THE BODYBUILDER AND I (Canada)
It's bad enough when your 59-year-old father takes up protein shakes and choreographed programs to enter muscle-man competitions, but what happens when you don't even know the guy? Bryan Friedman's funny and sometimes touching film is a study of a deadbeat dad who shows up how you least need to see him: orange and nearly naked. But something essential, not to mention frustrating, about family is illuminated in this cleverly made doc. By the way, who knew there were so many Jewish bodybuilders? Granville 7, October 9 (10:30 a.m.); Pacific Cinémathí¨que, October 11 (6 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

COCHOCHI (Mexico)
This simple, sparsely scripted fable, set in a remote corner of Mexico's picturesque northwest, recalls Iran's wave of metaphorical, child-centred films (like The Color of Paradise). Two indigenous boys set out to deliver medicine to a far-off village but lose their horse and become separated along the way. Their ensuing journey brings them into contact with bus-stealing cowboys, truck-stop cantinas, and a busy world slowly encroaching upon their way of life. Granville 7, October 6 (6:40 p.m.) and 7 (2 p.m.); Vancity Theatre, October 11 (10:45 a.m.)
> Janet Smith

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (France/USA)
You might think a study of a real-life French journalist whose sudden stroke left him paralyzed except for one eyelid would be something of a downer. But an eyelid is always attached to an eye, and that's enough for artist-turned-director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) to find all the beauty, life, light, and sardonic humour left to a roguish fellow (played by the Roman Polanski–like Mathieu Amalric) who, once he figures out where he is, begins seducing women–and writing a book–like nobody's business. And the music is killer, too. Funny, sexy, and deeply moving, this is an existential experience like no other. Granville 7, October 5 (9:30 p.m.) and 7 (4 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

FLOWER IN THE POCKET (Malaysia)
Two stories intertwine here, as a pair of neglected little boys take care of each other day and night in a small flat, and a man slaves away in the surreal setting of a mannequin factory. The quaint humour may not always translate, but the lensing finds quirky beauty in a poor quarter of Kuala Lumpur. Patient viewers will wait for Flower to blossom from something slow and gentle into a moving portrait of love and loneliness. Granville 7, October 7 (10:30 a.m.) and Pacific Cinémathí¨que, October 10 (7 p.m.)
> Janet Smith

GO GO TALES (France/Italy)
Perhaps the move to Italy has softened New Yorker Abel Ferrara's personality. In any case, the indie bad boy has turned in his Nietzschean Christian junkie aesthetic for an outlook that can best be described as what you would expect from the bastard child of Paul Morrissey and John Cassavetes. Just about every cult-movie star you can think of swings through this fable about a pivotal night in the life of a financially strapped strip club. For what it's worth, Go Go Tales is also the best film on the subject since Atom Egoyan's Exotica. Granville 7, October 11 (9:30 p.m.) and 12 (1 p.m.)
> Mark Harris

GOD MAN DOG (Taiwan)
What do a one-legged trucker, a child thief, alcoholic aboriginals, a female boxer, and a suicidal hand model all have in common? Plenty, although it takes patience to see the threads gradually entwine in this lovely ode to faith and the search for inner connections. The English title for Singing Chen's beautifully crafted second effort is almost a palindrome; you just have to see the symmetry of man and woman–and animal spirit–for it to work. One of the fest's most quietly unforgettable discoveries. Granville 7, October 9 (9 p.m.) and 11 (12:15 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

HEARTBEAT DETECTOR (France)
Can the Holocaust be seen as the ultimate form of "downsizing"? At first glance the idea seems offensive, not to mention absurd, but director Nicolas Klotz makes a chillingly effective case for this argument. Mathieu Amalric plays the aggressive corporate psychologist of a German company based in Paris who discovers that his bosses aren't what they seem and that some corporate games are played for higher stakes than others. Granville 7, October 10 (9 p.m.) and October 11 (2 p.m.)
> Mark Harris

HOTEL VERY WELCOME (Germany)
The westerners here, adrift in different parts of Asia–from tourist-beach Thailand to a remote desert in India–initially appear to be casually followed, like subjects in a reality-TV series. But the clever madness to director Sonja Heiss's method gradually reveals itself as the squabbling British mates, German new-age seeker, hash-puffing Irish reprobate, and stranded Scandinavian damsel display their thorny inner characters, and a few even cross paths, but not in a gimmicky way. The hip soundtrack and ravishing images are compelling on their own, but they also underline some sharp observations about human nature at its most adventurous. Very welcome indeed. Granville 7, October 7 (9 p.m.) and 8 (2 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND (Czech Republic)
This delightful fable follows a wonderfully nebbishy, size-small waiter from the 1920s through to the early Communist era in what was then Czechoslovakia. Made by Jirí­ Menzel, one of the great directors of the 1960s, the film manages to touch on the horror of the Nazi occupation while never losing touch with the humour of that country's many bizarre interludes. As a bonus, the movie mirrors the cinematic styles of each era depicted, although the silent-film ethos of Buster Keaton dominates the proceedings, which have to be seen to be (sort-of) believed. Granville 7, October 6 (9:30 p.m.) and 10 (4 p.m.); Ridge, October 8 (9:15 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

NIGHT TRAIN (China)
Every frame of Diao Yi'nan's second feature could stand as a piece of contemporary photographic art, with small, solitary figures set against a desolate, grey-blue landscape of chugging smokestacks, gaping train-station platforms, and modernist apartment blocks. The palette sets an appropriate tone for the story, which is too dark to be called a comedy and too twisted to be called a drama. In a remote industrial city, a female court bailiff (the striking Liu Dan) works by day with death-row convicts; at night, she struggles with loneliness and empty sexual encounters. Eventually she meets a smelting-plant worker (Qi Dao) who has more ties to her than first appear. Their affair descends into a bleak, perverse study of revenge and self-loathing. Granville 7, October 8 (9:15 p.m.) and 10 (noon)
> Janet Smith

Outsourced (India/USA)
Feel-good comedies have a habit of making me feel bad, but this one is an exception. The education that an American manager (Josh Hamilton) receives after his telephone-sales team is moved to Mumbai is both genuinely funny and slyly disrespectful of the corporate mentality. Director John Jeffcoat seems to genuinely like India, and most of the lessons learned travel in a westerly direction. The fact that the film looks great doesn't hurt either. Granville 7, October 6 (3 p.m.) and 9 (6:40 p.m.)
> Mark Harris

SALUD! (USA) If you wondered what Michael Moore got right in his Cuban visit in Sicko, you'll be amazed how much more there is to the story. Veteran political filmmaker Connie Field doesn't stick to the freebies citizens get for having been born on that otherwise benighted island; she concentrates on Cuba's outreach missions to Africa and poorer Latin American countries. There are some surprisingly sane comments from U.S. diplomats, who basically say: "Maybe this is PR for Castro, but hey, it's working." Granville 7, October 10 (7 p.m.); Vancity Theatre, October 12 (1:15 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

SAVING LUNA (Canada) A valuable and deeply moving study of interspecies contact, focusing on confused efforts and missed opportunities regarding Luna, the lovable killer whale that played in the waters of Nootka Sound for almost four years. This colourful feature, made by journalists Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm, has some rough edges, technically speaking, and is slightly dampened by narration that is well written but unctuously read; not every nature doc has to sound like it's Disney or IMAX. In any case, the feds don't come out looking very good in this real-life tale, which picks up where the Adam Beach TV movie left off. Pacific Cinémathí¨que, October 6 (1:30 p.m.); Granville 7, October 9 (6 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

SONS (Norway) In recent years, pedophilia has become a stock way to raise dramatic stakes in otherwise undercooked thrillers. This taut Norwegian effort, centring on one childhood victim–now a lumpish lifeguard with few life prospects–and his elaborate revenge plans, is anything but half-baked. In fact, there's almost too much coincidence-laden determination in Erik Richter Strand's tale of conflicting, often subterranean agendas, but all the characters are fully human and the tale, which is never sensationalistic, has a darkly satisfying finish. Granville 7, October 5 (2 p.m.) and 10 (6:20 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

TERROR'S ADVOCATE (France) Although the most sinister rumour surrounding Jacques Vergí¨s appears to be unfounded (when he disappeared from 1970 to 1978, he was apparently not Pol Pot's right-hand man in Cambodia), all the other stories would seem to be true”¦and then some. This radical lawyer with a powerful sexual penchant for beautiful female terrorists has never let politics interfere with his choice of high-profile defendants, agreeing to represent Klaus Barbie as willingly as Carlos the Jackal, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan MiloÅ¡evi?, and countless other international bogeymen (and -women). As witty as he is scary, Vergí¨s seems to be following some mysterious internal agenda in which perverted idealism colludes with sensual self-interest. Another unforgettable portrait of a charming "monster" from Barbet (General Idi Ami Dada) Schroeder. Granville 7, October 5 (11 a.m.) and 11 (noon)
> Mark Harris

THE UNION: THE BUSINESS BEHIND GETTING HIGH (Canada) This country–and especially this province–has complicated attitudes toward marijuana, a substance that is illegal yet tolerated as a drug less harmful than tobacco or alcohol. It is also extremely lucrative as an off-the-books cash crop. The title refers to the informal network of growers, sellers, and material suppliers who benefit from this present-day Prohibition. Brett Harvey's entertaining and comprehensive survey makes it clear that current laws serve underground needs while enabling enforcement agents on both sides of the border. Highly recommended. Granville 7, October 10 (9:30 p.m.) and 11 (3:30 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner

WONDERS ARE MANY: THE MAKING OF DOCTOR ATOMIC (USA)
This fast-paced, brightly coloured, and endlessly provocative doc works well on so many levels, it's hard to know where to start. It is at once a history of the Trinity test headed by polymath J. Robert Oppenheimer, which preceded the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a detailed look at the creative process put into the writing, rehearsal, and staging of a new opera about Oppenheimer, written by elegant minimalist John Adams and directed by Peter Sellars, who comes across as Scott Thompson channelling Zippy the Pinhead. The whole process is framed by the thin Hindu lines between creation and destruction (Oppenheimer was a physicist who read the Bhagavad Gita in the original Sanskrit), and the music is sublime, too. Granville 7, October 5 (10:30 a.m.); Vancity Theatre, October 9 (9:30 p.m.)
> Ken Eisner