Stony Brook Film Festival: What to see this year

Now in its 28th year, the Stony Brook Film Festival has become known as a showcase for foreign films carefully curated from art-house distributors. Many of the titles are unlikely to see a theatrical release in America, especially as streaming becomes an easier and less labor-intensive option for distribution. As always, the 10-day festival — which runs July 20-29 at Stony Brook University’s Staller Center for the Arts — is probably the only way you’ll see these mostly overseas titles on a big screen.

This year, however, the festival will be showing one movie from right in its own backyard.

"Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island” focuses on the 1979 nuclear accident that took place in Pennsylvania, but its writer-director, Heidi Hutner, is a professor in Stony Brook’s English department. Hutner, who specializes in ecofeminism and sustainability issues, describes her debut documentary as the story of several women — stay-at-home moms, a crusading lawyer and an equally crusading waitress — who refused to accept official assurances about the meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. It is in some ways a familiar story, she said, of women who are dismissed as overly emotional or irrational by powerful men.

“The women who speak up are gaslighted,” Hutner said, adding that in Japan — which saw its own nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011 — women who expressed their concerns earned a nickname: “Radiation Brain Moms.”

Shot over the course of four years and completed last summer, “Radioactive” has played several festivals already and picked up the Best Documentary award at New York’s Dances with Films Festival. Hutner said she’s working on distribution and hopes to continue making documentaries.

“When you read history or you go and look for information about nuclear anything, you barely hear about the women involved,” she said. “Other than Marie Curie, there’s not much. But in fact, they were really significant and still are.”

THE LINEUP

Here’s a sampling of the 18 features playing at this year’s festival. All screenings take place in the evening at the Staller Center and are preceded by a short film. Foreign-language films will be shown with English subtitles. It’s also worth noting that the fest is trying something new this year: a Flex Pass that can be used on any five days except closing night.

SEA OF TIME (Thursday at 8)

The festival’s opening night selection, from the Netherlands, focuses on two lovers, Lucas and Johanna, whose idyllic existence on a boat is shattered by a terrible accident. Thirty-five years later, they reconnect as Lucas attempts to dramatize their story in a theatrical production. Four actors play the younger and older lead roles; two are a real-life father and son (Gijs and Reinout Scholten van Aschat).

EXODUS (Friday at 7) A young Syrian refugee (Jwan Alqatami) teams up with a smuggler (Ashraf Barhom) who hopes to squeeze money from her parents — but as the two make their way across Europe while dodging the authorities, they form a deeper bond. Directed and co-written by Abe Hassan.

I LIKE MOVIES (Friday at 9:30)

A socially inept cinephile (Isaiah Lehtinen) who dreams of attending NYU’s film school takes a job at a video store where the quirky manager (Romina D’Ugo) may have more to teach him than how to stock a shelf. Written and directed by Chandler Levack.

GRANDPA GOES SOUTH (Saturday at 9:30) A frustrated jazz musician takes his terminally ill best friend on a road trip in search of a long-lost love. Complications arise when they encounter a young woman who is the only living witness to an assassination. With Vlado Novak, Boris Cavazza and Zala Djuric.

MARTHA (Sunday, July 23, at 7)

The true story of Martha Liebermann (Thekla Carola Wied), an 85-year-old Jewish Berliner and widow of an acclaimed painter. As the Nazis rise to power, however, Martha finds herself caught between an ambitious Gestapo commissioner and a high-level resistance group. Directed by Stefan Büling.

A FLEETING ENCOUNTER (Monday, July 24, at 9:30) A middle-aged man (Felipe Castro) in the throes of a crisis escapes to an Airbnb, only to find he’ll be sharing it with an Iranian woman (Pooneh Hajimohammadi) who has her own problems. Prejudices and pet peeves — and the unexpected appearance of an American (Clea Eden) — drive this comedy from director and co-writer Romed Wyder.

ELIK & JIMMY (Tuesday, July 25, at 7)

On the last day of their service in the Israeli military, an underachieving corporal (Tsachi Sadan) and a smart-mouthed officer (Meyran Menkes) begin a yearslong friendship that threatens to teeter into romance. Directed and co-written by Guidis Schneider.

RADIOACTIVE: THE WOMEN OF THREE MILE ISLAND (Wednesday, July 26, at 7) The story of the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, as told through the eyes of the women who experienced it — and fought to bring its ramifications to light. Written and directed by Stony Brook University's Heidi Hutner.

MARCH '68 (Thursday, July 27, at 7) Two Polish university students, Hania and Janek, find themselves caught up in the revolutionary turmoil rippling across Europe. With Vanessa Aleksander and Ignacy Liss. Directed and co-written by Krzysztof Lang.

YES REPEAT NO (Thursday, July 27, at 9:30)

In Michael Moshe Dahan’s slice of cinematic meta-theater, a director brings together three actors hoping to play the late Juliano Mer-Khamis, a Palestinian-Jewish activist and performer. What starts as a highly unorthodox audition soon turns into a fiery debate about identity and the Arab-Israel conundrum. With Mousa Hussein Kraish, Adam Meir and Karim Saleh.

THE GRANDSON (Friday, July 28, at 7) Mild-mannered Rudi (Gergely Blahó) learns that his grandfather has fallen victim to a heartless scam. When the authorities prove powerless to help, Rudi takes matters into his own hands. Directed and co-written by Kristóf Deák.

FIRST SNOW OF SUMMER (Friday, July 28, at 9:30) In Chris Raiber’s oddball comedy, a grieving son and husband escape their pain by going underground: one works in a metro station, the other lives in a tunnel. Even in subterranean soil, however, a romance might blossom. With Thomas Prenn, Verena Altenberger and Margarethe Tiesel.

DIVERTIMENTO (Saturday, July 29, at 8)

The festival’s closing night film tells the true story of Zahia Ziouani (Oulaya Amamra), a French-Algerian teenager who dreams of becoming a symphony conductor. Niels Arestrup (“War Horse”) is the mentor who supplies her with the confidence she needs. Directed and co-written by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman