(France 2010, in French, 120 minutes)

Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996. Directed by Xavier Beauvois.

(South Korea 2010, in Korean, 139 minutes) 

Mija (Yoon Jeong-hee) is a beautiful woman in her sixties who moves gracefully through life, contemplating a trivial daily routine that is ill-suited to her refined persona. With elegance and a dash of eccentricity, Mija takes care of her ungrateful grandson Wook and makes a living by cleaning house for an elderly man. On a whim, Mija enrolls in a poetry class at the local cultural centre and begins a personal quest to find the perfect words to describe her feelings. However, she’s plagued by the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and struggles with new vocabulary and the challenges of the creative process. When her world is turned upside down by the discovery of a monstrous crime, it is Mija’s unique and touching poetry that allows her to defy the weight of shame and distance herself from a painful proximity to violence. Directed by Lee Chang-dong.

(England 2010, in English, 129 minutes)

A married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years, are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness. Directed by Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, All or Nothing, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky).

(Netherlands 2008, in Dutch, 130 minutes)

Eager to escape the damp and suffocating atmosphere of post-war Holland, Dutch beauties Marjorie, Ada and Esther meet each other on the immigration flight to New Zealand, en route to join their future husbands, who are already settled there. During the flight the three young women befriend Frank, a young man who is also immigrating to seek a prosperous life in New Zealand. In their early years in this new country, the lives of Marjorie, Esther, Ada and Frank become entangled in brief relationships of love, lust and family before losing touch. It is only when the women reunite again fifty years later at Frank’s funeral that they discover how much their lives had become intertwined through their different relationships with Frank. Inspired by the true story of the Last Great Air Race from London to Christchurch in October 1953, the KLM aircraft that won the race carried 40 Dutch immigrants to New Zealand. Most of them were young women on their way to join their fiancés already settled in their new country, and the international press gave the KLM flight the pet name “Bride Flight.” Directed by Ben Sombogaart.


October 23: Waste Land
(Brazil 2010, in Portuguese, 90 minutes)

Filmed over nearly three years, Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (Devil’s Playground, Blindsight, and Countdown to Zero) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.


October 30: Potiche
(France 2010, in French, 110 minutes)

When her husband is taken hostage by his striking employees, a trophy wife (Catherine Deneuve) takes the reins of the family business and proves to be a remarkably effective leader. Business and personal complications arrive in the form of her ex-lover (Gerard Depardieu), a former union leader. Directed by François Ozon (8 Women, Swimming Pool).








November 6: Carlos
(France, Germany 2010, in French, German, English, Spanish, and Arabic, 165 minutes)

Epic portrait of the notorious international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, who masterminded a wave of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East in the ’70s and ’80s. Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez stars in the title role. Carlos illustrates the evolution of contemporary terrorism as it examines the life of its title character, a Venezuelan whose real name is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. Tracing the arc of Carlos’ criminal activities across two decades and several nations, the film features a dynamic cast of international talent and was shot in numerous countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Lebanon, and Morocco. Directed by Olivier Assayas.


November 13: Nine Nation Animation
(2010, in various languages, 82 minutes)

A cat and a mouse carry on a dysfunctional relationship in a futuristic landscape. A Chinese monk sets out on foot with a tiger during the Tang dynasty and happens upon the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan. Two blue-collar workers dissect the meaning of “normal” life, as the world crumbles around them. A box of matches succumb, to their detriment, to the appeal of a cigarette. Four people recount their various encounters—triumphant or terrifying, euphoric or down-to-earth–with an unforgettable rite of passage. The World According to Shorts presents a selection of recent award-winning animated short films from the world’s most renowned festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand and others.


November 20: The Matchmaker
(Israel 2011, in Hebrew, 112 minutes)

Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves in the seedy area by the port. Yankele introduces Arik to a new world, built on the ruins of an old one. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, he falls in love with Tamara, his friend Beni's cousin. Tamara has just returned from America and is full of talk of women's rights, free love and rock and roll. The disparate parts of Arik's life collide in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways as he lives through a summer that changes him forever. Directed by Avi Nesher.

Do you have a Facebook account? Join the new "U Del International Film Series" group in the Delaware network to discuss films and learn more about our movies.

If you would like to join our email list, you can subscribe here. Type your email address and name in the space provided, then hit the "subscribe" button at the bottom of the page.