The People vs. Fritz Bauer
As attorney general for the German state of Hesse, Fritz Bauer is determined to track Nazi criminals, especially Adolf Eichmann. But a German government still riddled with Nazis obstructs his investigation. He receives death threats. He’s accused of bias for being Jewish. And he has a secret that could provide his enemies with blackmail—he’s gay. Drawn from facts, the film is an interesting Hollywood-style drama of postwar Germany’s uncertain steps toward confronting the Nazi past.
Morphine: Journey of Dreams
Born in the maelstrom of Boston’s ’80s post-punk scene, Morphine was a saxophone-bass-drums trio that sounded like no one else—except maybe Milwaukee’s Oil Tasters. Director Mark Shuman interviews surviving band members along with prominent fan Henry Rollins, juxtaposing recollections with a rich trove of concert and TV footage. Morphine drew from blues and jazz, creating a smoky noir sound. Their ascent into popularity was cut short in 1999 when frontman Mark Sandman died on stage.
Kampai! For the Love of Sake
Recent years have seen Japan’s national beverage—a potent brew of rice, water and yeast—find new markets. Kampai! is a smoothly flowing documentary focused on three figures in the growth of sake: a fifth-generation Japanese brewer and a pair of expatriates, one of them an Oxford literature major, the other an American engineer. All are determined to modernize without losing touch with tradition. Food pairings? The American advises that sake goes with everything.
Borderless
In an unnamed conflict zone, a boy lives alone on a beached ship until the rusty hulk is invaded by another youth who turns out to be a girl with a baby. And then they manage to take an American soldier prisoner in this fable about communication and community by Iranian director Amirhossein Asgari. The cinematography endows the gritty setting with a lustrous glow as all sides struggle to understand each other—and survive.
