Join the Center for Applied Liberal Arts at NYU SPS and our academic partners this semester for a new film series that takes a look at crime and punishment around the world. Each screening  will include an introduction and post-film discussion led by a distinguished scholar. See below for more information and to RSVP. 

Series description:

The notion of crime as an illegal act that is punishable by a government authority implies a clear differentiation between right and wrong. Mass incarceration further symbolizes the concept that a physical space drawn in bars and walls can impose a simple order onto a world that defies borders and neat categories. The purpose of punishment is to avenge, to incapacitate, and to deter, but does it work? Is justice served more than it is not? And might the abuses of mass incarceration be inherent to its practice? This series of international films takes a closer look at different interpretations of crime and punishment and what they say about a country’s values, collective identities, and understanding of history.

RSVP here

Feb 4, 6-9pm
Deutsches Haus
Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (The Final Days), 2005
Germany
Dir. Marc Rothemund
Introduction: Doreen Densky
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.

March 1, 6-9pm
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU
Celda 211 (Cell 211) , 2009
Dir: Daniel Monzón
Introduction: Felipe Vara Del Rey
The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot — the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

March 15, 6-9pm
The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Middle Eastern Studies at NYU
Marmulak (The Lizard), 2004
Dir. Kamal Tabrizi
Introduction: Arash Azizi
This is a comedy from Iran about an inveterate thief who is wrongly convicted to a life sentence for an armed robbery he did not commit, and later escapes prison through a slapstick series of events that includes impersonating a mullah.

April 15, 6-9pm
Scandinavia House
R, 2010, Denmark
Dir.Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer
Introduction: Albert Bendix 
Description: The film follows Rune Pedersen (Pilou Asbæk), who is serving a prison sentence of two years in Horsens State Prison. Here he is set to do the dirty work of distributing drugs between departments.

May 15, 6-9pm
NYU Woolworth Building, 15 Barclay Street, Rm. 430
Un prophète (The Prophet), 2009
Dir. Jacques Audiard
Introduction: Leonard Cortana
A petty criminal of Algerian origins rises in the inmate hierarchy, becoming an assassin and drug trafficker as he initiates himself into the Corsican and Muslim subcultures of a French prison

Moderator Bios

Doreen Densky is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the German Department. Her research interests include post-enlightenment German and Austrian literature, literary theory, law and literature, film studies, and the works of Franz Kafka. She has been published in journals such as the German Quarterly and the Journal of Austrian Studies and received various fellowships for her work from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Dorot Foundation, and others. 

Felipe Vara de Rey is a cinematographer and director born in Madrid, Spain. He graduated in political science, and after a brief period of time working on social research, he shifted gears and went on to study cinematography at Madrid’s Film Institute. Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, Felipe moved to NYC to pursue NYU’s Grad Film program, where he now teaches two cinematography courses.Over the last decade, Felipe has shot and directed numerous projects, including feature films, documentaries, music videos, short films, political campaign videos, and commercials. He recently wrapped the Netflix Original feature See You Yesterday, executive produced by Spike Lee. Nosotros is his feature-length directorial debut.

Arash Azizi is a writer, translator and scholar living in New York City. His writings and commentary on politics, history and cinema have appeared in numerous publications including the BBC, the Daily Beast, Jacobin, IranWire, Al-Monitor, the Atlantic Council, the Toronto Star, the Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, Al-Jazeera. As a doctoral student at New York University, he researches the history of transnational links that bound Iran and the Arab World to each other in the framework of the broader Global Cold War. About a dozen of his book-length translations have appeared in Iran and abroad.

Albert Bendix is a co-founder and artistic director of Scandinavian American Theater Company in New York. As an actor he has starred in more than 40 theater productions, television series and films and is currently working both in Scandinavia and the United States. He is a graduate from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in 1998 and from Esper Studio in 2008 where he studied with the late Bill Esper. Albert was born in Denmark and has had New York as his home base since 2006.  

Leonard Cortana is a doctoral candidate in the cinema studies department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He holds undergraduate degrees in comparative politics and Spanish from Sciences Po Aix en Provence (France) and a EU Commission NOHA Masters degree in humanitarian assistance from Deusto University (Spain). Cortana also earned a BA in cinema and aesthetics from Sorbonne University Paris 1. Cortana has conducted arts and education projects with non-profits and UN agencies in Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Australia, and Bulgaria. He became a trainer for European Commission Youth Program projects and designed methodologies in theatre, storytelling, and cinema for social inclusion.