A new University of Nebraska–Lincoln film festival is celebrating the medium’s ability to share history and culture.

Launched by the Department of Modern Languages, the inaugural Eastern Europe, East Asia and Arabia Film Festival will feature four foreign films that touch on the theme “Across Cultures and Politics.” The series opens with a 6 p.m. Oct. 24 showing of “Leviathan.”

The festival’s organizer, Olha Tytarenko, assistant professor of practice of Russian, said the festival’s purpose is to draw interest to the languages and cultures less commonly taught, including Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Czech, and to provide an opportunity to increase students’ cultural awareness of the political situation in the respective countries representing in the films.

“This kind of festival opens up an amazing common platform for conversation across different languages and cultures,” Tytarenko said.

Each night, Oct. 24-27, a new film will be shown, followed by a discussion led by a faculty member who specializes in that language and culture. Snacks will also be provided.

Tytarenko said the film series also lends itself to discussions of diversity happening at all levels of the university.

“We have an incredible community of students studying different languages, and also those coming from various cultural and ethnic background,” Tytarenko said. “Not only do we want to create a productive learning experience with the festival, but also we want to promote diversity at UNL.”

All films, listed below, show at 6 p.m.

Leviathan, Oct. 24, Pershing Military and Naval Science Building, 1360 Vine Street — A 2014 Russian film, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, that tells the story of a family battling a corrupt mayor who is trying to take their home.

The Message, Oct. 25, Animal Science Complex, 3940 Fair St. — A 1976 American film that tells the story of the birth of Islam in the 6th century. The film stars Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Quinn as Hamza, the uncle of the prophet Muhammad.

3 Seasons in Hell, Oct. 26, Pershing Military and Naval Science Building — A 2009 Czech film, based on the memoirs of Egon Bondy, a Czech philosopher, writer and poet, that takes place during the Soviet Union’s 1948 takeover of Czechoslovakia.

To Live, Oct. 27, Pershing Military and Naval Science Building — A 1994 Chinese film that tells the story of a Chinese family struggling and adapting to life in China from the 1940s to the 1970s.