Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2013

With Egypt very much in the news at the moment, the time is right for a view into the country—one afforded by the film Cairo Time (pictured), currently screening in English at Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp). Accomplished actress Patricia Clarkson plays a writer who journeys to Cairo for a long-awaited reunion with her husband who works for the UN, but when he is detained by a humanitarian crisis, she bonds with his Egyptian coworker.

The English-language international coproduction The Other Son, a family drama with deep political roots, is currently playing at Ginza’s Cine Switch (4-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku; www.cineswitch.com). A Palestinian and Israeli family discover their sons were switched at birth when the hospital was bombed. The boys are able to come to terms with the news, but it tears at the other members of the families. Screening with English subtitles for the dialogue not in English.

A feature-length documentary on a single department store may sound like little more than an extended commercial, but Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s uses interviews with Karl Lagerfeld, Martha Stewart, Joan Rivers and other to make the point that the 5th Ave. institution is the center of New York life as well as international fashion. Screening from October 26 at Bunkamura’s Le Cinema (2-24-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku; www.bunkamura.co.jp).