15 must-see movies in Week 2 at Mpls. St. Paul International Film Festival

All films playing at St. Anthony Main unless otherwise noted.

In this thriller revisiting the dark days of the Peruvian military's battle with Shining Path insurgents, a retired soldier who was the aide to a much feared colonel now drives the old man on daily trips, serving as an ad hoc caretaker. When he discovers evidence of the officer's abuse of an indigenous girl decades earlier, the part-time chauffeur tries to launch an extortion plot against the now vulnerable aged man's family, triggering their own plan to trap whoever may be demanding payment. Tightly plotted around painful memories of the past, powerfully acted and crammed with twitch-inducing suspense. (109 min.)
Colin Covert

Barkhad Abdirahman (who starred with Barkhad Abdi in "Captain Phillips") plays Adan, a Minneapolis Somali man with nowhere to stay. He resorts to moving into a mosque and prays for help. Surprisingly, things begin to turn around for Adan, until he almost hits a stray dog as his luck changes yet again. Looking for a proper home for himself and the stray becomes more of an adventure than he would have hoped. Writer/director Musa Syeed ("Valley of Saints") supplies plenty of drama and honesty in this refreshing character study, while making great use of the local scenery and an adorable pooch. (82 min.)
JIM BRUNZELL III

A solid entry into the overcrowded zombie genre, even though it never finds its own path to become one of the greats. Instead, it's a very familiar take on the apocalyptic undead tale, but Danish. The good news is that director Bo Mikkelsen cares about his characters and makes a concerted effort to get the audience in their corner, as well. Unfortunately, the zombie action is fairly rote in comparison. It's not bad, just not memorable. But it plays even better with a good crowd late at night, so strap in for a satisfying ride, zombie obsessives. (We know you're out there.) (85 min.)
ERIK MCCLANAHAN

When reporter David Farrier stumbled across a "competitive endurance tickling" video, he decided to investigate further into the "sport." Traveling around the world to find answers, he found few people willing to speak out on what the videos meant and who was behind them. Farrier and co-director Dylan Reeve's hallucinatory saga begins as an amusing caper, eventually unfolding into the discovery of severe cases of blackmail, corruption and the underbelly of a darker Internet terror. Not quite answering every question it asks, "Tickled" still opens a dangerous "can of worms" of stranger-than-fiction journalism. (92 min.)
J.B.

Environmentalism, landscape devastation and corporate disdain for indigenous people are the battlefields of a political war in this electrifying documentary. When Peru's government passed legislation opening Amazonian rain forests to destruction through the extraction of oil, gas and minerals, it sparked huge protests by native peoples, who were excluded from the process. Spectacularly shot and emotionally gripping, the film is not a balanced portrait of competing fortune, but a passion-stirring argument against insensitive profiteers. While there are guilty parties in both camps, the film views the story like a top-notch thriller based on an urgent threat facing our entire species. (100 min.)
C.C.

This French-Canadian film from relative newcomer Anne Emond plays like a series of memories. Moments flit from one to another, compressing large swaths of time between edits and trusting the viewer to pick up the pieces. It also has a true lived-in quality that could come only from real-life experience. The story opens on a father taking his life, and moves through this warm, friendly family's experiences and the ripple effects unavoidable from such an act. Fear not — this is no miserabilist slog through depression, but instead a life-affirming, optimistic exploration of how cycles of melancholy can continue and also, maybe, end. If only we dealt with it more openly, the film argues, then we could begin to understand. (102 min.)
E.M.

The title refers not to a place, but to Fúsi, an obese, bullied bachelor who lives with his mother and plays with World War II models — seemingly the biggest sad-sack, undateable loser ever committed to film. Cajoled into socializing by Mom's boyfriend, Fúsi begins the tentative, painful steps toward finding a girlfriend. Meanwhile, neighbors look askance at his budding friendship with a lonely little girl. This isn't going quite where we think it is. If we see an ounce of ourselves in Fúsi, the movie reminds us of the little changes we can all take toward getting a life. (94 min.)
SIMON PETER GROEBNER

An interesting, at times clever take on the possession horror movie that never embraces or fully cares about becoming an actual entry in the genre. It's really more of a genre mashup, confidently bridging disparate tones and styles to mostly haunting effect. While I appreciated the resistance to becoming a more traditional horror picture, the alternate angles it takes instead aren't really any better than just going for pure scares. So what's left is a curio, but an interesting one at least. One that goes for hefty thematic weight (Poland's history with the Holocaust) over gory thrills, but still plays well late at night. (94 min.)
E.M.

SUNDAY

After her fiancé disappears, successful Sabina's life falls apart. She's sexually harassed and fired, loses her two kids and becomes a homeless drug user — all while pregnant. Although "based on a true story" and touching on Muslim-Christian tensions, this isn't really a movie about Bosnian life — Minnesota-based director Cristobal Krusen makes films with a missionary purpose. So what starts as a glossy commercial Lifetime movie becomes a preposterous descent into gloom, calculated to produce a treacly payoff of spiritual uplift. (125 min.)
S.P.G.

Sometimes all you need to make a warm, funny movie is two guys and a car. Here, it's a a snarky Buenos Aires driver for hire and his client, an aloof elderly Muslim who needs a cross-continent ride to Bolivia's La Paz, from where he hopes to make his hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Their culture clash gives us a charming look at mismatched opposites moving against all odds (and some awful roadways) to a touching relationship. Argentina's vacant back country looks beautiful in National Geographic long shots showing that people are the area's greatest natural resource. The winning way each gets on his counterpart's nerves is an ongoing snowball fight between polar opposites, leading to a conclusion that's far from chilly. (94 min.)
C.C.

Beautiful and lonely nurse Liza (Mónika Balsai) dreams of falling in love but thinks she is cursed. Every man she goes out with mysteriously dies, making her feel that she is meant to be alone — otherwise known as a "fox fairy" in Japanese folklore. Her only friend, imaginary Japanese singer Toni Tani, may also have a hand in all the men who are suddenly dying around Liza. Writer/director Károly Ujj Mészáros brilliantly blends an original romantic comedy invoking a darker "Amelie" style of whimsical wonder and delightfully deranged behavior. (98 min.)
J.B.

Training to join a competitive dance drill team, 11-year-old tomboy Toni (Royalty Hightower, in a knockout performance) soon discovers that fitting in may not be all it's cut out to be. Shortly after joining the team, the captain faints and other members of the team start to develop uncontrollable "fits," leaving everyone wondering what is causing these mysterious symptoms. Writer/director Anna Rose Holmer captures a provocative perspective of acceptance in this coming-of-age tale without giving easy answers and solutions, while finding dazzling beauty in every frame. (72 min.)
J.B.

Count Geza von Kozsnom (Tobias Moretti) is a vampire bored with his life and wife (a terrifically icy Jeanette Hain) in 1930s Austria, where he seeks help from Sigmund Freud. Another of Freud's patients, a young artist named Viktor, is having issues with his girlfriend, Lucy. When the two cross paths, the Count finds that Viktor's lover is a spitting image of his former true love, Nadila — and he begins to pursue Lucy. Writer/director David Ruhm incorporates classic Hammer Films and "Love at First Bite" in this entertaining vampire spoof by keeping the pacing brisk, the jokes quick and the blood gushing. (88 min.)
J.B.

Life on northern Minnesota's White Earth Reservation, sometimes romanticized as a tranquil, traditional landscape of lakes and woodlands, is shown with disquieting realism in director Jack Pettibone Riccobono's gang culture documentary. (Executive producers include Terrence Malick and Natalie Portman.) After five prison sentences, American Indian drug kingpin Rob Brown is nearing his 40s with regret over the plight he has caused in his Ojibwe community. His successor might be Kevin Fineday, a rising gang star still in his teens. While many nonfiction chronicles focus more on social policies than their personal impact, Riccobono's tale of damaged lives is deeply intimate. The director will attend its side-by-side closing night screenings for audience discussions. (76 mins.)
C.C.