An epic story of male friendship spanning decades comes to us from Italy to take us to the beautiful mountains of a neighboring country. There, in the Italian Alps, two boys meet in the mid-1980s: Pietro, a city boy from industrial Turin, and the more hardened Bruno, who lives permanently in the mountains with his pastoral relatives. The summer they spend together will be the first of many, and years later, at the age of 30, they will also build a mountain retreat that will cement their friendship. However, Pietro’s adventurous nature will take him to the heights of Nepal, and Bruno does not want to leave the places where he grew up.

Gorgeous mountain scenery, beautifully filmed, is an additional protagonist of the film here, which is equally about the importance of memory, childhood dreams and traumas and, of course, friendship. The two protagonists, different but forever united thanks to Father Pietro, are like planets that come together at regular intervals only to part again. Their attraction, however, remains strong, comparable only to the eternal nature that surrounds them.

The legendary fantasy board game that has nurtured generations around the world is brought to the big screen with a rich production and a brilliant cast. A charming thief (Chris Pine) joins forces with a motley crew of adventurers to find a lost relic with powerful properties. Opposite them will be a cunning nobleman (Hugh Grant) along with an evil witch who serves him. The film’s greatest merit is that it chooses to remain entertaining and light-hearted rather than hiding behind a veil of “serious” fantasy and supposedly exploratory cinema. More or less true to the spirit of the game, this adventure is humorous, action-packed, and ultimately almost effortless despite its length. Plus Hugh Grant, who expands the streak of nice “bad guys” he’s been playing lately.

Italian director Gianni Amelio (“Tenderness”) tells the true story of his compatriot poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibadi, who was tried and convicted in the 1960s for having an affair with a young student. In the film, we see the acquaintance and love of two men, but above all, the horrific reaction of the conservative government, which does not criminalize homosexuality (because it simply does not recognize its existence), but invents other categories to impose its morality. Wordy, rather academic in its approach, Amelio’s film nevertheless accurately captures the climate and perception of an entire era.

The biography of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the most prominent football figures of the last two decades, is described in a film that focuses on his childhood and adolescence. Young Zlatan, the son of Balkan immigrants in Sweden, grows up in the Malmö area where he takes his first steps in football. Reactive and unruly by nature, he struggles to fit into the norms of the group (and society) despite his undeniable talent. Jens Sorgen’s film is artistically rather conventional, unlike Zlatan’s story, which in itself makes the end result interesting.

Valerie Kontaku’s film, an award-winning film at the recent Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, tells the fictional life of Cheli Wilson, a Greek Jewess from Thessaloniki who survived the Holocaust, immigrated to America and founded a small porn empire in New York. Using extensive testimonies from both the Wilson children and other friends and family, Kotaku manages to bring to life the legend of a demon entrepreneur and pioneering woman who defied the sexual stereotypes of her day. Special screenings 3/31 and 7/4 at Astor.

Seeking to make sense of religious faith versus human intelligence in the midst of a pandemic, Christos Godas’ documentary travels from Panormitis Monastery on Symi to New York and MIT, meeting with a variety of interlocutors, including eminent professors Dimitris Nanopoulos and Konstantinos Daskalakis. .