‘Prophecy’ Offers Ideas, Uplift, No Conclusions

Veteran Canadian documentarian Harry Rasky’s “Prophecy” (Sunset 5, Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m.) is a kind of peripatetic diary-film, rich in ideas but also decidedly rambling, in which he moves away from the usual apocalyptic connotations of prophecy to discover many of the world’s religions linked by a common message of hope.

He spends a great deal of time in Jerusalem, sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, yet does not delve into how these three religions might find harmony.

Besides conversations with various religious leaders and thinkers, there are chats with economist John Kenneth Galbraith and former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky.

Look to “Prophecy” for intelligent spiritual and intellectual uplift but not for any conclusions on Rasky’s part.

Information: (213) 848-3500.

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A Family of Laughs: The Goethe Institute, 5700 Wilshire Blvd., gets its “German Comedy: East Meets West” series off to a good start Tuesday at 7 p.m. with Peter Timm’s lively 1990 comedy “Go, Trabi, Go.”

Wolfgang Stumph stars as a likable scholar of German literature in the former East German industrial town of Bitterfeld who takes off on a vacation with his wife (Marie Gruber) and sexy teen-age daughter (Claudia Schmutzler) in their 17-year-old Trabant, the GDR’s ubiquitous, inexpensive car. With reunification he’ll now fulfill his dream of retracing Goethe’s “Italian Journey,” spanning Munich to Naples.

“Go, Trabi, Go” is a broad, commercial comedy in the best sense, but Timm manages to skewer West German condescension toward East Germans before sending off the family to foreign adventures. By the time this delightful film is over we realize that these people are as admirably resilient as their car.

Information: (213) 525-3388.

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Short Films: Cinewomen, a nonprofit organization for the advancement of women in the entertainment industry, is launching a series of screenings Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute’s Mark Goodson Theater with an outstanding program of short films.

If you can get past the idea of an adolescent being allowed to deliver mail, Debrah LeMattre’s 30-minute “Underwater” is an exceptional accomplishment, marked by a fluid, rhythmic style, graceful camera work (by Denise Brassard) and a sense of intimacy and insight. LeMattre convincingly takes us into the troubled, alienated psyche of a girl of perhaps 12 (Sabrina Chateau), haunted by a memory of incest, who is forced to come to terms with her past in order to help another.

Lisa Udelson’s hilarious 30-minute “The Party Favor” pokes fun at the bridal shower ritual but has an unexpected payoff when the bride’s sister-in-law-to-be (Wendle Josepher) brings along her lover (Heidi Swedberg).

Although awfully heavy on Angst , Sharyn Blumenthal’s 30-minute “The Poet’s Wife” benefits strongly from the radiant presence of Rachel Levin as a documentary filmmaker whose probing of the lives of a deceased poet and his wife confronts her with the uncertainty of her own relationship with her married partner (Stanley Kamel).

Lea Zagury’s 13-minute “Karaiba” is a dazzling work of imaginative animation in a sophisticated folk art style that protests the destruction of the Amazon rain forest in a playful, witty fashion, which puts its message across all the more effectively.

Aired on MTV’s “No Alternative” benefit, Tamra Davis’ 6-minute “No Alternative Girls” presents the views of several of the most popular female rock stars today--including Courtney Love, no less--on sex, sexuality and liberation; for them there’s no alternative to safe sex.

Information: (310) 855-8720.