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Shuswap international film fest features best of world cinema

Running Feb. 21 to 29, festival includes several Canadian offerings
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Bombshell, starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, will play the Salmar during the Shuswap Film Society’s 31st annual International Film Festival, starting Feb. 21. (Contributed)

By Joanne Sargent

Contributor

This weekend marks the beginning of Shuswap Film Society’s 31st annual International Film Festival.

How international is it? Well, for tonight (Friday) at 7:30 p.m., we begin the festival’s opening night with an Australian comedy, Top End Wedding, where a prenuptial couple sets out on a road trip to find the bride’s mother.

This sets our opening night theme as Aussie or road trip – arrive at 6:30 p.m. for appies and bevvies and, if you feel like it, dress for the theme.

On Saturday the festival presents Antigone, a Canadian film about an immigrant’s experience with the justice system, followed by The Climb, an American movie about a friendship between two men despite a betrayal.

Next is Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, a France/Italy co-production about the attraction between an artist and her subject, and Hope Gap from the UK, where we see the fallout of a marriage break-up.

Read more: It Must Be Heaven, a meditative look at home and identity, to play Salmar

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Sunday morning we start with The Doctor’s Case from Canada, a Holmes and Watson mystery shot at Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, then a film from France and Belgium, Just To Be Sure, a dramedy of a family facing crises.

Also Sunday, from Canada, we have White Lie, where a woman fakes being a cancer sufferer, and from Germany a film titled Balloon, which depicts a daring escape attempt from what was East Germany.

The final four movies are Corpus Christie from Poland, in which a self-declared minister creates his own church; Canada’s Haida Modern, a profile of accomplished Haida artist Robert Davidson; Bombshell, a Canada/U.S. movie about women taking down a news tycoon; and Alice And The Mayor from France/Belgium, where a newbie hired by the mayor causes friction at city hall.

The festival runs until Feb. 29 and there are matinees at 4 p.m. daily, as well as 7:30 p.m. shows, throughout the week.

Most movies have more than one showing so please check the program or shuswapfilm.net for all showtimes. Screenings are at the Salmar Classic Cinema.

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