Preview of the 21st Chicago European Union Film Festival

Back in 1998, as a way to highlight the new films that were emerging from the member nations of the European Union—ranging from the latest works from some of the world’s most acclaimed filmmakers to the debut efforts of talented newcomers—the Gene Siskel Film Center at the Art Institute of Chicago introduced the European Union Film Festival, the largest North American showcase dedicated to movies of EU origin. Now in its 21st year, the festival, which kicks off on March 9 and runs through April 5, will be presenting the local premieres (and, in many cases, perhaps their only theatrical play) of 61 films from all 28 EU nations and covering virtually every cinematic style and genre imaginable. 

One of the traditions of the festival has been that the Opening Night slot is given to a film from the nation currently holding down the presidency of the real-life EU, which is Bulgaria this year. Hosted by Dr. Ivan Anchev, Chicago’s Consul General of the Republic of Bulgaria, this year’s Opening Night film is “Directions,” the latest work from Stephan Komandarev, who made the first Bulgarian film ever short-listed for the Foreign-Language Film Oscar with 2010’s “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner.” This film is a episodic drama laced with moments of dark comedy involving the activities of a group of five taxi drivers and their fares over the course of a long night during which the news is dominated by the story of a rich banker who has been murdered by the cabbie he was extorting and who himself now lies in a coma. The Closing Night presentation will be a screening of the German movie “The Young Karl Marx” (March 31, April 5), the new biopic from “I Am Not Your Negro” director Raoul Peck’s look at the early years of Marx (August Diehl) from when he was a controversial yet starving journalist to when he met up with the wealthy Frederick Engels (Stefan Konarske) to form a partnership that would go on to influence political, social and economic thought throughout all of Europe.

A number of guests are tentatively scheduled to make the trip across the pond to appear at screenings of their films. Italian director Fabio Mollo will attend the March 10 screening of his film “There is A Light,” a road movie featuring a young man still suffering from the recent breakup with his boyfriend and a woman who solicits his help in tracking down the father of her unborn child. “Miss Kiet’s Children” (March 16, 18), a Dutch documentary about a small school in the Netherlands in which all the young students are immigrants from places like Syria, will be presented by co-director Peter Lataster. Another Dutch filmmaker, Marleen Jonkman, will be on hand with casting director Rodrigo del Castilo for the screenings of “Messi and Maud” (March 23, 24), a Chile-set road film in which a woman leaves her husband while on vacation and winds up hitting the road with the young son of an abusive truck driver that she gets an aborted ride from. Actor Barry Ward is scheduled to attend the screenings of “Maze” (March 30, April 1), an Irish drama in which he plays the head guard of a high-security prison that was the site of the 1983 escape of 38 IRA prisoners, still the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. For “The Last Prosecco” (pictured above), an odd murder mystery from Italy in which winemaking is a key element, the March 24 screening will feature appearances from director Antonio Padovan and co-producer Alessi Gatti while the showing on March 27 will be followed by a wine tasting.

This year’s crop of films feature a number of very familiar faces up on the screen. For example, one cannot have a festival dedicated entirely to European films and not include at least one film featuring the great Isabelle Huppert. This year, she turns up in “Souvenir” (March 10, 12), in which she goes for the unexpected by playing a former singer whose career peaked when she lost at the international Eurovision singing competition (to ABBA, no less) and who now toils in a pate factory until a young co-worker recognizes her and tries to spur her to a return to musical glory. The film is awfully slight—it almost feels like its own remake—but Huppert is always fun to watch and genuinely sells her musical moments. Another celebrated French actress, Sandrine Bonnaire, stars in “Catch the Wind” (March 9, 14), a drama in which she plays a widow whose life is upended when the factory she works at closes and she elects to relocate to another one based in Tangiers. “Ghost Stories” (March 23, 29) finds Martin Freeman ("Black Panther") co-starring in an adaptation of the spooky British play about a spiritual debunker investigating a trio of cases that end up dovetailing with unexpected and potentially horrifying consequences for him. “Game of Thrones” fans may be interested in “Anchor and Hope” (March 23, 26), in which two members of that show’s sprawling cast, Oona Chaplin and Natalia Tena, take center stage as a lesbian couple who are split on the question of having a child. Finally, those who came away from “Phantom Thread” with the desire to see more of relatively unknown scene-stealer Vicky Krieps will want to make time for “Gutland” (March 11, 13), a slow-burn thriller from Luxembourg about a drifter who comes into a small farming village looking for work—he is snubbed at first but after a one night stand with the mayor’s daughter (Krieps), the townspeople become almost disturbingly accommodating.