Today's highlights at the Los Angeles Film Festival include:
- Andrucha Waddington's Casa de Areia / House of Sand (2 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood), a period Brazilian drama starring real-life mother and daughter Fernanda Montenegro (Central do Brasil / Central Station) and Fernanda Torres;
- Bohdan Sláma's Czech comedy-drama Stestí / Something Like Happiness (4:15 p.m. at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood), winner of 7 Czech Lions (the local Oscars);
- Vardit Bilu, Vidi Bilu, and Dalia Hagar's sociopolitical Israeli drama Karov la Bayit / Close to Home (7:15 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood), the story of two radically different women serving together in the Israeli army;
- and Sarah Kelly's The Lather Effect (7:15 p.m. at the Mann Festival in Westwood), which sounds like a revamped The Big Chill (though it's hopefully funnier and more profound than the 1983 box-office hit about a group of old friends coming together again).