SFIFF52: Next Frame Picks for 4/30

[From Tulpan.]

Of today’s lineup, here are the ones I’ve seen and can recommend, or otherwise have heard lots of good things about, and haven’t yet mentioned:

4:45 Tulpan. This one’s a charming little love story about a Kazakstani youngster and his sheep. Seriously. But leave your dirty mind at home: it’s about how that youngster tries to make a go of it in the shepherding biz and win the heart of a beautiful woman, Tulpan. If you miss it at the festival, it has a one-week engagement with Landmark starting 5/8, so watch here for a review next week.

6:15 Rudo y Cursi. The costars of Y Tu Mama Tambien are football-playing stepbrothers who get into comic mishaps and romantic entanglements when they come to Mexico City to become stars. Never got a chance to see this one, but I’ve heard nothing but raves. (On the other hand, those raves have mostly come from ladies of a certain age, so maybe it’s really the smoldering Latin looks I’ve been hearing about.) It’s got another screening tomorrow afternoon at 4:00, and it is expected to play at the Bridge Theatre from 5/15 for at least a week.

9:30 City of Borders. Wow. I don’t even know where to start with this one, so I’ll just start with the premise: it’s a documentary about the only gay bar in Jerusalem. Let me repeat that: a gay bar in Jerusalem. I heard about this one because the wily folks at the festival printed out this interview with the director from SF360, and left a big stack of copies laying around in the press room, thereby ensuring  that buzz would be had. Additional screenings are on May 4th at 9:15 and May 6th at 12:15. Don’t miss it.

All screenings mentioned above are at the Kabuki, but there’s one at the PFA tonight that sounds pretty interesting:

8:35 California Company Town, a doc about the decline of California’s industrial towns, shot over five years, and taking the viewer “from the fogs of Scotia, a company lumber town behind northern California’s “redwood curtain, to the parched horizons of the Salton Sea and the blandness of Silicon Valley.” There will be two additional screenings at the Kabuki, May 2 at 6:45 and May 4 at 3:30.

posted: 09 April 30
under: The Next Frame