LAFF 2007, From A to Y

 GO  THE CHAMPAGNE SPY (Germany/Israel) Nadav Schirman’s documentary tells the story of Ze’ev Gur Arie, a Mossad agent posing as ex-Nazi millionaire playboy “Wolfie” Lotz, who infiltrated a group of German scientists living in Egypt. (Part of his cover was that he was “uncircumcised.”) Although the filmmakers take pains to set the political hysteria and paranoia of the post-WWII Middle East — these were the tense years of Eli Cohen and the Six-Day War — their film resembles Andrew Jarecki’s Capturing the Friedmans in its focus on the family at the center of the scandal, rendering a gripping account of how the destructive wars fought at home reflect those of their wider societies. (The Landmark, Sat., June 23, 7:30 p.m.; Majestic Crest, Sun., June 24, 4:30 p.m.) (Matthew Duersten)

CONSTANTINE’S SWORD (USA/Italy/Poland/Germany) Evoking hot-button issues without having much new to say about them, Constantine’s Sword follows author and former Catholic priest James Carroll as he investigates charges of anti-Semitism both within the U.S. Air Force and throughout all of Christendom. Carroll’s tome of the same name, which inspired the documentary, ran almost 800 pages, but director Oren Jacoby has condensed its mixture of biblical theory, religious history and personal memoir into a Cliffs Notes exposé lacking the appropriate fervor. (Mann Festival, Sun., June 24, 7:15 p.m.; The Landmark, Fri., June 29, 7:30 p.m.) (Tim Grierson)

 GO  COPACABANA (Argentina) The Argentinian director Martín Rejtman’s first foray into documentary is a beautifully observed, elliptical portrait of Buenos Aires’ Bolivian immigrant population. It’s a collage of fragmentary snapshots and passing glances, seen from the perspective of Rejtman’s constantly moving camera, most of them relating to the preparations for the annual Festival of the Virgin of Copacabana: workers in a sewing factory furiously spin thread; a Bolivian radio DJ enthusiastically rallies his listeners; dancers in fantastic costume rehearse their moves; an unseen narrator flips through two scrapbooks of photos — one of the old country and one of the new. By the end, what began as an anthropological exercise has turned into a profoundly humane contemplation of home and community. (Majestic Crest, Sat., June 23, 2:15 p.m.; Landmark Regent, Tues., June 26, 9:45 p.m.) (SF)

 GO  DOES YOUR SOUL HAVE A COLD? (Japan/USA) Unlike many other diseases, depression remains stigmatized — a malady that isolates its sufferers, leaving them more medicated than understood. That lack of understanding is even worse in Japan, which only began acknowledging the illness’s validity during the 1990s, thanks to enterprising pharmaceutical companies. Thumbsucker director Mike Mills provides an unobtrusive, sensitive glimpse at several Tokyo residents battling depression, chronicling the limited effectiveness of their prescriptions and the still-lingering effects of societal taboos toward the disease. Mills doesn’t overemphasize his subjects’ misery, but in a subtle way his film demonstrates the alienation and helplessness felt by all those afflicted. (Majestic Crest, Thurs., June 28, 4:30 p.m.; Mann Festival, Fri., June 29, 9:30 p.m.) (TG)

DYNAMITE WARRIOR (Thailand) Produced by the writer-director of Ong Bak, this irresistibly ridiculous action extravaganza unfolds in a 19th-century rural Thailand populated by cattle raiders, black wizards, oversize cannibals, enchanted henchmen and evil industrialists. Dan Chupong stars as a heroic simpleton with mega Muay Thai skills and an unseemly interest in the magic menstrual blood of a local virgin. The title is not a figure of speech: Dude literally rides around on homemade explosive rockets blowing shit up. (Landmark Regent, Thurs., June 28, 10 p.m.; Majestic Crest, Fri., June 29, 4:30p.m.) (Nathan Lee)

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA (Malaysia) This intriguing film from Malaysian director Woo Ming Jim, about a fishing village beset by an epidemic that may be the result of modern-day psychic malaise, is not for the restless. In one of two lightly interwoven stories, a teenage boy runs petty scams to survive, while in the other, a newly widowed man finds renewal in unexpected places. The characters aren’t exactly expressive, but those who stick with them to the end will be rewarded by a memorable and beautifully staged final scene between ?the boy and a young woman he’s wronged. And for the record, yes, there is an elephant. (Italian Cultural Institute, Mon., June 25, 5 p.m., and Wed., June 27, 7:30 p.m.) (CW)

 GO  GREAT WORLD OF SOUND (USA) The title is the name of a fly-by-night Charlotte record label and the characters are like modern-day descendents of The Music Man’s Professor Harold Hill in director Craig Zobel’s wry first feature about the art of the hustle and the dreams of small-town folks with stardust in their eyes. Zobel and co-writer George Smith give us a couple of enjoyably mismatched protagonists — white, soft-spoken Martin (Pat Healy) and black, gregarious Clarence (Kene Holliday) — and follow them from Birmingham to Biloxi as they set about signing new artists less on the basis of “talent” than on the size of their bank accounts. Hardly the feature-length auditions episode of American Idol it might have been, Great World of Sound emerges as a wry contemplation of the American success ethic, complete with a couple of rousing musical numbers and one unforgettable performance of a new national anthem. (Majestic Crest; Sun., June 24, 10:15 p.m. and Wed., June 27, 4:30 p.m.) (SF)