Le Damier
60th New York Film Festival
September 30 - October 16, 2022
Set in a fictitious African country, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda’s meticulously composed medium-length comedy recounts the tale of the country’s president—the founder and “first citizen” of his nation—settling in for an all-night game of checkers. Presented with Radu Jude’s The Potemkinists.
Q&A with Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
Set in a fictitious African country, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda’s medium-length comedy recounts the tale of the country’s president—the founder and “first citizen” of his nation—settling in for an all-night game of checkers with a man who purports to be the grand champion. However, the game soon devolves into a satirical and incisive parable about the brutal confrontation between dictatorship and its political opponents. A meticulously composed work of political cinema, Le Damier takes aim at the absurdity of authoritarianism and doesn’t miss. Restored in 2K in 2021 by NYU Tisch, in association with Villa Albertine – French Embassy in the United States and the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français.
Special thanks to Villa Albertine.
Screening with:
The Potemkinists / Potemkiniștii*
Radu Jude, 2022, Romania, 18m
Romanian and Russian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Radu Jude revisits the history of the battleship Potemkin—the source story for Sergei Eisenstein’s classic 1925 work of Soviet montage—as a comic dialogue between a sculptor and a representative from Romania’s Ministry of Culture about cinema, monument-making, and art’s conflicted role in the continual revisionism of history.
*The Potemkinists is a Currents selection. For more information about the Currents lineup, visit here.
Read More
Miroirs No. 3 Director Christian Petzold on His Haunting New Film
On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Miroirs No. 3 director discusses his haunting, beautifully crafted new film.
Film at Lincoln Center Launches Fundraiser Auction in Celebration of Marilyn Monroe Centennial
FLC is partnering with Piper-Heidsieck Champagne for a one-night-only special event featuring an archival 35mm print of Howard Hawks’s classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Click here to read more about the event. This special fundraiser auction features Marilyn Monroe-themed art, memorabilia, and an exclusive trip to Champagne, France, featuring a behind-the-scenes Piper-Heidsieck experience.
James Gray’s Paper Tiger Will Open the 64th New York Film Festival
FLC announces James Gray’s Paper Tiger as the Opening Night selection of the 64th New York Film Festival, presented in partnership with Rolex. The film will make its North American premiere in a gala debut at Alice Tully Hall on Friday, September 25, with Gray and members of the cast and crew in attendance.