At the movies

You wouldn't normally expect to see an American film at an International Film festival.

Then again, the saga of the boys forced to walk 1,000 miles across Sudan to escape a genocidal death sentence does detail a global problem.

"God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan" follows the saga of the 27,000 boys made to flee their homeland or face death when ruling Muslims vowed to kill Christian males.

It's one of the weekly films in this year's annual Global Flicks series at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. Each year, the school selects a variety of films depicting different cultures and perspectives.

Because the program's grown so successful, they've continued to hold it in the Main Stage Theater at the McAninch Arts Center.

This year's performances are free and run at 1 p.m. and 7:35 p.m. every Tuesday through March 25. COD's McAninch Center is at Fawell and Park boulevards.

This year's films include:

• Tuesday, "The Lives of Others," 2006, Germany: Communist East Germany is the setting for this film that explores the actions of controversial Stasi agents. Gerd Wiesler, a staunch loyalist, is assigned to monitor a renowned playwright, but soon discovers his assignment was ordered for the wrong reasons. It triggers an analysis of whether his true sympathies really reside with the government. The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

• Feb. 19, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," 2005, Romania: Imagine being shuffled from hospital to hospital with an illness while doctors at each new destination turn you away. That's the fate suffered by Mr. Lazarescu as he struggles with doctors in Bucharest hospitals who are unwilling to treat someone they deem responsible for his own fate.

• Feb. 26, "Volver," 2006, Spain: After a tragic fire claims the lives of their parents, two sisters struggle to deal with the effects. The continual reappearance of the mother's ghost doesn't help things along, but, in Spain, an important cultural belief has the dead remaining involved with the living.

• March 4, "The World," 2004, China: Employees in a Beijing theme park filled with landmarks like a miniature Eiffel tower, come to join the work force from rural China. Not only are their loves, friendships and dreams affected by the abrupt shift to modernization, but by Westernization, as well.

• March 11, "God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan," 2006, United States: In 1987, Sudan's Muslim rulers gave a death sentence to all males living in the country's Christian southern region. More than 27,000 boys fled to Ethiopia on foot. Then, in 1991, they were forced to flee to Kenya and a United Nations camp.

• March 18, "Private Fears in Public Places," 2006, France: There's no better place for romance than Paris. Six strangers try to find or hang onto love while unwittingly crossing paths over the span of four days.

• March 25, "Offside," 2006, Iran: What do you do when your country forbids you from watching your favorite sport? Do whatever you can to attend the game anyway. A group of passionate soccer fans -- all girls -- disguise themselves to try to watch their team's World Cup qualifying match. Unfortunately, they're found out by one and arrested, but not after they've put a lot of effort into the attempt.