Berenice

Sybille Rauch: Abduction to paradise.

This unusual drama with a message, set in England and filmed entirely in English, concerns a wealthy British couple of Polish descent who adopt a son because they are unable to have children. However the illegal adoption process they go through involves paying an exorbitant fee to an underground broker, and the child they receive is not the Latin American infant promised, but a strangely hardened 10-year-old from Mozambique. Desperately disappointed with their "purchase," the new parents nonetheless make fumbling efforts to make the child Lazar feel at home. But Lazar is not receptive, and behaves more like a threatened and hunted animal each day in his affluent surroundings. In time, the couple are able to communicate with the boy to discover that he saw his family die and was forced to accompany the army, where along with other children he was trained to execute prisoners in mass killings. Lazar ultimately develops the will to try to become a child again, but he feels constantly endangered by the wealthy new world around him. One day he runs away, stealing a weapon from his favorite new grandfather. When police rounds up of him, it looks like the boy tries to defend himself.

An unexpected big break changes the life of a young, ambitious actor.

A bilingual film, "Mission Movie/Una Pelicula de la Mision" inspects the themes of territory, diversity, and belonging through the intertwined lives of neighbors in San Francisco's Mission District. Mark, a white, traditionally trained artist, is forced to seek the help of Roger, a Latino artist born and raised in the Mission, to confront a group of kids who have been tagging his mural. Meanwhile, Mark and his troubled hipster roommates amble into activism as they face eviction from their apartment. Also being evicted from the building are Rosario and Rene, recent immigrants whose marriage is tested by their new environment. Antonia, a third-generation resident, finds the fruits of her success making her an "accidental" target. And George, a Palestinian shop-owner struggles as his love for his decidedly American children is challenged by conflicting values. "Mission Movie" depicts the cutting edge of a socio-political change, foreshadowing what will happen in the rest of America, as it becomes a multi-ethnic society.