The 22nd annual festival continues Friday through Sunday, November 4 through 6, with weekend programs at Facets Cinematheque and the Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble. Tickets are $8, $6 for children, and $5 for Facets members; for more information call 773-281-2166 or 773-281-9075. Following are some of this week’s programs; a full festival schedule is available at www.cicff.org.
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Offbeat and bittersweet, the Finnish feature Pelican Man (2004, 84 min.) sometimes resembles a silent Chaplin comedy, thanks to the considerable skill of Kari Ketonen as a pelican that assumes human form and befriends a ten-year-old boy from a broken family. This fish-out-of-water story derives much of its humor from the avian man’s bewilderment with his new environment, but it grows more serious as the boy teaches him to read, opening the door to a sad awareness of mortality. Liisa Helminen directed. (Sat 11/5, 5 PM, Vittum Theater)
More aesthetically pleasing is the English-dubbed German animation Laura’s Star (2004, 77 min.), based on Klaus Baumgart’s popular picture books. A seven-year-old girl, disgruntled over her family’s move to the big city, finds consolation in a star that falls to earth. Piet De Rycker and Thilo Rothkirch directed. (Sat 11/5, 11 AM, Facets Cinematheque) Shadow puppets, clay animation, 2-D, and CGI are all represented in the shorts program Animation Nation (83 min.); its best entry, Through My Thick Glasses (2004), is a Norwegian reverie about life in wartime. (Sat 11/5, 5 PM, Facets Cinematheque)
