Annual film FESt presents a cinematic pre-Thanksgiving feast

Gentle reader, forgive the film fanatic in your life if he’s distracted from common Thanksgiving contemplations. Stuffing the turducken ... the structural integrity of the uncanned cranberry goo ... the infernal labyrinth of pickup and drop-off at Lambert ... these things matter not to him ...

... for SLIFF has returned.

While most people are laying out basters and roasting pans, polishing silver and ironing linens for that single most consumptive of holidays, cinephiles have 11 days (and nights) of film feasting to tuck into at the 16th annual St. Louis International Film Festival. But with around 100 features and documentaries (and short subjects too numerous to imagine), the SLIFF schedule can appear like a vast all-you-can-eat buffet. Where to start? What looks good?

For those of you with plenty of time to kill and a backside conditioned for hour after hour of reclining in theater seats, check out www.cinemastlouis.org for the full slate, venue listings and ticket info; bon appétit to you. For the rest of you, here are my suggestions of some of the best SLIFF is offering this year, arranged as a “tasting menu” for your enjoyment.

The Cocktail: Son of Rambow, Nov. 10 – 3 p.m., St. Louis Art Museum

You’ll get a warm buzz from this nostalgic trip back to the early ’80s as seen through the eyes of some precocious British boys. Shy Will, raised in a deeply religious community, has never seen a TV show or a movie. That changes drastically when he’s brought home by his schoolmate, the notorious Lee Carter, whose complete lack of restraint is both appalling and amazing. Carter exposes wide-eyed Will to a bootleg videotape of First Blood, and Will immediately becomes a willing star and stuntman in the backyard epic Carter’s filming. It’s one part The Little Rascals, one part John Hughes coming-of-age flick and a whole heap of Sly Stallone-inspired mayhem.

The Appetizer: Shorts Program 7 (Around the World in Eight Shorts), Nov. 16 – 9:30 p.m., Plaza Frontenac

Cinema St. Louis has always made a point of emphasizing that the “I” in SLIFF stands for “international.” The range of nations represented this year runs from Algeria to Venezuela. Catching all of the foreign features offered is impossible, so this program of eight short films promises to take you to “all corners of the globe without leaving your movie seat.” Drama, comedy, romance and tragedy all unfold in 18 minutes or less, in offerings from Brazil and Belgium, Canada and South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S., and two films from Germany.

The Salad: How to Cook Your Life, Nov. 18 – 1:15 p.m., Plaza Frontenac

Sauce Magazine is pleased to sponsor this screening, a quirky German-made documentary about Edward Espe Brown, a Zen master and master baker. Those of us who love to cook know the therapeutic value of rolling up our sleeves and tying on an apron. While some might rake rock gardens, we chop veggies and dutifully stir risotto. Brown meanders through a lighthearted tour of some of his cooking seminars, which accentuate the spiritual as much as (or more than) the culinary, urging students (and the audience) to treat the ingredients and the process of cooking with all due care, and in so doing find harmony. It’s more a “Zen” movie than it is a “foodie” movie, but I challenge you to watch the first 20 minutes without developing an overwhelming urge to rush home and make bread.

The Entrée: Dry Season, Nov. 13 – 7:30 p.m., Webster University

Zen master Brown would probably find much worth praising about Dry Season, which illustrates quite nearly his message of finding harmony. Young Atim’s father is killed in wartime by Nassara, a man who under most circumstances would be considered a war criminal. But when a blanket amnesty means Nassara will go unpunished, Atim is tasked by his grandfather to find Nassara and deliver retribution. Atim finds the man settled into domesticity and running a bakery. But rather than killing Nassara quickly, Atim decides to get closer. Nassara becomes a father figure to the boy, and Atim’s perceptions waver. And yet in the back of his mind, his grandfather’s injunction remains, feeding the rage in his heart. This powerful, deliberate drama comes from Chad, a nation that has been at war with itself or its neighbors almost continuously since 1965. That a piece of art can be brought out of such chaos is a feat in itself. That it can be so profound and engaging as well is astounding, and as such it has been richly rewarded at film festivals worldwide.

The Dessert: Aardman Animations, Nov. 18 – 6 p.m., Webster University

Although the U.K.’s Aardman Animations is best known as the home of the plasticine dynamic duo Wallace and Gromit, the animation studios have many more characters running around than Nick Park’s pair. This sampler (I suppose Wallace would prefer it be considered the “cheese plate”) offers nine of Aardman’s best, including the rather hideous The Pearce Sisters – about two rain-soaked, blood-stained old hags – and the silly Wat’s Pig, best described as “the Pig and the Pauper.” Wallace and Gromit do make an appearance, in the award-winning A Close Shave, but that short’s breakout star, Shaun the Sheep, gets his own spin-off, too, in Still Life.

Still got some energy left? The Aardman show wraps up at 7:30, leaving you just enough time to zip over to the SLIFF wrap party at Mandarin at 8 p.m. There’s no cover, and a DJ will be spinning. Hear the festival award winners announced and shimmy off 11 days of sitting and popcorn. After all, you want to be svelte for Thanksgiving, right?