Featuring 11 Chicago premieres and three repertory titles
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center is pleased to announce the complete festival program and schedule for its annual Chicago European Union Film Festival. This highly anticipated event will take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center from Friday, March 1, through Sunday, March 10.
Now in its 27th year, the Gene Siskel Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has reimaged the Chicago European Union Film Festival by presenting an annual spotlight on the country that currently holds the EU Presidency, a leadership position that rotates among EU member countries every six months.
This year, the Film Center is featuring the best in Belgian cinema. Presenting Chicago audiences with a potent cultural immersion and showcasing bright, new talents alongside repertory favorites, the Belgium Spotlight will also welcome filmmakers and invite audiences to discover the tastes of the country through special events and concessions.
The festival will kick off with the Chicago premiere of the vivid and arresting OMEN (AUGURE), Belgium’s submission for Best International Feature in this year’s Academy Awards, with the film’s director, Baloji, in person.
Other festival highlights include Oscar and César-winning actress Marion Cotillard in the tender, intimate docudrama LITTLE GIRL BLUE; Belgian filmmaker duo Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni’s whimsical, high-concept comedy, THE (EX)PERIENCE OF LOVE (LE SYNDROME DES AMOURS PASSÉES); and the Sight and Sound Critics Poll #1 Film of All Time, Chantal Akerman’s JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES.
“We are thrilled to evolve our Chicago European Union Film Festival program this year, showcasing a dynamic lineup of Belgian productions or co-productions with other countries, including France, Netherlands, and even Cameroon, with more than half of the program directed or co-directed by women,” said Gene Siskel Film Center Director of Programming Rebecca Fons. “Our exciting selection of new films, fresh off the festival circuit, and our potent repertory sidebar provides audiences with an immersive dive into the richness and diversity of Belgian cinema, contemporary and classic.”
Opening Night, March 1: Kick off the festivities with the Chicago premiere of the vivid and arresting OMEN (AUGURE), followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Baloji, and a light bites reception, with Belgian beer generously provided by Hopleaf.
The Sight and Sound Critics Poll #1 Film of All Time, Chantal Akerman’s singular and astonishing masterpiece, JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES, presented on 35mm.
In Chantal Akerman’s hypnotic and methodical JEANNE DIELMAN, the daily routine and chores of a middle-aged woman are studied. Named the greatest film of all time by Sight and Sound in 2022, and recognized as a singular and astonishing masterpiece, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Its Chicago premiere was held at the Film Center on November 19, 1976.
Chicago Premiere of THE (EX)PERIENCE OF LOVE (LE SYNDROME DES AMOURS PASSÉES), is Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni’s charming, high-concept comedy. This festival darling, which premiered at Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival, is an irresistible and whimsical journey of love.
Chicago Premiere of LITTLE GIRL BLUE, a tender, intimate docudrama about writer and photographer Carole Achache, starring Oscar and César-winning actress Marion Cotillard.
A free screening of the Dardenne Brothers’s revelatory and affecting portrait of resilience, the 1999 Cannes Palme d’Or winner, ROSETTA, a starkly realistic and visually raw story about the 17-year-old Belgian Rosetta, a poor young woman struggling to hold on to a job to support herself and her alcoholic mother. Presented free in partnership with Alliance Française de Chicago, tickets must be reserved online or at the box office for admittance.
Other Chicago premieres include THE BELGIUM WAVE, followed by a reception featuring waffles by Madame Muriel and Belgian beer courtesy Wallonie Bruxelles International.
LIFE FOR REAL (LA VIE POUR DE VRAI), co-starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. Boon stars as Tridan, a commitment phobe who has spent his life at Club Med, living a life of leisure, trapped in a state of arrested development. Now, at 50 years old, he is determined to find his great childhood love, Violette. Things don’t go as planned. I will review this film in my column next week in the Chicago Crusader. It screens on Sunday, March 10, 3:15 p.m.
MAMBAR PIERRETTE – screening Monday, March 4, 8:30 p.m. & Thursday, March 7, at 6:15 p.m. Cameroonian born and Belgium-based Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam’s (CHEZ JOLIE COIFFURE) MAMBAR PIERRETTE makes its Chicago premiere after an illustrious festival run, including presentations in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and the New York Film Festival.
Set in Cameroon, the amiable but overworked seamstress Mambar busily prepares clothes for the start of the school year, while dutifully serving as a confidant for her customers and community. After experiencing a series of setbacks, including a torrential rain that threatens to flood her workshop, Mambar struggles to stay afloat.
A narrative film deftly balanced with documentary elements (the film’s nonprofessional cast includes Mbakam’s cousin in the lead role), MAMBAR PIERRETTE is a graceful and powerfully subtle portrait of the little moments that—compounded by systems of oppression—can suddenly redefine our lives.
You can’t be a woman, and particularly a single mom as I was decades ago fending for myself and my daughter, without having your heartstrings tucked while watching this film.
Mambar has her stuff together; she’s a damn good seamstress. However, it seems as if she carrying the weight of her village on her shoulders.
She tends for her ailing mother and her three children; two of whom are school age. She had worked hard making school clothes for other children and dresses for the local women—for which she had collected a hefty sum—only to be robbed while on a motorbike home at the beginning of a storm. But it was truly a setup.
The next day her home floods and she is hard pressed to save dresses that were still in the shop.
She persevered, even going to social services to summon her absentee father for child support. This is against the wishes of her mom and other matriarchs in the village.
Within all this, her sewing machine conks out and her power is temporarily shut off. But she triumphs and keeps it moving.
Fantastic near-the-end of the film scenes showing Mambar dancing and having fun at her cousin’s bar.
After all, she deserves it! A great film for a Chicago premiere.
IT’S RAINING IN THE HOUSE is Paloma Sermon-Daï’s narrative feature debut, which premiered at Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival. Seventeen-year-old Purdey and her brother Makenzy live in Belgium’s Wallonia region, where wealthy tourists flock for summer holiday, but where the siblings live in a ramshackle house with few resources and their distracted single mother.
When their mother takes off, they have to fend for themselves, with Purdey getting a low-paying cleaning job and Mak turning to petty crime. Starring her real-life half siblings, Sermon-Daï’s film—stylistically evocative of the work of Belgium’s Dardenne brothers—is a matter-of-fact portrayal of poverty, and a compassionate but unsentimental portrait of coming-of-age and the bonds of family.
This brother and sister pair are fantastic in portraying part of a splintered, dysfunctional family. Purdey is committed to getting a place for she and her brother. Mak doesn’t see much hope in their mom’s sobriety, but he doesn’t want to leave.
They manage as best they can, while trying to live as teenagers whenever they can—all while dreaming for a better life.
Tickets and Passes
Individual member tickets and passes for the Chicago European Union Film Festival: Spotlight on Belgium are available.
Tickets are $13 for the general public, with Film Center members paying only $6.50 per ticket.
Members can purchase a Festival “passport” to see five films and enjoy unlimited popcorn for $30.
Seniors 65+ with valid state ID and students with a valid school ID pay $8.
SAIC students, staff and faculty pay $5 for regular film presentations.
Opening Night tickets are $25 (general audience), and $20 for Film Center members and SAIC staff, students and faculty.
March 1 also marks the rollout of the Film Center’s first-ever Senior discount for patrons 65 and up!
The Gene Siskel Film Center is located at 164 N. State St.
Sponsored by the European Union Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through support from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI NRC Program.
