Universal Language- 1:00pm
In a mysterious and surreal interzone somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising and mysterious ways. Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to claim it. Meanwhile, Massoud leads a group of increasingly-befuddled tourists through the monuments and historic sites of Winnipeg. Matthew quits his meaningless job in a Québecois government office and sets out upon an enigmatic journey to visit his mother. Space, time and personal identities crossfade, interweave and echo into a surreal comedy of misdirection.
A film by Matthew Rankin

The Kingdom- 3:00pm
(Le Royaume)
The kingdom is Corsica, and in 1995 is afire with gang warfare. Fifteen-year-old Lesia, living a life untouched by violence, is suddenly delivered to her father, who is not only a fugitive, but a “capo,” and most certainly a marked man. Lesia’s childish innocence is soon transformed by a very unsentimental education.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat- 5:15pm
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
It is 1961, six months after the admission of sixteen newly independent African countries to the UN, a political earthquake that shifts the majority vote from the colonial powers to the Global South. As Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe in indignation at the UN’s complicity in the overthrow of Lumumba, the US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.
Featuring excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga and Back by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated by Patrick Cruise O’Brien), and audio memoirs by Nikita Khrushchev

Bird- 8:00pm
Bird is a hybrid — part charming fantasy, part gritty social realism — and always exuberant. Bailey, at 12, lives with her older half-brother, Hunter, and her manic dad, Bug, who is planning to marry. Bailey is not happy about this, but when she meets Bird, a strange fellow who thinks himself an avian, she finds a friend who is tolerant of her anger with her hyper father. Andrea Arnold, one of Britain’s leading filmmakers, has fashioned a breathtaking fable. Played Cannes.

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