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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

SpIFF 2019: a ‘Shadow’ and six shorts

Dan Webster

More than halfway through the 2019 Spokane International Film Festival, and we have three full evenings of screenings left. What's on for tonight at the Magic Lantern?

7 p.m.: U.S. Shorts: Six films, including one documentary, from all over the country explore a range of subjects. This program first screened on Saturday, so this is a second chance for those festival fans who missed out.

7:30 p.m.: "Shadow": Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou's latest effort is a both a martial-arts epic and a study of the desire for power involving a military commander, his wife, his "shadow" and his quest for revenge. Only things seldom turn out the way they expect.

Here's what Variety's Jessica King has to say about "Shadow": "Every supremely controlled stylistic element of Zhang Yimou's breathtakingly beautiful 'Shadow' is an echo of another, a motif repeated, a pattern recurring in a fractionally different way each time."

 A reminder: The Magic Lantern bigger theater holds only 99 (or so) seats.