The Jake Erhardt International Film Series will show the Swedish film Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater in the McKelvey Campus Center.

The event is free and open to the public. A short introduction will be given prior to the showing and a discussion will follow. The audience should remember that international films tend to be more explicit regarding sex and violence.

The 2009 film won the Audience Award for director Niels Arden Opley at the Guldbagge Awards and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The Guldbagge Awards also bestowed Best Actress and Best Film honors.

In the movie, teen Harriet Vanger disappears from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by her powerful family. The body is never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and the killer is a member of his tightly-knit but dysfunctional clan. Now, 40 years later, the uncle hires a disgraced financial journalist and a tattooed, ruthless computer hacker to investigate. When the investigators link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost 40 years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history that relatives will go to any lengths to keep secret.

This is the first film in the series for this academic year. Additional films scheduled for the fall semester are The Girl Who Played with Fire (Sweden, 2009) Oct. 26 and The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina, 2009) Nov. 30.

The International Film Series is named in honor of its founder, Dr. Jacob Erhardt, professor of German emeritus at Westminster College. Erhardt, who taught at Westminster from 1968 until his retirement in 2004, served as chair of his department from 1970-1986, was named the Language Educator of the Year by the Pennsylvania State Modern Languages Association, translated into English Robert Reitzel's Adventures of a Greenhorn, and was recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities as an outstanding member.

Contact Dr. Deborah Mitchell, Westminster professor of English and film studies and coordinator of the film series, at (724) 946-7030 or e-mail dmitchel@westminster.edu for more information.

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