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| Blind Loves and Dream |
57,000 Kilometres Between Us (57000km Entre Nous, 57,000km Between US) (Country: France; Director: Delphine Kreuter; Writer: Delphine Kreuter; Cast: Florence Thomassin, Pascal Bongard, Mathieu Amalric, Marie Burgun, Hadrien Bouvier, Stéphanie Michelini, Mohamed Rouabhi, Véra Briole)
A provocative, yet charming take on digital communication, this debut follows a teenager caught between her stepdad (who records and posts the family's supposedly perfect life online), her real father (now a transsexual), and the refuge of her own online life as she searches for meaningful connections with others.
Full Review Official Site
Black Ice (Musta jää) (Country: Finland, Germany; Director: Petri Kotwica; Writer: Petri Kotwica; Cast: Outi Mäenpää, Ria Kataja, Martti Suosalo, Ville Virtanen, Sara Paavolainen, Netta Heikkilä, Väinö Heiskanen, Philipp Danne, Matti Laine, Emilia Sinisalo)
Dark thriller about the lengths a wife will go to in order to exact revenge.
Official Site
Chiko (Country: Germany; Director: Özgür Yildirim; Writer: Özgür Yildirim; Cast: Denis Moschitto, Moritz Bleibtreu, Volkan Özcan, Fahri Yardim, Reyhan Sahin, Lilay Huser, Philipp Baltus, Henny Reents, Hans Löw, Simon Goerts)
Crime thriller sees a pair of pals fall foul of a drug lord.
Official Site
The Class (Klass) (Country: Estonia; Director: Ilmar Raag; Writer: Ilmar Raag; Cast: Vallo Kirs, Pärt Uusberg, Lauri Pedaja, Paula Solvak, Mikk Mägi, Riina Ries, Joonas Paas, Kadi Metsla, Triin Tenso, Virgo Ernits)
Powerful tale of how bullying can lead to violence in the classroom.
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| Soi Cowboy and Momma's Man |
A Dog's Dream (El Sueño del perro) (Country: Argentina; Director: Paulo Pécora; Writer: Paulo Pécora; Cast: Guillermo Angelelli, Mónica Lairana, Aldo Niebur)
Dialogue-free film about a grieving writer coming to terms with the loss of his family.
Dream (Bi-mong) (Country: South Korea; Director: Kim Ki-duk; Writer: Kim Ki-duk; Cast: Jô Odagiri, Lee Na-yeong, Jang Mi-hie, Kim Tae-hyeon, Park Ji-a)
A woman acts out the dreams of a stranger.
Full Review
Drifter (Country: Brazil; Director: Cao Guimarães)
Documentary meets art film in this road movie from Brazil.
Empties (Vratné lahve) (Country: Czech Republic, UK; Director: Jan Sverák; Writer: Zdenek Sverák, Zdenek Sverák; Cast: Zdenek Sverák, Tatiana Vilhelmová, Daniela Kolárová, Alena Vránová, Jirí Machácek, Miroslav Táborský, Martin Pechlát, Nella Boudová, Jan Budar, Pavel Landovský)
Third part of Sverák's trilogy, following The Elementary School and Kolya, asks is it ever to late for fulfillment?
Flower In The Pocket (Country: Malaysia; Director: Liew Seng Tat; Writer: Liew Seng Tat; Cast: Zi Jiang Wong, Ming Wei Lim, James Lee, Amira Nasuha, Mislina Mustapha, Inom Yon, Azman Hassan, Wen Xin Yong, Kah Loong Lo, Zhang Phang Chong)
A man tries to juggle being a father with making a living.
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| Parting Shot and Sita Sings The Blues |
Genova (Country: UK; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Laurence Coriat, Michael Winterbottom; Cast: Colin Firth, Catherine Keener, Perla Haney-Jardine, Willa Holland, Hope Davis, Demetri Goritsas)
Following the death of their mother, father Colin Firth relocates to Italy with his two young daughters (Willa Holland and Perla Haney-Jardine) in this deeply moving and resolutely unsentimental portrait of a family trying to rebuild itself in the wake of a tragic accident.
Full Review
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo) (Country: Italy, Spain; Director: Sergio Leone; Writer: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone; Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Claudio Scarchilli, John Bartha, Livio Lorenzon, Antonio Casale)
Classic western in which three men variously scheme, save and double-cross each other in the search for a legendary stash of gold.
Gala screening at Leeds Town Hall. Full Review Official Site,
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(How) To Be Dead (Cómo estar muerto/Como estar muerto) (Country: Argentina; Director: Manuel Ferrari; Cast: Inés Efron, Ignacio Rogers, Julián Tello, Nahuel Viale)
The festival programme promises this is will take you "through the streets of Buenos Aires on a meandering journey to ennui".
The Karamazovs (Karamazovi) (Country: Czech Republic, Poland; Director: Petr Zelenka; Writer: Petr Zelenka; Cast: Martin Mysicka, Michaela Badinková, Igor Chmela, Radek Holub, Lenka Krobotová, Roman Luknár, Andrzej Mastalerz, Marek Matejka, David Novotny, Pavel Simcík)
Petr Zelenka's unusual take on theatre and life follows a group of Czech actors as they perform an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel in a Polish factory.
Kinogamma Part One: East (Country: France; Director: Siegfried)
Described as the "reinvention of the travelogue".
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| Time To Die and Mermaid |
Kinogamma Part Two: Far East (Country: France; Director: Siegfried)
Offbeat travelogue sets its sights on India.
Magic Mirror (Espelho Mágico) (Country: Portugal; Director: Manoel de Oliveira; Writer: Agustina Bessa-Luís, Manoel de Oliveira; Cast: Leonor Silveira, Ricardo Trêpa, Luís Miguel Cintra, Leonor Baldaque, Glória de Matos, Isabel Ruth, Adelaide Teixeira, Diogo Dória, José Wallenstein, Maestro Atalaya)
Follows a man who is taken to meet a rich acquaintance on release from prison. Introduced by Portugese academic Joao Antunes.
Mermaid (Rusalka) (Country: Russia; Director: Anna Melikyan; Cast: Masha Shalaeva, Evgeniy Ciganov, Maria Sokolova, Nastya Doncova)
The fanciful tale of an introverted little girl who grows up believing she has the power to make wishes come true. She must reconcile this belief with reality when, as a young woman, she journeys to Moscow and grapples with love, modernity and materialism.
Mina-ye shahr-e khamoosh (Country: Iran, Germany, Canada; Director: Amir Shahab Razavian; Writer: Mohammad Farokhmanesh, Armin Hofmann, Amir Shahab Razavian; Cast: Ezzatolah Entezami, Shahbaz Noshir, Saber Abbar, Reza Khamse)
A surgeon returns to Iran after years of living away and finds his hometown invokes a powerful emotional reaction.
Momma's Man (Country: USA; Director: Azazel Jacobs; Writer: Azazel Jacobs; Cast: Flo Jacobs, Ken Jacobs, Dana Varon)
A man who has avoided his wife and child at home has a change of heart after an imposed stay in his own parents' loft.
Full Review
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| The Karamazovs and 57,000 Kilometres Between Us |
Moscow, Belgium (Country: Belgium; Director: Christophe Van Rompaey; Writer: Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem, Pat van Beirs; Cast: Barbara Sarafian, Jurgen Delnaet, Johan Heldenbergh, Anemone Valcke, Sofia Ferri, Julian Borsani, Bob De Moor, Jits Van Belle, Griet van Damme, Lisa Buylaert)
Romantic comedy about a single mum who forges an unlikely friendship with a recovering alcoholic truck driver.
Parting Shot (Pas Douce) (Country: France; Director: Jeanne Waltz; Writer: Jeanne Waltz; Cast: Isild Le Besco, Lio, Steven de Almeida, Yves Verhoeven, Christophe Sermet, Estelle Bealem)
A frustrated young nurse finds her life transformed after she meets a troublesome teenager.
Full Review
The Path (El Camino) (Country: Costa Rica; Director: Ishtar Yasin Gutierrez; Writer: Ishtar Yasin Gutierrez; Cast: Sherlin Paola Velásquez, Juan Borda, Morena Guadalupe Espinoza, Marcos Ulises Jiménez, Cornelio Flores Meza, Germán Pomares, Jean-François Stévenin)
Two children travel to Costa Rica in search of their mother.
The Rest Of The Night (Il Resto della notte) (Country: Italy; Director: Francesco Munzi; Writer: Francesco Munzi; Cast: Sandra Ceccarelli, Aurélien Recoing, Stefano Cassetti, Laura Vasiliu, Victor Cosma, Constantin Lupescu, Veronica Besa, Valentina Cervi, Ditta Teresa Acerbis, Susy Laude)
A Romanian servant plots revenge after being sacked for stealing.
Rumba (Country: France, Belgium; Director: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy; Writer: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy; Cast: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Philippe Martz, Bruno Romy, Clément Morel)
Physical comedy in the style of Chaplin, promises to be madcap if their previous outing, Iceberg, is anything to go by.
Full Review
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| The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and Stalker |
Shadow Of Sand (Country: Japan; Director: Yusuke Kaida; Writer: Yusuke Kaida)
Super-8 film about a woman whose lover may or may not be real.
She Unfolds By Day (Country: US; Director: Rolf Belgum; Writer: Rolf Belgum; Cast: Julia Belgum, Merrilyn Belgum, Rolf Belgum, Christopher Wells)
An afternoon in the life of a frustrated middle-aged son, his misanthropic 80-year-old mother and their hyperactive dog.
Sita Sings The Blues (Country: US; Director: Nina Paley; Writer: Nina Paley; Cast: Annette Hanshaw, Reena Shah, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya)
Using a variety of colorful animation techniques, writer-director Nina Paley wittily interweaves the story of Sita, the leading lady of the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, with the story of a modern American woman struggling to keep her marriage afloat.
Official Site
Soi Cowboy (Country: Thailand, UK; Director: Thomas Clay; Writer: Thomas Clay; Cast: Nicolas Bro, Pimwalee Thampanyasan, Petch Mekoh, Natee Srimanta, Somrak Khamsing, Porntip Papanai, Art Supawatt Purdy)
Semi-autobiographical tale of a struggling filmmaker and his life with a Thai girlfriend.
Full Review
Stalker (Country: Russia; Director: Andrei Tarkovsky; Writer: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky; Cast: Aleksandr Kajdanovsky, Alisa Fredndlikh, Anatoly Solonitsin, Nikolai Grinko, Natasha Abramova)
Sci-fi drama in which three men make a journey into the unknown in search of their deepest desire.
Full Review
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| Rumba and Wellness |
Summer Book (Tatil kitabi) (Country: Turkey; Director: Seyfi Teoman; Writer: Seyfi Teoman; Cast: Taner Birsel, Tayfun Gunay, Harun Ozuag, Ayten Tokun, Osman Inan, Riza Akin, Onurcan Alavi, Zafer Inan, Ekrem Senel, Mahir Ozel)
Family drama sees a clan thrown into disarray after the patriarch falls into a coma.
Time To Die (Pora Umierac) (Country: Poland; Director: Dorota Kedzierzawska; Writer: Dorota Kedzierzawska; Cast: Danuta Szaflarska, Krzysztof Globisz, Patrycja Szewczyk, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Piotr Ziarkiewicz, Kamil Bitau, Kai Schoenhals, Weronika Karwowska)
An old woman talks to her dog in an attempt to retain a modicum of independance in a material world that does not appreciate a child's desire to play on a swing.
Full Review
Versailles (Country: France; Director: Pierre Schöller; Writer: Pierre Schöller; Cast: Guillaume Depardieu, Max Baissette Baissette de Malglaive, Judith Chemla, Aure Atika, Patrick Descamps, Brigitte Sy, Franck Bruneau, Philippe Dupagne, Matteo Giovannetti, Blandine Lenoir)
After a chance encounter a social misfit is left looking after a five-year-old in the forest.
Wellness (Country: USA; Director: Jake Mahaffy; Writer: Jake Mahaffy; Cast: Paul Mahaffy, Jeff Clark)
Thomas, a salesman more like a modern day Willy Loman stakes the last of his cash on a wonder-drug in a savage deconstruction of the American Dream.
Official Site
Weltstadt (Country: Germany; Director: Christian Klandt; Writer: Christian Klandt; Cast: Hendrik Arnst, Florian Bartholomäi, Justus Carriere, Franziska Krumwiede, Karoline Schuch, Jürgen Verch, Henrike von Kuick, Gerdy Zint)
Exploration of how two drunken teenagers came to beat up a homeless man and set him on fire.
Winstanley (Country: UK; Director: Kevin Brownlow; Writer: Kevin Brownlow, David Caute, Andrew Mollo; Cast: Miles Halliwell, Jerome Willis, Terry Higgins, Phil Oliver, David Bramley, Alison Halliwell, Dawson France, Bill Petch, Barry Shaw, Sid Rawle)
Meticulously researched and sparely beautiful account of the creation and destruction of England’s first commune.
