A Final Weekend of SBIFF

The red carpets have all been rolled back up, the klieg lights turned off, and filmmakers have gone on to the next festival along with their movies. But there’s still one final freebie for local film lovers before SBIFF calls it quits on its 35th festival. That would be the Third Weekend screenings, which although curtailed from the slate of nine or more films in the earliest years of the add-on will still show three of the most popular and acclaimed movies that screened during the official fest.

Screening on Friday, January 31, The Flying Circus, which won the Jeffrey C Barbakow Best International Feature Film, follows a troupe of actors from Kosovo who weigh the risks of illegally crossing the border into Albania in the hope of meeting their idol, Monty Python’s Michael Palin.

The Birdcatcher’s Son, a period drama set against the rugged landscape of the Faroe Islands that finds birdcatcher Esmar and his wife facing eviction from their farm unless they have a son, claimed the Audience Choice Award. It screens Saturday, February 1, while the following night brings Best Documentary Award winner Bastards’ Road, a story of pain, hope, and redemption that chronicles an Iraq War veteran who embarked on a 5,800-mile journey across the country – on foot – to visit fellow veterans and families of the fallen.

All the films screen at 6:30 pm and admission is on a first come, first served basis at SBIFF’s Riviera Theatre.