“Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle” screened at AFI European Union Film Showcase

Sun, Dec 17 - Wed, Dec 20  2017

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center - Washington Embassy Region

On December 17 and December 20, the movie “Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle” will be screened at the AFI European Union Film Showcase at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. For more info about tickets, click here. 

Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle

When Anna (Ksenia Solo, ORPHAN BLACK) travels from Montreal to scatter her step-mother’s ashes in her Italian hometown, she meets Immacolata (Lidia Vitale), an old family friend who helps Anna fill in the blanks about her father, Guake (Gijs Naber). As we’re swept back to 1953, Guake embarks on a five-day bike trip from the flood-soaked Netherlands to the heart of Puglia, and Anna learns how the determined young farmer went on to introduce Dutch irrigation to the region, build a bustling tulip business and confront the local mob. Mike van Diem’s (CHARACTER, THE SURPRISE) colorful romantic comedy celebrates the power of storytelling and the joy of re-discovering your roots. DIR/SCR Mike van Diem; SCR Peter van Wijk; PROD Corrado Azzollini, Don Carmody, David Cormican, Hans de Weers, Elwin Looije. Netherlands, 2017, color, 90 min. In English, Italian and Dutch with English subtitles. 

Dutch co-productions

2018 Oscar^® Selection, Estonia

NOVEMBER (2017)

Sun, Dec. 3, 8:45 p.m.; Wed, Dec. 6, 9:15 p.m. Tickets 

In this blackly comic fantasy-romance, unrequited love leads to terrible revenge in the gloomy countryside of a 19th-century Estonia populated by witches, werewolves and the devil himself. Peasant girl Liina will stop at nothing to win back her beloved Hans from the visiting German baroness who has led him astray. Winter has come and things get harsh in this gothic tale that boasts some of the most striking black-and-white cinematography since IDA. DIR/SCR Rainer Sarnet, from the novel “Rehepapp” by Andrus Kivirähk; PROD Katrin Kissa. Estonia/Netherlands/Poland, 2017, b&w, 115 min. In Estonian and German with English subtitles. NOT RATED

2018 Oscar^® Selection, Belgium

RACER AND THE JAILBIRD [LE FIDÈLE]

Sat, Dec. 16, 9:15 p.m.; Mon, Dec. 18, 7:00 p.m. Tickets

When Gino (Matthias Schoenaerts, RUST AND BONE) lays eyes on racecar driver Bénédicte (Adèle Exarchopoulos, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR), it’s love at first sight, and nothing will keep them apart. But when Gino finally reveals his darkest secret to his beloved, can this fiery romance last? This sexy crime thriller from director Michaël R. Roskam (BULLHEAD, THE DROP) has it all: guns, girls, cars, a heist, two red-hot leads and the picturesque Belgian countryside. DIR/SCR Michaël R. Roskam; SCR Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré; PROD Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Bart Van Langendonck. Belgium/Netherlands/France, 2017, color, 130 min. In French and Flemish with English subtitles. NOT RATED

A GENTLE CREATURE [KROTKOYA] 

Sun, Dec. 17, 4:20 p.m. Tickets

An EU coproduction filmed in Latvia, Sergei Loznitsa’s A GENTLE CREATURE depicts a vision of Russian society that’s both brutally bureaucratic and essentially lawless. A woman (Vasilina Makovtseva) receives the care package she has sent to her imprisoned husband, marked “return to sender.” Her efforts to get an explanation and information about her husband lead her into a hell populated by Kafkaesque civil servants, opportunistic exploiters of misery and peddlers of vice. Beginning with a grimly realistic representation of the recognizably recent past, Losnitza’s film moves into a more expressionistic and nightmarish tenor as the heroine’s plight worsens, spiraling into madness and perhaps back in time, too. DIR/SCR Sergei Loznitsa; PROD Marianne Slot. France/Germany/Netherlands/Lithuania, 2017, color, 143 min. In Russian with English subtitles. NOT RATED

About AFI European Union Film Showcase

Now in its 30th year, the AFI European Union Film Showcase continues its tradition of bringing the best in European cinema to Washington, DC-area audiences. This year’s selection of over 40 films includes international film festival award winners, European box office hits and debut works by promising new talents, plus many countries’ official Oscar^® submissions for Best Foreign Language Film. This year’s selection of stellar European films will once again bring international film festival award winners, box-office hits and debut works by promising new talents to Washington, DC-area audiences.