Issaquah International Film Festival 2019

SEATTLE, WA — August 30, 2019 — SIFF, the largest film festival in the United States, is joining forces with the City of Issaquah Arts Commission to present the sixth annual Issaquah International Film Festival. The festival returns September 14 and 15, 2019, at Cinebarre Issaquah, 1490 11th Ave. N.W. Admission is free!

Reserve your tickets at SIFF.net/issaquah. The special weekend program features some of the world's best films—a unique combination of recent arthouse successes and new films—as well as a shorts program curated by the Issaquah Arts Commission.

Saturday, SEP 14

1:00 PM
SUNE VS. SUNE
Fourth grade is not starting well for Sune Andersson. He arrives late on the first day to find another boy named Sune—and now has to be known as Sune Two. Worse, the new kid is American, talented, popular, and catching the eye of Sune's friend Sophie. Poor Sune is hurled into an existential crisis—"He's taken my name, my girlfriend, and my dignity!" Based on a long-running Swedish book series, Sune Vs. Sune is dryly hilarious and as smart as it is adorable. (d. Jon Holmberg, Sweden 2018, 89 min)

3:00 PM
KD
Karuppu Durai, an 80-year-old man, bedridden for the past three months in a coma, suddenly wakes up to overhear his family planning to kill him by performing an ancient euthanasia ritual. Hurt, heartbroken and afraid, Karuppudurai runs away from the only home he has ever known. On an aimless path with nowhere to go, he accidentally meets a 10-year-old orphan Kutty. Kutty is everything Karuppudurai isn't; smart, spunky and full of life. The fiercely independent Kutty encourages KD to chalk out a bucket list and start living for himself. Thus begins an eventful road trip of this unlikely pair - an old man running away from his family and a young boy who never had one. (d. Madhumita Sundararaman, India 2019, 115 min) Presented in partnership with TASVEER South Asian Film Festival.

6:00 PM
GO BACK TO CHINA
It's not turning out to be a great birthday for young, aspiring L.A. fashion designer Sasha Li (Anna Akana). Just out of school, she's dismayed to realize jobs in the industry aren't hers for the asking. Dad (Richard Ng), a toy manufacturer back in China, has lost patience with subsidizing her lifestyle and canceled her credit cards. Come back here and work in my factory, he threatens, or the money pipeline's staying shut off. Installed in Dad's mansion with the offspring of wives #1 and #3 and new girlfriend #4, Sasha soon figures out she might be able to put her design skills to use. Despite bumps in the road, they realize the generational and cultural divides between them aren't as unbridgeable as they thought. (d. Emily Ting, USA/China 2019, 95 min)

8:30 PM
TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID
A haunting horror fairytale set against the backdrop of Mexico's devastating drug wars, Tigers Are Not Afraid follows a group of orphaned children armed with three magical wishes, running from the ghosts that haunt them and the cartel that murdered their parents. Filmmaker Issa López creates a world that recalls the early films of Guillermo del Toro, imbued with her own gritty urban spin on magical realism to conjure a wholly unique experience that audiences will not soon forget. (d. Issa López, Mexico 2019, 83 min)

Sunday, SEP 15

1:00 PM
ISSAQUAH SHORTS
An exciting selection of short films from Argentina, Iran, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Recommended for audiences 13+. (90 min)

3:30 PM
FUNKE
When prodigious chef Evan Funke inexplicably walks away from his critically acclaimed restaurant his life and career are thrust into a dark vortex. Years later, still healing from the pain of emotional and financial ruin, Evan begins mounting his comeback, eyeing the most competitive street in America as a stage for the dying art of handmade pasta. Reconnecting with the best artisan pasta makers in the world, Funke finds himself fighting to fulfill his artistic destiny while battling the impossibly volatile LA restaurant industry. (d. Gab Taraboulsy, USA 2018, 89 min)

6:00 PM
OFFICIAL SECRETS
In the lead up to the Iraq War, British intelligence specialist Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) receives a memo from the NSA with a shocking directive: the United States is enlisting Britain's help in collecting compromising information on U.N. Security Council members to blackmail them into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq. Unable to stand by and watch the world be rushed into war, Gun makes the gut wrenching decision to defy her government and leak the memo to the press. (d. Gavin Hood, USA 2019, 112 min)

The 2019 Issaquah International Film Festival is sponsored by generous support from Regal Entertainment and 4Culture.