Series of award-winning international films starts today at West Newton Cinema 

The West Newton Cinema is hosting the Belmont World Film’s 24th International Film Series, “Thicker Than Water” this spring. The series explores the ties that bind — and sometimes limit us — through an intimate and far-reaching collection of stories about families in all their complexity. Across cultures and continents, these films ask what we inherit, what we carry, and what we owe one another. The screenings will be followed by discussions led by filmmakers and expert speakers.

The series unfolds over eight consecutive Mondays at 7 p.m. starting March 30. After a two-week break, the series returns June 1–15 with three additional remarkable films in recognition of World Refugee Awareness Month and Pride Month. The West Newton Cinema is located at 1296 Washington St. in West Newton.

All of the selections were official entries at the world’s major film festivals, with several receiving top honors. The films span four continents and feature ten different languages, including Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Darija, Dutch, French, Greek, Greenlandic, Quechua, Spanish, and Ukrainian, reflecting the many voices and vantage points that shape our shared human story.

Last year five screenings sold out, so audience members are encouraged to reserve tickets early. Belmont World Film members and “passport” holders (which provides admission to eight films for up to two people per screening) may exchange tickets free of charge — a good reason to renew or to become a member.

The films

Opening night on Monday, March 30, features the East Coast premiere of “Colors of Time,” a charmer by acclaimed director Cédric Klapisch (“The Spanish Apartment,” “Someone Somewhere”) about art and ancestry that goes back and forth in time from 1895 Belle Epoque Paris to the present. In 1895, an 18-year-old woman travels to Paris in search of her mother. Her descendants — all strangers — try to piece together her fascinating history after they inherit her country home that has been closed since 1944. The (French) star-studded cast includes Cecile de France, Sara Giradeau and Vincent Macaigne, as well as cameos by Olivier Gourmet as Claude Monet and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sarah Bernhardt. The screening is preceded by an optional reception at the theater from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. featuring a menu from Normandy, where the film is set. 

April 6: “Case 137” (France; New England premiere). A criminal case takes a personal turn, when a police officer in the internal affairs unit in Paris is assigned to a case involving a young man who has been severely wounded during a tense and chaotic demonstration in Paris. Nominated for the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival and the director of “The Night of the 12th,” which swept the Cesar Awards in 2023.

April 13: “The Condor Daughter” (Bolivia, Uruguay, Peru; East Coast premiere). A young woman lives in the community of Totorani, high in the Bolivian Andes. Her adoptive mother has dutifully taught her the ancient ways of midwifery, including the tender Quechua songs that are believed to help safely usher newborns into the world. While she loves, respects and is expected to continue this tradition, she dreams of discovering the wider world and longs to become a folkloric music star in the city.

April 20: “In the Land of Arto” (Armenia, France; East Coast premiere). Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent,” “House of Gucci”) stars as a wife who travels to Armenia to legalize her husband’s death, only to learn that he lied about his military service, fought in the war and usurped his identity, and that his former friends consider him a deserter.

April 27: “The Incredible Snow Woman” (France, Greenland; East Coast premiere). A 46-year-old Arctic explorer known as “The Incredible Snow Woman” unexpectedly returns to her childhood home in the Jura mountains to reunite with her brothers. Unable to face her own mortality, she returns to Greenland one last time in this impassioned comedy-drama.

May 4: “Hold onto Me” (Cyprus, East Coast premiere). It’s summer, and 11-year-old Iris is running wild through the streets with her older friend Danae when she learns her estranged father, Aris (“Dogtooth” star Christos Passalis), is back in town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to become reacquainted with him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he’s been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond. Audience Award winner at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

May 11: “Six Days in Spring” (France, North American premiere). On a whim, a single mother who is determined to give her twin boys a spring vacation after her original plans collapse — trespasses at her former in-laws’ luxury villa on the Riviera, a place she once called home. Joined by the twins’ soccer coach, secretly her boyfriend, they cautiously savor six sun-drenched days. Directed by Joachim Lafosse, (“The White Knights,” BWF 2015), the film simmers with an ever-so-slight tension beneath its radiant setting.

May 18: “Porte Bagage” (Netherlands, East Coast premiere). A Dutch family of Moroccan descent embarks on a road trip to honor their father’s wish to return to Morocco and spend his final days at his ancestral home. Along the way, old tensions resurface and loyalties are tested in a closely observed family dramedy about the emotional baggage we all carry as family members — that’s sometimes strapped to the roof of the car. Preceded by an optional reception from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. featuring Moroccan cuisine.

Films shown in June as part of Pride and World Refugee Awareness Month

June 1: “Enzo” (France, East Coast premiere). In this riveting drama set along the breathtaking South of France, a 16-year-old boy defies his bourgeois family’s expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship. There he meets a charismatic Ukrainian colleague who shakes up his world. Premiered at the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, and written and partially directed by Laurent Cantet (“The Workshop,” BWF 2018), who died before being able to finish.

June 8: “Lost World” (Japan, France, Malaysia, Germany). In the hope of reuniting with their scattered family, four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia. The first-ever Rohingya-language film and features an all-Rohingya cast. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

June 15: “Promised Sky” (Poland, New England premiere). Three women from Côte d’Ivoire, living together in Tunisia without legal status, take in a young girl who washes ashore after a shipwreck. As this fragile, makeshift family begins to take shape, mounting pressures force each woman to confront where she belongs, and what she’s willing to risk. Premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival..

Funding is provided by Spark Newton in partnership with The City of Newton in conjunction with the Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts. The Belmont LGBTQ+ Alliance is a community partner.