WINTER-SPRING 2025 DAVIDSON FILM CLUB SCREENINGS
JANUARY 11: WILD STRAWBERRIES
Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, in Swedish w/English subtitles, 1957, 1h32)
Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor’s own first love.
Discussion leader: Lawrence Toppman, former award-winning film, theater, and music critic for the Charlotte Observer.
FEBRUARY 8: GREEN BORDER
Directed by Agnieszka Holland (Poland, in Polish and Arabic w/English subtitles, 2023, 2h32)
In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are trapped in a geopolitical crisis cynically engineered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU. Finding themselves pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian family intertwine. Agnieszka Holland’s poignant and essential Green Border opens our eyes and speaks to the heart, challenging viewers to reflect on the moral choices that fall to ordinary people every day.
Discussion Leader: Dr. Alexander Kustov, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UNC Charlotte, Author of In Our Interest: How Democracies Can Make Immigration Popular.
MARCH 15: THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE
Directed by Ilker Çatak (Germany, in German w/English subtitles, 2023, 1h38)
Carla Nowak, a dedicated sports and math teacher, starts her first job at a high school. She stands out among the new staff because of her idealism. When a series of thefts occur at the school and one of her students is suspected, she decides to get to the bottom of the matter on her own. Carla tries to mediate between outraged parents, opinionated colleagues and aggressive students, but is relentlessly confronted with the structures of the school system.
Discussion leader: Qian Wang, Davidson Film Club member and Creator and longtime volunteer Principal and teacher at the former Great Wall Chinese Language School in Huntersville.
APRIL 12: IO CAPITANO
Directed by Mateo Garrone (Italy, in Wolof w/English subtitles, 2023, 2h01)
Garrone unfurls an epic, cinematographically magnificent odyssey from West Africa to Italy. The story is told through the mind’s eye and experiences of two Senegalese teenagers living in Dakar who yearn for a brighter future in Europe. But between their dreams and reality lies a treacherous journey through a labyrinth of checkpoints, the scorched Saharan desert, a fetid North African prison and the vast waters of the Mediterranean where thousands have died packed inside vessels barely fit for passage.
Discussion leader: Dr. Daniela Dal Pra, Teaching Professor in Italian and Interim Director of Film Studies at UNC-Charlotte.
MAY 31: THE QUIET GIRL
Directed by Colm Bairéad (Ireland, in Irish Gaelic w/English subtitles, 2022, 1h35)
Set in rural Ireland in 1981, this film tells the story of a young girl, Cáit, who is sent away for the summer from her dysfunctional family to live with “her mother’s people,” a middle-aged couple she has never met. Slowly, in the care of this couple, Cáit blossoms and discovers a new way of living, but in this house where affection grows, and there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers a shocking one.
Discussion leader: Seamus Hyland, member of the Davidson Film Club and Third Generation Irishman in the U.S. with family roots going back to 1800s Ireland.
JUNE 28: MY LIFE AS A DOG
Directed by Lasse Hallström (Sweden, in Swedish w/English subtitles, 1985, 1h41)
Featuring an incredibly mature and unaffected performance by the young Anton Glanzelius, Lasse Hallström’s beloved and bittersweet evocation of the struggles and joys of childhood tells the story of Ingemar, a twelve-year-old from a working-class family sent to live with his uncle in a country village when his mother falls ill. There, with the help of the warmhearted eccentrics who populate the town, the boy finds both refuge from his misfortunes and unexpected adventure.
Discussion Leader: Preston Toney, member of the Davidson Film Club Board and inveterate cinephile.