Maybe you zone out three or 40 times a day and fantasize about jetting off to far-flung locales to absorb a little culture, or just take it very, very easy. But most of us are too entangled in our lives (read: strapped for cash) to get away, so you're likely staying put for now. In the meantime, there's a way you can virtually experience other lands and relax at the same time: it's the Little Theatre's Second Annual Foreign Film Festival, screening June 22-28 and featuring 17 films from around the world, 10 of which are previewed below. Visit www.thelittle.org for all the details.

Obviously, watching movies is not the same as going on a decadent vacation, but until you win the Lotto or snag that sugar daddy, it'll have to do.

The English title evokes a syrupy ballad, but veteran filmmaker Carlos Diegues' "The Greatest Love of All"("O Maior Amo do Mundo") is in fact a satisfying though clichéd look at a dying man finally experiencing life. Sour-faced astrophysicist Antonio returns to the garbage-strewn slums of Rio and crosses paths with his hostile dad, a wise urchin, a beautiful heart-thawer, and the mystical woman who helped birth him. When the subjects are estrangement, reconciliation, and untimely death, it can't help but be slightly manipulative, but its heart is where it oughta be. (Friday, June 22, 7 p.m.)

The risky "Underground Game" ("Jogo Subterrâneo") is played in the Sao Paolo subway by Martin, a lonely, leonine pianist attempting to find the love of his life with the aid of fate. Unwitting players include a tattoo artist, a blind writer, and Ana, a looker with a crazy grey eyes and a pile of secrets. Brazilian writer-director Roberto Gervitz does a nice job of ratcheting up the suspense by slowly parceling out information, but without all the facts it's difficult to root for Martin and Ana, especially when the coolly mysterious writer is far more fascinating. (Friday, June 22, 9:30 p.m.)

Remember the name Kim Rossi Stuart. The Italian actor makes his directing debut with "Along the Ridge" ("Ancho Libero Va Bene"), a flawlessly executed drama that observes as a wayward mother and wife returns to the fold and upsets the delicate peace achieved following her departure. Stuart tells the story mostly through the eyes of the 11-year-old son (Alessandro Morace, another remarkable find) and plays the hot-tempered husband Renato, not keen to trust his wife again but not willing to deprive his kids of their mom. His lensing is artful and his touch with the cast deft, but the explosive Stuart is too gifted an actor (and too damned handsome) to stay strictly behind the camera. (Saturday, June 23, noon; Thursday, June 28, 6:30 p.m.)

Look; you either adore Roberto Benigni or you want to throttle him. His latest film is called "The Tiger and the Snow" ("La Tigre e la Neve"), and it takes the "war is hellaciously funny" conceit (used to Oscar-winning effect in "La Vita e Bella"), drops it into Iraq, and uses this forum to say absolutely nothing. Wife Nicoletta Braschi again plays the object of his affection and Jean Reno classes things up as an Iraqi scholar, but it's all Benigni, irritatingly shameless when allowed to direct himself. I will admit that I did not, however, foresee the charming twist at the end... (Saturday, June 23, 7 p.m.)

Unsurprisingly, Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu are the reasons to watch "Changing Times" ("Les Temps Qui Changent"), French auteur André Téchiné's exploration of class and race in modern-day Morocco. He plays a businessman, she the former flame in his sights, and around them revolve interesting subplots relating to her disinterested husband, her bisexual son, as well as the son's lover and strung-out girlfriend. Things get a little soapy towards the end, but seeing Deneuve and Depardieu go toe-to-toe is a treat. (Saturday, June 23, 9:30 p.m.)

In "Cinema, Aspirin, and Vultures" ("Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus") it's 1942, and the wonder drug known as aspirin is working its way into Brazilian life thanks to a traveling German salesman and a local hitchhiker who show ads to villagers as thrilled by the moving picture as they are the pain-relieving action. Director Marcelo Gomes' resourcefully shot road movie mostly takes place in the cab of a truck bouncing through a thirsty landscape, and we ride along as the very different strangers get to know each other, but we're not sure where they're headed, both literally and figuratively.  (Sunday, June 24, 3:30 p.m.)

Based on a piece of New Yorker fiction by the awesome Haruki Murakami, "Tony Takitani" is a wistful Japanese fable that recounts the life of a lonely artist, who becomes less so when he falls for a shy young clotheshorse with very expensive tastes. Filmmaker Jun Ichikawa uses a steady left-to-right panning motion for nearly every shot, the elegant rhythm (coupled with calm third-person narration) lulling the viewer into a bedtime-story trance. And even though it seems like not much happens, entire lives change. This one's gorgeous. (Monday, June 25, 6:30 p.m.)

On the same day, a mutual relative springs raccoon-eyed Zana from a mental institution and lummoxy Yanko from the slammer, which means this pair has a blind date to bicker and then make Macedonian "Kontakt." Directed by Sergej Stanojkovski, it's your typical odd-couple dance, made very watchable by the two unsentimental lead performances. Screenwriter Gordan Mihic wove the same blunt black comedy through Emir Kusturica's "Black Cat, White Cat," but the inconsistent mawkishness of the third act really has me crossing my fingers for the way-overdue return of the incendiary Kusturica, who would never have cottoned to that. (Tuesday, June 26, 9 p.m.).

A banquet for the eyes, "L'Iceberg" is an absurdist French fairy tale about a restaurant manager who develops a longing for all things frosty after a night locked in the walk-in freezer, so she leaves her neglectful family behind in pursuit of the titular goal. Filmmakers Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, and Bruno Romy film their nearly silent movie using a series of wide images, enabling them to maximize the farce, and the deadpan Gordon holds it down as the ice queen, looking like a poor man's Tilda Swinton but making her newfound jones for the frozen sweetly poignant. (Wednesday, June 27, 6:30 p.m.)

"Can we make the revolution for the working class despite the working class?" muses one of the student rebels in Philippe Garrel's "Regular Lovers" ("Les Amants Réguliers"), an intimate epic about the Paris uprisings in the spring of 1968. Filmed in lusciously grainy black-and-white, the story narrows to focus on 20-year-old François, a poet whose insurgent principles get lost to the smoke of opium, the sounds of Nico, and especially to the love of a raven-haired sculptor named Lilie. Garrel intended his film as a rebuttal to Bertolucci's idealization of the same events in 2003's "The Dreamers," which allows for a great scene in which Lilie turns to the camera and basically calls the Italian legend out. (Wednesday, June 27, 9 p.m.)

The Little Foreign Film Festival takes place at the Little Theatre, 240 East Avenue. Individual tickets cost $8; festival passes cost $99, and are good for one admission to each screening and other privileges. For more information call 258-0400 or visit www.thelittle.org.

Little Foreign Film Festival Schedule

Friday, June 22

"The Greatest Love of All (O Maior Amor do Mundo)," Brazil), 7 p.m.

"Underground Game (Jogo Subterraneo)," Brazil, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 23

"Along the Ridge (Anche Libero Va Bene)," Italy, noon

"Syndromes and a Century (Sang Sattawat)," Thailand/France/Austria, 3:30 p.m.

"The Tiger And The Snow (La Tigre e la Neve)," Italy, 7 p.m.

"Changing Times (Les Temps qui Changent)," France, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 24

"In The Pit," Mexico, noon

"Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus)," Brazil, 3:30 p.m.

"Drama/Mex," Mexico, 7 p.m.

"Madinusa," Peru/Spain, 9:30 p.m.

Monday, June 25

"Tony Takitani," Japan, 6:30 p.m.

"Starfish Hotel," Japan, 9 p.m.

Tuesday, June 26

"Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams," Bosnia and Herzegovina/Austria/Croatia/Germany, 6:30 p.m.

"Kontakt," Macedonia/Germany, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, June 27

"The Iceberg (L'iceberg)," Belgium, 6:30 p.m.

"Regular Lovers (Les Amants Réguliers)," France/Italy, 9 p.m.

Thursday, June 28

"Along the Ridge (Anche Libero Va Bene)," Italy, 6:30 p.m.

"The Man of My Life (L'homme de sa Vie)," France/Italy, 9 p.m.