YNOT at the Movies

Here are are a few films I think you should not miss at this year's SFiFF, even it means to stand in the rush line for a long time to score a ticket.

Note: Film stills and film titles are linked to the festival Web site which lists the showtime and venue for each corresponding film.

• The White Meadows (کشتزارهای سپید | Iran 2009 | in Persian | 92 min.)

  Visually stunning "The White Meadows" tells an unforgettable tale about an old man's journey traveling around the small islands in Lake Urmia, the third largest salt water lake on earth. His job is to collect tears from people and listen to their sorrows. The film will bring you to a place that you have never traveled before.

  

  
  
  

• The Man Who Will Come (L'uomo che verrà | Italy 2009 | in Italian | 115 min.)

  Set in 1944 in South Italy, through the eyes of a mute eight-year-old girl, "The Man Who Will Come" is an plaintive yet poetic recounting of massacres by German soldiers who accuse the local villagers of helping the partisans. This beautiful film tells a gripping and tragic story with fantastic cinematography and an operatic music score.

  

  
  
  

• Lebanon (לבנון | Germany/Israel/France/Lebanon 2009 | in Hebrew/Arabic/French/English | 93 min.)

  Winning the top award Golden Lion (Il Leone d'Oro) at last year's Venice International Film Festival, Israel's "Lebanon" gives us the most astonishing up-close and personal war experience. It tells the story from a gun viewer inside a tank on the first day of The First Lenanon War in 1982. You will not be watching a film, but literally you will be sit in that tank during a bloody ugly war.

  

The festival trailer: