1:07 p.m., Oct. 7, 2009----The University of Delaware's fall International Film Series will be held at 7:30 p.m., Sundays, from Oct. 11 through Nov. 29, in the Trabant University Center Theatre.

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The films are free and open to the public, and all foreign language films are shown with subtitles. The International Film Series is made possible through the support of the Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events (CAPE).

Films are scheduled as follows:

Oct. 11: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Director Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) returns to his low-budget indie roots with this film about an older Chinese man who comes to America to visit the recently divorced daughter he barely knows. Mr. Shi (Henry O) has little patience with his daughter's (Faye Yu) relationship with a married man -- until, that is, he becomes friends with an Iranian Woman (Vida Ghahremani). Then, he decides, the culture divide might not be so bad after all.

Oct. 18: Necessities of Life. Directed by Benoit Pilon. This festival favorite is an emotionally resonant 1950s period drama from French Canada that shines a light on people and a culture not often seen on screen. After falling victim to tuberculosis, Tivii, an Inuit family man, is forced to leave his home and loved ones on Baffin Island to receive treatment in Quebec City

Oct. 25: Mary and Max. Animated Drama from Australia. Mary (voice of Toni Collette) is a shy and withdrawn Austrian girl. Max (voice of Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a middle-aged single Jewish New Yorker suffering from Asperger's syndrome. Two lonely people who strike up an unlikely pen-pal friendship in this darkly humorous animated tale.

Nov. 1: The Wave. In 1967, a California teacher conducted a bold classroom experiment to demonstrate to his students how easily Hitler was able to use rhetoric and fear to inspire a whole country to follow him and how easily it could happen again. This true event became the basis for a book and a highly rated television special. Denis Gansel's acclaimed new film transfers the story to present-day Germany where the students have grown-up inundated with the stories and lessons of the Third Reich. In spite of this knowledge, the German teens are just as susceptible to the allure of fascism.

Nov. 8: Rumba. Fiona and Dorn are teachers in a country school. They share a passion for Latin dance and spend their weekend nights sweeping up all the local trophies, until one evening, returning from a competition, they chance upon a maladroit would-be suicide, and their lives begin to change. This hilarious and touching story of a strange threesome is beautifully filmed in bright and elegant color giving it a naive and lovely poetry. A heart-warmer without schmaltz.

Nov. 15: A Film with Me In It. Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon. Mark Doherty and Irish comic star Dylan Moran try to cope with the mounting body count resulting from freak accidents they didn't cause but, if discovered, will make them look like murderers in this “gleefully cruel Irish black comedy.”

Nov. 22: Sin Nombre. An epic dramatic thriller written and directed by Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga in his feature debut. The filmmaker's first hand experiences with Central American immigrants seeking the promise of the US form the basis of the Spanish language mopvie. Sin Nombre tells the story of Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras, and hungering for a brighter future. A reunion with her long-estranged father gives Sayra her only real option -- emigrating with her father and her uncle into Mexico and then the United States where her father now has a new family.

Nov. 29: Katyn. A competitor for the Oscar for best foreign film, this courageous film depicts the Katyn massacre perpetrated on Stalin's orders to eliminate the fine flower of Polish intelligentsia. Thousands of Polish officers were massacred in a forest, including the father of director Andres Wadja. “Searing and devastating,” offered a review in The New York Times