OVID’s August Lineup: Ruben Blades, Danny Kaye (who’d have guessed!), Roger Corman’s Goth Horror starring Jack Nicholson, summer romance, the myth of the Old West & more!

This August OVID presents 16 new films and nine exclusives.

We start the month with a mother-son middle-age crisis comedy, My Best Part, followed by a mid-month coming-of-age romance SPARE KEYS, described as “delicate and Rohmeresque” (Télérama). Tradition and law clash in The Reformist, a documentary about a female Imam granting Muslim women the freedom to divorce and marry, and clash again in Al Djanat, The Original Paradise, where a filmmaker returns to her Burkina Faso village to confront her family’s dilemma – whether to keep or sell their ancestral land. In honor of the late Roger Corman, we present The Terror with Jack Nicholson as a French soldier cut off from his unit who finds himself beguiled by a mysterious woman who might very well be a ghost. We have a doc on Panamanian musician and activist Ruben Blades, plus a Danny Kaye Technicolor musical farce from 1949: The Inspector General. Plus, The Taking, a thoroughgoing examination of Monument Valley, a site located on sovereign Navajo land that has come to hold mythic significance in the global psyche. We round out the month with Pilgrims, a foreboding Lithuanian drama based on a true case of a mysterious disappearance. Then a brief summer break before we return with a stellar lineup for September.

Full details on August’s complete lineup are below!

(Image from Fazila Amiri's And Still I Sing, premiering on OVID on August 6th)

Friday, August 2

My Best Part
Directed by Nicolas Maury
With Nicolas Maury, Nathalie Baye, Arnaud Valois
Altered Innocence | Feature | France | 2020

Nicolas Maury (Netflix’s Call My Agent!, Knife+Heart) directs and stars in this Cannes Official Competition coming-of-age dramedy as Jérémie, a hypersensitive struggling actor with an uncontrollable green-eyed monster on his back. Grappling with personal loss, a love life in shambles, and a faltering career, Jérémie turns to his clear-headed mother for support (ten-time César Award nominee Nathalie Baye) in this auspicious directorial debut.

“A bittersweet comedy-drama that manages to be hilarious in one scene and extremely touching in the next.” —Hollywood Reporter

“Equal parts hilarious and heartwarming, My Best Part is a sweet exploration of the absurdities of life and a celebration of what’s worth living for.” —Screen Rant

Tuesday, August 6

And Still I Sing
Directed by Fazila Amiri
First Hand Films | Documentary | Canada | 2023

Amidst the United States and Taliban peace negotiations, Afghanistan’s controversial pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors hopeful contestants on the hit singing TV series Afghan Star, including the only two female singers, Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madadgar. As their hopes and dreams of becoming national singers begin to manifest into reality, the Taliban returns to power, reversing 20 years of progress for women’s rights. Amidst the fear and panic caused by the fall of the Afghan government, each woman must make a harrowing escape from Kabul into exile while the US fully evacuates.

“Amiri offers a refreshing counter-portrait to stories of the Middle East by focusing on both the hope and hardship that women face daily. The music is indeed joyous even if the images are tough.” —POV Magazine

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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The Reformist – A Female Imam
Directed by Marie Skovgaard
First Hand Films | Documentary | Denmark | 2019

After her own divorce, Sherin openly begins granting Islamic divorces to women unhappily married and performs interfaith marriages of Muslim women and non-Muslim men. Having sacrificed her own marriage for the cause, Sherin wants to grant Muslim women the freedom to divorce and marry. But how do you break centuries of tradition from within a religion? On this matter the new Mosque is divided. Should they work for their ideas in the shadows or in the public glare? Should they dare to do whatever it takes to achieve their own vision? 
 
“Elegantly weaving together the collective and the personal, the private and the public, Marie Skovgaard has created a unique documentary about a unique project.” —Modern Times Review

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, August 8

Ilya Muromets
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko
With Boris Andreyev, Shukur Burkhanov
Deaf Crocodile | Feature | Soviet Union/Russia | 1956

Legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko’s stunning Cinemascope ballad of heroic medieval knights, ruthless Tugar invaders, wind demons and three-headed fire-breathing dragons stars Boris Andreyev as the bogatyr (warrior) Ilya, a mythic figure in the Kyivan Rus’ culture that predates both modern Ukraine and Russia (much of the film’s action is set in Kyiv, and Ilya’s relics are held today in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery). Based on a series of famous oral epics, the film follows Ilya as he wages a decades-long battle against the Tugars who threaten his homeland, kidnap his wife, and raise his own son to fight against him.
 
“In elaborately, even outrageously dramatizing the knight Ilya’s gruesome war against the Tugars, Ptushko unleashes his imagination with inspired fantasy.” —KDHX
 
“Remarkable… Not only a sweeping, towering achievement; it’s also a contemporary treatise on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.” —Film Obsessive

Friday, August 9

The Terror
Directed by Roger Corman
With Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight
MVD | Feature | USA | 1963

Roger Corman’s mid-sixties goth period is on display in this atmospheric horror tale of a French soldier whose encounter with a ghostly woman leads him to a mysterious castle full of dark secrets. The pairing of a youthful Jack Nicholson as the soldier and veteran Boris Karloff as the castle’s owner make The Terror a memorable thrill. Though Corman is credited as director, several others took a turn behind the camera, including Nicholson himself, Monte Hellman, and Francis Ford Coppola.
 
“It’s a treat to watch the great Karloff and a baby-faced Nicholson square off.” —Film Frenzy

Wednesday, August 14

Al Djanat, the Original Paradise
Directed by Chloé Aïcha Boro
Andana Films | Documentary | France, Benin, Germany, Burkina Faso | 2023

Filmmaker Chloé Aïcha Boro returns to her homeland, Burkina Faso, after the death of her uncle, killed while on a pilgrimage to Mecca. She documents the aftermath in her family’s compound as a rift about the estate develops between family members who embrace traditional Islamic law and those who would follow Burkina Faso’s official colonialist laws. What starts as a small family matter becomes a story about the role culture, heritage, and religion play in the community.

“A complex, multi-layered film that clearly depicts the clash between traditions and modernisation.” —Cineuropa

“Deeply relatable: we sacrifice belonging for freedom and freedom for belonging.” —Modern Times Review

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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Libende Boyz
Directed by Wendy Bashi
Sudu Connexion | Documentary | DRC, Belgium | 2022

Libende Boyz, meaning “the men of steel” in Lingala, is the nickname of a group of young rappers who are fighting to tell their story and that of Beni, a city in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the scene of civilian massacres since 2014. Following their public and private day-to-day lives, Wendy Bashi creates a rich portrait of a young generation bursting with dreams and resilience, who want to transform their city into a new Los Angeles of rap.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, August 15

Marguerite’s Theorem
Directed by Anna Novion
With Ella Rumpf, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, & Clotilde Courau
Distrib Films | Feature | France | 2023

The trajectory of a brilliant mathematics PhD at France’s prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure seems perfectly planned out. As the only woman in her class in the male-dominated field of mathematics, Marguerite nervously awaits the completion of years of hard work at her upcoming thesis defense. On the crucial day, an unexpected mistake in Marguerite’s theorem throws off these plans, triggering a personal crisis that unravels her career aspirations. With her life upended, she has to navigate the world outside of academia for the first time—gaining fresh insights, making new friends, and exploring romance. A tender and life-affirming portrait of one woman’s journey to define life on her own terms.
 
“Anna Novion reinvents the ‘prodigy film’ formula by adding a fascinating heroine and sensuality.” —GQ

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, August 16

The Emoji Story
Directed by Martha Shane & Ian Cheney
Utopia | Documentary | USA | 2020

The Emoji Story explores the complex, conflict-prone, and often hilarious world of the creators, lovers, and arbiters of emoji, our world’s newest pictorial language. How do you create a global language on the fly? This film charts the evolution of emoji and investigates what they may reveal about our increasingly technological world.

“Enlightening.” —Hollywood Reporter

“Fascinating… At heart of the doc is an examination of the value of seeing one’s identity and culture represented in this still-growing new language.” —Remezcla

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Spare Keys
Directed by Jeanne Aslan & Paul Saintillan
With Céleste Brunnquell, Quentin Dolmaire, Chloé Mons
Distrib Films | Feature | France | 2022

15-year-old Sophie (Céleste Brunnquell) yearns to break free from her dysfunctional family. After one argument too many, she seizes an opportunity and takes the spare keys to her affluent friend Jade’s house. While enjoying the spacious home she thought was empty for summer, she bumps into her friend’s older brother Stéphane (Quentin Dolmaire). He, as fate would have it, was also planning on staying. Rather than insisting she leave, Stéphane lets her into the house and his life. Set in Nancy, eastern France, and loosely autobiographical, Spare Keys is a tender coming-of-age story about a summer that changes both Sophie and Stéphane.

“A story of two loners who tame each other and a gentle portrait of an adolescent, Jeanne Aslan and Paul Saintillan’s film finds its unique voice by avoiding expected scenes and passages.” —Libération

“Halfway between social drama and summer tale, Spare Keys is largely driven by its two excellent lead performers, making it a very charming and nuanced comedy.” —GQ

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Tuesday, August 20

At the Drive-in
Directed by Alexander Monelli
MVD | Documentary | USA | 2017

From sleeping in concession stands to working for free, film fanatics at the struggling Mahoning Drive-in face uncertainty when Hollywood announces it will switch to digital projection for all new movies. Unable to purchase an expensive digital projector, the Mahoning gang pin their hopes of survival on showing only vintage 35mm film prints on their original 1949 projectors. An underdog story about the plight to save film and drive-in theaters everywhere, At The Drive-in is about the magic of movies and the people who love them.
 
“At the Drive-In is in equal doses a celebration and a eulogy but it’s without a doubt something every film lover should see.” —Film Threat

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The Taking
Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe
Dekanalog | Documentary | USA | 2021

Monument Valley is one of the most recognizable landscapes in the world. Its iconographic use in American Westerns has had a lasting influence on stock photography, advertising, and tourism. The fact that Monument Valley is traditional Navajo territory has been obscured in the process. A radical examination of Monument Valley’s representation in cinema and advertising since John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939), The Taking scrutinizes how a site located on sovereign Navajo land came to embody the fantasy of the “Old West,” replete with self-perpetuating falsehoods, and why it continues to hold mythic significance in the global psyche.

“What emerges by the end is a fascinating, robust account of a natural wonder and its function as more than just a movie backdrop.” —Hammer to Nail

Wednesday, August 21

Restored!

The Return of Ruben Blades
Directed by Robert Mugge
Deaf Crocodile /MVD | Documentary | UK | 1985

The story of Panamanian “salsa” singer Ruben Blades and his success in crossing over from the Hispanic market to the international arena. The Return of Ruben Blades follows the singer to Harvard, where he gets his master’s degree in international law, to his old neighborhood in Panama, to California for a recording session with Linda Ronstadt, and to New York for a performance at S.O.B.’s. The music is a joy, as danceable as it is intelligent, and  Blades makes every nuance count.

“Inspired… Proof that while art is important, it’s only part of living a rich, thoughtful life.” —PopMatters

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Heroes for a Semester
Directed by Axel Breuer
First Hand Films | Documentary | Austria | 2011

At the Northwestern University of Chicago, several groups of students are working on cases that even top American lawyers don’t dare to tackle: cases without DNA proof. In search of proof of innocence, the undergraduates encounter shady witnesses, corruption, violent police officers, and barely credible experts. The search is frustrating and dangerous. Sometimes the students manage to free the detainees they have taken on, though not always.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, August 22

The Inspector General
Directed by Henry Koster
With Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Barbara Bates, Elsa Lanchester
MVD | Feature | USA | 1949

In this farcical Technicolor musical, snake oil salesman Georgi (Danny Kaye) is too honest for his own good. After his partner (Walter Slezak) fires him, the simple-minded Georgi wanders into a corrupt town where he is mistaken for a diplomat. As Georgi unknowingly enjoys his false identity, the townspeople make several botched attempts to assassinate him, believing he is a powerful politician. Matters get even more tangled and amusing when the real inspector general shows up.

“Superb… [Danny] Kaye indulges in all of his specialty talents – from the novelty song sung as fast as possible to absurd physical shenanigans that are delightful to behold.” —SFGate

Friday, August 23

Pilgrims
Directed by Laurynas Bareiša
With Giedrius Kiela, Gabija Bargailaite
Dekanalog | Feature | Lithuania | 2021

A work of fiction that emerges directly from elements of reality: a newspaper article, the space occupied by a small town, and its surroundings. A young man (Giedrius Kiela) and a young woman (Gabija Bargailaite) drive from Vilnius to a village to investigate a disappearance. The plot unfurls by way of rumors and insinuations, where its central secret is almost unbearably unnerving in its unearthing. Skillfully doling out narrative information in scenes marked by elegant, sinister single takes, Laurynas Bareiša has created a foreboding yet ultimately hopeful portrait of people racked with trauma and unresolved anger.

“A cool, unsparing but humane essay on human suffering and its repercussions.” —Screen Daily

“A profound study of survivor’s rage left in the wake of violent tragedy.” —Screen Slate

Complete list of films premiering on OVID this month (in alphabetical order):

Al Djanat, the Original Paradise, Chloé Aïcha Boro (2023)
And Still I Sing, Fazila Amiri (2023)
At the Drive-in, Alexander Monelli (2017) 
Heroes for a Semester, Axel Breuer (2011)
Ilya Muromets, Aleksandr Ptushko (1956) 
Libende Boyz, Wendy Bashi (2022) 
Marguerite’s Theorem, Anna Novion (2023)
My Best Part, Nicolas Maury (2020)
Pilgrims, Laurynas Bareiša (2021)
Spare Keys, Jeanne Aslan & Paul Saintillan (2022)
The Emoji Story, Martha Shane & Ian Cheney (2020)
The Inspector General, Henry Koster (1949)
The Reformist – A Female Imam, Marie Skovgaard (2019) 
The Return of Ruben Blades, Robert Mugge (1985)
The Taking, Alexandre O. Philippe (2021)
The Terror, Roger Corman (1963)