Bleak Weeks 2026 at Stray Cat Film Center
COMING JUNE 7-13
Stray Cat is proud to bring Bleak Week to Kansas City!
Presented in collaboration with the @am_cinematheque, 'Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair' is an annual festival showcasing some of the greatest works of cinema from across the globe that venture into the darkest sides and the bleakest points of humanity.
NIGHT 1: Ikiru
dir. Akira Kurosawa
A lonely bureaucrat discovers he has terminal cancer, and finds himself desperately searching for meaning before his time is up. One of Kurosawa's finest masterpieces, IKIRU is towering achievement in the world of spiritual cinema. Stray Cat is proud to project this film from a rare 16MM FILM PRINT!
NIGHT 2: Trouble Every Day
dir. Claire Denis
Newlyweds Dr. Shane and June Brown travel to Paris for their honeymoon. Once there, Shane begins a search for his former medical colleague, who may have a cure for the virus that has transformed Leo's wife into a murderous sexual carnivore, and may soon do the same to Shane.
NIGHT 3: Plague Dogs
Dir. Martin Rosen
Two dogs escape from an animal research laboratory, pursued by search parties and military after they are rumored to be carrying the plague
NIGHT 4: The Ear
dir. Karel Kachyňa
Completed in 1970 but banned for twenty years, THE EAR evokes the ever-present sense of dread that defines life under authoritarianism.
NIGHT 5: First Reformed
dir. Paul Schrader // 2017 A pastor of a small congregation starts to spiral out of his control as he undergoes a spiritual and psychological crisis
NIGHT 6: Taste of Cherry
dir. Abbas Kiarostami // 1997
Taste of Cherry follows Mr. Badii, a middle-aged man in Tehran who has decided to end his life and is searching for someone willing to bury him afterward.
NIGHT 7: The Stone Wedding
dir. Mircea Veroiu, Dan Piţa // 1973 A woman travels around town trying to raise money for medicine for her sickly daughter, while a deserting soldier accompanies a musician to play the forced marriage of a sullen bride. A spellbinding duology, THE STONE WEDDING is a bleak, but beautiful masterpiece of Romanian cinema! Projected on
16MM FILM!