A dark comedy set during a family birthday, Swedish stage director Maria Blom's impressive (and impressively unpredictable) debut feature won Guldbagge Awards (the Swedish Oscars) for Best Film, Screenplay and Supporting Actress (Kajsa Ernst), and was a popular hit at home. The film is set in Dalarna, a rural region north of Stockholm famous for its landscapes — and infamous for its stubborn, insular residents, known as Dalecarlians, who consider themselves the heart of Sweden. Three very different sisters have come together to celebrate their father's 70th. Eivor (Ernst), the eldest, is worn out by years of marriage and motherhood. Gunilla (Ann Petrén), in the middle, left her own marriage to "find herself" (and have oodles of sex) in Bali. Mia (Sofia Helin), the youngest, departed years ago for single life in big-city Stockholm, and hasn't been back in ages. When dad announces he is willing a coveted vacation property to one of them, sparks begin to fly — and major surprises are in store. "Blom makes a mature, assured debut as a filmmaker ... The writer-director invites the viewer to expect all the usual clichés and then pulls the rug out ... The film [is] both funny and disturbingly tragic" (Gunnar Rehlin, Variety). Colour, 35mm, in Swedish with English subtitles. 98 mins.

Debuted at the 6th annual Transylvania International Film Festival earlier this year, The Beheaded Rooster is a handsome Romanian drama, set during World War II, that takes place among Romania’s Transylvanian Saxons (or Siebenbürger Sachsen), the large population of ethnic Germans that had thrived in Transylvania for some 800 years. The community — which, like the Antonescu regime in Bucharest, had allied itself with Nazi Germany— was decimated by the events of the war and the coming of the communism. The film unfolds through the naïve eyes of teenaged Felix (David Zimmerschied), son of prosperous, liberal-minded German-Hungarian parents. The ethnically diverse, largely tranquil district in which Felix lives is torn apart by the rise of fascism. The young protagonist finds his own loyalties and friendships tested when, in search of adventure and camaraderie, he decides to join the local Hitler Youth. Directed by veteran filmmaker Radu Gabrea, The Beheaded Rooster is based on the celebrated debut novel of prominent German-speaking Romanian author Eginald Schlattner. Colour, 35mm, in Romanian and German with English subtitles. 98 mins.

NOTE: Page 17 of the November+December issue of the Pacific Cinémathèque Program Guide shows Romania's entry as Following Her. The film has since been changed to The Beheaded Rooster.