Foreign Cinema Series: “The Farewell” (China, 2019; PG-13)

Wednesday, December 11, 2019
7:00 pm

Categories

• Adult
• Movies

The library is pleased to announce the last movie in our 3rd Annual “Foreign Cinema Series,” featuring entertaining and thought-provoking foreign films from Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Tonight’s feature: The Farewell, in which Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. With The Farewell, writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of “the good lie” in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us, often in spite of ourselves.

All movies are subtitled in English. Light refreshments will be served.

This program supported by the Friends of the Library.