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Iran/France/Luxembourg, 2025, Jafar Panahi
Vahid, an unassuming mechanic, has a chance encounter with Eghbal, a man he strongly suspects to be his former sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, Vahid gathers several former prisoners, all abused by that same captor, to try and confirm Eghbal's identity. As the bickering group drives around Tehran with the captive, they must confront how far to take matters into their own hands with their presumed tormentor. From master filmmaker Jafar Panahi (No Bears, Crimson Gold) comes IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, a searing moral thriller that engages with complex ideas about the uncertainty of the truth and the choice between revenge and mercy, as Panahi turns his personal dissonance into a profound and galvanizing work of art.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, and Oscar nominee for Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay. Subtitles. 104 min.
Post-screening discussion with film critic A. S. Hamrah and Oberling College Assistant Professor Josh Sperling. In partnership with Cleveland Review of Books. Books available for purchase before or at the screening through Mac's Backs Books.
Thursday 6:00 pm
Watch the trailer below:
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Iran/Italy/Switzerland, 2000, Jafar Panahi
The systemic oppression of women in contemporary Iran is told through the intertwined experiences of several women over the course of one day in Panahi’s Golden Lion masterpiece that is rife with anger and compassion. Panahi remarks, "I believe that not only in Iran but all over the world people live in circles of restrictions. Depending on geographical, political, and economic conditions, these circles are larger or smaller, but regardless of the size, people strive to enlarge their circles." Despite being banned, THE CIRCLE had some surreptitious screenings in Iran and was selected as best film of the year by the Iranian Cinema Guilds. Subtitles. 90 min.
Film critic A. S. Hamrah's pick.
Thursday 9:00 pm
Watch the trailer below:
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Tunisia/France, 2025, Kaouther Ben Hania
January 29, 2024: a 5-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, is trapped in a car under heavy fire in Gaza, the sole survivor. Her emergency calls reach the volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, who desperately attempt to calm and rescue her—the latter obstructed by IDF checkpoints and the unlikelihood of safe passage. In THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (Four Daughters) blends the actual phone recordings with dramatizations of the emergency workers racing against time to coordinate paramedics who could save her. "Violent images are everywhere on our screens, our timelines, our phones. What I wanted was to focus on the invisible: the waiting, the fear, the unbearable sound of silence when help doesn’t come. Sometimes, what you don’t see is more devastating than what you do. At the heart of this film is something very simple, and very hard to live with. I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes. That pain, that failure, belongs to all of us" (from the director's statement.)
Watch the trailer below:
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Hungary, 1988, Béla Tarr
The Nobel prize in literature for 2025 has been awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai. The late Béla Tarr's DAMNATION is the first of his internationally acclaimed trilogy of films written in collaboration with László Krasznahorkai (including the legendary Sátántangó). Damnation (Kárhozat) chronicles the doomed affair between bar Titanik regular Karrer and the cruel cabaret singer he pines for while scheming to displace her brutish husband. A poignant Communism allegory that solidified Tarr’s unique aesthetic, Damnation is photographed in an exquisitely black & white palette underscored by the mesmerizing long takes that would come to be his trademark. Subtitles. 116 min.
Watch the trailer below:
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Germany/UK, 2025, Jan-Ole Gerster
Tom teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband disappears, and the police suspect Tom. With ISLANDS, Jan-Ole Gerster builds a sizzling, twisty summer noir that reminds of both Hitchcock and Antonioni. 121 min.
Cleveland premiere.
Friday 8:15 pm & Saturday 9:00 pm
Watch the trailer below:
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Portugal, 1992, João César Monteiro
THE LAST DIVE is an urban folktale in the spirit of Fellini, yet shaped with Monteiro's distinct caprice. Eloi, a paunchy middle-aged man, finds Samuel, a young sad sack, about to kill himself by plunging into the sea. Eloi takes Samuel under his wing, bringing him to a seedy night club to introduce him to Esperança, who is said to be the most beautiful sex worker in Lisbon—and is also Eloi’s daughter. "[The film] is an afflicted yet sublime example of the dual nature of Monteiro’s gaze: he is drawn to carnal pleasures and glimpses of spiritual paradise, awash in natural light and poetry, shot under the influence of silent film, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and Lisbon’s traditional feasts." (MoMA) Subtitles. 88 min.
Two by Monteiro, New 4K Restoration.
Sunday 5:45 pm
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USA, 1928, Ted Wilde
SPEEDY was the last silent feature to star Harold Lloyd—and one of his very best. The slapstick legend reprises his "Glasses Character," this time as a good-natured but scatterbrained New Yorker who can’t keep a job. He finally finds his true calling when he becomes determined to help save the city’s last horse-drawn streetcar, which is operated by his sweetheart’s crusty grandfather. From its joyous visit to Coney Island to its incredible Babe Ruth cameo to its hair-raising climactic stunts on the city’s streets, Speedy is an out-of-control love letter to New York that will have you grinning from ear to ear. 86 min.
Cine-Selects. Staff Pick by projectionist Mike Glazer.
Sunday 2:15 pm
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(Above photo: Faten Odeh, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio introducing All That's Left of You 1.30.26.)
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| This Week
Thu., Feb. 5, 6:00 pm
Special Screening
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Post-screening discussion with film critic A. S. Hamrah
$12/$9
Thu., Feb. 5, 9:00 pm
THE CIRCLE
$12/$9
Fri., Feb. 6, 6:30 pm
Sat., Feb. 7, 7:15 pm
Sun., Feb. 8, 4:00 pm
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
$12/$9
Fri., Feb. 6, 8:15 pm
Sat., Feb. 7, 9:00 pm
ISLANDS
$12/$9
Sat., Feb. 7, 5:00 pm
DAMNATION
4K Restoration
$12/$9
Sun., Feb. 8, 2:15 pm
Cine-Selects
SPEEDY
$12/$9
Sun., Feb. 8, 5:45 pm
Two by Monteiro
THE LAST DIVE
New 4K Restoration
$12/$9
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Next Week
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Added film
TRAIN DREAMS
THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
EYES WIDE SHUT
ELVIRA MADIGAN
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
NATCHEZ
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