Oxnard Film Society Screens the Comedy “Tel Aviv on Fire” on Monday, March 2

Carol Miller

February 28, 2020

Oxnard Film Society

Monday Night Foreign Film Series

Two Screenings – 3:30pm and 6:30pm

2020 Academy Awards® Best International Feature Film – Official Selection of Luxembourg

“[A] delicious investigation of the tightrope he walks between the Israeli army and his Palestinian colleagues as well as his dilemma of needing to write and not knowing the first thing about it.”

– Kenneth Turan , Los Angeles Times

March 2 – Tel Aviv on Fire

2019 Luxembourg 1hr 37min

Comedy/Drama NR

In Arabic and Hebrew with English Subtitles

Israel / Palestine, today. Salam, a charming 30-year-old Palestinian living in Jerusalem, works as a trainee on the Palestinian popular soap opera “Tel Aviv on Fire”, produced in Ramallah. Every day, to reach the TV studios, Salam has to go through a rather difficult Israeli checkpoint. There he meets the commander of the checkpoint, Assi, whose wife is a big fan of the soap opera. In order to please him, Assi puts pressure on Salam to change the end of the show. Salam quickly realizes that Assi’s ideas could be promoted to him as a screenwriter. Salam’s creative career is suddenly boiling, until Assi and the soap opera producers and financiers disagree on how it should end. Stuck between an army colonel and Arab support, Salam can solve his problems with a final master stroke.

Film Sponsor: Barbara Meister

Tel Aviv on Fire Trailer

Fresh and Fabulous is open for your dining pleasure until 6:30pm

SCREENING – PLAZA CINEMAS 14, 255 WEST 5TH STREET, OXNARD, CA 93030

The Museum of Ventura County is excited to be co-sponsor with the Oxnard Film Society in a special screening of Dolores and its

upcoming exhibit: Huelga! Photographs from the Frontlines by

Jorge Corralejo

March 9 Dolores

2018 USA 1hr 38min

Documentary NR

In English and Spanish with English Subtitles

Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century-and she continues the fight to this day, at 87. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one’s life to social change. Directed by Peter Bratt.

This screening is in collaboration with the Museum’s upcoming exhibit:

Huelga! Photographs from the Frontlines by Jorge Corralejo will be on display from March 14, 2020—April 26, 2020 at the Museum of Ventura County and from March 20, 2020-August 2, 2020 the Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula.An opening reception will be held in Ventura on Saturday, March 14 from 2:00-4:00 PM. The cost to attend is $0 for members and $5 for nonmembers.

On March 19, 2020 the Museum will be honored to host Dolores Huerta for a talk about her years working with the UFW, her work building community and organizing for change. The talk will take place in the Smith Pavilion at 6:30 PM with an opportunity to tour the Huelga exhibit both before and after the talk.

Dolores Trailer

March 16 Beanpole (Dylda)

2019 Russia 2hr 17min

Drama NR

In Russian with English Subtitles

2020 Academy Awards® Best International Feature Film – Official Selection of Russia

In post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha (astonishing newcomers Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina), intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. As the film begins, Iya, long and slender and towering over everyone-hence the film’s title-works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital, presiding over traumatized soldiers. A shocking accident brings them closer and also seals their fates. The 28-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing rendering of the persistent scars of war.

“Five stars! Brilliant… Balagov is a fiercely individual and quite staggeringly accomplished talent.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Unpredictable… impenetrable… breathtaking… audacious. [An] uncategorizable cinematic trip.” – Jay Weissberg, Variety

Beanpole Trailer

March 30 By the Grace of God (Grace A Dieu)

2019 France 2hr 17min

Drama NR

In French with English Subtitles

François Ozon’s gripping drama follows three men who band together to dismantle the code of silence that continues to protect a priest who abused them decades ago. Based on events from the 2019 conviction of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon for concealing the conduct of Father Bernard Preynat, BY THE GRACE OF GOD compassionately illustrates the varying effects of trauma on survivors and their families in this urgent portrait of resistance, the power of mobilization, and the mysteries of faith.

“A rarity: An important film that’s also utterly inspired … [Ozon] crafts a film that is engrossing from the start, while building to something greater and more emotionally encompassing.”

– Glenn Kenny, New York Times Critic’s Pick

“One of the most powerful movies in Ozon’s filmography … A great film that will stick with you long after it ends.”

– Peter Sobczynski, rogerebert.com

By Grace of God Trailer

April 6 Those Who Remained

(Akik Maradtak)

2019 Hungary 1hr 23min

Drama NR

In Hungarian with English Subtitles

2020 Academy Awards® Best International Feature Film – Official Selection of Hungary

Having survived the camps, 42-year old Aldo lives a solitary life as a doctor in Budapest. 16-year old Klara lives reluctantly with her great-aunt, holding on to hope that her father and mother will return. She meets Aldo, and soon the two of them find something in each other that has long been absent in their lives. As they grow closer and closer, the joy in both of their lives slowly returns. But as the Soviet Empire rises to power in Hungary, their pure and loving father-daughter relationship is misunderstood and frowned upon. A lyrical story of the healing power of love in the midst of conflict, loss and trauma, Those Who Remained ….

“Exquisite! The most surprising performance (of Telluride)—not just surprising but inexplicably beautiful—was that of Abigél Szõke in “Those Who Remained.” I do love it when, to cite the modest yet magical case of “Those Who Remained,” whole lives, including ours, can be changed in less than an hour and a half.”

– Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

Those Who Remained Trailer

April 20 Corpus Christi

(Boze Cialo)

2019 Poland 1hr 54min

Drama NR

In Polish with English Subtitles

2020 Academy Awards® Best International Feature Film – Official Selection of Poland

After spending years in a Warsaw prison for a violent crime, 20-year-old Daniel is released and sent to a remote village to work as a manual laborer. The job is designed to keep the ex-con busy, but Daniel has a higher calling. Over the course of his incarceration he has found Christ, and aspires to join the clergy – but his criminal record means no seminary will accept him. When Daniel arrives in town, one quick lie allows him to be mistaken for the town’s new priest, and he sets about leading his newfound flock. Though he has no training, his passion and charisma inspire the community. At the same time, his unconventional sermons and unpriestly behavior raise suspicions among some of the townsfolk – even more so as he edges towards a dark secret that the community hasn’t revealed in the confessional booth.

“Often moving but also disquieting and even intermittently funny, this drama unfurls a spiritual parable that is uniquely Polish but accessible to all.” – Leslie Felperin , Guardian

“It’s flawless storytelling, effortlessly played and with a rousing, if bloody, conclusion.”

– Kevin Maher , Times (UK)