director and cast having to flee the country after being sentenced to prison and lashing.
A patriarch in every sense, Iman (Misagh Zare) is an ambitious middle-class lawyer working for the Iranian government. He has just been promoted to state investigator — the stepping stone to becoming a revolutionary court judge — and, alongside an increase in income and social cachet, his family has received clear instructions on what is required of them as Iman’s star rises in the eyes of the state. His wife (played by actress and activist Soheila Golestani) and adolescent daughters (the scene-stealing Setareh Maleki and Mahsa Rostami) must fall in line.
Outside the home, the streets are alight with protests, depicted through real-life footage of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that exploded following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in 2022 while in police custody after being arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab. Soon, Iman understands his role — rubber-stamping death-penalty judgments against activists without giving due process (which, on the ground, has resulted in the deaths of hundreds). As Iman becomes more entrenched in his work, he grows increasingly at odds with his own family. What follows is a social drama–turned–cat-and-mouse thriller that will have you at the edge of your seat.
Iran, France, Germany | 2024 | 167m | Language: Farsi with English subtitles
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Cast: Misagh Zare, Soheila Golestani, Mahsa Rostami
Content advisory: violence
MONDAY, MAY 19, 2025
Maria
2025 Academy Award Nominee – Best Cinematography
2025 Golden Globe Nominee - Best Lead Actress, Motion Picture
Angelina Jolie stars as iconic singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s operatic drama about the beautiful but tragic life of the world’s greatest female opera singer during her final days in 1970s Paris.
Maria Callas is one of the most revered performers of the 20th century. The film follows the American Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous career in the public eye, reimagining the legendary diva in her final days as she reckons with her identity and life.
Trivia: Angelina Jolie was Pablo Larraín's first and only choice to play Maria Callas, and would not have directed the film without her. Jolie, refusing to be dubbed and wishing to perform her own singing, took 7 months of opera lessons to prepare for her role. For the scenes set during Callas' heyday, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of Callas' original recordings were used, with Jolie lip-synching along to these songs. However, Jolie's singing comes to the fore during the film's final act.
United States of America, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Italy | 2023 | 124m | English
Director: Pablo Larraín
Featuring: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher
Content advisory: mature language
MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2025
So Surreal: Behind The Masks
Part detective story and part illuminating history, Behind the Masks is a must-see for anyone who loves art, culture, and entertaining docs.
From the Victoria Film Festival:
"In the art market, ceremonial Indigenous masks have always been seen as relics and commodities – bought, sold, and collected by any means in order to profit from them further. To the Yup’ik, Kwakwaka’wakw, and other Indigenous peoples, these masks act as vessels to the spirit world and translators of the supernatural, existing beyond our reality. In So Surreal: Behind the Masks, we follow co-director Neil Diamond as he uncovers the mystery and history behind the collecting of these so-called art pieces."
Using illustration and engaging storytelling, Diamond tells how masks left their homelands through trade and sale but also through theft. The documentary traces them from one prolific collector to museums and an antique store in New York — into which the German Surrealist Max Ernst wandered. He subsequently introduced the masks to his artist friends who, like him, were greatly inspired by them and became avid collectors.
With dreamy Surrealist imagery interspersed with Yup’ik dancers in masks, interviews with current-day carvers and art experts, and one particularly arresting scene in the Louvre with Yup’ik artist, storyteller, and dancer Chuna McIntyre, this doc masterfully weaves together the threads of cultural and artistic histories.
Canada | 2024 | 88m | English
Directors: Neil Diamond, Joanne Robertson
Cast: Neil Diamond, Bill Cranmer, Juanita Johnston
Sponsored by:
