The University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center will open two new films, "War Game" and "The Mother of all Lies," on Sept. 27.
Continuing is "Kneecap."
Also, beginning Oct. 4, Ross Fright Fest returns with a month of classic, campy, thrilling, surreal, and unsettling horror films. New this year are family-friendly options, a 3D double feature on Halloween, and two live performances by the Anvil Orchestra.
"War Game" sweeps audiences into an elaborate future-set simulation that dramatically escalates the threat posed by the January 6, 2021 insurrection. The film follows a bipartisan group of US defense, intelligence, and elected policymakers spanning five presidential administrations as they participate in an unscripted role-play exercise. Portraying a fictional President of the United States and his advisors, they confront a political coup backed by rogue members of the US military in the wake of a contested 2024 presidential election. Like actors in a thriller, but with profound real-world stakes, the players have only six hours to save American democracy.
"War Game" is not rated and is showing through Oct. 3.
In "The Mother of all Lies," young Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir agrees to help her parents move out of the Casablanca
house they’d lived in throughout her life, and she realizes that her family’s mysteries are vast. Why do her parents have only one picture of Asmae during childhood? And why is she certain that the girl in the picture isn’t her at all? What other stories her family has told are untrue? To pry open the lies, El Moudir and her father build a handmade set that recreates their neighborhood. In an atmosphere that balances the surreal and the all-too-real, she brings the whole family to the soundstage where the miniature town is built and begins to ask questions, unraveling the story, letting her family members talk, asking probing questions. Ultimately, El Moudir confronts the fact that her grandmother, the family’s matriarch, is the reason so many dark facts and painful memories have been buried in the past.
"The Mother of all Lies" is not rated and is showing through Oct. 10.
"Kneecap" follows the formation of the titular music group. When fate brings Belfast schoolteacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Og, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish language, Kneecap fast become the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue. But the trio must first overcome police, paramilitaries and politicians trying to silence their defiant sound — whilst their anarchic approach to life often makes them their own worst enemies. In this fiercely original sex, drugs and hip-hop biopic, Kneecap play themselves, laying down a global rallying cry for the defense of native cultures.
"Kneecap" is rated R, and is showing through Oct. 3.
Learn more about the films, including show times and ticket availability.
