CHICAGO READER
A scene from a Dutch film The Paradise Suite
ver the past two decades the European Union Film Festival, presented by the Gene Siskel Film Center, has become a serious rival to the Chicago International Film Festival and a spring counterweight to CIFF’s annual blowout in October. The EU fest may lack the racial diversity and global reach of CIFF, but its programming is just as ambitious if not more so. The 19th edition of the European Union Film Festival opens Friday and runs for four weeks, with 62 new features and numerous personal appearances. Following are some of the highlights, but there’s much more; for a complete schedule visit siskelfilmcenter.org. —J.R. Jones
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Phantom Boy In this moving 2015 animation by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli (A Cat in Paris), a young cancer patient with the power to leave his body helps a cop whose legs have been broken bring down a criminal mastermind holding New York City hostage. Able to fly anywhere invisibly, but unable to touch anything, the boy acts as a spy for the cop, who’s been marginalized by the force for his reckless methods, and as a guide to the enterprising journalist also trying to save the city from the gangster. The noirish plotline is smart and engaging, but this French film is most powerful for its treatment of the young hero’s illness; in one scene he uses his supernatural ability to eavesdrop on his family as they discuss him. In French with subtitles. —Eric Lutz 84 min. Thu 3/31, 6:30 PM.
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