Highlights from the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival

★★★★

7 & 7:20 p.m. April 9 (Sweden)

The title sounds like a drab “Marigold Hotel” snoozer, but this comedy is a start-to-finish rocket-speed riot. Allan (droll Robert Gustafsson) vanishes from his old codgers’ home on the day of his centenary, causing a local tizzy. It also triggers an international criminal conniption fit when he makes off in millions in drug money. While thugs try to track him down, he reminisces about his youth and his undying love of explosives, which still makes him a hard guy to capture. Alan Ford, who played the iconic Mr. Big-type gangster in Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch,” is hilariously identical here, fuming at the knuckleheaded henchmen who can’t chase the slow-moving Allan. (114 min.)

COLIN COVERT

★★

12:15 p.m. April 10; also 8:30 p.m. April 12 (Russia)

This thriller with a ticking time clock narrative sees its naive, sympathetic lead trying to do good amid a swarm of crime and government. A plumber finds a huge crack in the foundation of a large apartment building, but can’t get anyone to do anything about it. The film moves along at a good clip and doesn’t shy away from delivering a tough ending, but there are times when director Yuriy Bykov pours on an almost-comical degree of miserablism. If you can endure its broad strokes, there are enough thrills to sustain its two-hour runtime. (116 min.)

★★★½

7 p.m. April 10; also 2 p.m. April 11 (Pakistan)

This intense survival flick follows a mother and daughter on an escape from their tribe after a grieving father promises the 10-year-old girl to a tribal leader to settle a deadly blood feud. They convince a kind but reluctant young truck driver to smuggle them away, but he quickly grows attached to the magnetic young girl and the despairing mother. Strong character development drives this nail-biting race through the dangerous, war-torn mountains of Pakistan. Rooting for the safety of the sweet girl, heroic trucker, and vulnerable mother will have you on the edge of your seat. (93 min.)

ALEX NELSON

★★★½ stars

Winning the narrative feature award at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, Britni West’s enthralling debut feature is a wondrous miracle and lovely ode to her hometown of Kalispell, Mon., shot on beautiful 16mm. West follows a dozen characters (with a knockout debut performance by Liz Randall) wandering around town looking for work, love, friendship, excitement and happiness during the dog days of summer. Consistently funny and moving, “Tired Moonlight” seamlessly blends realism and documentary styles. It’s an essential American independent film, discovering small-town pleasures and profound human connections. (76 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

★★★★

7:15 p.m. April 10; also 10 pm. April 16 (Spain)

A tense noir thriller in the gothic style of David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and HBO’s “True Detective.” In 1980, Spain’s Andaluz wetlands are shocked by two teen girls kidnapped and murdered. Two Madrid detectives arrive to investigate, with little reason to trust each other. The further they push into the swampland, the deeper they enter the sleepy small town’s corruption and misogyny. Superbly photographed, brilliantly edited, with every cut taking you to a suspenseful new act, and acted to perfection as viewers try to discover whom even they can have faith in. (105 min.)COLIN COVERT

1:10 p.m. April 11; also 1:15 p.m. April 12 (Haiti, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Argentina, USA, U.K.)

What do developing countries need? Trade, not aid, this provocative documentary argues. As foreign food and goods flood markets, prices and demand are depressed for local farmers and merchants — and that’s just one unintended problem. An impressive array of experts and easy-to-understand graphics trace the roots of the “global poverty industry” (governments, corporations, aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations, charities, celebrities and social entrepreneurs) to the aftermath of World War II and colonialism and present the case for partnerships, not paternalism. (91 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

★★½

3 p.m. April 11; also 3 p.m. April 18 and 1 p.m. April 25 (Belgium)

ALEX NELSON

★★ out of four stars

4:45 p.m. April 11; also 1 p.m. April 12 (U.S.)

Using Minnesota’s recent, short-lived wolf-hunting experiment as an emotionally-charged hook, filmmaker Julia Huffman explores myths and realities about the misunderstood predators, including their crucial role in the ecosystem. Interviews with acclaimed photographer Jim Brandenburg, researchers and Ojibwe leaders present a strong, if simplistic, case for keeping wolves on the endangered list. Unfortunately, Huffman preaches to the choir at such a patronizing pitch, it’s doubtful her film will woo anyone on the other side of the argument. (75 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

9:50 p.m. April 11; also 9:30 p.m. April 16 (France)

Teenaged Marieme’s bleak prospects growing up in a rough French suburb start looking up when she befriends three strong, buoyant girls who also happen to shoplift. In this beautifully executed rarity of a coming-of-age film — its heroes are girls, and black — boys play the supporting roles. Karidja Toure glows in the lead role, her face subtly revealing longing, confusion, bravado and uncertainty. From the opening montage of Marieme and other girls playing American football in full uniform, “Girlhood” resonates as something special. (112 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

Zero stars

10:45 p.m. April 11; also 10 p.m. April 15 (Belgium)

★★★

1:15 p.m. April 12; also 4:45 p.m. April 14 (Ethiopia, USA)

Ten-year-old Zemene, a young girl with a debilitating spinal curvature, happens by American spine doctor Rick Hodes outside a coffee shop in Ethiopia. Their chance encounter supplies a road to physical recovery for Zemene, but also catalyzes her educational development, as she travels from her remote village to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Adaba, for treatment and schooling. The documentary is as much about Zemene’s determination as it is about Dr. Hodes altruism. When intertwined, the two stories inspire us to not just hold steady but go out of the way to help others. (69 min.) TONY LIBERA

★★½

4 p.m. April 12; also 7:10 p.m. April 15 (France)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

★★½

6 p.m. April 12; also 2 p.m. April 20 (U.S.)

Former longtime MSPIFF director Al Milgrom’s documentary about students in 1970 protesting the opening of a Red Barn burger franchise in Dinkytown provides the current inhabitants of the Minneapolis neighborhood with a valuable history lesson. Milgrom’s film is replete with trite montages and a languorous pace, complementing interviews with aged hippies with images of John and Yoko’s Bed-Ins and Tricky Dick laughing. However, it does well to reveal the stark contrast between its Baby Boomer subjects — who combatted the first rook in Dinkytown’s corporate takeover — and the disaffected youth who today cherish McDonald’s as a neighborhood fixture. (95 mins.)

MARK BRENDEN

9:45 p.m. April 12; also 2:40 p.m. April 16 (Georgia)

A man and his teen granddaughter claim a small island on the Inguri River that surfaces during the spring, ideal for growing as much corn as its fresh, rich soil can sustain. This real-life annual phenomenon and the mix of strong visuals — with a highly cinematic use of montage to show this process without becoming dull — is enough for a good film. But it feels unfinished, and unnecessarily padded by melodramatic plot developments and some strange, creepy exploitation of its young actress. (100 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

★★

5:10 p.m. April 13; also 4:15 p.m. April 21 (Bulgaria)

ALEX NELSON

★★

7 p.m. April 13; also 7:10 p.m. April 14 (U.S.)

Bill Plympton is a truly singular voice in the world of animation, a real-deal indie filmmaker. But there are times when his specific style is better in small doses. This typically bizarre, far left-of-center story about infidelity may be for hardcore fans only, as the vignette-like structure gives way to a sluggish pace and feels cobbled together. At times it comes to life, but for the most part it’s a bit one-note and repetitive. (76 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

7:15 p.m.. April 13; also 9:15 p.m. April 25 (Croatia)

Tomislav Mršić’s community-theater comedy has less to say about the American cowboy than it does about the human spirit. The story of five small-town Croatian non-actors putting on a Western play (with tap-dancing!) has a closer cousin in “Waiting for Guffman” than “The Searchers.” “Kauboji” becomes increasingly funny, sad and inspiring; their rag-tag play is a metaphor for the film. Saša, the play’s cancer-ridden director, says, “Life can be boring, but a Western? Never.” Saša’s play, like Mršić’s film, is not a Western, but it’s not boring either. (109 mins.)

MARK BRENDEN

★★★

9:30 p.m. April 13; also 4:45 p.m. April 17 (Cambodia, U.S., France)

TONY LIBERA

★★★★

9:35 p.m. April 13; also 9:30 p.m. April 17 (China)

Having botched an unresolved murder case in 1999, detective Zhang (Lian Fao) hit rock bottom. Five years later he’s a security guard, and a similar murder catches his attention. He begins his own investigation by revisiting someone possibly involved with the original case, an enigmatic laundry shop owner. Writer/director Diao Yinan’s brilliant and beautifully stylized Chinese noir transfixes the viewer with its cynical cops, hazardous settings and a mysterious aura of days gone by before delivering a devious denouement. (106 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

4:45 p.m. April 14; also 7 p.m., April 16 (Spain)

Thrice Garrell builds latticed labyrinths, wood towers and cave burials in a Spanish forest adjacent to a highway. Thrice his creation is destroyed — with adversaries ranging from city council to vandals. The documentary borrows decades-old films based around Tarzan featuring the artist jumping in springs, cooking carp and being chased by ATVs. But the film turns from paleo-fantasy (think a Catalonian Christopher McCandless) when filmmaker Jordi Morató visits Garrell, now a renowned outsider artist. As his final forest village burns brightly, the documentary itself emerges as a send-up to an otherworldly creator. (77 min.)

CHRISTOPHER VONDRACEK

★★★ out of four stars

5:15 p.m. Tue. April 14; also 11:30 a.m. April 19 (U.S.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

★★½

9:10 p.m. April 14; also 3:30 p.m. April 23 (China)

Ann Hui’s “The Golden Era” brings the story of novelist and activist Xiao Hong (the terrific Tang Wei) to life with an epic, painterly sweep. Sadly, the tale doesn’t always keep pace with the ethereal aesthetic. What should be a portrait of a remarkable if plagued artist in early-20th-century China sometimes succumbs to the stilted tropes and moods of an age old-genre: the melodramatic, flag-waving biopic that traffics in various tragedies. Fictionalized clips of Xiao’s friends and family pepper the action and provide a documentary feel. (178 min.)

EMILY CONDON

2:30 p.m. Wed. April 15; also 8 p.m. April 19 (Poland)

In the early 1980s, Dr. Zbigniew Religa grew weary of Westerners asking whether Eastern Bloc surgeons only operated on dogs and cadavers. The charismatic, mercurial rulebreaker was thus inspired to start Poland’s first heart-transplant clinic. “Gods” tells the true story of its bumpy beginnings, including back-door funding, undertrained nurses, government raids and the inevitable deaths. Religa (Tomasz Kot), a towering figure in more ways than one, finally prevails when he listens to a dying mentor: “For a surgeon, a large dose of humility is essential for both failure and success.”

CYNTHIA DICKISON

★★★½ stars

7:15 p.m. April 15 (U.S.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

★★★

9:50 p.m. Wed, April 15; also 4:45 p.m. April 22 (Czech Republic)

And you thought dating in the Twin Cities was bad. In the impoverished Czech village of “Nowhere in Moravia,” options available to wearily promiscuous blonde bartender Maruna (Tatiana Vilhelmova) include the sad-sack mayor, a put-upon gravedigger and a chauvinistic roofer. Maruna’s family life isn’t much better, as she helps her nurse sister take care of their bitter mother. Scenes of village life range from touching to darkly comic to bleak to downright disturbing as people eat sausage and drink Holba beer and go on as best they can. (102 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

7 p.m. April 16; 7:30 p.m. April 17 (Ukraine)

A bizarre account of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, mixing dark comedy and remarkable biography. Fedor Alexandrovich was evacuated as a four-year-old, and his adult research convinced him the power plant collapse was not an accident but a Russian military strike. The eccentric artist links the radioactive disaster to a cold war signal whose transmitter chirped radio interference against Western communication, the titular Russian Woodpecker. Is he driven by paranoia, emotional scars or deliberate Soviet sabotage? This year’s winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner for World Documentary. (80 min.)

COLIN COVERT

★★★

12:30 p.m. April 17; also 7 p.m. April 20 (Canada)

MARCI SCHMITT

★★½

2:15 p.m. April 17; also 4:15 p.m. April 25 (Russia)

Marc Chagall is remembered as an iconic — and iconoclastic — artist, but 100 years ago he was just another guy trying to make his name. His ambitious vision to turn his Russian hometown into a mini-Paris attracted the best teachers of the day, including Kazimir Malevich, whose Supremist works out-moderned Chagall’s. This recounting of their friendly rivalry and art’s role in the revolution is standard stuff, leavened by odd Monty Pythonesque touches, and Chagall (Leonid Bichevin, a prettier Andy Samberg) is a callow presence. Malevich (Anatoliy Belyy) and Chagall’s steely wife Bella (Kristina Schneidermann) make more indelible impressions.

CYNTHIA DICKISON

2:30 p.m. April 17; also 6:30 p.m. April 23 (Denmark, Indonesia)

Director Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow-up to his bold, surreal and Oscar-nominated “The Act of Killing” takes a look at the same dark period of Indonesia’s history (the 1965 genocide) but from the other vantage point, here focusing on an optometrist who lost his brother in the massacre. He confronts his brother’s killers, still living happily and in some cases, still in power, and somehow finds the strength to attempt an open dialogue with them. While not as mind-blowing or surprising as “Killing,” “The Look of Silence” is perhaps the more necessary film. (99 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

★★★★

7:20 p.m. April 17 & 18 (Mexico)

COLIN COVERT

★★½ stars

9:50 p.m. April 17; also 7:15 p.m. April 21 (U.S.)

Looking for new meaning in his life after a divorce, Danny (Kevin Corrigan) decides to get into shape and meets personal trainer Kat (a dynamic Cobie Smulders), who is looking to get her life back on track after falling for gym owner Trevor (Guy Pearce). When potential romances begin complicating their lives, they unexpectedly cross paths with mixed “results.” Writer/director Andrew Bujalski has enough laughs and stamina in his narrative, although at times the flabby story seems to drift endlessly without much focus other than on ripped biceps and toned abs. (105 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

10 p.m. April 17; also 10 p.m. April 23 (U.S.)

Scarlett O’Hara, these girls ain’t. At the end of the Civil War, two sisters (Brit Marling, Haille Stanfield) and their slave-turned-comrade (Mena Otaru) must hunt and dig for their meager food supply, then fend off a pair of murdering, raping Union deserters. Daniel Barber’s beautifully shot and authentically set story is somewhat disjointed, but good acting and the women’s bond nearly make up for that. (95 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

★★½

4:15 p.m. Apr. 18.; also 3:15 p.m. Apr. 19

ROB NELSON

★★★

4:50 p.m. April 18; also 4 p.m. April 19 (U.S.)

Venezuela’s El Sistema, known for producing Los Angeles Philharmonic director Gustavo Dudamel, has inspired youth classical music programs throughout the world. “Crescendo” follows three young musicians (and some caring adults) at two U.S. programs. In Philadelphia, budding diva Raven lives with her grandmother and wants to be a pediatrician, while nerdy, intense Zebadiah enjoys the camaraderie of the Play On, Philly! orchestra. In New York, talented Mohamed derives joy from playing his trombone but struggles to focus in school. This documentary deserves applause. (85 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

7:30 p.m. April 18 (U.S., India)

On the surface, this documentary by local filmmaker Norah Shapiro follows the hopes and dreams of upbeat young Tenzin Khecheo as she travels from her Minneapolis home to compete in the Miss Tibet beauty pageant, held in India due to China’s exile of the Tibetan people. It’s also a glittering, bikini-clad object lesson in what happens when East meets Western superficiality, personified by a callow, corrupt peacock of a pageant organizer. The film doesn’t delve deeply enough into cultural contrasts to fully satisfy, but offers a telling glimpse of the identity struggles displaced Tibetans feel. ( 70 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

★★★

8 p.m. April 18; also 7:10 p.m. April 22 (France, Germany, Belgium)

MARCI SCHMITT

★★★

10:15 p.m. April 18; also 9:45 p.m. April 22 (Norway/Sweden)

When peaceful Swedish snowplow driver and Citizen of the Year winner Nils (Stellan Skarsgard) learns about his son’s death, he loses his will to live. Then Nils discovers his son was murdered and begins a path of revenge. Director Hans Petter Moland spices up his film with plenty of dark humor and an outrageous body count that would make the Coen brothers blush, although he seems to have adapted some of the Coens’ blueprints in creating a funny if familiar manic escapade. (116 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

11:15 a.m. April 19; also 4:45 p.m. April 23 (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden)

Based on the true story of a Dutch nurse convicted of killing several patients, this thriller (Holland’s Oscar entry) is carried almost entirely by its star, Ariane Schluter. Despite her gripping, realistic performance as the charmless, possibly innocent nurse railroaded by a cynical prosecutor, then championed by a junior lawyer who believes she’s been wronged, the film suffers a bit from unnecessary Lifetime-style melodrama. (97 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

★★★

9 p.m. April 19; also 7 p.m. April 22 (Vietnam)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

★★★★

4:45 p.m April 20; also 12:45 p.m. April 25 (Jordan/Qatar)

A muscular, audiovisually breathtaking Arabic Western. A serious parable set in World War I in the outer stretches of the Ottoman Empire, it includes a British Army officer, but is far from “Lawrence of Arabia.” The title character is a Bedouin boy who joins his older brother guiding the soldier across the lines. He has no combat experience but quickly must learn how to survive or perish. Filmed in Jordan’s stunning desert in long, unedited shots, it shows us the living and dead the boy sees, making us decide who is noble, who is savage. Do not miss it. (100 min.)

COLIN COVERT

5:30 p.m. April 21; also 5:15 p.m.April 24 (U.S./Sweden)

Painful, essential viewing. This documentary about 120 convicted sex offenders housed in a Florida trailer park is as touching as nonfiction films get. We hear from a half dozen, male and female, young and old, learning about their crimes and their lives. The film does not forgive, it explores. Understanding how abusive families trigger unpardonable acts, how tragedy scars for a lifetime, one doesn’t feel calmer. But by the time married filmmakers Frida and Lasse Barkfor finish, considering the residents unforgivable monsters no longer seems like the correct, simple answer. Through calm journalism they give us an ethical perspective on horrific things we rarely take time to see. (77 min.)

COLIN COVERT

★★★½ stars

7:20 p.m. April 21; also 2 p.m. April 25 (U.S.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

★★★½ out of four stars

9:30 p.m. April 21;also 7:30 p.m. April 24 (Belgium)

At times disturbingly graphic even by modern standards, this thriller about an emotionally damaged inspector on the hunt for a brutal pedophile is plotted, acted and paced on par with any episode of “Luther.” Nick Cafmeyer has extra reason to find the child-torturing killer: As a boy, he watched his own brother get snatched by someone Nick suspects might be involved. Aside from a few annoying implausibilities, “The Treatment” is smart suspense at its darkest. (127 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

7 p.m. April 22; also 9:15 p.m. April 24 (U.S.)

In the 1980s, as standup comedy began coming alive nationally, Barry Crimmins was the razor-sharp founder of the Boston branch. Bobcat Goldthwait’s poignant biography shows Crimmins’ politically charged material — truthful knockout punchlines thrown at the U.S. government and the Catholic Church. David Cross, Patton Oswalt and Steven Wright call him a cross between “Noam Chomsky and Bluto.” The story turns to unpredictable rough going as Goldthwait records the suffering that pushed Crimmins to a lifetime of abrasive satire. Hold the armrests when the answer arrives. You may never see a more excruciating nonfiction drama about a comic’s comic. (105 min.)

COLIN COVERT

★★★½ out of four stars

7:20 p.m. April 22; also 10 p.m. April 24 (U.S.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

★★★

10 p.m. April 22; also 10 p.m. April 24 (Belgium)

Another take on the infamous Lonely Hearts Killers, the basis for several films already. For fans of extreme pulp cinema, Fabrice Du Welz’s latest is often shrill and hysterical, but the spindly tendrils of its bizarre, docu-nightmare tone can seep into an open mind. The promising writer/director seems more at home in the broader confines of modern exploitation, or what Manny Farber described as “termite art.” Du Welz could grow into a truly singular voice in pulp world cinema. (93 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

5 p.m. April 23; also 11:45 a.m. April 25 (U.S.)

Documentarian Alexandra Shiva spent 12 weeks with a group of students and young adults in the autism spectrum, preparing for one of the most thrilling and scary moments in their life: a spring formal dance. With assistance from their group therapy sessions and teachers helping with social skills, “How to Dance in Ohio” focuses mostly on three women dealing with the anxiety and excitement leading up to the dance. While the tale is nothing flashy, there is compassion and sincerity for each subject’s unique story. (89 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

★★½

7:10 p.m. April 23; also 11:15 a.m. April 25 (U.S.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

★½

7:15 p.m. April 24; also 6:45 p.m. April 25 (Hungary)

Set in a gorgeous, sunshiney Budapest, this abstract chunk of cinema stars three curiously attractive twenty-somethings and isn’t much more than a spectacle. The narrative (sort of) follows these three on their low-key quest to find themselves, or their place in life, or whatever – it seems that not even the film is sure. It’s a lofty, disparate plot that involves a runaway bride, a basketball player and a cab driver. The poorly rooted storyline, wanting for character development and substance, leads to an ineffective “unexpected” ending. See it if you’re into depthless, pretty things. (93 min.)

ALEX NELSON

7:10 p.m. April 24; 6:45 p.m. April 25 (Argentina)

Here’s a new genre: Attempted suicide comedy. And it’s excellent. In this energetic farce, teenage Mariano can’t shoot straight enough to hit his head point blank, but even missing creates a lot of social mischief. Though it’s set in a recognizable Buenos Aires among lifelike characters, filmmaker/novelist Martin Rejtman’s movie is as anti-realist as they come. The film is a collection of poker-faced unrelated gags about urban life: Arguments! Pessimism! Dating! Parenthood! Renaissance woodwind quartets! They add up their meanings slowly, growing deeper and increasingly bonkers as they connect. It begins weird and enlarges with every following scene. (104 min.)

COLIN COVERT

Minneapolis St. Paul international Film Festival