Manhattanville College's Popular International Film Festival To Be Held March 23 - April 9, 2015

Purchase, NY March 18, 2015 -- Manhattanville College is featuring a timely and eclectic series of foreign films from March 23 – April 9 for its Third International Film Festival. Kicking off the springtime fest on March 23 is Wadjda, a 2012 film that is the first feature-length film ever made by a female Saudi director, Haifaa al-Monsour.

In Wadjda, an enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school’s Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.

All films (see below) are free of charge, have subtitles and take place at 7 p.m. at Manhattanville College’s Berman Center Theatre in Purchase, NY. Screenings will be preceded by a country-specific snack, and followed by an expert-led discussion.

Other films scheduled for the festival are:

· Halfouine: Boy of The Terraces (Tunisia, 1990) on Wednesday March 25. Twelve-year-old Noura is an impressionable boy who must learn to reconcile two conflicting worlds – the loving world of Muslim women and the vastly different, harsher world of men – while also dealing with his own budding sexuality.

· The Scent of the Green Papaya (Vietnam, 1994) on Tuesday March 31. The interior life of a Vietnamese household in the 1950’s as seen through the eyes of a young servant girl.

· Machuca (Chile, 2004) on Thursday, April 2. The friendship between a rich and a poor boy is strained by the tribulations of a political coup in their native Chile.

· I Am Not Scared (Italy, 2003) on Monday, April 6. A young boy accidentally discovers a deep hole in the ground where another boy is kept prisoner.

· Manhattanville’s Filmmakers on Wednesday, April 8. Various shorts produced by Manhattanville Students. (Starts at 7:45 PM)

· In the Heat of the Sun (China, 1994) on Thursday, April 9. A story of four teenagers during the Cultural Revolution in Beijing.

About Manhattanville College:

Manhattanville College (www.manhattanville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence and social and civic action. Manhattanville prepares students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students from more than 50 countries and 30 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences, and offers graduate programs in Education, Business, Creative Writing, as well as Continuing and Executive Education programs.