As closer inspection will confirm, there are crevices in the world in which extraordinary people do extraordinary things while the rest of us carelessly, obliviously, carry on unaware. Wordplay dives into one such crevice – the world of Crossword puzzles – and in flitting between conversations with crossword creators, modest fans, ardent decipherers, Tournament champions, and Tournament contenders, and in its gripping, elegantly paced build-up to the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle face-off, it delivers an unabashedly glee-inducing 94 minutes. I guess the thing is that in the devising and the decoding of these tiny, teasing, little grids – such a shamelessly self-absorbing endeavour, such a glorious and exhilarating and unapologising waste of time – we get glimpses of the minds total awesomeness. I was amazed at how serious aficionados can train their intellect to grapple with the most ‘what the!?’ clues so effortlessly, and it occurs to me that the only thing I can do as fast as these guys rip through the puzzles is sneeze.

Jewish jokes have been so successful for many comedians that you’d think the situations would be exhausted. However, the thought of Germans doing a Jewish comedy sounds like an intriguing prospect. The reputed fact that Dani Levy is planning next to do a comedy on Hitler, makes this doubly intriguing. This was an unlikely smash hit in Germany, seemingly overcoming its TV sitcom feel and rather clichéd narrative.

As it is, Go For Zucker is a pretty standard fish out of water/heartwarming cross-cultural clash story. Jaeckie Zucker (Harry Hubchen) is a former East-German sports presenter, whose life is on the slow slide to oblivion. His wife has just left him, he’s deep in debt, and his children barely want him around. He however hears his mother has died, and has left behind a will that can only be fulfilled if he reconciles with his brother, a strongly Orthodox Jew and Western German. Jaeckie is a cheery Jew of the lapsed kind, but is forced to strictly observe Jewish practices to comic effect. To make matters worse, his brother arrives with his entire (dysfunctional) family in tow, including a son who’s as Orthodox as they come.

On the heels of the World Cinema Showcase comes two more offerings in the our ever burgeoging film festival season: in April, Latin American Film Festival returns, promising typically vibrant cinematic fare from the South Americas; and in May, the Human Rights Film Festival marks its third appearance with films which dare to challenge and provoke via a hard dose of contemporary relevance. While the Corona will flow liberally at the Latin end of the spectrum, the Human Rights Network encourages dialogue with speakers’ forums accompanying each screening, all under this year’s thematic banner of ‘Identity’.

Following a Gala Opening at the Embassy Theatre on April 18, the Latin American Film Festival, piggybacking on Rialto Cinemas, visits Wellington (19-25), Auckland (26-May 2), Hamilton (3-9, a new addition to the circuit this year) and Christchurch (10-16). Human Rights Film Festival has dates with Auckland (May 2-9, Academy Cinema), Wellington (9-16, Paramount), and Christchurch (16-20, Regent). Full programme details at miracle-pictures.com/6laff (yet to be updated) and humanrightsfilmfest.net.nz. HRFF highlights continue below:

At the World Cinema Showcase, ELISA GASPERINI gorges on another rich Italian drama, Cristina Comencini’s adaptation of her own best-selling novel, The Beast in the Heart.

A family-friendly and uniquely Japanese take on The Full Monty story, Hula Girls is a film teeming with odds defying heroism, mine accident tearjerkers and ass-shaking enthusiasm. Sure, it’s as cheesy as a Hello Kitty doll, and as predictable as an episode of Pokémon, but it’s undeniably fun. Lee Sang-il’s fifth feature-film, based loosely on a true story, transports us to Joban – a bleak coal mining town in Northeast Japan – circa 1965. With the mine facing heavy job losses and eventual closure, the coal company’s unlikely solution is to build a Hawaiian-themed tourist centre, complete with hot springs, giant palms and a troupe of hula dancers. Of course, Joban’s hardened mining community is resistant to the idea. This doesn’t deter a couple of teenagers (including rising Japanese star Yû Aoi), a bored-house wife and a girl who might possibly be a boy, from volunteering to join the dance troupe. Naturally, the girls are hopeless at the hula – until a former big shot Tokyo dancer is drafted in to work her magic. When dance instructor Madoka (played by Yasuko Matsuyuki) first arrives, her heart is as cold the mining town (her bitter past is curiously never explained), but she soon warms to the girl’s never-say-die attitude. Cue the training montage and you know before too long these hula girls will win the town the over – but not without a bucket full of shed tears along the way. That you can see the film’s climax from a mile-off doesn’t make it any less satisfying when it finally explodes off the screen in a blaze of swinging grass skirts.—Caleb Starrenburg

SAPNA SAMANT relates her own migrant experience to Mira Nair’s The Namesake, the story of an Indian family who relocate to America, adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel. It opens the Auckland and Wellington legs of this year’s World Cinema Showcase.

Big, varied, attractive, troubled and fascinating: That’s France, and also French cinema. The world’s fourth biggest filmmaking nation merits the notable festival the French Film Festival provides. After that great cherrybomb L’Haine (Hate), Le Petit Lieutenant (The Little Lieutenant) provides a sympathetic, hardwired look at the constabulary on Paris’ mean streets. New recruit Antoine (Jalil Lespert) hits Paris full of energy, joining a lively team led by redoubtable Inspector Vandieu (Nathalie Baye). Xavier Beauvois employed method directing, immersing himself in this world, capturing it sharply. There’s a brilliant scene where the cops debate whether incarcerated crims deserve carnal privileges over couscous. Antoine, who has left a comely wife in Normandy, gets consumed in a murder investigation where some roughneck Russians have thrown a Polish drunk in the Seine. The hard-edged, loaded action moves from Burgundy wine country to a Russian orthodox church to a scummy backpackers, with measured, engaging rhythms.