Petaluma International Film Festival Offers a Little Somethin' for Everyone

This weekend, it will be quite literally possible to live at Boulevard Cinemas as the Petaluma International Film Festival arrives, offering a steady diet of independent features and short films from all over the world, including many by young directors.

An interesting offering on Saturday is “Cairo Exit,” by Egyptian-born Hesham Issawi, whose film offers a look at life in Cairo, through the experience of an 18-year-old Coptic Christian girl who finds herself pregnant with her Muslim boyfriend's child and has to decide between staying with her family and leaving to start a new life in another country.

The film starts at 7:40pm.

Other that should be very good is a Spanish/Swiss production "The Most Important Thing in Life is Not Being Dead." The sacrastically-titled film focuses on Jacobo, a piano tuner, whose happy existence is thrown into a state of confusion when insomnia creeps in, and previously repaired pianos start breaking down.

The movie is set in Spain during the reign of General Franco and shows how weakness and doubt can lead to a breakdown of a seemingly coherent system of beliefs and values. In the end, Jacobo realises that his trouble-free existence is merely a curtain behind which lurks a chaotic unexplored universe. The film screens Sunday, Oct. 23 at 10:25pm.

The Petaluma International Film Festival is the creation of Saeed Shafa, who also puts on the Tiburon International Film Festival each year. For more information, check out petalumafilmfestival.org