What's on

Can art give meaning to our lives? A documentary produced by Onassis Culture, which focuses on the performance Transverse Orientation by Dimitris Papaioannou. Filmmaker Eva Stefani follows the preparations behind Transverse Orientation and its tour across theatrical stages in Europe, observing from a close distance Dimitris Papaioannou and his collaborators in their effort to give shape and breathe life into the work. For two years, her camera captured scenes from the rehearsals at the Onassis Stegi during the pandemic, as well as performances in Paris, London, Vilnius, and other international destinations, leading to the last show in San Francisco. The central question that runs through the documentary is “Why do we do what we do?” elevating art as a means of resisting the futility of things and a way to reapply meaning to our own lives.

Teenage girl Ruka has been unable to adapt to her surroundings. She meets Umi swimming with fishes inside a large fish tank at the aquarium where her father works, and also meets Umi's older brother Sora. As the three children’s relationship grows, strange phenomena are frequently occurring on Earth.

In Hamnet, Chloé Zao brings Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed novel to the big screen and looks at the life of William Shakespeare through the eyes of his wife, Agnes. In 16th century England, Agnes, a free-spirited, deeply perceptive woman, falls in love with William, the young Latin teacher, and together, they build a family full of life, children, and ineffable love. When their son, Hamnet, dies at the age of 11, the loss will fracture both their marriage and their own selves, but it will also become the inspiration behind one of the most celebrated works of world literature. Zao follows her characters on a journey from love to loss, and from sorrow to creation, with lyricism and passion. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal bring their characters to life in a way that roots them in humanity, and the combination yields something truly rare and remarkable. Hamnet is a wonderful film about grief, memory, and the transformative power of art – about how an intimate farewell can resonate as something timeless and profoundly human.

Middle school student Kai ends up in a declining fishing town as a result of his parents' divorce. Feeling depressed, he is one day invited by a classmate to join their music band. Kai reluctantly goes to the practice site on Mermaid Island where he meets Lu, a young mermaid.

Nishi is a 20-year-old NEET from Osaka with dreams of becoming a manga artist. One day, he runs into his childhood crush and begins to reminisce about what could have been, but his sad life is cut tragically short when he is killed by a yakuza loan shark. Instead of moving on to the great beyond, Nishi’s death gives him a fresh perspective and a new lease on life.

Harry Lighton adapts Adam Mars-Jones’s novella Box Hill into a film, delivering a queer coming-of-age story as unexpected as it is disarmingly romantic. Colin (Harry Melling), a timid young man in the British countryside, leads an almost insignificant life up until he meets Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a mysterious biker who introduces him to a relationship of dominance and submission. The film follows this relationship without moralizing, offering a clear-eyed gaze and tender understanding, blending humor with truth. It transforms what some might see as a “shocking” dynamic into a catalyst for a profound exploration of desire, loneliness, trust, the rejection of certainty, and the need for belonging. Constructing a seemingly asymmetrical love affair free of stereotypes, Pillion unearths, above all, an intimate love story, while portraying with striking honesty a side of the queer experience that we rarely encounter on the big screen.

The story is set in the near future where androids are considered home appliances. High school student Rikuo discovers some odd behavioral data in his family's household android Sammy and is lead to a cafe named "Time of Eve."