I’ll Be Gone in June          3 ½ stars

One more film showing at The Chicago International Film Festival was I’ll Be Gone in June from first time feature film director Katharina Rivilis. The film premiered at Cannes and is produced by Wim Wenders, the highly regarded German filmmaker known for The Buena Vista Social Club. The subject is that all too common character of American comedies, the visiting foreign exchange student. In this case we are not dealing with a comedy and the student is 17-year-old Franny (Naomi Cosma), from a small town in Germany. Franny was assigned to Las Cruces, New Mexico by lottery for a year and is paired with a highly religious, conservative foster family. She experiences culture shock with her host family who don’t approve of her more secular background. She disapproves of Franny speaking German to a fellow German student and of her revealing clothing. Inexplicably, the parents leave Franny and two other girls in the parking lot of a casino while they are inside gambling for hours. The story is complicated by the fact that it is set in 2001, with the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurring near the outset of Franny’s stay. Thus, while the country is going through the shock of the attack, Franny feels even more like an outsider, experiencing the talk of revenge and seeing the increased security of check points. But she is here for a year and soon finds a good social group to hang out with. The movie wouldn’t be complete without a love interest, and this is provided by Elliot, a depressed musician who is suspected by some of being a drug user. The pair hang out occasionally and become close, but we can see the coming clash between someone with a bright future and another who will be sentenced to a life devoid of opportunity. There are many beautiful scenes featuring the mountainous and desert landscape of New Mexico. The camera work is quite good. The director draws on her own experiences as a German exchange student, being in New Mexico at the time of the 9/11 attacks. While engaging and thoughtful, there was a lot packed into the more than two hours of running time. The film could have easily been shorter without losing much value.