The Latino Spotlight this year is from Mexico. Directed by Leopoldo Laborde, A Beautiful Secret (Un Secreto de Esperanza—full review coming soon) features the last performance by great Mexican actress Katy Jurado (High Noon) in this story about Jorge (Imanol), a defiant 12 year old boy who discovers his country's rich cultural legacy through conversations with the mysterious old lady living in a boarded up mansion (Jurado). From his adolescent life of soccer, Madonna, Disney and being obnoxious, he learns about Diego Rivera, Alfonso Reyes and Jose Vasconcelos. Laborde deftly paints a picture of 1980's Mexico and the struggle to maintain identity but at times falls into melodrama and a score that's too over the top.

 Building a typical heist picture around an unfamiliar Jewish rite is a daring move and in Nicholas Racz's The Burial Society, it almost works. Schleppy Sheldon Kasner arrives in a small town wanting to change the direction of his life. He immediately asks for acceptance into the local Chevrah Kadisha, the Jewish burial society. The three elderly men who do the burial rites refuse, until they hear how his big city bosses—bank owners/operators of a money-laundering scheme—dangled him off a bridge, accusing him of stealing $2 million from their coffers. Sheldon assures the three men that it's settled—the lost money was really an accounting error—but as he becomes deeply entrenched in his Chevrah Kadisha duties, his past begins to catch up with him. The big question of the film (which won a screenplay award at the Vancouver International Film Festival) becomes, what exactly did Sheldon do—and how's he going to get out of it? By attempting to play a cat-and-mouse game with the audience, the story unfortunately gets bogged down in whodunit confusion. However, the strength of the character of Sheldon—a small man who decides to lead a big life—and the plot's fascinating Judaic aspects make it easy to ignore the storytelling weaknesses.

 Directed by Pat Thompson, The Cheese Nun: Sister Noella's Voyage of Discovery (full review coming soon) chronicles the life and education of Sister Noella Marcelino, who as the cheese maker of her abbey left the cloister to study cheese making in France and went on to receive a doctorate in microbiology. An expert in her field, she advocates preserving traditional methods that have suffered on both sides of the Atlantic and saving a certain way of life that is slowly disappearing. We delve into the "soul of cheese" and visit cheese caves that are hundreds of years old in remote parts of France as well as a group of monks whose cheese cave is beneath their choir. The documentary also goes into the cloister, showing nuns at work in various endeavors, having found a certain freedom behind closed doors. Spiritual, educational and entertaining, The Cheese Nun is ripe to be shown on PBS. Sister Noella's lyrical voice lends itself perfectly to explaining the various issues at stake. And in these times, it's even more important to show ties between the U.S. and France, from Sister Noella teaching gospel in France to being inducted in a conferie of artisans in a small village. France

 Eddie (Edi—full review coming soon): The Polish entry for Best Foreign Film directed by Piotr Trazaskalski is the tale of a man who lives with dignity despite the hardship and injustices that engulf him. Eddie (Henryk Goldebiewski) ekes out a meager living collecting scraps with his fellow drunken friend and lives in a dank room with no electricity. When the local gangster brothers force him to tutor their younger sister Princess, he reluctantly abides by their wishes out of fear of repercussions. When she ends up pregnant a few months later she blames Eddie, who is viciously attacked by the brothers and left to care for the baby. He returns to his country home and the contrast between harsh urban life and simpler country life becomes clear. Eddie's resilience in the face of adversity is tragic and he is able to communicate a watershed of emotion with one small glance. The films strength lies in the little moments conveyed with palpable dignity. In one scene Eddie presents the child to his mother without a word; the look in his eyes is pure sadness. In another his roommate leaves an unopened bottle of liquor out on a bridge for another bum to find; he dreamily explains he has always "wanted to find a bottle like you". Eddie is about stumbling onto those moments of beauty when everything else seems so hideous.

 Released in several countries during 2000 and 2001 but given another chance here at the festival, Germany's In July is a surprisingly charming road trip romance: Surprising because it's completely formulaic (think The Sure Thing) and charming because of the road trip's locales, sunny writing and winning characters. Daniel is a stodgy schoolteacher and the recipient of an undeserving crush by street vendor July. On the first day of summer break, she sells him a ring on the promise that he'll find true romance that very day. He does—but not with her. Instead he meets Melek, an exotic beauty who's on her way to Istanbul. After a very Before Sunrise/Serendipity sort of evening, he decides to follow her and through the intervening fates (and a very convenient plot) lands July as a travelling mate. It's obvious where this film is headed, but the journey is quickly paced and unpredictable.

Perhaps it's just the naïveté of being an American, but sue me if road trips on other continents—at least in films—aren't automatically more interesting. No singing along with the car radio or entering the diner where everyone looks at you funny cause you ain't one of them. Daniel and July instead deal with border crossing sans passports, Turkish jails, Bulgarian nightclubs and dead uncles. In July isn't free of cliché—naïve Daniel robbed by a pretty girl, pretending to be married to fool the authorities—but Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run) and Christiane Paul, with their stuffy boy/quirky girl chemistry, lift what could've been a typical romance up to much better heights.

 Julie Walking Home (full review coming soon), directed by Agnieszka Holland, stars Miranda Otto as Julie, a woman whose life takes some unexpected turns when unfaithfulness and illness come into her home. After Julie's son Nicholas becomes ill with cancer and traditional methods of medicine do not help, she takes him to Poland to see a faith healer. Alexi (Lothaire Bluteau) is able to help her son, but her relationship with Alexi changes everything. With excellent, intimate performances from the cast, Julie Walking Home is like a fairy tale, where dreams and aspirations are faced with reality and choices must be made.

 Directed by Renie Oxley, The Kress Lounge (full review coming soon) is a highly entertaining documentary about Irene Kress, the first liquor license-wielding woman in Detroit and the 65 year story of her eponymous bar. Rich in color and character and treating the subjects with utmost respect, Oxley has crafted a story about a community, a family of people really, who happen to go to a bar to share life. The owners and patrons are interviewed on subjects are diverse as nudie paintings on the walls rumored to be Irene, famous visitors from the Kress Lounge's heyday like Veronica Lake and Trigger the horse, to battling gangsters and racists. The place hasn't changed a bit in decades and there's a reason why the patrons are resistant to change: the once elegant street is now full of dive bars and parking lots. Why change something beautiful and add unnecessary things like a new phone and fancy drinks? But as Irene and her husband advance in age and the car dealership makes an offer they can't refuse, the demolition of the Kress Lounge is filmed and it's absolutely heartbreaking. What a weeper! It's the end of an era and the Kress Lounge resisted as long as possible. And though destroyed, it's obvious from how protective the patrons are that no one could have purchased it and continued on the legacy, because firecracker Irene is inextricably tied to the Kress Lounge. With a cigarette and drink in hand.

 Labyrinth (Lavirint—full review coming soon) was Yugoslavia's entry for Best Foreign Film. In this intriguing tale of revenge and redemption, a sort of Eastern European version of The 9th Gate, we are introduced us to Pop ( Svetozar Cvetkovic), the gambler son of a preacher, who's returned to Belgrade after 20 years in part to settle a score with his conscience. He thought his friend Zoran committed suicide but believes he was murdered after attending a séance. He meets Susana (Maja Sablijic) and her provocative daughter and must uncover how she is connected to his past. Sablijic (very much like Olin's character in the 9th Gate) leaves him a few bread crumbs that lead him on a trail of ancient Christian sects and beliefs still very much alive and leave him to confront actions from his past. This search leads him to Kalemegdan, the great fortress of Belgrade. Particularly refreshing in this religious thriller is to see the beauty of Belgrade onscreen. Though there are a few shots of NATO's 1999 bombing of the city, war is not a main theme here and instead we see life in a city slowly returning to normal: shots of Kalemegdan and techno parties, a gorgeous theater, university and elegant apartments are present. Like the Mexican film A Beautiful Secret, both films show another side of Mexico City and Belgrade other than poverty-stricken and war-torn. But it's gambler Pop, slightly confused and bemused, who keeps our attention as he delves into Belgrade's underground.

 The Last Zapatistas, Forgotten Heroes (Los Ultimos Zapatistas, Heroes Olvidados—full review coming soon) Directed by Francesco Taboada Tabone. What could have been a fascinating opportunity to look at the original Zapatistas who are still living and connecting them to the modern Zapatistas was lost in this documentary in great need of editing. While we meet more than a dozen men who played different roles in the Mexican Revlution, some of their interviews seem staged and haphazard. It starts of as a sort of Buena Vista Zapatista Club (most of the men are in the 95-105 years old) that degenerates into a political condemnation regarding the land that was so sacred to peasants is now being sold from underneath their feet, without building the necessary bridges or offering cohesive political analysis. US audiences see footage of former President Salinas without knowing what he was ultimately responsible for (and why he's still in hiding in another country). The documentary traces the mythology of Emiliano Zapata (When did he die? Where did he die? Arabia? Morelos?) and his influence to the present day with the Zapatistas in Chiapas but the obvious parallel between Emiliano Zapata and Subcomandante Marcos is not explored. While some of the accounts of the veterans are poignant, they don't always seem to be treated with respect. The Last Zapatistas is just the beginning of the research.