September 30, 2002
Contact: Lola Gallagher (509-963-1677/fax 509-963-3561/e-mail gallaghl@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Based on the true-life experience of
Nelofer Pazira, who plays the lead character, “Kandahar,” a personal
and socially conscious tale of life for women under Taliban rule in
Afghanistan, will open Central Washington University’s Classic Film
Series Tuesday, Oct. 1.
The 2001 film from Iran focuses on “Nafas,” portrayed by
Pazira, an Afghan-born journalist living in Canada, who fled her
country as a teenager. She receives a letter from her sister, who has
been maimed by a land mine. Despondent over her oppressed and hopeless
situation in Taliban-controlled Kandahar, she vows to commit suicide.
Racing against time, Nafas sets off into a land where it’s
illegal for women to travel alone. Covered by the required and
restrictive burqa, she meets others along the way who reveal different
but real facets of life as experienced by those living in Afghanistan.
In all, 10 rarely seen, recently restored and new
critically-acclaimed foreign films will be screened Tuesday nights
through Dec. 3. Each will begin at 7 p.m. in McConnell Auditorium.
Other films in the series, sponsored by Campus Life and the CWU English
department, are:
Oct. 8: “Life On A String,” a 1991 drama from China about a
dying man’s quest to gain restoration of his eyesight. To do it he
must break 1,000 strings on his banjo.
Oct. 15: “The Devil’s Backbone,” a 2001 Mexican horror film
which follows the plight of a young boy left in a haunted orphanage
during civil war in Spain in the late 1930s.
Oct. 22: “Fast Runner,” a 2001 film from Canada about a
legend in the Artic territory of an evil spirit that spreads violence
and discord and one warrior’s battle against it.
Oct. 29: “Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too),” a 2001
comedy from
Mexico about two teenage boys and an attractive older woman who embark
on a road trip in Mexico and learn about life, friendship and each
other.
Nov. 5: “Le Samourai,” a 1967 French classic about a contract
killer who never gets caught, until he gets careless on one job.
Nov. 12: “Amelie,” a 2001 romance movie from France about a
naive waitress, working in Paris, who has her own sense of justice.
Deciding to help those around her, she actually discovers love.
Nov. 19: “Gosford Park,” a 2001 film from the U.S., for which
Robert Altman was named American Film Institute Director of the Year.
Set in 1930’s England, the movie is about guests and servants at a
party in an aristocratic country home whose lives are upset by murder.
Nov. 26: “Chunhyang,” a 2000 drama from Korea about an
aristocrat who secretly marries a lower class, virtuous courtesan and
then leaves her at the mercy of a corrupt governor. The film
interweaves the action with a stage performance by a practitioner of
the traditional Korean storytelling art known as pansori.
Dec. 3: A restoration of “Metropolis,” a 1927 science fiction
film from Germany, complete with the original orchestral score. Set in
2026, the story involves a populace divided into workers, who must live
in the dark underground, and the rich, who enjoy a futuristic city of
splendor. The balance is upset when a teacher from below falls in love
with the son of the ruler of the city above.
Tickets for the CWU Classic Film Series are $3 for single
admission, or $12 for a bargain pass, good for five admissions to films
in the fall quarter series. Bargain passes are available at Jerrol’s,
CWU English department, Samuelson Union Building (SUB) information
booth and at the door.
For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange
for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-1691, or (for the hearing
impaired) TDD (509) 963-3323.
