Ferenc Torok begins "1945," his "High Noon"-style adaptation of Hungarian author Gabor T. Szanto's short story "Homecoming," with the sight of a huge steam locomotive belching its way into the station of a tiny village.

The San Francisco International Film Festival, which began modestly with a handful of subtitled art-house films in 1957 when only a few well-educated Americans had even heard of Ingmar Bergman, is now roaring into the final weekend of its 2018 edition.

The 61st edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) unspools April 4-17 at a host of venues.

Sitting down with Noah Cowan and Rachel Rosen on a wide veranda overlooking the greenery of the Presidio, afforded this outsider insight into the machinations required to craft the sprawling schedule of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

A dead body attracts cops and tests loyalties in a moneyed, motorcycled Movieland enclave where three women of various ethnicities have been playing the elusive lesbian triangle.

In his new and unusual documentary "100 Men," New Zealand filmmaker Paul Oremland, now in his 60s, looks back on 40 years of gay history by interviewing men he's had sex with over the years.

Warring factions turn out to be Padraig O'Malley's bread and butter, as you'll see in "Peacemaker," starting Friday at the Roxie.

April finds Castro Theatre programmers at no loss for offbeat and sometimes spine-chilling double bills and career retrospectives.

Is there a fitting new genre in which to toss "The China Hustle?"

"The Dark Side of the Dream: Subversive Cinema for Subversive Times, 1933-1964" is the provocative title of a mini-fest of old studio potboilers centered on the dangers of being employed.

In 2007 John Kapellas, a gay man who lives in the Mission, was forced to permanently retreat to his apartment after his body began to develop painful rashes whenever he was exposed to natural or artificial light.

In "Keep the Change," New York City-based writer-director Rachel Israel expands an earlier short film, a sensitive but realistic portrait of a man and a woman dating along the autism spectrum.

The new film "Back to Burgundy" will best be appreciated by true wine-lovers, but even if you are, like me, a dedicated Diet Coke-head, there's a lot to savor in this melancholy comedy-drama from veteran French director Cedric Klapisch.

"Oh Lucy!" is that rare foreign-language social comedy that one should not arrive late for.