INTERNATIONAL LENS, a film series with a global perspective, provides a forum to promote conversation among 汤头条鈥檚 diverse students, faculty, staff, and the greater Nashville community. International Lens endeavors to transcend geographic, linguistic, ethnic, religious, and political boundaries by encouraging conversation and greater cross-cultural understanding through cinema.
The series is organized by the Department of Cinema & Media Arts in collaboration with College of Arts and Science, Dean of Students offices, and other departments, centers, and programs across the University.
There is no charge for admission.
Films are screened in Sarratt Cinema at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.听
FALL 2026 Schedule of Films
No Other Choice
Thursday, September 10听
South Korea (2025)听 Dir: Park Chan-wook
A middle-aged family man鈥檚 life begins to unravel after his abrupt layoff from the paper company he served for 25 years. As pressure mounts in a ruthless job market and options disappear, each decision pushes him further into moral compromise, revealing how easily violence鈥攅motional, psychological, and physical鈥攃an be normalized when choice is seemingly stripped away, exposing the quiet brutality of systems that corner individuals until survival becomes an ethical minefield.听 听Korean with English subtitles. 139 min.
Chop Shop
Thursday, September 24听听
USA (2007)听 Dir: Rahmin Bahrani
Alejandro is a resourceful street orphan on the verge of adolescence in Willets Point, Queens, an industrial sliver of automotive-repair shops perpetually at risk of being redeveloped off the map. Ale must grow up fast, hustling in the neighborhood chop shops to build a more stable life for himself and his sister, even as their tenuous circumstances force each to compete with other struggling people and make desperate decisions. A deeply human story of a fierce but fragile sibling bond being tested by hardscrabble reality.听 English. 84 min.
Time and Water
Thursday, October 1
Iceland, USA (2026)听 Dir: Sara Dosa
Facing the demise of Okj枚kull, a 700-year-old glacier that became the first to be declared dead due to climate change in 2014, and the loss of his beloved grandparents, archives from renowned Icelandic poet and writer Andri Sn忙r Magnason are constructed into a cinematic time capsule to preserve fleeting moments of life and memory alongside Iceland鈥檚 changing landscapes. The film explores the intimate connection between humans and the natural world through the lenses of personal memories, archival footage, and the monumental movements of glaciers.听 Icelandic, English. 93 min.
The Librarians
Thursday, October 8
USA (2025)听 Dir: Kim A. Snyder听听听听听听听听听听听听听
As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy. A chilling cautionary tale and rallying cry for freedom 鈥 told through the personal experiences of librarians under siege and the concerned community members and young readers who join their ranks in defense of the books.听 English. 93 min.
Partner Screening with the Belcourt Theatre
Thursday, October 15听听
Film screened at the Belcourt Theatre in collaboration with International Lens.
Film to be announced at a later date.
Zalava
Thursday, October 29听听
Iran (2021)听 Dir: Arsalan Amiri 听
Set in 1978 just before the onset of the Iranian Revolution, inhabitants of Zalava, a small Kurdish village in northwestern Iran, are cursed by an ancient fear that there鈥檚 a demon amongst them. A young military sergeant is tasked with investigating claims of demonic possession and encounters an exorcist attempting to rid the village of the demon. When he arrests the exorcist on charges of fraud, the townspeople revolt and trap the sergeant and his lover, a government doctor, in a cursed house, surrounded by the villagers who believe they are both possessed by the demon.听 Kurdish and Persian with English subtitles. 93 min.
厂颈谤腻迟
Thursday, November 5
Spain, France (2025)听 Dir: Oliver Laxe
A father arrives with his son at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco searching for his daughter who vanished months ago at one of these dance parties in the desert. Surrounded by electronic music and a raw, unfamiliar sense of freedom, they decide to follow a group of ravers heading to one last party in the desert in hopes of finding her. Descending deeper into the burning wilderness as a not-so-distant global conflict encroaches, father and son are soon drawn into a primal landscape in which they must confront their limits and walk a tightrope between heaven and hell.听 Spanish and French with English Subtitles. 114 min.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Thursday, November 12
USA (2012)听 Dir: Benh Zeitlin
In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality and leaves her desperate to repair the structure of her world to save her ailing father and sinking home. 听English. 94 min.
Orwell 2+2=5
Thursday, December 3
France, USA (2025)听 Dir: Raoul Peck听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
An investigation into the life, work, and enduring influence of the writer George Orwell, one of the most visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, foretold a chilling, authoritarian future. Interweaving clips, readings from Orwell’s diary, cinematic references, and modern-day footage connecting his ideas to the contemporary world, the film constructs not only a portrait of the writer, but a fresh take on how prophetic his work has become.听 English, Russian, Burmese, Arabic, French, Spanish. 119 min.
Films are 7:30pm in Sarratt Cinema unless otherwise noted
In order to keep our community safe, please do not attend any of our screenings if you are feeling unwell.