Li Ruijin | 2022 | 133 Minutes | China

In rural Gaotai county, two lonely, middle-aged outcasts are pushed into an arranged marriage by their families. Ma (Wu Renlin) is a humble farmer with little to offer his timid and sickly wife, Cao (Hai Qing), except for a small, abandoned house on a barren patch of land. From just a few seeds, their newly planted crops take root and flourish; and similarly, an unexpected bond between the two starts to blossom. As seasons pass their dedication to each other grows stronger but change and adversity soon threaten the idyllic existence they share.

Tickets are free with a PITT id, regular tickets $10, Non-Pitt students $5 with ID.

For more information about the film festival, click here

Chie Hayakawa | 2022 | 112 minutes | Japan

In a near dystopian future, Japan’s government launches PLAN 75, a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve its rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens. In Chie Hayakawa’s remarkable and sensitive feature film debut, the lives of three ordinary citizens intersect in this new reality as they confront the crushing callousness of a world ready to dispose of those no longer deemed valuable.

Chieko Baishō stars as a 78-year-old Michi who considers signing up for the program after losing her meager but fulfilling hotel job and the means to live independently. A young Plan 75 salesman Himoru (Hayato Isomura) initially believes in the program’s benefits and serves as the human face of the program. And Maria (Stephanie Arianne), a Filipino care worker living overseas, reluctantly accepts a position with PLAN 75 to send money home to her ailing daughter. On the surface, the plan and its hawkers exude a kindness that serves as the film’s chilling vision of bureaucratic indifference and our increasing loss of interconnectedness. However, Hayakawa’s view is far from grim, as these characters soon learn to fully reckon with their own lives and what it truly means to live.

Tickets are free with a PITT id, regular tickets $10, Non-Pitt students $5 with ID.

For more information about the film festival, click here

Houman Sayyedi | 2022 | 117 minutes | Iran

Shakib (Mohsen Tanabandeh) is a homeless day laborer who lost his wife and son in an earthquake years ago. Over the last couple of years, he has been in a relationship with Ladan (Mahsa Hejazi), a deaf and mute woman. The construction site on which he works turns out to be the set of a film about the atrocities committed by Hitler during WWII.

Against all odds, he is given a house and an opportunity of a lifetime. When Ladan learns about his movie role and the house, she comes to his workplace to ask for help and a place. Shakib’s plan to hide her fails and threatens to destroy his chance to be somebody.

Tickets are free with a PITT id, regular tickets $10, Non-Pitt students $5 with ID.

For more information about the film festival, click here