European Union Film Festival

Thursday 8

Four Minutes, 6pm.

Dir. Chris Kraus. 2006. 112mins. In German with subtitles. A piano teacher works with a sociopathic genius at a women’s prison. (Unavailable for preview.)

Bullets Miss the Fool, 8:15pm.

Dir. Mitja Novljan. 2005. 80mins. In Slovene with subtitles. A young couple sublets space in their flat to two strangers. Trouble ensues. (Unavailable for preview.)

Color Me Kubrick, 8:15pm.

Dir. Brian Cook. 2005. 86mins. Kubrick fans, stay home—this is a movie about Alan Conway, a real-life con artist who impersonated the master filmmaker in the early ’90s. Even John Malkovich’s showboating grows tiresome.—Ben Kenigsberg

Friday 9

Red Road, 6pm.

Dir. Andrea Arnold. 2006. 113mins. From the director of the Oscar-winning short “Wasp” comes an atmospheric film about a Glasgow security guard (Kate Dickie) and her fixation on an ex-convict. It builds tension beautifully before going all-in on a contrived ending.—Ben Kenigsberg

Flies on the Wall, 6:15pm.

Dir. Ake Sandgren. 2005. 92mins. In Danish with subtitles. A female documentary filmmaker agrees to make a film about a successful mayor, then finds he is both sexy and corrupt. This so-so thriller is marred by its central storytelling device—the action is mostly shown through shaky video footage. She’s obsessively chronicling things. We get it.—Hank Sartin

Hostage, 8pm.

Dir. Lalia Pakalnina. 2006. 74mins. In English and Latvian with subtitles. Peculiar, oblique, but undeniably engaging, this comedy-thriller concerns a friendly airplane hijacker and his sole hostage, an outgoing and curious 8-year-old boy. It’s not like anything you’ve seen before.—Cliff Doerksen

The Heart of the Beast, 8:15pm.

Dir. Renos Haralambidis. 2005. 82mins. In Greek with subtitles. In this mildly overdirected comic noir, a discharged military officer with a philosophy degree agrees to participate in a bank robbery with two former school chums. Topkapi it ain’t.—Ben Kenigsberg

Saturday 10

Manual of Love, 2:45pm.

Dir. Giovanni Veronesi. 2005. 108mins. In Italian with subtitles. Four vignettes depict the stages of love. (Unavailable for preview.)

Into Great Silence, 3pm.

Dir. Philip Gröning. 2005. 2hrs 42mins. In German with subtitles. Documentary. Gröning takes us into the daily lives of monks who have taken a vow of silence. (Unavailable for preview.)

Dead Long Enough, 4:45pm.

Dir. Tommy Collins. 2005. 82mins. A wimpy, lovelorn lawyer lives in the shadow of his ultracool brother, a Bono-esque rock star (Michael Sheen), in this leaden, tedious comedy. Not even Sheen is good.—Cliff Doerksen

The Iceberg, 6:15pm.

Dirs. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy. 2005. 84mins. In French with subtitles. Being trapped overnight in a freezer prompts a life change for a restaurant worker (codirector Gordon) in this gently amusing Belgian quirk fest.—Ben Kenigsberg

Hunting for Englishmen, 6:30pm.

Dir. Bertalan Bagó. 2006. 86mins. In Hungarian with subtitles. A weekend in the country at a Hungarian nobleman’s estate is complicated by romance and political intrigue in this 1830s-set costumer. It’s pretty to look at, but you might want to brush up on political history before venturing in to see it.—Hank Sartin

Red Road, 8pm.

See Fri 9.

Every Other Week, 8:15pm.

Dirs. Felix Herngren, Måns Herngren, Hannes Holm and Hans Ingemansson. 2006. 95mins. In Swedish with subtitles. Divorced Swedes find shared custody so rewarding that they decide to make more babies (though not to reunite) in this sharp, satirical comedy of manners.—Cliff Doerksen

Sunday 11

Me and My Sister, 3pm.

Dir. Alexandra Leclère. 2004. 93mins. In French with subtitles. Isabelle Huppert is a chic, snippy Parisian sophisticate driven to distraction when her frumpy but indomitably cheerful kid sister (Catherine Frot) drops in from the provinces. It’s well worth seeing.—Cliff Doerksen

Little Secrets, 3:15pm.

Dir. Pol Cruchten. 2006. 90mins. In Luxembourgish with subtitles. Set in 1962, this gentle, nostalgic view of what it’s like to be 12 follows all the rules of the child-on-the-brink-of-adulthood genre. It’s perfectly fine, but a bit too familiar.—Hank Sartin

Before Flying Back to Earth, 5pm.

Dir. Arunas Matelis. 2005. 52mins. In Lithuanian with subtitles. Child leukemia patients and their parents talk matter-of-factly about the illness. Not as sentimental as it could have been, this is still the kind of doc that defies criticism. Matelis will attend the Sun 11 screening. It’s showing with a short called “The Widows’ Coast” (2006, 26mins).—Ben Kenigsberg

The World Is Waiting for Us, 5:15pm.

Dir. Robert Krzempek. 2006. 95mins. In Polish with subtitles. A 30-year-old slacker is forced to seek work, and ends up as a gigolo. (Unavailable for preview.)

Monday 12

Every Other Week, 6pm.

See Sat 10.

Wrong Side Up, 6pm.

Dir. Petr Zelenka. 2005. 107mins. In Czech with subtitles. A package handler ships himself to Cuba for love in this satire. (Unavailable for preview.)

Hostage, 8pm.

See Fri 9.

The Heart of the Beast, 8:15pm.

See Fri 9.

Tuesday 13

Little Secrets, 6pm.

See Sun 11.

Flies on the Wall, 7:45pm.

See Fri 9.

Wednesday 14

Grbavica, 6pm.

Dir. Jasmila Zbanic. 2006. 90mins. In Serbo-Croatian with subtitles. A teen seeks the truth about her long-absent father in this drama. (Unavailable for preview.)

Before Flying Back to Earth, 6:15pm.

See Sun 11.

Wrong Side Up, 7:45pm.

See Mon 12.

Dead Long Enough, 8pm.

See Sat 10.

Screenings take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center. See Indie & revival for complete listings.