The Monastery

He is an aging eccentric who hopes for a free workforce to repair his castle. She is a no-nonsense Russian Orthodox nun who plans to turn Vig's battered old building into a proper place of worship (remove those Hindi icons, please). With the question of mortality floating just outside of the frame, Mr. Vig and Sister Amvrosija walk the grounds of the once-magnificent Danish castle, taking stock of the crumbling ceilings, the watermarked walls and rotted pipes and disagreeing entirely about what to do next. Not since Grey Gardens has a documentary immersed itself so completely in such a memorably decrepit place and affectionately at-odds couple. Pernille Rose Grønkjær spent five years filming at the castle and by film's end has become part of this strange family. Her compassion, sense of humor and patience make The Monastery one of the more charming, amusing and touching documentaries in memory. (JS)

Plays with Portrait #2: Trojan (dir: Vanessa Renwick; 5 min.), a tone poem about a nuclear power plant, punctuated by a doozy of an ending. With a soundtrack by Sam Coomes of Quasi.