The benefits of seeing films from other countries are big. Not only can you take your experience to the bar, cafe, or water cooler, and brag on your worldliness, but there is an authentic experience happening in your heart when you open the mind to perspectives outside your own world-view. I personally only had time for two screenings and I chose them by country: Spain and Japan.
First, I saw Nobody to Watch Over Me from Japan, a film about a teenage boy accused of murdering two little girls, and the media inflamed fiasco a struggling detective must weave through to protect the vulnerable younger sister of the accused. Set in contemporary Tokyo, the media consumed masses want vengeance from the presumed guilty family of an accused teenager -- before a proper trial has even begun -- meanwhile the detective copes with the painful memory of a similar case from the past in addition to the last thread of his own family relationship. The film offers a valuable moral on the power of hate and forgiveness while offering a cultural perspective of family dynamics in modern Tokyo.
Second, I saw Woman Without a Piano from Spain, a film about a mid-aged woman that attempts an escape from her seemingly mundane existence in the middle of the night, set in the first days of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Every scene is wrapped in mystery, every plot development is a cryptic moment without much foreshadowing or predictability, cleverly consistent all the way to the final scene. The cinematography stands out second only to the quirky character relationships that make this film so compelling. Not a thing is overstated.
You may obtain schedule times for these and many other films at the Northwest Film Center Website, click here or search for the Festival Schedule.