This year the Gene Siskel Film Center presents the 20th edition of its annual European Union Film Festival, with Chicago premieres of more than 60 new features. If you’re familiar with the fest, you know it’s one of the most vibrant and eclectic film gatherings the city has to offer, and this year’s edition includes new work by Olivier Assayas, Icíar Bollaín, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Dorris Dörrie, Bruno Dumont, François Ozon, Carlos Saura, Albert Serra, Lone Scherfig, and Thomas Lilti. Following are reviews of 16 features screening through the end of the month; for a full schedule and more information visit siskelfilmcenter.org. —J.R. Jones
The Fixer Inspired by actual events, this 2016 drama tells the story of a “fixer” (Tudor Istodor) hired by a French television crew to guide them through Romania in search of a young prostitute who’s been repatriated from France. The film unfolds seamlessly, with a brisk tempo and a cool, gray look that match its straightforward depiction of the crew’s wheeling and dealing. Much of the story revolves around ethics and how far the insecure protagonist will go to prove himself to the others as a journalist. Adrian Sitaru, directing a script by Adrian and Claudia Silisteanu, seems to be building toward some explosive revelation; it never comes, though the climax and conclusion, focusing on the protagonist’s moral and ethical growth, are quietly satisfying. In French and Romanian with subtitles. —Leah Pickett 99 min. Sun 3/5, 5:15 PM, and Wed 3/8, 8 PM.
The Olive Tree As a girl, Alma climbs into a giant olive tree, loved by her grandfather, to protect it from being uprooted from the family farm and sold for a handsome sum; grown to adulthood, this determined young punk (Anna Castillo) sees the grandfather slowly dying and resolves to bring the tree back and revive him. British screenwriter Paul Laverty is best known for his long collaboration with director Ken Loach, and to judge from this Spanish drama, his second script for director Icíar Bollaín, he needs Loach’s steadying social-realist hand as much as Loach needs his sense of fancy. Bollaín is a strong director, and Castillo gives her plenty of juice as the heroine, who tears around on a motorcycle and won’t take no for an answer, but their best efforts fall victim to Laverty’s moony premise and increasingly contrived plot developments. In Spanish with subtitles. —J.R. Jones 99 min. Sun 3/19, 5:15 PM, and Mon 3/20, 8 PM.
Slack Bay Cannibalism may not be everyone’s idea of funny, but French director Bruno Dumont (L’Humanité, Hadewijch) elevates it to ghoulish camp in this slapstick skewering of the French bourgeoisie. Fabrice Luchini and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi play fatuous aristocratic wannabes summering on the Channel coast in 1910; they enjoy the “beauty” of the local fisherfolk, who in turn view tourists as their next plat du jour. Adding a surrealistic dimension are Didier Després as a rotund detective and Cyril Rigaux as his shrimpy sidekick—clad in black suits and bowlers, they’re Laurel and Hardy by way of Magritte. Dumont tips his hat to Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, but this fanciful satire lacks Buñuel’s bite. With Juliette Binoche, hamming it up as the Luchini character’s imperious sister. In French with subtitles. —Andrea Gronvall 122 min. Sat 3/11, 4 PM, and Thu 3/16, 6 PM.
