From Tibet and beyond far beyond

The Beyond Borders Film Festival is a program of a Minneapolis society promoting Tibetan spiritual teachings, but you'd never know that from its eclectic lineup. The series, running at the Parkway Theater from Wednesday through next Sunday, is a grab bag of buzzed-about foreign and indie hits with hardly a prayer wheel to be seen. Throw a dart at the schedule and you could hit a psychotronic Japanese Godzilla parody, an Austrian crime thriller, a Minnesota-shot American Indian occult thriller or an Afropop musical biography.

Underlying that all-over-the-map diversity are some guiding themes, explained festival co-director Jennifer Manion. "There aren't enough Tibetan films to fuel an annual film festival. So we're trying to really emphasize cross-cultural understanding," a core value of the sponsoring Rime Foundation.

Although the fledgling series opens just a few weeks before the venerable Minneapolis/St. Paul International film festival, it's not aiming to siphon off films that MSPIFF would have picked up anyway, Manion said: "There are so many amazing films, both local and domestic and international, they could fuel many more film festivals in the Twin Cities." As a nonprofit enterprise, she added, the film series will donate its income to Twin Cities social service organizations.

The program opens at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with an American Indian drum group and dancers. Ojibwe activist and writer Winona LaDuke offers introductory remarks at 7 p.m., and the films begin at 7:30 with "Before Tomorrow," a prize-winner at the Toronto International Film Festival that follows the physical and spiritual struggles of an Inuit woman and her grandson. Other highlights include:

"Older Than America," a supernatural thriller about dark doings at an American Indian boarding school and mysterious killings that occur a generation later. Produced by Minneapolis filmmaker Christine Kunewa Walker, the film stars Adam Beach ("Flags of Our Fathers"), Bradley Cooper ("He's Just Not That Into You") and Wes Studi (who'll next be seen in James Cameron's "Avatar.") (9 p.m. Thu.)

"Angels and Idiots," renegade animator Bill Plympton's twisted take on human nature and spiritual transformation. A nasty lout sprouts wings that make him perform good deeds despite himself. (10:30 p.m. Fri.)

"Sita Sings the Blues," a playful, upbeat cartoon feature that accurately declares itself "the greatest breakup story ever told." Nina Paley's amazing feat of indie animation filters her boyfriend woes through the Indian bad-love epic "The Ramayana," enfolding the stories in sweet 1930s blues and red-hot new raga-rock. "Sita's" visual sources range from traditional shadow puppets to Betty Boop to frescoes of eight-headed gods. It sounds like a recipe for muddle, but writer/director/animator/everything Paley is sure-handed and high-spirited throughout. (6:45 p.m. Sat.)

"Revanche," a 2009 best foreign film Oscar nominee from Austria. What begins as a standard robbery-gone-wrong yarn darkens into a somber, tense, morally ambiguous revenge fantasy. The title can also mean "second chance," and the stickup man simply wants to finance a new start for himself and his prostitute girlfriend. When fate throws him into a small village near the policeman who spotted him at the crime scene (and the cop's restless wife), the thug's payback scheme takes a bizarre detour into poetic justice. (9 p.m. Fri.)

"Big Man Japan," a brain-boggling superhero satire. The main character is a sad sack who inflates himself to super size to battle monsters threatening Tokyo. Since this has been going on since the "Godzilla" era, the locals aren't too impressed. Big Man's TV show has lousy ratings; his agent is cheating him, and his wife has a new boyfriend. The superhero's adversaries are ultra-bizarre -- ever seen a giant bowling pin with a comb-over? -- and the battles are inspired lunacy. In one confrontation, Big Man and Stink Monster (smellier than "10,000 human feces" as Mr. Announcer helpfully explains), simply argue. (11:30 p.m. Fri.)

"Sugar," an immigration drama set in the world of minor-league baseball, from directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden ("Half Nelson"). Sugar, a 20-year-old pitching prospect plucked from poverty in the Dominican Republic, encounters personal temptations and social challenges adapting to life small-town Iowa. Newcomer Algenis Perez Soto is riveting in the title role, making "Sugar" much more than a sports movie. (7:30 p.m. next Sun. Directors present.)

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186