This Week's SIFF Picks

The Case of the Grinning Cat

As lively, engaged, and provocative as ever (not least in his use of digital technology), octogenarian Chris Marker meditates on the state of post-9/11 France. Part personal essay, part city symphony, this hour-long video takes as its premise the mysterious appearance of the enigmatic M. Chat—a wide-eyed, broadly smiling feline mascot who magically appears on Paris rooftops and building walls, as well as at political demonstrations. A minor mystery: The movie is dated 2004. Why has it taken so long to arrive here? (NR) J. HOBERMAN Northwest Film Forum: 7 p.m. Sat., May 27; 9:30 p.m. Wed., May 31.

Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul

True to its title, this fascinating documentary reveals the musical and cultural diversity at the crossroads between East and West, Europe and Asia. Director Fatih Akin (Head-On) and German rocker Alexander Hacke traipse around town recording the city's soundscape. They capture everything from hip-hop to psychedelic rock, street buskers to pop divas, tribal dirges to heavy metal. We see Istanbul as a city of confluence and contradiction, a musical melting pot embracing the West while also maintaining and celebrating its heritage. Akin's camera is gently present, and Hacke is a charismatic musical guide whose excitement is contagious. The recordings are beautifully captured and edited by Andrew Bird (himself an accomplished musician). Bridge is simultaneously a musical celebration and cultural exploration of an amazing, diverse city. Once you see it, and hear it, you'll want to visit. (NR) AARON DUCAT Harvard Exit: 5 p.m. Sat., May 27; 6 p.m. Tues., May 30.

The Giant Buddhas

Get ready to weep again for Afghanistan, where selling plundered national treasure is even more profitable than dealing opium, and 1,500-year-old statues are exploded in the name of Islam. This documentary cobbles together stories relating to the Taliban's destruction of two enormous Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley in early 2001. Director Christian Frei interviews Al-Jazeera journalist Taysir Alony, who disguised himself as a Talib to film the unforgettable explosions. Frei later visits an archaeological dig where a third, sleeping Buddha may lie. Another thread follows Afghan journalist-actress Nelofer Pazira—star of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Kandahar, now living in Toronto—as she travels (post-Taliban) to Kabul and Bamiyan, bearing photos her father had taken of the Buddhas when he was a young man. She stares in horror at the vacant space where the larger statue (125 feet tall) once stood. Oh, the shame. (NR) MOLLY LORI Neptune: 1:30 p.m. Sat., May 27. Lincoln Square: 4:30 p.m. Fri., June 2.

Gitmo: The New Rules of War

A valuable bookend to The Road to Guantánamo, this Swedish documentary (almost entirely in English) actually gains access to our U.S. detention center in Cuba, where military glad-handers stonewall every effort to get close to the inmates. The filmmakers' not-so-innocent tourist shots of the base are telling: female soldiers in bikinis playing volleyball, soldiers eating at McDonald's, and a bearded Special Forces–looking guy exiting the secret chain-link fenced compound—whether headed back to Iraq or Afghanistan, we can only guess. Even with a war going on, it's like there's no war going on. Back on the mainland, the Gitmo crew snags an interview with demoted Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the woman made the scapegoat for Abu Ghraib. A private contractor—again, that's a private contractor interrogating suspected terrorists, not an accountable member of our government or military—says the barking dogs, freezing air-conditioning, and loud rock music (Fleetwood Mac? Matchbox 20?) are "completely ineffective . . . and detrimental to the overall mission." Then you've got a clip of Rummy bragging that forcing inmates to stand for four hours isn't torture, because he routinely spends eight to 10 hours a day on his feet. Then, I'm sure, he goes home for a pleasant evening of hooding, waterboarding, and hooking up electrodes to his genitals. (NR) BRIAN MILLER Broadway Performance Hall: 11 a.m. Sat., May 27. Neptune: 9:15 p.m. Mon., May 29.

Heading South

Having brilliantly explored the subject of work in Time Out and Human Resources, Laurent Cantet now turns to the trickier subject of leisure—sex tourism, in fact. He follows three white women of a certain age to Haiti in the late '70s (i.e., pre-AIDS), where handsome black studs are "a dime a dozen," according to imperious Charlotte Rampling. At 55, her character maintains, only white losers will sleep with her back in Boston; here, she pays for the services she desires. "Welcome to paradise," she tells a late-blossoming newcomer with romantic feelings toward the head boy on the beach. But Cantet follows that boy from the beach and out of his clients' sight, revealing the harsh Duvalier-era social reality they chose to ignore. This handsome kid, practically a teenager, has no other option but to work (there's that Cantet keyword of oppression) as a gigolo for these unwitting, hennish sex colonists. He has a family, friends, and a conscience, but it takes a violent shock for them to finally guess as much. (NR) BRIAN MILLER Pacific Place: 9:30 p.m. Sat., May 27. Egyptian: 11 a.m. Mon., May 29.

The Hidden Blade

Don't be fooled by the title—Blade isn't the sort of Zatoichi variant it suggests. Rather, it's a revisionist and demystifying samurai saga. In 1861, at the end of the Japanese feudal era, the last samurai are clumsily adapting Western artillery and military formations without the assistance of Tom Cruise. Disgraced since his father's hara-kiri, Katagiri (Masatoshi Nagase of Mystery Train) impetuously rescues his former maid (Takako Matsu, last week's Seattle Weekly cover girl) from an abusive marriage, then dutifully abides by the caste system to suppress his affections for her. Meanwhile, he must prove his own innocence by dueling with a school pal accused of treason. Devoid of action until the climactic showdown, Blade is a stately yarn with slow-burn tension and heartwarming romance. But director Yôji Yamada already made the shogun equivalent of Unforgiven with the Oscar-nominated The Twilight Samurai. Though both are adaptations of Shuuhei Fujisawa novels, this follow-up pales slightly in comparison. (R) MARTIN TSAI Pacific Place: 6:30 p.m. Mon., May 29. Lincoln Square: 4 p.m. Thurs., June 1.