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JULY 15–19
It’s not easy being Slovenian, a resident of the tiny country that successfully eluded the Yugoslavian crackup only to be overwhelmed by the Western European economy. It’s not even easy to make the first porn flick with Slovenian dialogue, as sad-sack window dresser Charley decides to do in writer-director Damjan Kozole’s Porno Film (pictured; at 8:20 p.m. Saturday, July 16, and 2:40 p.m. Sunday, July 17). First, Charley discovers that his actresses are Russian hookers who don’t speak the local lingo so well; then he falls in love with the most beautiful of them and has to confess to her that he can’t get an erection with a woman who’s flesh and blood rather than on video. Filmmaking is one of Kozole’s pet themes—his debut was 1987’s movie-buff trifle The Fatal Telephone (at 10 p.m. Saturday, July 16, and 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 19)—and so is impotence. This complete retrospective opens with Labor Equals Freedom (at 8:30 p.m. Friday, July 15; 6:40 p.m. Sunday, July 17; and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 19), in which a former machinist finds that unemployment and a contemptuous wife sap his virility. The other films address refugee smuggling (Spare Parts, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 16, and 4:20 p.m. Sunday, July 17), jail breaks (Remington, at 9:35 p.m. Monday, July 18, and 9:10 p.m. Tuesday, July 19), and Slovenian boho life (Stereotype, at 4:40 p.m. Saturday, July 16, and 7:45 p.m. Monday, July 18). The series opens Friday, July 15, and runs through Tuesday, July 19, at the AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 495-6700. $8.50. (Mark Jenkins)