Among the Clouds (Iran)
A timeless fable with cellphones and designer glasses, this simple and airily shot tale stays with a sensitive Iranian teenager who has a major crush on a chador-wearing girl from the Iraqi side of the dusty border town where he earns a meagre (but clever) living among pushcart and taxi drivers. The movie stays with the viewer, too. Ridge Theatre, October 1 (7 p.m.); Granville 7, October 6 (2 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

In doc Born Without, Mexican street musician José Flores proves greater than his stature.

Born Without (Mexico)
An armless, three-foot-tall, harmonica-playing street musician, José Flores is the sort of person you might avert your eyes from on a Mexican sidewalk. But little by little, late director Eva Norvind reveals him to be much more than he appears. Enhanced by a soundtrack of Mexican folk and hip-hop, and set against a surreal landscape of tawdry state fairs and cockfighting rings, the documentary is a fascinating portrait of a man who’s by turns an ambitious workaholic, a family man, and an artist. Granville 7, September 30 (7:15 p.m.) and October 3 (8:45 p.m.); Pacific Cinémathèque, October 10 (10:45 a.m.).
> Janet Smith

Burn the Bridges (Mexico)
A teen sister and brother deal with raging hormones and a school bully while their mother dies slowly in a back room of their once-grand mansion. Critiques on Mexico’s age-old class structures and insinuations of incest put a bleak twist on otherwise soapy material. Granville 7, October 1 (7:15 p.m.), 4 (9:15 p.m.), and 7 (10:30 a.m.)
.> Janet Smith

Cuba: The Value of Utopia
(Cuba/Ecuador) Interviews with old-timers recalling the late-’50s revolution in Cuba? Sounds dull, maybe, but these real-life characters, filmed in colourful settings, are fascinating, and their recollections convey a picture of faded but still vivid ideals. There’s also some grainy footage of El Fidel, at a dinner party, telling anecdotes he seems to have delivered too many times. Granville 7, October 1 (8:45 p.m.) and 5 (3 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

Dancing with Time (Germany)
Ballet is associated with lithe young bodies. But this documentary shows the way life experience can create a certain kind of beauty. In this case, four German artists in their late 60s and 70s come together for a show at the Leipzig Opera House. Extended performance sequences are intercut with interviews about the dancers’ personal stories—some encompassing the Nazi period. For diehard dance fans and old folks who believe you’re as young as you feel. Granville 7, September 30 (6:20 p.m.) and October 5 (11 a.m.); Pacific Cinémathèque, October 6 (9 p.m.).
> Janet Smith

Dunya & Desie (Netherlands)
This wonderfully picaresque, family-friendly road movie was spun off from a popular Dutch TV series also starring Maryam Hassouni and Eva van de Wijdeven as mismatched Amsterdam pals: a poised Muslim girl and a trailer-trash gum-snapper, respectively. You don’t need prior knowledge to enjoy how they end up in Morocco looking for very different things and finding deeper levels of family and friendship. Granville 7, September 30 (1 p.m.); Ridge Theatre, October 2 (7 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

Erik Nietzsche: The Early Years (Austria/Denmark/Italy/Sweden)
In the late 1930s, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a famous short story about the intellectual and emotional formation of a French fascist leader. Jacob Thuesen’s hilarious parody of the National Film School of Denmark in the late 1970s follows pretty much the same formula, only this time the malignant figure at the centre of the story is a thinly disguised Lars von Trier (who wrote the script and plays a bit part as well). Self-parody just doesn’t get much funnier than this. Granville 7, September 27 (1 p.m.) and October 4 (6:20 p.m.) and 8 (10 a.m.)
> Mark Harris

Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (USA)
The treatment could be a bit more expansive, to fit the size of its subject, but it’s worth taking this very personal tour of New Orleans’ Sixth Ward. The once-genteel neighbourhood is now notorious for its (highly engineered) urban decay but also laudable as the cradle of an African-American explosion of talent—political, musical, and literary—almost a century before the Harlem Renaissance. Granville 7, October 2 (3 p.m.) and 3 (8:45 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

Firaaq (India)
Low-key, slice-of-life vignettes about four Hindu and Muslim families belie a brave look at taboo subjects. Using the 2002 Gujarat religious riots as a starting point, director Nandita Das looks at the ways violence poisons people’s lives. Two poor, young parents struggle to recuperate after losing everything in a house-burning; an upper-class Hindu son recruits his father’s help to buy his way out of a rape conviction. Acting is inconsistent and the episodic structure formulaic, but it’s an interesting social study. Ridge Theatre, September 27 (7 p.m.) and October 1 (9 p.m.); Granville 7, September 30 (11 a.m.).
> Janet Smith

Flame and Citron (Denmark)
Who would have thought, in this day and age, that someone could combine the moral ambiguities of Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book with the traditional heroics of Jean-Pierre Melville’s L’Armée des ombres and, in the process, create the most exciting drama about the Second World War European resistance ever filmed? As unlikely as it sounds, that is precisely what Danish director Ole Christian Madsen has managed to do. Even more miraculously, he stuck pretty closely to the historical facts, as well. Granville 7, October 7 (4 p.m.) and 8 (9:15 p.m.)
> Mark Harris

Flicker (Canada)
Canadian-raised Brion Gysin isn’t as famous as Paul Bowles or William S. Burroughs, other members of the bohemian elite living in Morocco in the 1950s. But filmmaker Nik Sheehan revives the reputation of the late polymath, adept at painting, composing, writing, and mechanical invention. The spinning Dream Machine referred to in the title is lauded by the likes of Iggy Pop, Kenneth Anger, and Marianne Faithfull, who recall his genius for making art and enemies. Pacific Cinémathèque, October 3 (9:30 p.m.); Granville 7, October 4 (12:15 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner