The Wake

Despite Minnesota Film Arts’ financial and institutional problems, the 2008 Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival will continue as planned. Running April 17 through May 3, the festival promises local citizens a wide selection of cinema’s finest films, from acclaimed international films to award-winning American independent films. More than 150 films will be screened during the festival, and below are just a few that you might want to look out for. For more information on tickets and showtimes, and for a complete list of the films, visit http://www.mspfilmfest.org.

Beauty In Trouble

This is a new Czech drama from Jan Hrebejk, director of the Oscar-nominated Divided We Fall In Beauty. A woman takes her two children and moves into a crowded apartment with her mother and stepfather. There she meets a charming older man and they begin to form a unique friendship. Screenings: Wednesday, April 23, 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 24, 9:15; both at St. Anthony.

Big Dreams Little Tokyo

This is a comedy about an American man with an unusual ability to speak Japanese trying to break into the Japanese business world without avail. Meanwhile, the main character’s Japanese-American roommate dreams of becoming a sumo wrestler, but finds his inferior weight and blood pressure holding him back. The two struggle to find their identities in a supposedly global world. Screenings: Tuesday, April 22, 9:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 24, 5:15 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Citizen Havel

Famed playwright and president Vaclav Havel is the focus of this sharp documentary about politicians and the private and public lives they must balance. Havel faces the day-to-day tasks of being a president in the Czech Republic - issues like finding a saxophone for a visiting Bill Clinton and being told by his wife to adjust his posture during photo ops. Screenings: Sunday, April 27, 3:05 p.m.; Wednesday, April 30, 9:15 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Choke

Actor/writer Clark Gregg’s directorial debut, based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel, stars Sam Rockwell as a man who deliberately chokes at expensive restaurants to make connections with the rich patrons who help him. After his hospital-ridden mother (Anjelica Huston) tells him about his missing father, he finds himself determined to uncover the secrets of his childhood. Kelly Macdonald and Brad William Henke co-star. This film won the Special Jury Prize for Work by an Ensemble Cast at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Screening: Saturday, April 26, 11:30 p.m.; St. Anthony.

Irina Palm

Rock legend Marianne Faithfull gives an acclaimed performance in Sam Gabarski’s comic drama about a fifty-something widow who takes a job as a hostess at a shop called “Sexy World” to pay for her grandson’s operation. She becomes a surprising success at her new job, until her neighbors start to wonder what exactly her new job entails. Screenings: Monday, April 21, 7:10 p.m.; Friday, April 25, 9:25 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Katyn

The newest film from legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda is a multilayered epic set in the early days of World War II in Poland. Culminating in the depiction of the Soviet slaughter of 15,000 army officers and intellectuals in 1940, Wajda created the film as a remembrance for young audiences in Poland. This film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Academy Awards. Screenings: Sunday, April 20, 7:15 p.m.; Sunday, April 27, 9:20 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Manual of Love 2

As the sequel to last year’s festival hit, director Giovanni Veronesi crafts four connected stories showing the triumphs and tragedies of love. A young couple travel to Barcelona to seek help for their infertility, a gay couple makes preparations for their wedding, a waiter begins a relationship with a kitchen hand, and a car crash survivor falls for his physiotherapist (played by Monica Bellucci). Screening: Friday, May 2, 7:00 p.m.; Oak Street.

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies

This hit James Bond spoof from France stars Jean Dujardin as agent OSS 117, sent to Cairo to solve the mystery behind a fellow agent’s death. There he becomes embroiled in a plot featuring Egyptians, Arabs, Belgians and Nazis, all poking fun at them with a distinctly un-politically correct bent. A comedic adaptation of the French spy thriller and subsequent 1960s film series, it won the Best Film prize at the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival and was nominated for 5 Cesar Awards in 2007, including a nod for Dujardin. Screenings: Wednesday, April 23, 9:05 p.m.; Saturday, April 26, 9:10 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Poisoned by Polonium - The Litvinenko File

Andrei Nekrasov’s film is as much a study of poisoned former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko as it is a sharp critique of Russia under President Putin. The filmmaker had full access to Litvinenko following his flight to London as well as interviews with murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya and footage showing police and former Russian secret police intelligence agents at work. Screenings: Sunday, April 20, 5:05 p.m.; Monday, April 21, 5:00 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Roman De Gare

Academy Award-winning French filmmaker Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman, Les Miserables) crafts a complex and misleading thriller starring Fanny Ardant as a writer whose novels are eerily similar to the actions of a real life serial killer. Meanwhile, a young woman hitches a ride with a man whom she decides to be the perfect substitute for the boyfriend she was supposed to be traveling with. Screenings: Friday, April 18, 7:15 p.m.; Saturday, April 19, 5:15 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

Romulus, My Father

The directorial debut of actor Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge) stars Eric Bana as a man whose family is falling apart at the hands of his depressive wife (Franka Potente). This examination of immigrant issues in 1950s Australia, based on the memoir by Raimond Gaita, was awarded Best Film at the 2007 Australian Film Institute awards. Screening: Saturday, April 26, 5:00 p.m.; St. Anthony.

Savage Grace

This film depicts the shocking true story of Barbara Daly Baekeland (Julianne Moore) who was murdered by her homosexual son Antony (Eddie Redmayne) in 1972. An ambitious social climber, Barbara marries into money and social recognition. But as her marriage falls apart, she develops an unhealthy relationship with her son that eventually ends in tragedy. This film also stars Stephen Dillane. Screenings: Sunday, April 27, 7:10 p.m.; Monday, April 28, 9:40 p.m.; both at St. Anthony.

The Secret Film

Unable to release any other information about the film, the film festival website describes it as a “huge hit at a recent American Film Festival” whose distributor wanted to screen it here. Nothing further will be known until it screens, but it is likely to be one of the more popular choices at the festival. Screening: Saturday, April 26, 9:15 p.m.; St. Anthony.

Son Of Rambow

Director Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) crafts a hilarious and nostalgic portrait of 1980s Britain. When a young boy raised in isolation discovers a pirated copy of Rambo: First Blood, he becomes determined to create a film of his own. He bands together with a group of children to create their own bloody action film, all the while hiding their actions from the stern authority figures that ban all such things. Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith will be present at the screening. Screening: Saturday, April 19, 7:30 p.m.; St. Anthony.

The Unknown Woman

Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, Malena) directs this noir thriller about a Ukrainian immigrant working in Italy who’s past indicates that the meanings behind her actions are not all they seem to be. This film is the winner of the Audience Award at the 2007 European Film Awards. Screenings: Sunday, April 27, 1:45 p.m.; Wednesday, April 30, 7:00 p.m.; St. Anthony.

The Visitor

This film is the opening night selection. This film, Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2003 film The Station Agent, stars Richard Jenkins as a professor who finds a young Syrian man and a woman from Senegal living illegally in his Manhattan apartment. While apprehensive, he allows them to stay and a special bond soon develops among the three of them. Screening: Thursday, April 17, 7:00 p.m.; Kerasotes Block E.