Two new films — the charmingly offbeat “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” and the French-Polish drama “The Innocents” — open Aug. 5 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” follows Ricky, a defiant city kid raised on hip-hop and foster care, who finds a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside. He settles into his new home with a new foster family, including the loving Aunt Bella, cantankerous Uncle Hec and dog Tupac, until tragedy strikes.
Faced with being sent to another foster home, Ricky and Hec go on the run in the bush. As a national manhunt ensues, the newly branded outlaws must face their options: go out in a blaze of glory or overcome their differences and survive as a family.
Directed by Taika Waititi, “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is equal parts road comedy and rousing adventure story. It stars Sam Neill and Juliann Dennison.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” shows at the Ross through Aug. 11. The film is rated PG13 for thematic elements including violent content and some language.
Also opening Aug. 5 is “The Innocents,” a drama about crises of faith that emerge when a house of God is ravaged by war.
In the film, Red Cross doctor Mathilde (played by Lou de Laâge) is treating the last of the French survivors in Warsaw, Poland, at the end of World War II.
Approached by a panicked Benedictine nun begging for help, Mathilde follows her back to the convent. Shockingly, she finds a holy sister giving birth and several more nuns in advanced stages of pregnancy.
A non-believer, Mathilde enters the sisters’ fiercely private world, which is dictated by the reverend mother (Agata Kulesza), to provide care. Facing an unprecedented crisis of faith and fearing the shame of exposure, the hostility of the occupying Soviet troops and local Polish communists, the nuns increasingly turn to Mathilde as their beliefs and traditions clash with harsh realities.
A selection for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, “The Innocents” is rated R for disturbing thematic material, including sexual assault, some bloody images and brief suggestive content. The film plays through Aug. 11.
For more information on films at the Ross, including show times, click here or call 402-472-5353.
