Festivals >> EIFF >> 2009 >> Director's Showcase

35 Shots Of Rhum (35 rhums, 35 Shots Of Rum) (Country: France, Germany; Director: Claire Denis; Writer: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau; Cast: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogue, Grégoire Colin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Djédjé Apali, Eriq Ebouaney, Ingrid Caven, Stéphane Pocrain, Julieth Mars Toussaint, Adèle Ado, Mary Pie, Cheikh Toure, David Saada, Mario Canonge)
The shifting relationship between a single dad and his teenage daughter. UK Premiere.
Full Review See: Claire Denis interview about 35 Shots Of Rum

Adventureland (Country: US; Director: Greg Mottola; Writer: Greg Mottola; Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Martin Starr, Margerita Levieva, Matt Bush, Kristen Wiig, Jack Gilpin)
In 1987, a recent college graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers the job is perfect preparation for the real world. UK Premiere.
Full Review Official Site, View Trailer

All That She Wants (Elle Veut Le Chaos) (Country: Canada; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté; Cast: Eve Duranceau, Nicolas Canuel, Laurent Lucas, Rejean Lefrancois, Olivier Aubin)
A young woman gets caught up in a web of crime spun by her petty criminal father. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Fear Me Not (Den du frygter) (Country: Denmark; Director: Kristian Levring; Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen, Kristian Levring; Cast: Ulrich Thomsen, Lars Brygmann, Bjarne Henriksen, Emma Sehested Høeg, Paprika Steen, Stine Stengade, Bodil Udsen)
In this intensely chilling psychological thriller, a run-down middle-aged workaholic (Ulrich Thomsen) enrolls in a clinical trial for a new antidepressant without telling his family. When the trial is abandoned because of dangerous side effects, he continues to take the medication... UK Premiere.
Full Review

The Girlfriend Experience (Country: US; Director: Steven Soderbergh; Writer: Brian Koppelman, David Levien; Cast: Sasha Grey, Christopher Santos, Peter Zizzo, Jeff Grossman, Timothy J. Cox, Bridget Storm, Kimberly Magness, Ken Myers, Timothy Davis, Ted Jessup)
Five days in the life of a $2,000-an-hour Manhattan call girl (adult film star Sasha Grey) who thinks - at least initially - she has her life totally under control. International Premiere.
Full Review Official Site

Gulabi Talkies (Country: India; Director: Girish Kasaravalli; Cast: Umashree, KG Krishnamurthy, MD Pallavi, Praveera, Poornima Mohan, Ashok Sandip)
A fiftysomething exile finds she becomes the hub of her local community after coming into possession of a telly. European Premiere.
Full Review

High Life (Country: USA, Canada; Director: Gary Yates; Writer: Lee MacDougall, Gary Yates; Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Rossif Sutherland, Joe Anderson, Mike Bell, Sarah Constible, Leigh Enns, Aaron Hughes, Susan Kelso, Tracy McMahon)
Drug-addicted petty criminals try to pull off a major heist. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Humpday (Country: US; Director: Lynn Shelton; Writer: Lynn Shelton; Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard)
A farcical comedy about straight male bonding gone a little too far. UK Premiere.
Full Review Official Site

The Hurt Locker (Director: Kathryn Bigelow; Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Christian Camargo)
A bomb disposal unit struggles to function in the heart of the Iraq war. UK Premiere.
Full Review Official Site, View Trailer

I'm Gonna Explode (Voy A Explotar, I'm Going To Explode) (Country: Mexico; Director: Gerardo Naranjo; Writer: Gerardo Naranjo; Cast: Maria Deschamps, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Rebecca Jones, Martha Claudia Moreno)
A romance develops between two rebels without a cause. UK Premiere.
Full Review Official Site

Jerichow (Country: Germany; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold; Cast: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André Hennicke, Claudia Geisler, Marie Gruber, Knut Berger)
Three misbegotten strangers stumble into a fateful encounter. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Jermal (Country: Indonesia; Director: Ravi L Bharwani, Rayya Makarim, Utawa Tresno; Writer: Rayya Makarim, Orlow Seunke, Ravi L Bharwani; Cast: Iqbal S Manurung, Didi Petet, Yayu AW Unru, Chairil A Dalimunthe)
After his mother dies a young boy is forced to work for his estranged dad, facing bullying and rejection in the process. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Little Soldier (Lille Soldat) (Country: Denmark; Director: Annette K. Olesen; Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson; Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Finn Nielsen, Lorna Brown, Rasmus Botoft, Jens Jørgen Spottag)
An army veteran becomes a chauffeur to her father's mistress. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Milk (Süt) (Country: Turkey, France, Germany; Director: Semih Kaplanoglu; Writer: Semih Kaplanoglu; Cast: Basak Koklukaya, Melih Selcuk)
Coming-of-age drama about a young boy struggling to get by in a rural economy. UK Premiere.
Full Review

The Missing Person (Country: US; Director: Noah Buschel; Writer: Noah Buschel; Cast: Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan, Frank Wood, Linda Emond, Paul Sparks, Margaret Colin, John Ventimiglia, Yul Vazquez, Merritt Wever, Daniel Franzese)
Private detective John Rosow is hired to tail a man on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles. En route, Rosow uncovers the man's identity as one of the thousands presumed dead after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. International Premiere.
Full Review

Paper Soldier (Bumazhnyy Soldat) (Country: Russia; Director: Aleksei German Jnr; Writer: Aleksei German Jnr, Vladimir Arkusha; Cast: Merab Ninidze, Chulpan Khamatova, Anastasiya Sheveleva)
A Soviet medic faces a crisis of conscience as he cares for a cosmonaut troop. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Pardon My French (Un Chat Un Chat) (Country: France; Director: Sophie Fillières; Cast: Chiara Mastroianni, Agathe Bonitzer, Malik Zidi, Dominique Valadié, Sophie Guillemin)
Black comedy about the relationship between a woman and a female stalker. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Scratch (Rysa) (Country: Poland; Director: Michal Rosa; Writer: Michal Rosa; Cast: Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak, Krzysztof Stroinski, Ewa Telega, Miroslawa Marcheluk, Teresa Marczewska, Ryszard Filipski, Stanislaw Radwan, Jerzy Schejbal, Jerzy Nowak, Kinga Preis, Alicja Bienicewicz, Slawomir Pacek, Jakub Bohosiewicz, Damian Hryniewicz, Zdzislaw Bromek)
A revelation threatens to tear apart a 40-year-old marriage. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Stella (Country: France; Director: Sylvie Verheyde; Writer: Sylvie Verheyde; Cast: Léora Barbara, Melissa Rodriguez, Letitia Guerard, Karole Rocher, Benjamin Biolay, Guillaume Depardieu, Johan Libéreau, Jeannick Gravelines, Valerie Stroh, Thierry Neuvic, Anne Benoit, Christophe Bourseiller, Nicolas Janny, Christel Dewynter, Yolaine-Anne Gliott)
An 11-year-old struggles to fit in at a posh school while also dealing with her parents' avant garde homelife in the Seventies. UK Premiere.
Full Review

Surrogate (Country: Israel; Director: Tali Shalom-Ezer; Writer: Tali Shalom-Ezer; Cast: Amir Wolf, Lana Ettinger, Rosina Kambus, Yonatan Swirski, Liat Glick, Lascha Shimshoni)
The relationship between a troubled man and the woman who gives him sexual therapy. International Premiere.
Full Review

Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig) (Country: Denmark; Director: Henrik Ruben Genz; Writer: Henrik Ruben Genz, Dunja Gry Jensen, Erling Jepsen; Cast: Jakob Cedergren, Lene Maria Christensen, Kim Bodnia, Lars Brygmann, Anders Hove, Henrik Lykkegaard)
When a town cop is reassigned to a provincial beat, he finds that rather than inflicting order on the locals, they have a disturbing affect on him. UK Premiere.
Full Review

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