ALL SHALL BE WELL – Hong Kong / China
Angie and Pat are a lesbian couple who have been together for over four decades. Pat bought an apartment thirty years ago where they have lived ever since. The couple is out to their respective families and often invites Pat’s family to their home for dinners. Angie...
EIN GANZES LEBEN / A WHOLE LIFE (Austria)
At the turn of the 20th century, the young orphan Andreas is sent to live with his ruthless uncle on a farm in a remote valley. Treated not as family but as a worker, Andreas endures a childhood without affection, full of brutality and hard labour. At the age...
SEVEN WINTERS IN TEHRAN (Iran)
Tehran, July 2007: Reyhaneh Jabarri, 19, has a business meeting with a new client. When he locks her in the apartment and attempts to rape her, she reacts in self-defense by stabbing him. Later that day, she is arrested for murder, and her trial results in a...
THE-FILM-MAKER – THE LISA AZUELOS STORY (USA) showing with GANEF (U.K.) and NOWHERE (Armenia)
Lisa Azuelos (L.O.L, Comme t’y es belle, Dalida) is the subject of a new documentary by David Serero. Retrace her journey from her origins to behind the scenes present day. The film features a stellar cast, including François Cluzet, Michèle Laroque, Alexandra Lamy,...
WINNERS (Iran)
In a small provincial Iranian town, the children work hard to support their families. One day nine-year-old Yahya and his friend Leyla find a precious gold statue. As the authorities search for the lost treasure, sharing Yahya’s passion for cinema, Yahya’s boss...
PERFECT STRANGERS – Israel
Seven childhood friends with a lot of shared history and experiences, and a mutual death from their past, meet for dinner to watch a rare lunar eclipse. Their standard bourgeois encounter takes an unexpected turn when they start playing a game that’ll change...
THE OLD OAK (U.K.)
The Old Oak is the last pub standing in a once thriving mining village in northern England, a gathering space for a community that has fallen on hard times. There is growing anger, resentment, and a lack of hope among the residents, but the pub and its...
LIE WITH ME (France)
This film is a centerpiece film at Palm Springs 2023 CINEMA DIVERSE. An author returns to his hometown of Cognac for the first time in 35 years to help promote a distillery. He is also there to face the memories of his first love. The people & places he returns...
THREE NIGHTS A WEEK (France) / Trois nuits par semaine
NOTE: This film has been rescheduled to SA, Sep 30 at our regular time. While volunteering at a public-health clinic alongside his girlfriend, 29-years-old Baptiste first meets Cookie Kunty, a young drag queen from the Parisian scene, who immediately...
UNTIL TOMORROW / Juste une nuit (Iran)
Fereshteh has to hide her illegitimate baby for one night from her parents who turn up for a surprise visit. Her friend Atefeh helps her. They embark on an odyssey during which they must carefully weigh up who their allies are. UNTIL TOMORROW is a selection...
ALL TO PLAY FOR / Rien À Perdre (France)
Barmaid Sylvie is a single mom living with her two sons, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques. One night, Sofiane is injured while being alone in the flat which results in placing him in a foster home. Sylvie is determined to bring her son back home. Starring Cesar Winner /...
THE CRIME IS MINE (France)
In 1930s Paris, Madeleine, a pretty, young, penniless and talentless actress, is accused of murdering a famous producer. Helped by her best friend Pauline, a young unemployed lawyer, she is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. A new life of fame and...
A LA BELLE ETOILE / SUGAR AND STARS
Since he was a kid, Yazid has one big passion, pastry making. Raised between foster homes and group homes, the young man will try to make his dream come true: to work with the greatest pastry chefs and become the best. Genre: Comedy/Drama Run time: 110 min...
MOTHER VALLEY / LA NUIT DU VERRE D’EAU
Lebanon, 1958. A civil war rages. A young mother and model wife, Layla, spends the summer with her family in a remote village in the Christian mountains. It’s wedding season but her two younger sisters, Eva and Nada, have no desire to follow in Layla’s footsteps by...
A CUP OF COFFEE AND NEW SHOES ON (Albania)
An emotional drama about identical deaf-mute twin brothers who discover they suffer from a genetic disease that will also progressively and irreversibly make them blind. They are confronted with their changing relationship to the world. Based upon a true story. The...
MORE THAN EVER / PLUS QUE JAUAIS (France, Norway, U.K.)
Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Bergman Island and Corsage) plays Hélène, a 33-year old woman diagnosed with a rare illness that sees her faced with existential decisions as she grapples with the uncertainty of the future. A decision to travel to Norway alone, Hélène...
NEZOUH (Syria)
14-year-old Zeina and her family are the last to have stayed in their besieged hometown of Damascus in Syria. A missile rips a giant hole in their home, exposing them to the outside world. When a rope is mysteriously lowered into the hole, Zeina gets her first taste...
THE OWNERS / VLASTNICI (Czechia)
Written and directed by Jiří Havelka, based on his own award-winning stage play, Vlastníci presents us with a curious cast of characters, all of whom own apartments in the same block somewhere in Prague, and charts their progress as they attempt to tolerate each...
La syndicaliste (France)
LA SYNDICALISTE is the true story of Maureen Kearney (Isabelle Huppert), the head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse. She became a whistle-blower, denouncing top-secret deals that shook the French nuclear sector. Alone against the world,...
TWO TICKETS TO GREECE (France / Greece)
Genre: Comedy Run time: 111 min Country: France / Greece Language: French w/English subtitles Premiere: West Coast Director: Marc Fitoussi Principal Cast: Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte, Kristin Scott Thomas Distributor: Greenich Sexual references, nudity, coarse...
BARREN (Israel)
Feigi and Naftali are a young childless ultraorthodox couple living with Naftali’s parents. A couple struggling with infertility. Naftali travels overseas to pray for a child at Rabbi Nachman’s grave, leaving his wife Feigi with Rabbi Eliyahu, a guest who claims to...
ANGRY ANNIE / ANNIE COLIERE (France)
A countryside village in France, 1974. When she accidentally becomes pregnant, Annie, a working mother of two teenagers, meets with the Movement for the Liberation of Abortion and Contraception (MLAC); doctors and women who perform illegal abortions in the...
A FAMILY FOR 1640 DAYS (France)
Inspired by his own family history, Fabien Gorgeart‘s heartfelt, heartbreaking second feature focuses on an excruciating period of transition in one family’s life. Anna, her husband and their two young sons are told they must gradually, definitively, hand 6-year-old...
THE ART OF SILENCE showing with MORE THAN A ROLL WITH A HOLE
The first feature documentary about the world-famous mime artist Marcel Marceau. With gestures and facial expressions alone he touched and inspired people around the globe. But the tragic background of his mime acts has long remained hidden. As a teenager, Marceau had...
CAROL OF THE BELLS / Shchedryk (Ukraine / Poland)
Immortalized as one of the most scintillating and enlightening Christmas songs, “Carol of the Bells,” adapted from a popular Ukrainian folk melody, came to represent the spirit of brotherhood and unity all over the world. The peaceful and neighborly...
FOR MY COUNTRY (France)
FOR MY COUNTRY is a selection from ‘Tales of Europe’, a curated touring program dedicated to supporting the circulation of prestigious European films and is supported by Europa International and Europa Cinemas, A young officer of Algerian origin, tragically loses his...
PLAYING THROUGH (USA)
Playing Through is a feature-length fictional film honoring the life and legacy of Ann Gregory, a pioneering female athlete and civil rights advocate. Late in her career, Ann Gregory finds the courage to be the first woman of color to enter the USGA Women’s...
PEACE BY CHOCOLATE – Ukraine Fundraiser
Jonathan Keijser’s narrative feature film debut, PEACE BY CHOCOLATE, is based on an inspiring true story of a family who immigrated to Canada after their chocolate factory was bombed in the Syrian war. It had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021....
FAREWELL MR. HAFFMANN (France)
Occupied Paris, 1941: all members of the Jewish community are instructed to come forward and identify themselves to authorities. Dedicated jeweler Joseph Haffmann (Auteuil), fearing the worst, arranges for his family to flee the city and offers his employee François...
SKIES OF LEBANON / SOUS LE CIEL D’ALICE (France)
Starring the beloved Alba Rohrwacher and Wajdi Mouawad, the film combines live action with animation to create a vivid picture of Lebanon and is inspired by the family history of filmmaker Mazlo based on her grandmother’s stories of life during the Lebanese Civil War,...
LA CIVIL / Mexico
Cielo’s teenage daughter, Laura, is kidnapped in Northern Mexico. Despite paying several ransoms, Laura is not returned. When the authorities offer no support in the search, Cielo takes matters into her own hands. She finds help from Lamarque, a military man with an...
PEACEFUL / DE SON VIVANT (France/Belgium)
A son in denial of a serious illness. A mother facing the unbearable. And between them a doctor and a nurse fighting to do their job and bring them to acceptance. They have one year and four seasons to come together and understand what it means to die while...
ON THE EDGE / Entre la vie et la mort (Belgium/France)
Brussels. Leo, a Spanish metro driver, while conducting his train and arriving at a station, sees a young man in distress on the edge of the platform. He recognizes his son Hugo right before he falls onto the rails and then dies at the hospital. Leo, who had...
HAUTE COUTURE (France)
Esther is at the end of her career as Head Seamstress at Dior Avenue Montaigne workshop. One day, she gets her handbag stolen in the metro by a 20 year old woman, Jade. Instead of calling the police she decides to take care of Jade. She sees in her the opportunity to...
FULL TIME / A plein temps (France) – (Southern CA Premiere)
Marie goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the countryside while keeping her job in a Parisian luxury hotel despite the daily commute to Paris. When she finally gets a job interview for a position she had long been hoping for, a national strike...
MADELEINE COLLINS – France (Southern CA Premiere)
Genre: Psychological Thriller Run Time: 102 minutes Country: France/Belgium/Switzerland Language: French with English subtitles Premiere: Southern California Director: Antoine Barraud Principal Cast: Virginie Efira, Quim Gutierrez, Bruno Salomone &...
BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY (Filmmaker guests)
When Gloria Swanson, the iconic star of Sunset Boulevard, saw an opportunity to parlay her silent film glory into a new phase of her career, she began to envision a musical stage adaptation of her most famous film. Enter, Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, two...
PLAYGROUND / UN MONDE (Belgium)
Won prizes in seven categories at Belgium’s MAGRITTE AWARDS (focused on French language Belgium films) on Saturday, February 12, 2022. PLAYGROUND was Belgium’s Oscar best international film entry this year, making it into the long-list but not the final...
CONFETTI – China/USA
* * * N O T E D A T E C H A N G E * * * How far would a mother go to reverse her child’s fate? Based on writer/director Ann Hu’s story, that’s the question facing Lan, who travels with her 9-year-old severely dyslexic daughter from their small town in China...
NIGHT DOCTOR / Médecin de nuit (France)
Mikaël is a doctor on night call. He looks after patients from underprivileged neighborhoods, as well as those whom no one else wants to see: drug addicts, homeless people, those living in challenging areas, His life is chaotic. Torn between his wife and his...
IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE (South Korea)
After years of living abroad, a middle-aged former actress (Lee Hye-young) has returned to Seoul to reconnect with her past and perhaps make amends. Over the course of one day in Seoul, via various encounters—including with her younger sister; a shopkeeper who lives...
SECRET NAME / La place d’une autre (France)
Trailer: https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film553075.html The Young French Cinema program, presented by Unifrance and Villa Albertine, once again shines the spotlight on new generation French filmmakers whose works offer a combination of visually innovative approaches...
THE DAZZLED / LES ÉBLOUIS (France)
Trailer: http://inter.pyramidefilms.com/pyramidefilms-international-catalogue/the-dazzled.html THE DAZZLED is a selection from ‘Tales of Europe’, a curated touring program dedicated to supporting the circulation of prestigious European films and is...
BLACK BOX / Boite noire (France)
Matthieu is a young and talented black box analyst on a mission to solve the reason behind the deadly crash of a brand new aircraft. Yet, when the case is closed by authorities, Matthieu cannot help but sense there is something wrong with the evidence. As he listens...
YOU WILL REMEMBER ME (Canada)
Edouard (Remy Girard, Les Invasion Barbares), a public figure and retired History teacher, is slowly starting to lose his memory. Accustomed to speaking on all the stands, he must make himself more discreet, even if he believes he still has a lot to say. Edouard’s...
PAUL NEWMAN, BEHIND BLUE EYES! (France) + 2 shorts
His beauty, masculinity and intelligence, and of course the color of his eyes, have followed Paul Newman throughout his life. Annoyed by the incessant references to his apparent sex appeal, the actor did everything he could to change the perception of him as a...
THE WEASELS TALE / (El cuento de las comadrejas)
New Comic Thriller “The Weasel’s Tale” From Oscar-Winning Director of “The Secret in Their Eyes” Juan Jose Campanella 85% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes “Old-fashioned fare with an up-to-date edge…enjoyably over-the-top.”...
THERE ARE NO LIONS IN TEL AVIV (Israel)
The story of the chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Copenhagen, who would become to be known as Rabbi Dolittle Arriving in Tel Aviv in 1936, Max Shorenstein left his honorable position, in order to fulfill a longtime dream: to build a zoo and teach the children of...
CONVICTION (France | Belgium)
Une intime conviction is based on a real-life case. This French courtroom thriller brings together law professor Jacques Viguier (Laurent Lucas) a man accused of killing his wife and Nora, obsessed with proving his innocence. As a juror at Jacques Viguier’s trial,...Welcome
Special Notice:Effective 04/10/2023 Covid Guidelines: Seating is socially distanced so please allow a two-seat buffer between parties and do not sit directly behind anyone. Masks are no longer required, but recommended, Free to DFS members. Guests pay $15 cash at...
BEST OF DORIEN B. (Flanders)
BEST OF DORIEN B. West Coast Premiere A thirty something married mother of two with a flourishing veterinary practice sees her hitherto settled life start to crumble all at once. An unsentimental treatment and lots of wry humor balance out the chaos in a film where...
THE KEEPER (U.K., Germany)
THE KEEPER Southern California Premiere The true story of Bert Trautmann, German POW and English soccer star. A heartfelt movie of romance and redemption following WW2. The Keeper tells the extraordinary love story between a young English woman and a German PoW, who...
THE GIRL IN THE FOG (Italy)
DFS members were given access to this film on 4/18/2020. GIRL IN THE FOG – Italy – 128 min – Crime/Mystery On her way to church in the hazy alpine village of Avechot, the quiet 15-year-old, Anna Lou, daughter of a religious couple, vanishes into thin air,...
HOW ABOUT ADOLF? (Germany)
DFS members will receive an E-mail link on SA, 4/25 to enable them to watch this film. WHAT ABOUT ADOLF? – Germany – 91 min – Comedy Southern California Premiere “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s lofty question takes on new life in this savage...
SILENT REVOLUTION (Germany)
DFS members will receive an E-mail link on SA, May 16 to enable them to watch this film. SILENT REVOLUTION – Germany – 111 min – Drama/History A gripping and true story set in 1956 in East Germany of a group of students who saw their life changed forever by a...
THE PERFECT NANNY / CHANSON DOUCE (France)
DFS members will receive an E-mail link on 6/6 to enable them to watch this film. Leila Slimani’s critically acclaimed, international bestseller “The Perfect Nanny” — aka “Chanson Douce” — is on the big screen. The story follows Myriam, a lawyer who decides to...
MRS G – Israel (plus 3 shorts)
DFS members will receive an E-mail link on 6/27 to enable them to watch this film. COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE MRS G. tells the story of Mrs. Lea Gottlieb, the legendary designer, founder and owner of the Gottex swimwear empire. Gottlieb was a woman full of...
WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT (Germany & Switzerland)
DFS Members will be sent a link on 7/11 to watch this film. Suppose your country began to change. Suppose that without your noticing it became dangerous for some people to live in your country. Suppose you found, to your complete surprise, that your own father was...
WHEN I BECAME A BUTTERFLY – Iran
Based on true events, a meek woman in an unhappy marriage and her emotionally distant son have to cover up her husband’s accidental death while avoiding his mother, employer, and drug dealer. She must get a job and learn to drive, to keep up the act to find a better...
MY DOG STUPID / Mon chien stupide (France & Belgium)
MY DOG STUPID is based on the short story of the same name written by novelist John Fante published in 1985 and translated into French in 1987.. The film is a bitter sweet comedy about a middle-age couple, whose already poor marital bliss is being challenged by the...
OH MERCY! (France)
Based upon a true murder case where during a somber Christmas season, a French-Algerian detective is investigating the fatal strangulation of a poor, elderly woman in her apartment with suspicion falling on her next-door neighbors. Starring Roschdy Zem and Léa...
AFRICAN VIOLET (Iran)
Middle-aged Shokoo (Fatemeh Motamed Arya) finds out that ex-husband, Fereydoun, has been placed in a nursing home by their children. She, and second husband Reza, decide to take care of Fereydoun themselves in their own home. In doing so, however, this new situation...
THE INVISIBLE WITNESS (Italy)
Adriano wakes up in a hotel room next to the dead body of his lover, Laura. The door is locked from the inside and there is no evidence of anybody else in the room. Despite he claims his innocence, the man is charged with murder and chooses Virginia Ferrara, a...
EMMA PEETERS (Belgium)
Southern California Premiere Emma Peeters will soon be 35 and has yet to accomplish something. After years of hardship in Paris in trying to become an actress, an idea strikes her fancy: bringing her days to an end in a week’s time, on her birthday. In the process...
THE ORCHESTRA CLASS (France)
WEST COAST PREMIERE When violinist Simon Daoud is hired to teach the violin to a class of unruly junior high school students in an immigrant suburb of Paris, his first instinct is to run back to his rarefied world of classical string quartets. His mission to teach...
DEAR FREDY (Israel)
Co-Sponsor with CINEMA DIVERSE. Please note film will start promptly at 9:30 AM A Heroic Gay Jewish Sportsman Who Ended Up in Auschwitz Fredy Hirsch was born in Germany, a proud Jew and openly gay man he was 19 years old when the Nuremberg Laws were published,...
SINK OR SWIM (France/Belgium)
With buoyant energy, Gilles Lellouche choreographs and directs a stellar ensemble in pursuit of grace and discarded dreams—that is, a group of varyingly coordinated middle-aged men who find an outlet in synchronized swimming. Bertrand (Mathieu Amalric, soulful yet...
GASPARD AT THE WEDDING (France/Belgium)
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PREMIERE Shortly after their chance meeting, Gaspard asks Laura if she will accompany him to his family home and pose as his girlfriend at his father’s second wedding. At this point, viewers will probably assume they’re dealing with a familiar and...
MY POLISH HONEYMOON (France)
Anna and Adam, a young Parisian couple with Jewish origins, are about to travel to Poland for the first time. Technically speaking this will be their honeymoon. They will attend a ceremony in memory of the Jewish community in the village of Adam’s grandfather,...
SIR (India)
Ratna works as domestic live-in help with Ashwin, a man from a wealthy family. Although Ashwin seems to have it all, Ratna can sense that he has given up on his dreams and is somewhat lost… On the other hand, Ratna who seems to have nothing, is full of hope and works...
DYING FOR A CHILD (France)
US PREMIERE The body of Florence Varthy, daughter of a well-known entrepreneur, is found dead in her garage. Over the last few months, Florence and her partner, unable to have a child of their own, had faked her pregnancy and arranged for a surrogate mother, which is...
LEONA (Mexico)
LEONA is an intimate, insightful, and moving film that tells the story of a young Jewish woman from Mexico City who finds herself torn between her family and her forbidden love. Ripe with all the drama and interpersonal conflicts of a Jane Austen novel, watching her...
IMPERFECT AGE (Italy)
WEST COAST PREMIERE Camilla is a seventeen year old who has the dream of becoming a dancer, despite her mother’s concerns. One day in dance she meets Sara, an aspiring dancer like her, and her life will never be the same. Director: Ulisse Lendaro Writer: Cosimo...
RETURN OF THE HERO/LE RETOUR DU HEROS (France/Belgium)
France, 1809 and the dashing Capitaine Charles-Grégoire Neuville has just become engaged to the young Pauline when he is called away to the front. He promises that he will write every day, but he does not. The impressionable Pauline hysterically falls ill with...
TAZZEKA (Morocco/France) Showing with PRESTIGE INGREDIENTS
Growing up in the Moroccan village of Tazzeka, Elias learned the secrets of traditional Moroccan cuisine from his grandmother who raised him. Years later, meeting a top Paris chef and a young woman named Salma inspires him to leave home. In Paris, Elias faces...
ZAGROS (Belgium)
Kurdish shepherd Zagros is stunned to learn that his family has accused his wife of infidelity and that she has fled with their daughter. Convinced of her innocence, Zagros leaves his family and joins his wife in the west. While trying to adjust to a new life in a...
BAD GENIUS (Thailand)
Playing on the Thai obsession with academic achievement and test taking, Bad Genius is a comedic heist thriller that plays out in a prestigious high school. Genius student Lynn arrives on a full scholarship. When her friend Grace needs a few test answers, Lynn helps...
CATCH THE WIND (France)
Edith sees her life turned upside down when the factory where she has always worked is relocated to Tangiers, leaving the workers with a choice between unemployment and moving to Morocco to keep their jobs. Estranged from her son and without any ties, Edith is the...
BENEATH THE SILENCE (Israel)
1973. Six years after returning from the Six Day War with a battle shock, Menashe realizes he will never be the man he used to be before the war. He can’t communicate with his surroundings, and spends his days driving away in his red track for long hours. The young...
SLIPAWAY (USA) GUESTS
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Filmmaker Guests: Julia Butler, Writer/Director Elaine Partnow, Lead Actress SLIPAWAY is a touching and thought-provoking film, shot on a vintage sailboat in the middle of the ocean. A spiritual journey of compassion, redemption and...
HOLY FAMILY (France)
U.S. PREMIERE The story of a traditional Catholic family in northern France, part of society but subject to all its changes. A wealthy family with close ties to a church that is facing up to the modernizing approach of Pope Francis. Madeleine de...
DEDE (Georgia/Qatar)
West Coast Premiere 1992. Dina lives in a remote village high in the Georgian mountains where century old traditions rule day to day life. Her grandfather has arranged for her to marry, but when handsome Gegi returns from war, she falls in love with him and they...
WRONG LIGHT (Thailand)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE A charismatic activist leads a globally-regarded NGO that provides shelter and education for girls rescued from brothels in Northern Thailand. As the filmmakers meet the girls and their families, discrepancies begin to emerge and...
AN ACT OF DEFIANCE (South Africa)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Dutch filmmaker Jean van de Velde captures a dark period in South Africa’s recent history, skillfully balancing a nail-biting political thriller with spectacular courtroom intrigue, while paying tribute to the legendary figures who...
INSYRIATED / IN SYRIA (Lebanon)
Trapped inside her house in a city under siege, Oum Yazan, mother of three, turned her flat into a safe harbor for her family and neighbors, trying to protect them from the war outside. When bombs threaten to destroy the building, when snipers turn the courtyards into...
KING OF PEKING (China)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE A Comedy/Drama set in 1998. Big Wong and Little Wong are a close-knit father-son duo. Together, they travel with their mobile cinema, projecting Hollywood movies to local villagers, but easy money comes with its own price tag. KING OF PEKiNG...
MIDNIGHT RETURN: STORY OF BILLY HAYES & TURKEY – with guests
Join us for an EXCLUSIVE Q&A screening of Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey at Camelot Theaters! After his ingenious escape from a Turkish prison in 1975, Billy Hayes arrived home to a hero’s welcome, instant celebrity and within a week...
EL ACOMPANANTE / THE COMPANION (Panama)
Academy Award submission for Best Foreign Language Film: Cuba: ‘The Companion’ NOTE: Start time is 9:30 AM. Co-Sponsor with CINEMA DIVERSE 1988, Cuba, those infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS were given free room, board and medical treatment at a beautiful...
SANCTUARY / Freistatt (Germany)
U.S. PREMIERE “May 1968: Rolling Stones, bell-bottoms, mini-skirts, sexual revolution, protests against the Vietnam War… While Germany sets off for a new era of freedom, rebellious fourteen-year-old Wolfgang gets sent to Freistatt, a foster home for difficult...
DARK FORTUNE /Finisteres gluck’ (Switzerland)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE DARK FORTUNE is the prize-winning adaptation of Lukas Hartmann’s novel about the aftershocks of a family tragedy. In the midst of a heated argument their car crashes in a mountain tunnel where four out of five family members are killed,...
TAMARA (Venezuela) with Filmmaker Guests
EXPECTED GUESTS: ELIA SCHNEIDER – Director & Writer JOSEPH NOVOA – Producer JOEL NOVOA – Second Unity Director & Screenwriter IBI SCHNEIDER – Associate Producer LUIS FERNANDEZ – Lead Actor The film is based upon the real life of...
HARMONIA (Israel) Showing with ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE (USA)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE HARMONIA is a modern adaptation of the mythological triangle between the childless Abraham and Sarah and young Hagar. Sarah is the harpist of the Jerusalem Philharmonic; Abraham is its almighty conductor. When Hagar, a young horn...
SILENT HEART (Denmark)
California Premiere Three generations of a family have gathered at the matriarch’s (Ghita Nørby) house for the weekend. Terminally ill, she wants them to bid her a final farewell, having decided to end her life come Sunday. Sisters Sanne (Danica Curcic) and...
HOMECOMING /Blóðberg (Iceland)
Gunnar, a sociologist in his fifties who has written countless self-help books, lives in a beautiful house with Dísa, his wife of thirty years. Despite his expertise, their relationship is on the rocks and their attitude towards one another is becoming increasingly...ROSALIE BLUM (France)
U.S. Premiere Based on the award-winning series of graphic novels by Camille Jourdy, Julien Rappeneau’s enchanting directorial debut ROSALIE BLUM is a warm, witty and impeccably performed comedy about a random encounter that has unexpected and far-reaching...
ADVENTURES OF MAX & LEON (France)
WEST COAST PREMIERE “Max & Leon is the first feature film from the stars of the French TV sensation The Palmashow: the creation of stand-up comedians Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais. In this epic WW2 comedy—in the vein of La Grande Vadrouille (which was for 40...
THE COUNTRY DOCTOR (France)
Southern California Premiere Rolling off HIPPOCRATES, doctor-turned-filmmaker Thomas Lilti delves once again into the medical world with THE COUNTRY DOCTOR. The social dramedy stars Francois Cluzet (“Intouchables”, “Tell No One’) as a devoted and revered countryside...
THE TEACHER (Czech Republic | Slovakia)
Set in Bratislava during the final decade of communism, THE TEACHER examines the abuse of power at a middle school. Zuzana Maurery, named best actress at Karlovy Vary, plays a terrifying instructor who heads the local Communist party and uses her pupils to manipulate...
A KID (France)
CALIFORNIA PREMIERE Mathieu, a Parisian, is 33, but he has never met his father. His late mother always told him that he was the result of a casual encounter. One day, Mathieu receives a call telling him that his father was Canadian, and that he had just passed away....
THE ORIGIN OF VIOLENCE (France/Germany)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Nathan Fabre, a young Catholic teacher, while working on his thesis about French resistance to the Nazis during World War II, discovers a photograph of a prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp whose resemblance to his father is uncanny....
CENTER OF MY WORLD (Germany)
When Phil returns home from summer camp he finds that his mother and twin sister, aren’t speaking to one another. Unwilling to confront his family during the last of the summer holidays, Phil escapes to hang out with his best friend. As the school year begins,...
HANDS OF A MOTHER / Die Hände meiner Mutter (Germany)
GUEST: FLORIAN EICHINGER (Writer/Director) At a family gathering, Markus, an almost 40-year-old doting father, is reminded of his ugly childhood when his 4-year-old son is slightly injured while alone with his grandmother. Writer|Director: Florian Eichinger Genre:...
DOLORES (Germany) showing with JOE’S VIOLIN (USA)
DOLORES California Premiere Georg Letterer is an introvert modeler, who builds detail-obsessed prototypes. He receives an order from famous Hollywood actress Dolores Moor to make a model of her extravagant villa. This is the opportunity for Georg to escape from...
HIGH STRUNG – Special DFS Fundraiser Screening – GUESTS
Tickets ($8 students, $15 adults) available now at Camelot’s Box Office or on-line at http://highstrung.eventbrite.com MEET THE FILMMAKERS! One Time Screening in the Coachella Valley Director/Writer – MICHAEL DAMIAN Writer/Producer – JANEEN DAMIAN...
THE NEW LIFE OF PAUL SNEIJDER (Québec, Canada)
WEST COAST PREMIERE Paul needs a dramatic change and quits his steady job. During his many walks and encounters in the city parks, he becomes a dog walker. If Paul can survive the wacky canines and their equally crazy owners, the cold Canadian winter and his wife’s...
SABENA HIJACKING- MY VERSION (Israel)
Coachella Valley Premiere SABENA HIJACKING: MY VERSION is a nerve-racking reenactment of a true story. On May 8, 1972, the Palestinian group Black September seized control of Sabena Flight 971 shortly after takeoff from Vienna en route to Tel Aviv. The next...
TRUMAN (Spain/Argentina)
TRUMAN Advanced Screening The latest feature from Spanish director Cesc Gay is a tender and honest portrayal of a man facing his own mortality, and of the companionship that sustains him in this most trying of times. Starring Ricardo Darin (“The Secret in Their...
FEVER AT DAWN (Israel/Hungary)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Based on the novel of the true story of writer/director Péter Gárdos’ parents, FEVER AT DAWN journals an unlikely love affair between two Hungarian Holocaust survivors recuperating in Sweden. Twenty-five year old Miklós has been given six...
MY KING / MON ROI (France)
PREVIEW Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot, in a performance that won her the Best Actress Award at Cannes) and Georgio (Vincent Cassel) are an odd match—or so Tony’s brother Solal (Louis Garrel) thinks when she tells him that they’re falling quickly, recklessly in love. ...
FAMILIENFEST (Germany)
U.S. PREMIERE One Time Screening It’s the 70th birthday of Hannes Westhoff and his family (his first and second wives and his children) gather for the weekend in his villa. Without consideration for losses, their mutual taunts, accusations & aversions run free....
WAITING (India) Showing w/short AND THEN, VIOLENCE (France)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Tara, a young wife, is alone in a strange city after her husband suffered a serious head injury on a work trip. He lingers in a coma while doctors wait for the swelling in his brain to subside. Alone at night, she turns to the only other...
IN HARMONY (France) Showing w/short THE MAN WHO SHOT HOLLYWOOD (USA)
Marc Guermont used to be a very much sought after horse stuntman in films. One day unfortunately, he had a bad fall from his mount during the shooting of a historical movie. And not only has he become a paraplegic but his insurance company tries to rip him off into...
THE PROSECUTOR, THE DEFENDER, THE FATHER & HIS SON (Bulgaria)
WEST COAST PREMIERE Inspired by True Events The Hague, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: Two ambitious lawyers face each other in the trial of Milorad Krstic, who’s accused of committing war crimes as a commander in the Bosnian war....
RENDEZ-VOUS (Netherlands)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Simone, her husband Eric and their two children move to the dilapidated farmhouse in France that she has inherited. Her dream is to turn the house into a bed and breakfast. As the hectic pace of the rebuilding gets underway, she gets caught...
ALL CATS ARE GREY (Belgium)
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PREMIERE Paul is a detective in his forties. Dorothy, almost 16, is going through a serious identity crisis. Paul lives on the fringe of Brussels’ self-righteous society, while Dorothy has grown up in its heart. They probably never would have...
L’AFFAIRE SK1 (France)
WEST COAST PREMIERE One of the most shocking events of the last two decades of the 20th century. SK1 is French police slang for “Serial Killer 1,” the codename given in the 1990s to a rapist and murderer who preyed on young women in Paris. Nicknamed “The Beast of...
DEAREST (Hong Kong / China)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Shenzhen, southern China. When their 3-year old son Tianpeng goes missing, Tian Wen-jun and his ex-wife, Lu Xiao-juan, find their ordinary lives thrown into complete turmoil. Overwhelmed with guilt, they struggle to cope with the...
ATTILA MARCEL (France)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Paul is a sweet man-child, raised – and smothered – by his two eccentric aunts in Paris since the death of his parents when he was a toddler. Now thirty-three, he still does not speak. He does express himself through colorful...
GITEL (Russia & Lithuania)
WEST COAST PREMIERE It’s 1969. Intelligent & witty concert violinist, Gitel Bargman (Marija Korenkaitettr), lives in a Kuybyshev apartment. To the outsider, she has everything, but Gitel hides a secret. A survivor of the Holocaust, she is haunted not only by...
MISS VIOLENCE (Turkey)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE On the day of her birthday, eleven-year-old Angeliki jumps off the balcony and falls to her death with a smile on her face. While the police and Social Services try to discover the reason for this apparent suicide, Angeliki’s family keep...
TO LIFE! (Germany)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE When young drifter Jonas (Max Riemelt) begins a friendship with ageing and isolated Ruth (Hannelore Elsner), their two lives become intimately intertwined. Raised in postwar Germany, Ruth, an ex-cabaret Yiddish performer with a suppressed...
THE FOOL / DURAK (Russia)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE The lives of hundreds of the dregs of society are at stake in this stark, grotesque portrait of a new Russia on the verge of catastrophe. Investigating a maintenance problem in a decaying provincial housing project, plumber and engineering...
THE TOWER (Germany)
WEST COAST PREMIERE “A devastating German television mini-series about life in East Germany in the 1980s as experienced by a cultured family in suburban Dresden. A sweeping overview of a society that operates on fear, secrecy and duplicity. The Tower reminds us that...
HIPPOCRATES – Diary of a French Doctor (France)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Closing night of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week, Hippocrates, Diary of a French Doctor is a darkly comic portrait of a Paris hospital as seen through the eyes of a young intern, Benjamin, played by Vincent Lacoste (Eden), who...
ROCK THE CASBAH (France/Morocco)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE When successful entrepreneur and businessman Moulay Hassan (Omar Sharif) dies, in accordance with Muslim tradition, his family reunites at their home in Tangiers to spend three days sharing their memories and grieving his loss. Sparks start...
THE FINISHERS (Belgium/France)
WEST COAST PREMIERE In a bid to bond with his father, Julien challenges him to participate with him in the Ironman race in Nice. The catch? Seventeen-year-old Paul (Fabien Héraud) has congenital palsy. His distant father is a former Ironman competitor, now unemployed...
THE GILDED CAGE (France)
WEST COAST PREMIERE For 30 years Maria & José Ribeiro have been living In an upscale Paris neighborhood,in the cozy little concièrge’s apartment of a handsome 19th century building. This Portuguese émigré couple are universally liked: Maria is a diligent...
LAYOVER (USA) – in French
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE FILMMAKER GUESTS JOSHUA CALDWELL, (WRITER/DIRECTOR) TRAVIS OBERLANDER, (PRODUCER) Simone, a young Parisian on her way to Singapore to get engaged, is forced to spend the night in Los Angeles when her connecting flight is canceled. After...
MATEO (Columbia)
Official Best Film submission for 2015 Academy Awards When the healing power of art weakens violence in Colombia. Mateo, 16, collects extortion money on behalf of his uncle and uses his pay to help out his mother, who grudgingly accepts the ill-gotten money out of...
24 DAYS (France)
For Israeli audiences, this scenario may sound horrifyingly familiar. A young man is kidnapped and brutally tortured. Except this didn’t happen this summer, but eight years ago – and in Paris. The victim was Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Parisian Jew whose murder has...JE M’APPELLE HMMM…. /MY NAME IS HMMM… (France)
WEST COAST PREMIERE French fashion designer and film producer Agnes Trouble makes her directorial and screenwriting debut under the pseudonym agnès b. with fictional JE M’APPELLE HMMM… Dark and designed to unsettle. An 11 year old runaway, the oldest daughter of...
REEL INJUN – Native American Festival – Invite
Native American Film Fest invites Desert Film Society members as their complimentary guests at a 9:30AM screening. SPECIAL GUEST: N. Bird Runningwater Director, Native American and Indigenous Program – Sundance Institute Born of the Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache...Events & Festivals
Community Events & Partnerships These are a few of the community events, festivals and partnerships we have developed over the years. Palm Springs Cultural Center Official Site AmDocs Official Site Palm Springs Jewish Film Festival Official Site Palm...
AFTERMATH (Poland)
Inspired by true events. Franek and Jozek Kalina, sons of a poor farmer, are brothers from a small village in central Poland. Franek immigrated to the United States in the 80’s, and cut all ties with his family. Only when Jozek’s wife arrives in the US, without...
BUDDIES / COLEGAS (Brazil)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening COLEGAS (BUDDIES) is a road movie that shows the simple things in life in a poetic light through the eyes of three young people with Down Syndrome, who love movies and work at the video library of the institution...
EL CUERPO / THE BODY (Spain)
West Coast Premiere – One Time Screening A night watchman is accidentally killed while fleeing from the morgue where he worked. When the police arrive to take stock, they discover that the corpse of a young woman has mysteriously disappeared from the morgue without...
CLARA (Germany)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Clara Schumann” wears the mantle of a period love story with attractive distinction — touted as the tale of the feverish ménage-a-trois between 19th-century composers Clara, her husband, Robert Schumann and his protege...
PARIS-MANHATTAN (France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Alice is an offbeat pharmacist surrounded by a nice but dysfunctional family. She’s still single to the great consternation of her parents. She actually met the perfect man 20 years ago… but he married her sister!...
PRIMA PRIMAVERA (Hungary)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Gábor, a middle-aged, simple-minded man, finds his life is suddenly thrown into chaos when his caregiver mother is shot in a bizarre bank robbery that he witnesses. He forms an unlikely alliance with Joli, a no-nonsense...
SHUN LI & THE POET (Italy)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Shun Li, a young Chinese immigrant, leaves her job in a textile factory near Rome for a small town along the Venetian lagoon. She’s driven by one burning desire – to somehow get her papers and bring her young son from...
HELENO (Brazil)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening A biography of the tragic life of one of Brazil’s greatest soccer players, Heleno de Freitas, starring Rodrigo Santoro, one of Brazil’s most talented and famous actors. Santoro was Raul Castro, in Steve Soderbergh’s...
A PERFECT LIFE / LA VITA FACILE (Italy)
West Coast Premiere – One Time Screening Luca Manzi, an Italian doctor who has abandoned life in Rome to work in a ramshackle hospital in rural Kenya, is surprised to hear that his life-long friend Mario Tirelli is coming to Kenya and assist him with the...
QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM (Romania)
US Premiere at NEW DIRECTORS / NEW FILMS FESTIVAL -New York, March 2014. Romania, mid-1980’s, Sorin (Sorin Leoveanu) a gifted mathematician whose career advancement is blocked because he is not a member of the Communist party, comes to the attention of the...
PAULETTE (France)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE In this amusing fairytale, based upon true events, cranky and racist Paulette lives alone in the Paris suburbs. With her meager pension she can no longer make ends meet. Writers: Laurie Aubanel, Jérôme Enrico Director: Jérôme Enrico...
A WOLF AT THE DOOR (Brazil)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Set in Rio de Janeiro, “A Wolf at the Door” is an absorbing & challanging thriller about a kidnapped child and the terror of the parents left behind. When Sylvia (Fabíula Nascimento) discovers her 6 yr old daughter has been...
CLOSED SEASON /ENDE DER SCHONZEIT (Germany)
Bruno, a young German entomology student, travels to an Israeli kibbutz, but he is not seeking a romantic experience in the young Zionist state, nor will he make any scientific discoveries. Before her death, Bruno’s mother told him to deliver a letter to Avi, a...
BRASSERIE ROMANTIEK (Belgium)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Forty-something Pascaline runs a brasserie and her stylish dining room is fully booked for Valentine’s Day. She thinks she’s prepared everything. But how could she expect that an old flame from 20 years ago would suddenly...
WHERE I BELONG (UK & Austria)
U.S. PREMIERE WHERE I BELONG is a riveting historical drama that portrays the power of love and forgiveness during even the darkest of times. Rosemarie is a hard working young woman living in a small English town in the 1950’s with her father. They had lost...
NAOMI / HITPARTZUT X (Israel, France)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Ilan Ben Natan, a 58-year-old Astrophysics Professor, is obsessively in love with his young wife, Naomi. When Ilan discovers that his deepest fears have come true – Naomi has a lover – he is unable to control himself. He stalks and confronts...
POUR UNE FEMME/FOR A WOMAN (France)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Anne has a very active imagination, only natural for a writer. But in her mid-thirties, she still knows practically nothing of her own family’s past. After her mother’s death, Anne discovers old photos and letters that convince...
THE STURGEON QUEENS (USA), GUS (USA) and IN BED AT 10 PM (Israel)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERES STURGEON QUEENS: 100-year-old Hattie Russ Gold and her sister, 92-year-old Anne Russ Federman, have life stories that hit all the key notes of the New York Jewish immigrant experience: hardwork, humor, romance, and a little tsuris. Hattie...
THE MAJOR (Russia)
COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Coachella Valley Premiere There’s no way back, once you cross the line Playing out over the course of one day, The Major is a gripping drama that sees screenwriter-director Yuri Bykov deliver an indicting criticism of police corruption and...Submissions
Film Submissions The Desert Film Society presents one time screenings of Independent and Foreign films that are not yet booked theatrically in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage, CA) and are not yet available on rental shelves....Volunteer
Volunteer Desert Film Society volunteers are a diligent, flexible and hard-working group of people who are dedicated to the betterment of the Desert Film Society. To be considered for a volunteer post, you must be an active DFS member and complete the...
Membership
Membership Information Since 2002, Desert Film Society has promoted the passion for world cinema in the Coachella Valley by providing Society members and guests an opportunity to view the latest in art, global and independent film and educating members by...Sponsorship
Support Us The Desert Film Society seeks partnerships which meet the needs of the client, the Society and our audience.Association with the Desert Film Society may provide your company substantial access to a large and valuable group of people. We now have a...
THREE WORLDS (France)
One Time Screening Al, a young man from a modest background, is ten days away from marrying the daughter of his boss, along with succeeding him as the head of the car dealership where Al has been working for most of his life. Coming back drunk from his...
FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY (Iran)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time ScreeningAll of Tehran is preparing to celebrate Chaharshanbe-Soori, or the festival of fire, which falls on the last Tuesday night before...
MY BEST ENEMY (Austria)
One Time Screening Suspense, betrayal, romance and...
LITTLE ROSE (Poland)
One Time ScreeningA true story about divided loyalties and misguided love play out against a...
MELTING AWAY (Israel)
Coachella Valley Premiere -One Time...
A QUIET LIFE / Una Vita Tranquilla (Germany)
West Coast Premiere – One Time ScreeningChef Rosario seems to live his life as a restaurant owner with a new wife and a little son in Germany but is...
BREATHING (Austria)
One Time ScreeningMasterful directorial debut from Austrian...
KADDISH FOR MY FRIEND (Germany)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time ScreeningMuslim teen Ali Messalam and his family move into Berlin’s Kreuzberg area, where he is pressured by his friends to vandalize the...
FREE MEN (France)
West Coast Premiere – One Time Screening In German-occupied Paris, a young unemployed Algerian named Younes...
ELENA (Russia)
One Time Screening Elena and Vladimir are an older couple, they come from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy and cold man, Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife. They have met late in life and each one has children from previous marriages....
HOSPITALITE / Kantai (Japan) + short film MISTFORTUNE
West Coast Premiere – One Time Screening Mikio Kobayashi lives quietly with his wife, daughter, and divorced sister in downtown Tokyo, where xenophobic neighbors insist on them participating in community meetings, and the most exciting thing to happen is the...
REMEMBRANCE / Die Verlorene Zeit (Germany)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Inspired by actual events, REMEMBRANCE depicts a remarkable love story that blossomed in the terror and squalor of a Nazi...
CHARLOTTE RAMPLING: THE LOOK (Germany/France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening A biographical study of legendary actress Charlotte Rampling, told through her own conversations with artist friends and collaborators, including Peter Lindbergh, Paul Auster, and Juergen Teller. Intercut with...
VINCENT WANTS TO SEA (Germany)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Vincent (Florian David Fitz) suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome and, after his mother’s death, is...
LA FEE / THE FAIRY (France & Belgium)
West Coast Premiere – One Time Screening Belgium-based trio Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy follow their acclaimed ICEBERG and RUMBA with...
LA RAFLE / The Roundup (France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Co-sponsored with Tolerance Education Center Special Guest: Jacques Silvan, who lived this experience Long a taboo subject in France, the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup is brought to stirring life in this gripping...
FIRST ASSIGNMENT / Il Primo Incarico (Italy)
West Coast Premiere One Time Screening Enthusiastically received at Venice Film Festival, Francesco Cecere’s exquisite drama follows Nena (Isabella Ragonese), a young teacher who is posted to a provincial Puglian town where she struggles to connect with the...
TOMBOY (France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Laure is 10 years old. Laure is a tomboy. On her arrival in a new neighborhood, she lets Lisa and her crowd believe that she is a boy. Truth...
RAPT / Abduction (France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time ScreeningIndustrialist executive Stanislas Graff (Yvan Attal) unapologetically leads a Parisian high-life, gambling away fortunes and enjoying trysts in a stunning,...
SHAHADA / Faith (Germany)
West Coast Premiere One Time Screening The fates of three German-born Muslims in Berlin collide as they struggle to find their place between faith and modern life in contemporary western society, caught at a crossroads where alluring liberated lifestyles conflict...
SERVICE ENTRANCE / Les femmes du 6ème étage (France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Conservative and tyrannical Jean-Louis Joubert, played by Fabrice Luchini...
CHAMELEON (Hungary)
Gábor, aided by his partner in crime and childhood best friend, has the perfect scam. He targets lonely women, researches them thoroughly and then becomes their perfect suitor—only to leave them at the altar after having cleaned out their bank accounts. Writers:...
MY PERESTROIKA (Russia) and GOOD MEN (USA)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time ScreeningsFeature and Short FilmSpecial Guests: Mark Rydell & Brian ConnorsMY PERESTROIKA: When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new realm of possibilities....
I MISS YOU (Argentina/Mexico)
Southern California Premiere – One Time Screening In the 1970s, Argentina was ruled by a ruthless military regime that waged a so-called dirty war leaving some 30,000 suspected communists missing. Inspired by actual events in the director’s...
OLD CATS / GATOS VOEJOS (Chile)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening OLD CATS is an emotionally wrought drama between an elderly woman named Isadora (Bélgica Castro) and her daughter Rosario (Claudia Celedón). Isadora and her husband are being pressured by...
THE ROBBER (Germany)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Based upon a true story, a champion marathoner leads a double life as a serial bank robber, sprinting between fixes (and away from police cavalcades) as many as three times a day. A lean, visceral...
TO DIE LIKE A MAN (Portugal)
Portuguese entry Academy Award, Best Foreign Film 2011 João Pedro Rodrigues’ latest, a hit at both Cannes and the New York Film Festival, is a mystical melodrama that tells the tragicomic tale of a transsexual who is stuck between her junkie boyfriend’s desire...
THE WORLD IS BIG AND SALVATION LURKS AROUND THE CORNER (Germany)
A story about a Bulgarian boy who grows up to be a German man. After a car accident Alex can’t even remember his name. In an attempt to cure him from amnesia, his grandfather, Bai Dan (Miki Manojlovic, IRINA PALM), comes over to Germany and organizes a...
THE MATCHMAKER (Israel)
Director Avi Nesher re-creates Israel during the summer of 1968 in this poignant, engrossing coming-of-age story. Teenager Arik Burstein is the son of a survivor who never talks about his past. When he gets a summer job working as a kind of detective for matchmaker...
ARMY OF CRIME (France)
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening In Robert Guédiguian’s taut, internationally acclaimed thriller, set during the French Resistance, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian) and his French wife (Virginie Ledoyen) lead a ragtag...
CARANCHO
* Argentina's 2011 Submission for Academy Awards Best Foreign Film * Coachella Valley Premiere Each DFS member may bring one complimentary guest Thriller starring Sosa (Ricardo Darín, "The Secret in Their Eyes", "The...
DOS HERMANOS / BROTHER & SISTER
WEST COAST PREMIERE One Time Screening They are both alone. They need each other but, at the same time, they despise each other. Siblings Marcos and Susana are unable to heal the old wounds festering within them. Marcos's need to...
ANITA
Cochella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Each DFS member may bring one complimentary guest. Anita, a young woman with Down syndrome, lives with her devoted mother (the “Meryl Streep” of Argentina, Norma Aleandr) above the shop her late father...
HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT’S INFERNO
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT’S INFERNO ”A dazzling evocation of what may be one of the greatest films never made” In 1964, famed director Henri-Georges Clouzo, (Wages of Fear, Diabolique,...
CARMO, HIT THE ROAD
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Marco is a lonely, handicapped, Spanish smuggler, driving through Brazil to sell out his cheap goods. When two bandits assault him and steal his load, he is miraculously saved by Carmo, a beautiful local girl who...
HIDEAWAY/LE REFUGE w/short BETRAYED
Coachella Valley Premiere Mousse and Louis are young, beautiful, rich and in love. But drugs have invaded their lives. One day, they overdose and Louis dies. Mousse survives, but soon learns she's pregnant. Feeling lost, Mousse runs away to...
FRENCH GIGILO
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening Judith is an attractive, level-headed woman in her fifties. She lives alone and regularly treats herself to the sexual services of young men. That's how she meets Patrick, whose kindness and simplicity win her...
UNDERTOW / CONTRACORRIENTE – special guest: Writer/Director, Javier Fuentes-León
SPECIAL GUEST: WRITER/DIRECTOR JAVIER FUENTES-LEON * Peru’s Official Submission – Best Foreign Film – Academy Awards 2011 * Coachella Valley Premiere “With the measured patience of a seasoned filmmaker,...
HERE & THERE
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening As a down-and-out musician barely surviving in New York, Robert has lost his mojo. An unexpected trip to Serbia offers a fresh angle in this tale about loneliness, cross-cultural connections and the...
A YEAR AGO IN WINTER
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening A grieving woman commissions a painter to do a portrait of her children: her 22 year old daughter, and her 19 year-old son, who recently died in a tragic accident. Directed by Academy Award winner, Caroline...
MORTGAGE w/ STUDENT SHORTS
A comic drama that examines how far a young couple will go in order to save their house from confiscation. The two search for creative solutions to obtain the money, while each of them believes that his solution is saner. Directors: Tal Granit, Sharon Maymon...
ANGEL OF MINE w/short PLASTIC BAG
A psychological thriller that gives two of France's finest actresses’ roles to sink their teeth into. Catherine Frot – opposite Sandrine Bonnaire – plays a woman who finds herself stalking another family once she catches a glimpse of their...
SAVIORS IN THE NIGHT w/short TOYLAND
“Saviors in the Night” is based on the memories of Marga Spiegel. In her narrative, published in 1965, she describes how courageous farmers in southern Münsterland hid her, her husband and their little daughter from 1943 until 1945, thus saving them...
35 SHOTS OF RUM
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening The soul of the story is the loving father-daughter bond the two have formed in the absence of a wife and mother. They are happy as they are, yet Lionel at times gently encourages his daughter's independence...
NORA’S WILL w/short HELPLESS
in addition to a test market screening of "HELPLESS" (10 mins) w/Special Guest, Brent Huff -View Trailer- Coachella Valley Premiere José finds out that Nora, the woman he'd been married to for 30 years and then divorced, has...
STILL WALKING
Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening “Still Walking” observes a family reunion at the seaside home of a strait-laced retired doctor and his wife; events are seen through the eyes of their self-effacing grown-up son, Ryo, a recently...Donate Today!
Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. Desert Film Society is a non‐profit 501(c)(3) organization.