22nd European Film Awards EFA Selection 2009
22nd European Film Awards CONTENTS: Preface ........................................................................... Regulations 2009 ........................................................... Films ............................................................................... Index of films ..................................................................
EFA Selection 2009
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European Film Academy e.V. Kurfürstendamm 225 10719 Berlin GERMANY tel. +(49)30 887 167-0 fax +(49)30 887 167-77
EFA Productions gGmbH Kurfürstendamm 225 10719 Berlin GERMANY tel. +(49)30 887 167-0 fax +(49)30 887 167-77
www.europeanfilmacademy.org
www.efa-productions.com
Director: Marion Döring Amtsgericht Charlottenburg 14236 Nz
Managing Directors: Marion Döring, Jürgen Biesinger Amtsgericht Charlottenburg HRB 99369
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY e.V., Pascal Edelmann (editor) ★ graphic design: Andres Castoldi ★ Pictures: LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS: Paola Ardizzoni & Emilio Pereda./ © El Deseo D.A., S.L.U ★ ANTICHRIST: Christian Geisnæs ★ COCO AVANT CHANEL: © Chantal Thomine-Desmazures; Portrait: © Marcel Hartmann ★ FISH TANK: Holly Horner; Portrait: Rankin Photo ★ JERICHOW: © Christian Schultz ★ LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN: Hoyte van Hoytema; Portrait: Jonas Åkerlund ★ LILLE SOLDAT: Portrait: Morten Holtum ★ LOFT: Sophie Silbermann / © Woestijnvis ★ MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR: Knut Koivisto / © Yellowbird; Portrait: Claus Peukert / © Niels Arden Oplev ★ MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA ÖGONBLICK: © Nille Leander ★ OORLOGSWINTER: Portrait: Mark Kohn ★ VINCERE: Daniele Musso (p.94), Gianfranco Mura (p.95) ★ DAS WEISSE BAND: X Verleih AG ★ All other photographs appear courtesy of the respective production/distribution companies.
PREFACE
The EFA Selection 2009: A showcase of European diversity
Every year the European Film Academy presents the EFA Selection, the list of films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards. This is the first time we present these films in a catalogue with detailed information on the different films and filmmakers, and I hope you will enjoy leafing through it and will find it a useful tool to cast your votes for the European Film Awards 2009. Within the EFA Selection 2009 you will find veterans of European cinema and EFA regulars as well as newcomers and debut films - altogether there are 48 films from 25 countries once again vividly illustrating the great diversity in European cinema. On the following pages you will find a summary of the regulations for the European Film Awards. As most of you will know, in the 20 countries with the most EFA Members, these members have voted one national film directly into the selection list. To complete the list, a Selection Committee consisting of EFA Board Members and invited experts Gunnar Bergdahl (Sweden), Stefan Kitanov (Bulgaria), Derek Malcolm (UK), and Nikolaj Nikitin (Germany) has included further films. In the coming weeks, the 2,000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories. The nominations will then be announced on 7 November at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain. The 22nd European Film Awards with the presentation of the winners will take place in Germany’s Ruhr Metropolis on 12 December. We wish you a lot of memorable film experiences! Yves Marmion Chairman EFA Board
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
Regulations for the European Film Awards 2009 Eligibility Feature films participating in the European Film Awards 2009 must be European* feature-length fiction films intended for normal theatrical release which must have had their first official screening (be it at a festival or at a regular cinema) after 1 July 2008. The EFA Board has the right in exceptional cases to refrain from this rule. Submission deadline is 15 June 2009 Selection procedure The selection of app 40 films proposed to the EFA members to be considered for a nomination is made as follows: - in the 20 (twenty) European countries with the highest number of EFA members (as of 15 March 2009), these members vote directly for one film from among the national feature films released in their country or screened at festivals after 1 July 2008. The film having received the highest number of votes in each of these countries will automatically be included in the selection of films, provided it corresponds to the regulations of the European Film Awards; - the selection of the app 20 remaining films is made by a committee composed of members of the EFA Board and a group of experts appointed by the Board. These remaining films are selected from proposals submitted before 15 June by European film institutions, festivals, trade magazines, media partners, members of the European Film Academy and producers of European films. As a result, the committee recommends to the EFA members - around 40 (forty) films, half of them elected directly by EFA members, the others selected from all proposals received as explained above. The selection of films will be announced in the beginning of September 2009. These films recommended by the committee are submitted on DVD to the members of the European Film Academy to vote for their nominations. Producers of European films whose films are not among the recommended films have the right to send DVDs of their films, at their own expense, to the members of the European Film Academy to be considered for a nomination.
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REGULATIONS
Nomination procedure Based on the list of films submitted by the committee and/or the films sent separately by producers, the EFA members vote for the following nominations: • • • • • •
EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN
FILM DIRECTOR ACTRESS ACTOR SCREENWRITER CINEMATOGRAPHER
The committee has the right to add one nomination to a maximum of three of the above categories. Based on a simple majority of votes received and the nominations added by the committee, the European Film Academy announces the following four weeks prior to the European Film Awards Ceremony: • • • • • •
EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN EUROPEAN
FILM: 6 nominations DIRECTOR: 6 nominations ACTRESS: 6 nominations ACTOR: 6 nominations SCREENWRITER: 4 nominations CINEMATOGRAPHER: 4 nominations
Election of the winners Based on the nominations, the members of the European Film Academy vote for the winners which are announced at the European Film Awards Ceremony taking place in Bochum / Germany on 12 December 2009. * The criteria whereby a film qualifies as European are based upon the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production, Appendix II, issued by the Council of Europe. A short film qualifies as European when the director was born in Europe or is of a European nationality. European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, shall include Israeli and Palestinian.
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
33 SCENY Z ZYCIA 33 SCENES FROM LIFE
Poland / Germany 96 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Małgośka Szumowska PRODUCED BY: Raimond Goebel & Karl Baumgartner DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Michał Englert MAIN CAST: Julia Jentsch (Julia Szczesna)
Julia is a beloved daughter and wife and she is a successful artist-photographer. It’s fair to say that Julia is happy in her life. Suddenly, everything collapses. In one year her world changes completely, making Julia a different person. Sickness and death from a close perspective are something different than what Julia expected - much more absurd, nonsensical and ridiculous. It all starts with the death of the family dog. Then Julia’s mother gets sick - with cancer. Her husband, a famous composer, is of no help, spending most of the time abroad and her father seems to need help even more than she does. 33 Scenes From Life is a film about the moment in life, when we as children change and become adults. It shows a time in life that everyone has to go through, because everyone has to grow up. Finally, it’s a story about stepping into the real world, where pain, suffering and doubts are inevitable.
Production: PANDORA Filmproduktions GmbH Balthasarstr. 79-81 50670 Cologne GERMANY tel: +49.221.97 33 20 fax: +49.221.97 33 29 info@pandorafilm.com
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International Sales: TrustNordisk Filmbyen 12 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK +45 (0) 36 86 87 88 +45 (0) 36 77 44 48
SELECTION www.33sceny.pl 33-szenen.realfictionfilme.de
Director’s Statement: It took me a little more than three years to make 33 Scenes From Life. ‘33’ came about for various reasons. I was pregnant and my 33rd birthday was just coming up. A very strange and new time in my life. A moment to confront and digest all that had happened before: Within 6 month I had unexpectedly lost both of my parents. During this time I made random notes, as if this situation was so rapid and so odd, that for the first time I felt a need to freeze it and capture things. The final script, however, is a story of a different person, a different family. What stayed was the feeling that had accompanied me during the time: The notion that it wasn’t for real. My idea of sickness and dying was so different from what I felt, saw and experienced that I had to share this feeling of absurdity and a need for laughter, even in moments which are known to be inappropriate. Małgośka Szumowska Małgośka Szumowska - born in 1973 - is the daughter of the writer Dorota Terakowska and the documentary filmmaker Maciej Szumowski. She studied film direction at the Polish National Film School (PWSFTViT) in Lodz. While still a Student, her films were presented at special Screenings during the festival in Cannes. Her documentary film SILENCE received awards at festivals in Tel Aviv, Bologna, Angers and in Mexico. SILENCE was selected as one of the 14 best films in the history of the Lodz Film Academy. Szumowska’s HAPPY MAN was nominated for the Felix, the European Film Award for the best debut and received a special award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. She is member of the European Film Academy. Time magazine called her “a person to watch” and HAPPY MAN was screening for a few weeks in London. The prestigious magazine Variety included it on its 10 best films of the year 2001 list, and Deborah Young wrote that, “looking for the secret of life and death the film of Szumowska evokes such masters as Kieslowski.” About ONO Variety wrote: STRANGER is guided by a hopefulness for the best in human nature that rejects trite dramatic conclusion. In fact the final closing image is a tour de force of rare complexity, beauty and uncertainty.
33 SCENES FROM LIFE Festival Participation/Awards: Locarno IFF 2008: Special Prize of the Jury Toronto IFF 2008 Gdynia Polish FF 2008: Best Director, Critics Award, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress, Best Score Warsaw IFF 2008 Trieste FF 2009 Seattle FF 2009 Małgośka Szumowska Filmography: 1996 ZANIM ZNIKNIESZ (Before You Disappear), short 1996 KOBIETY SA JAK KWIATY (Women are like Flowers), documentary 1998 SIEDEM LEKCJI MILOSCI (Seven Lessons of Love), documentary 1998 CISZKA (Silence), documentary 1998 KALESONER, short 2000 SZCZESLIWY (Happy Man) 2000 WNIEBOWSTAPIENIE (The Ascension), short 2001 DOKUMENT, short 2004 ONO (Stranger) 2005 VISIONS OF EUROPE (Segment “Crossroad”) 2005 SLODARNOSC SOLICARNOSC (Segment “Father) 2007 THERE IS NOTHING TO BE SCARED OF, documentary
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS BROKEN EMBRACES
Spain 129 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Pedro Almodóvar PRODUCED BY: Agustín Almodóvar DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Rodrigo Prieto MAIN CAST: Penélope Cruz (Lena), Lluís Homar (Mateo / Harry), Blanca Portillo (Judit), José Luis Gómez (Ernesto Martel Sr.), Rubén Ochandiano (Ernesto Martel Jr. / Ray X), Tamar Novas (Diego)
A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he didn’t lose only his sight, he also lost Lena, the love of his life. This man uses two names: Harry Caine, a playful pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts, and Mateo Blanco, his real name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his pseudonym, Harry Caine. If he can’t direct films he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena. In the present day, Harry Caine lives thanks to the scripts he writes and to the help he gets from his faithful former production manager, Judit García, and from Diego, her son, his secretary, typist and guide. Since he decided to live and tell stories, Harry is an active, attractive blind man who has developed all his other senses in order to enjoy
Production: El Deseo D.A., S.L.U. Calle Francisco Navacerrada 24 28028 Madrid, SPAIN tel. +34 91 724 81 99 fax +34 91 724 13 51 eldeseo@eldeseo.es
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Press: see Production
SELECTION www.losabrazosrotos.com
life, on a basis of irony and self-induced amnesia. He has erased from his biography any trace of his first identity, Mateo Blanco. One night Diego has an accident and Harry takes care of him (his mother, Judit, is out of Madrid and they decide not to tell her anything so as not to alarm her). During the first nights of his convalescence, Diego asks him about the time when he answered to the name of Mateo Blanco, after a moment of astonishment Harry can’t refuse and he tells Diego what happened fourteen years before with the idea of entertaining him, just as a father tells his little child a story so that he’ll fall asleep. The story of Mateo, Lena, Judit and Ernesto Martel is a story of “amour fou”, dominated by fatality, jealousy, the abuse of power, treachery and a guilt complex. A moving and terrible story, the most expressive image of which is the photo of two lovers embracing, torn into a thousand pieces. Pedro Almodóvar He was born in La Mancha in the 50s. At seventeen, he left home and moved to Madrid, with no money and no job, but with a very specific project in mind: to study cinema and direct films. He worked at many sporadic jobs but couldn’t buy his first Super-8mm camera until he got a “serious” job at the National Telephone Company of Spain in 1971. In the mornings, in the Telephone Company, he got an in-depth knowledge of the Spanish middle class at the start of the consumer era, the seventies, its dramas and its misfortunes, a real gold mine for a future story teller. In the evenings and nights, he wrote, loved, acted with the mythical independent theatre group Los Goliardos and made films in Super-8. He collaborated with various underground magazines, wrote stories and was a member of a parodic punk-rock group, Almodóvar and McNamara. His films are the heirs and the witnesses of the brand new born Spanish democracy. After a year and a half of eventful shooting on 16mm, in 1980 he opened PEPI, LUCI, BOM, a no-budget film made as a cooperative effort with the rest of the crew and the cast, all beginners, except for Carmen Maura. In 1986, he founded the production company El Deseo S.A. with his brother Agustín. Their first project was “Law of Desire”. Since then, they have produced all the films that Pedro has written and directed, and has also produced other young directors.
BROKEN EMBRACES Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009, Official Selection, Competition
Pedro Almodóvar Filmography: 1974-1979 various films, Super8mm & 16mm, e.g. SALOMÉ 1980 PEPI, LUCI, BOM 1982 LABYRINTH OF PASSIONS 1983 DARK HABITS 1984/85 WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?! 1985 TRAYLER PARA AMANTES DE LO PROHIBIDO (medium length video, for TVE) 1985/86 MATADOR 1986 LAW OF DESIRE 1987 WOMEN ON THE EDGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN 1989 TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN 1991 HIGH HEELS 1993 KIKA 1995 THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET 1997 LIVE FLESH 1999 ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER 2001 TALK TO HER 2003 BAD EDUCATION 2006 VOLVER 2009 BROKEN EMBRACES
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
ALLE ANDEREN EVERYONE ELSE
Germany 119 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Maren Ade PRODUCED BY: Janine Jackowski, Dirk Engelhardt & Maren Ade DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Bernhard Keller MAIN CAST: Birgit Minichmayr (Gitti), Lars Eidinger (Chris)
On the surface, Chris and Gitti are lost in perfect amorous bliss during their getaway in Sardinia. But amidst their playful romps, secret rituals and silly habits belies an underlying tension. Full of verve, the idiosyncratic Gitti is fearless in expressing her love for Chris, while Chris is more reserved in his outlook on life and sports varying personal and professional degrees of insecurity. When they casually run into another, obviously happier and more successful, couple that on top of it all appears to be modern gender role proof, their relationship destabilizes. Chris begins to show his girlfriend who is boss, with the result that Gitti´s faith in her partner takes a hard knock. She attempts to conform to his new ideal, but what begins as a playful experiment soon turns into a quiet struggle with her own personality. While Chris flourishes in his role as the stronger one of the two, Gitti begins to loosen up in a completely new way. With their newly developed personas, Chris and Gitti get a second chance to discover themselves and each other...
Production: Komplizen Film GmbH Nordenstrasse 46/48 80801 Munich GERMANY tel. +49.89.64299290 fax +49.30.82072114 info@komplizenfilm.de
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World Sales: Bavaria Film International Dept.of Bavaria Media GmbH Bavariafilmplatz 7 / Building 71 82031 Geiselgasteig GERMANY tel. +49 89 6499 2686 fax +49 89 6499 3720 International@bavaria-film.de
Press: Lindalax BaaderstraĂ&#x;e 36 80469 Munich, GERMANY tel. +49.89 - 130 10 06 0 fax +49.89 - 130 10 06 29 post@lindalax.de
SELECTION www.alle-anderen.de
EVERYONE ELSE
Director’s Statement: “I wanted to make a film about the convoluted yet unique entity that is represented by two people in a relationship. The main character of the film is not so much an individual as a couple.”
Festival Participation/Awards: 59th Berlin IFF, Competition: Silver Bear - Grand Jury Prize, Silver Bear for Best Actress (Birgit Minichmayr), Femina Film Prize for Best Production Design (Silke Fischer) Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema 2009, Competition: FIPRESCI Critics Award Best Director International Women FF Dortmund 2009, Competition: Best Feature Film Karlovy Vary IFF 2009, Horizons Sydney IFF 2009, Discovery Jerusalem FF 2009, Panorama CPH:PIX 2009, European Voices Seattle IFF 2009, New Directors Competition Taipei FF 2009, New Talent Competition Transilvania IFF 2009, Competition (German Entry) Âge d’Or / Cinédécouvertes 2009 Brisbane IFF 2009, World Cinema Programme IFF of Uruguay Crossing Europe FF Linz 2009, Panorama Bozner Filmtage 2009, Opening Film Motovun FF 2009
Maren Ade Filmography: 2000 EBENE 9 (short, 15 min, 35 mm) 2001 VEGAS (short, 10 min, 16mm) 2003 DER WALD VOR LAUTER BÄUMEN (The Forest for the Trees) 2007 / 2008 ALLE ANDEREN (Everyone Else)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
ANTICHRIST
Denmark 104 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Lars von Trier PRODUCED BY: Meta Louise Foldager DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Anthony Dod Mantle MAIN CAST: Willem Dafoe (He), Charlotte Gainsbourg (She)
A grieving couple retreat to ’Eden’, their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse…
Production: Production: Zentropa Entertainments 23 Filmbyen 22 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK tel. +45 3686 8788 receptionen@filmbyen.dk
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World Sales: TrustNordisk Filmbyen 12 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK tel. +45 3686 8788 info@trustnordisk.com
SELECTION www.antichristthemovie.com
ANTICHRIST Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009, Best actress Transilvania IFF 2009 Moscow IFF 2009 Karlovy Vary IFF 2009 Auckland IFF 2009 New Zealand IFF 2009 Durban IFF 2009 Melbourne FF 2009
Director’s Confession: Two years ago, I suffered from depression. It was a new experience for me. Everything, no matter what, seemed unimportant, trivial. I couldn’t work. Six months later, just as an exercise, I wrote a script. It was a kind of therapy, but also a search, a test to see if I would ever make another film. The script was finished and filmed without much enthusiasm, made as it was using about half of my physical and intellectual capacity. The work on the script did not follow my usual modus operandi. Scenes were added for no reason. Images were composed free of logic or dramatic thinking. They often came from dreams I was having at the time, or dreams I’d had earlier in my life. Once again, the subject was ”Nature,” but in a different and more direct way than before. In a more personal way. The film does not contain any specific moral code and only has what some might call ‘the bare necessities’ in the way of a plot. I read Strindberg when I was young. I read with enthusiasm the things he wrote before he went to Paris to become an alchemist and during his stay there ... the period later called his “inferno crisis” – was “Antichrist” my Inferno Crisis? My affinity with Strindberg? In any case, I can offer no excuse for ”Antichrist”. Other than my absolute belief in the film - the most important film of my entire career!
Lars von Trier Filmography: 1982 BEFRIELSESBILLEDER (Pictures of Liberation Images of Relief) 1984 FORBRYDELSENS ELEMENT (Element of Crime) 1987 EPIDEMIC 1988 MEDEA, TV 1991 EUROPA 1994 RIGET I (The Kingdom), TV 1996 BREAKING THE WAVES 1997 RIGET II (The Kingdom II), TV 1998 IDIOTERNE (The Idiots) 2000 DANCER IN THE DARK 2003 DOGVILLE 2003 DE FEM BENSPÆND (The Five Obstructions) 2005 MANDERLAY 2006 DIREKTØREN FOR DET HELE (The Boss of It All)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
APAFÖLD FATHER’S ACRE
Hungary 79 min
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Viktor Oszkár Nagy PRODUCED BY: Péter Miskolczi DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Tamás Dobos MAIN CAST: Tamás Ravasz (Son), János Derzsi (Father), Andrea Nagy (Ági)
The Father is released from prison, resolving to start a new life and try to pass on some form of value system to his son. He buys a plot of land, on which he plans to plant grapevines. The Son, whose formative years have been blighted by the absence of paternal figure, is suddenly confronted with his flesh-and-blood father, was formerly deified, but whose current intentions are met with stiff resistance. Everything the Father does or represents is totally rejected by the Son. The situation is aggravated by presence of the Son’s aunt Ági, with whom the Father forms a sexual relationship. Eventually the Son, carried along on the tide of events, passively commits a tragic act of patricide.
Production: Eurofilm Studio Róna u. 174 1145 Budapest HUNGARY tel. +36 1 252 5069 fax +36 1 251 3986 eurofilm@eurofilm.hu
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FATHER’S ACRE Festival Participation/Awards: Hungarian Film Week (Budapest 2009): Gene Moskowitz Prize
Viktor Oszkár Nagy Filmography: 2005 TÁRCA (The Purse) 2009 APAFÖLD (Father’s Acre)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX
Germany 149 min
Directed by: Uli Edel Written & produced by: Bernd Eichinger Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann Main cast: Moritz Bleibtreu (Andreas Baader), Martina Gedeck (Ulrike Meinhoff), Johanna Wokalek (Gudrun Ensslin), Niels Bruno Schmidt (Jan Carl Raspe), Jan Josef Liefers (Peter Homann), Nadja Uhl (Brigitte Mohnhaupt)
June 1967. Prominent left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) is shocked by reports of a violent demonstration in Berlin, during which a student is shot dead by a policeman. When Meinhof realises that her husband is having an affair and her marriage has disintegrated, she takes her two children and moves to Berlin. Here she becomes actively involved in the anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist student movement. Increasingly though, she feels that by merely reporting about events she will never bring about actual change. As a result, she is impressed by the resolve of Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) who, together with her boyfriend Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), set fire to a department store in order to protest against the Vietnam War. After Baader’s arrest, Meinhof helps to free him from prison, which means she must cut all ties with her previous and even leave her children behind. Together with Baader and Ensslin, she founds the “Red Army Faction” (RAF). Their intention is to spearhead an armed resistance fight against the political status quo in Germany. After military training at an El Fatah camp in Jordan, the group robs banks and carries out a number of violent and deadly attacks. The death toll starts rising and with it the hysteria of the press. The head of the Federal German Police Force Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz) builds up an enormous police apparatus. In 1972 he manages to capture Baader, Ensslin and Meinhof as well as other RAF members. Only in captivity, the RAF leadership develops actual political power. More and more
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SELECTION www.bmk.film.de
people support their cause and the RAF enlists a number of new recruits including Petra Schelm (Alexandra Maria Lara) and the new leader figure Brigitte Mohnhaupt (Nadja Uhl). Through hunger strikes and further attacks, the RAF increases the pressure on the government, thus rocking the very foundations of German democracy. But while Meinhof, Baader and Ensslin have turned into radical icons, inside the group the tensions are rising. In May 1976, Meinhof commits suicide inside her prison cell. The violent confrontation between the German state and the RAF spirals out of control in the autumn of 1977. Six weeks after the kidnapping of a prominent industrialist, a plane with 86 German tourists on board is hijacked. Herold’s frenzied search for the industrialist remains fruitless, but the plane is eventually freed by a German antiterrorist squad. The morning after the liberation of the tourists, Ensslin, Baader and another RAF member are found dead in their cells. As an act of revenge, the industrialist is executed by the RAF. Director’s Statement: This is the story of our generation and it has occupied me like no other. It was the greatest tragedy in post-war German history. I recalled what I could remember of the time; read everything I could find on the subject. I also talked to former terrorists. When you have conversations with former terrorists their minds can play tricks on them. 30 or 40 years after the actual event, some of them remembered things in a way that diminished their own involvement and guilt. In terms of my visual approach, I wanted to avoid everything that’s typically associated with a genre movie. Authenticity was key. We only enhanced the natural or available light rather than adding dramatic “movie light.” We avoided dolly shots or contrived camera angles. Most of the film was shot with a hand-held camera, giving the actors as much freedom as possible. Whenever possible, I filmed at original locations. In fact, filming at Stammheim, where the original RAF trial took place, we interrupted a current trial: tellingly, it was against Al-Qaeda members. Of course, the terrorists went about their business with incredible brutality. But didn’t exaggerate the shoot-outs. We showed what was listed in actual police reports. This film is the third part in a trilogy about violence. It began with CHRISTIANE F., which is about violence against ourselves. Next came LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN, which is about social violence. And finally THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX about political violence.
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX Festival Participation/Awards: Berlin IFF 2009 CPH:PIX Helsinki IFF 2008 Sarlat FF 2008 Hong Kong IFF German Film Week, Budapest 2009 Festival del Cinema di Roma IFF of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE: Bronze Frog for Rainer Klausmann Belgrade FF 2009 Seville European FF Istanbul IFF 2009 London FF BAFTA - nominated for „Best Film Not in the English Language“ 2009 Oscar - nominated for „Best Foreign Language Film of the Year“ 2009
Uli Edel Filmography: 1971 DER KLEINE SOLDAT 1973 TOMMY KEHRT ZURÜCK 1978 DAS DING, TV 1981 CHRISTIANE F. – WIR KINDER VOM BAHNHOF ZOO 1989 LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN 1993 BODY OF EVIDENCE 1995 TYSON, TV 1995 RASPUTIN 1999 PURGATORY, TV 2000 THE LITTLE VAMPIRE 2001 THE MISTS OF AVALON, TV 2002 JULIUS CAESAR, TV 2004 RING OF THE NIBELUNGS, TV
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
BROTHERS
Switzerland 115 min
Directed by: Igaal Niddam Written by: Igaal Niddam, David Belhassen & Roy Katsiri poduced by: Nasser Bakhti Director of photography: Claudio Steinberg Main cast: Baruch Brener (Aaron), Micha Selectar (Dan), Orna Fitoussi (Shelly), Sharon M-Schemech (Yaël)
Two brothers that everything drives apart except the fact that they’re both Jews, meet again in Israel after years of silence. Dan chooses to work on the land, living in a kibbutz in the south of Israel. Aaron, his brother is a doctor of law and philosophy and a distinguished scholar of the Torah. He comes to Jerusalem from the United States to defend the rights of Torah students. The conflict which arises between the two brothers reflects that of a society torn between its religious and political principles.
Production: Troubadour Films 12 route des Acacias 1227 Genève, SWITZERLAND tel. +41(22) 3436336 fax +41(22)3436514 info@troubadour-films.com
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World Sales: EBU-UER Nicole Jeanrenaud L’ Ancienne-Route 17A, CP45 1218 Grand-Saconnex (GE) SWITZERLAND tel. +41 (22) 717 28 83 fax +41 (22) 747 44 15 jeanrenaud@ebu.ch
Press: Eliane Gervasoni tel. +41 78 603 41 40 office : +41 22 575 20 15 eliane@moadistribution.ch
SELECTION www.brothers-film.com
BROTHERS Festival Participation/Awards: Cinema Tous Ecrans IFF, Geneva 2008, Official Competition: Public award 2008 Fipa IF of Audiovisual Programmes, Biarritz 2009:2 Golden Awards 29th Amiens IFF 2009, Official Selection in competition 30th Mostra International de Valencia, in competition
Director’s Statement: This work has taken me 5 years of investigation and research in Israel, where I could lengthily have a dialogue with philosophers, politicians and religious thinkers. Today, we are trying to find innovating solutions to the problem of the separation of the State and the religion. And for this reason, my film could be useful, I hope, to help have a reflection and a debate for other countries confronted with this serious problem of our time. Igaal Niddam Born in 1938 1948-59 Lives in a Kibbutz in Israel 1960-63 cameraman-reporter in Tel-Aviv 1964-68 cameraman at the French Swiss Broadcasting Service (TSR) 1968-85 cameraman and director of photography at Telvetia Since 1974 director of numerous films Since 1985 he works for TSR
Igaal Niddam Filmography: Since 1991 2BIS, RUE DE LA COLOMBINE 1993 LA VOYAGEUSE DU SOIR 1994 PASSÉ SOUS SILENCE 1997 L’AMOUR SORCIER / LE RIDEAU DE FEU 1998 LA DAME DU CIRQUE 1999 L’INSTIT À LA MARTINIQUE 2000 LE TRÉSOR DE L’ANSE DU BOUT 2001 SAUVETAGE 2008 BROTHERS
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
БУМАЖНЫЙ СОЛДАТ (BUMAZHNY SOLDAT) PAPER SOLDIER
Russia 118 min
directed by: Alexey German Jr. Written by: Alexey German Jr., with the participation of Vladimir Arkusha & Julia Glezarova Produced by: Artem Vasiliev & Sergey Shumakov Director of photography: Maxim Drozdov & Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev Main cast: Merab Ninidze (Dr. Daniel Pokrovsky), Chulpan Khamatova (Nina), Anastasia Sheveleva (Vera)
Kazakhstan, early 1961. Daniel Pokrovsky, a medical officer, currently works for the first Soviet cosmonauts’ troop. There Daniel, already married, finds himself in an incredibly complicated and yet tender relationship with a young girl, called Vera. Later Daniel goes back to Moscow where is in charge of the health of the future cosmonauts. He tries not to be just a doctor for the cadets, but also their friend. He can’t agree with the fact that these young men could have to sacrifice their lives for the country. His wife Nina feels the same: she doesn’t accept him participating in a project that could put human lives at risk, therefore she keeps asking Daniel to leave his job. Daniel decides to leave his wife. Then one of the cadets dies and the medical officer ends up breaking down. This doesn’t stop him from leaving for Kazakhstan in order to prepare the launch of the first man into space. Nina follows him to Kazakhstan, where she learns about his involvement with Vera; however she decides not to leave Daniel alone, understanding how ill he is. Giving up attempts to handle the stress, Daniel escapes the day before the launch, but dies on his getaway. Nina takes Vera with her to Moscow, accommodating the girl in her apartment. Time goes by and both women keep living together: none of them will ever get married again, being both still in love with Daniel.
ProductionPress: Phenomen Films Mosfilmovskaya,1 Production building, off.546 119991 Moscow RUSSIA tel. +79033638553 fax +74991439133 contacts@phenomenilms.ru
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Production: Russia TV Channel 5th str. Yamskogo Polya,19/21 125040 Moscow RUSSIA tel. +74956136172 fax +74952508140 musatovaVN@rtr-tv.ru
World Sales: Elle Driver 66, rue de Miromesnil 75008 Paris FRANCE tel. +33156434876 fax +33145614504 adeline@elledriver.eu
SELECTION www.papersoldier.ru
PAPER SOLDIER Festival Participation/Awards: Venice IFF 2008: Silver Lion for Best director’s work, Golden Osella for Best Cinematography National Award of Film Critics and Film Press 2009 for Best director’s work Nika Awards 2009: Best director’s work and Best Cinematography
Director’s Statement: I was willing to reconstruct the “warming” era of USSR, during the early Sixties. At that time the country was struggling to get over Stalin’s heritage and therefore was setting up some truly great and romantic goals. For me, this film is about how easily a delicate and fragile human mechanism can be shattered. It’s about the power of ideas and how, even if righteous, they could lead to human suffering and death destroying souls. It talks about how great developments have a downside to it. The main hesitation for Daniel is whether it’s legitimate to risk a human life for his motherland’s superiority in space. Alexey German Jr. Alexey German Jr. was born in Moscow on 4th of September 1976. Between 1996-2001 Alexey studied at the Russian Film School - VGIK. He shot three short films that gained international and Russian film festivals awards. Alexey debuted in full-feature cinematography with his film “The Last Train”. It was first screened in Venice in 2003 where it received a special mention of the “Future Lion” jury. The Russian Academy of Cinematography “Nika” named the director “Discovery of the Year”. His second film “Garpastum” participated in the official competition of Venice IFF 2005. German Jr. recently finished his latest full-length feature film «Paper Soldier»”.
Alexey German Jr. Filmography: 1998 ZNAMYA (Banner), short 1999 BOLSHOJE OSENNEJE POLE (Big Autumn Field), short 2001 DURCHKI (Fools), short 2005 GARPASTUM 2003 POSLEDNY POEZD (The Last Train) 2008 BUMAZHNY SOLDAT (Paper Soldier)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
CAMINO
Spain 143 min
Written & directed by: Javier Fesser Produced by: Luis Manso & Jaume Roures Director of photography: Alex Catalán (A.E.C) Main cast: Nerea Camacho (Camino), Carme Elias (Gloria), Mariano Venancio (José), Manuela Vellés (Nuria)
Inspired on real events, CAMINO is the emotional adventure of an extraordinary elevenyear-old who is faced simultaneously with two completely new situations in her life: falling in love and dying. Above all else, CAMINO is a radiant light that shines through every gloomy obstacle in her path, denying every attempt to shroud in darkness her desire to live, to love and to feel the full depth of her happiness.
Production: Películas Pendleton S.A. C/ Santa Isabel 13 Alcobendas 28108 Madrid SPAIN tel. +34 9 16626613 fax:+34 9 14840580
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Mediapro C/ Virgilio 2 Edificio 1 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón Madrid SPAIN tel: 91 5127830 yraez@mediapro.es
World Sales: Wild Bunch 99 rue de la Verrerie 75004 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 01 50 20 fax +33 1 53 10 50 49
SELECTION www.caminolapelicula.com
Director’s Statement: CAMINO is a love story, a tale of first love that is never forgotten, that demands nothing and yet moves mountains. It is an adventure of the human heart; the crossroads where the wellbeing of the body and the soul, pain and bliss, faith and reason, serenity and fear, light and darkness converge. All this is possible without departing from the real world, since even the world of dreams and nightmares experienced by Camino belong to reality. This is a film about characters made of flesh and blood, with their thoughts, who see life from different stances, whose points of view are sometimes so diametrically opposed that coexistence necessarily strikes up contradictions between them, affecting both sides; all except Camino. After learning of an unusual sequence of events, I set out on an exhaustive search for documentation on many other cases of saintly lives and on the true mode of operation within the Opus Dei which ended up in a fascinating research project on the subject of people´s innermost feelings. In-depth knowledge of the testimonies and experiences of others who think quite differently to ourselves is an enriching experience when, far from attempting to prove them wrong, we try to get into their shoes. This is how I have become convinced that I could have ended up being any of the characters in this film: any one of them at all! For me, CAMINO is a story that is packed with life, which in turn serves as an overwhelming argument in the struggle against sorrow. Javier Fesser Javier Fesser was born in Madrid in 1964 and is a graduate of Visual Sciences at Complutense University of Madrid. He discovered cinematography making films in Super 8 mm and in 1986 he founded Línea Films, specializing in commercial spots, which led him into the world of filmmaking. In April 1992 he established Películas Pendelton, jointly with Luis Manso, in order to take on cinematographical projects, his true vocation. CAMINO is Fesser’s third feature film, of which he is screenwriter, director, producer and editor.
CAMINO Festival Participation/Awards: 56th San Sebastian IFF, Official Section XXIV IFF in Guadalajara: Ibero-American feature-length fiction, best photography (Alex Catalán). Vilnius IFF “Kino Pavasaris”: Audience Award CPH:PIX 2009 44th Karlovy Vary IFF, Horizons Section 55th Taormina FF, Mediterranea Competition 19th Festival du Cinéma espagnol de Nantes, Official section VI Sahara IFF Recent Spanish Cinema (USA) Gaudi Awards 2009: Best European Film GOYA Awards 2009: Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Script, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Breakthrough Performance Best Actress. Saint Jordi Prize for Best Film and Best Actress Award of the Spanish Actors’ Union: Film: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Carme Elías), Best Actor in Leading Role (Mariano Venancio), Best Supporting Actor (Jordi Dauder), Best Supporting Actress (Lola Casamayor). Javier Fesser Filmography: 1995 AQUEL RITMILLO, short film 1996 EL SECDLETO DE LA TLOMPETA, short film 1998 EL MILAGRO DE PTINTO 2000 JAVI&LUCY, internet series 2001 LA SOPRESA, short film 2002 LA GRAN AVENTURA DE MORTADELI Y FILEMON 2004 BINTA Y LA GRAN IDEA, short 2008 CAMINO
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
COCO AVANT CHANEL COCO BEFORE CHANEL
France 110 min
Directed by: Anne Fontaine Written by: Anne & Camille Fontaine Produced by: Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Philippe Carcassonne & Simon Arnal Director of photography: Christophe Beaucarne Main cast: Audrey Tautou (Gabrielle Chanel), Benoît Poelvoorde (Etienne Balsan), Alessandro Nivola (Boy Capel), Marie Gillain (Adrienne Chanel), Emmanuelle Devos (Emilienne)
A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her… A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers… A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor’s shop… A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Etienne Balsan offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent… A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone’s wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love… A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers’ clothes… This is the story of Gabrielle Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.
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SELECTION wwws.warnerbros.fr/cocoavantchanel
Director’s Statement: I was lucky to meet Lilou Marquand, when I was very young; she had been the closest collaborator of Chanel throughout the last part of her life and later wrote a book on their relation entitled Chanel told me. So every day, for a while, I would hear something about this mythical personality. I also carefully read the book by Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, one of the authors who knew best how to express the incredible personality of Mademoiselle. It was not so much the fashion as the characteristics of this exceptional woman that interested me. I had been particularly touched by the fact that she was a self-made person. This girl, coming from the heart of the French countryside, poor, uneducated, but endowed with an exceptional personality, was destined to be ahead of her time and of a society where women were the prisoners of alienating behaviours and clothing. The quasi-Balzac style of her path intrigued me in particular. I remember putting up photos of the young Chanel on the walls of my bedroom, but I never thought I would make a whole film on this subject. Many years later, during a conversation on Chanel with Carole Scotta and Caroline Benjo, the producers of Haut et Court, they asked me whether I would be interested in developing a project recounting her path. My interest for the character was then reinvigorated. I asked them to give me time to think about it, pointing out that I felt it would be a mistake to try to take in the entire life of Coco Chanel. I had to think whether it was possible to stick to the first period of her life, the training years, what had happened before Chanel herself understood her dazzling destiny. So I went back and read her biography by Edmonde Charles-Roux “Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame”. The other imperative condition was to find an actress to embody such a character, and not someone who would ape or make a pale imitation of Chanel. I found Chanel personified in Audrey Tautou. On my first encounter with Audrey, I was struck by her will, her audacity, and the density of her gaze that goes through you. Chanel looked at everything. Her culture was not one of knowledge, but a culture of observation. I had not yet written a single line of the screenplay when I met Audrey, but I knew that if she gave me her trust and if the production agreed to stick to the years of apprenticeship, I could then embark on the adventure of my first period movie.
COCO BEFORE CHANEL
Anne Fontaine Anne Fontaine was born in Luxembourg and started her career as a dancer and actor. Filmography: 1992 LES HISTOIRES D’AMOUR FINISSENT MAL EN GENERAL (Love Affairs Usually End Badly) 1995 AUGUSTIN 1997 NETTOYAGE A SEC (Dry Cleaning) 1998 AUGUSTIN, ROI DU KUNG FU (Augustin, King of Kung-Fu) 2000 COMMENT J’AI TUE MON PERE (How I Killed my Father) 2003 NATHALIE 2005 ENTRE SES MAINS 2006 NOUVELLE CHANCE 2008 THE GIRL FROM MONACO 2009 COCO BEFORE CHANEL
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
EASTERN PLAYS
Bulgaria 89 min
Written & directed by: Kamen Kalev Produced by: Fredrik Zander, Stefan Piriyov & Kamen Kalev Director of photography: Julian Atassanov Main cast: Christo Christov (Itso), Ovanes Torosian (Georgi), Saadet Isil Aksoy (Isil)
Two brothers who’ve lost all contact are suddenly brought together when they have opposite roles in a racist beating: while Georgi who’s recently joined a neo-Nazi group participates in the violence, Itso witnesses and rescues the Turkish family. Georgi, now being asked to participate in larger events, starts to question his implication in the movement and Itso wonders if the beautiful Turkish girl he saved could be his ticket out from his sad life in Sofia. Only by reuniting will the two brothers be able to assess what they really want from life.
Production: Waterfront info@waterfrontfilm.net
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World Sales: Memento Films International 6 cité Paradis 75 010 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53349030 fax +33 1 42471124 sales@memento-films.com
SELECTION www.easternplays.com
Director’s Statement: The idea of making a film about Christo had been on mind for quite some time. We grew up together in the same town by the sea. And then we lost touch for a long time. A few years ago we ran into each other and had so much to talk about. He didn’t seem to have changed, at least physically; but slowly he began to confide in me and I realized the depths of his despair. The difference between his seemingly peaceful and nonchalant self and his dire inner suffering fascinated me. He had no energy left to confront this destructive force inside. In the narrative, I used many elements from Christo’s real life; most of the scenes actually happened and were shot in the places he lived: his apartment, his streets, his workplace. His girlfriend Niki was his real life partner. The characters of Georgi, the little brother, and Isil, the Turkish girl, are entirely fictional. I wanted to juxtapose Georgi with Christo, in order to observe and understand how confusion and alienation are born. Family, friends, city and country take part in conditioning human beings, and then these conditioned beings are in constant conflict with the very same environment that conditioned them. What interested me in this comparison was to follow how the little brother became like his older brother.
EASTERN PLAYS Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009, Director’s Fortnight LUX09: selected for the European Parliament’s Cinema Prize Filmfest München Melbourne IFF Sarajevo FF Helsinki IFF Calgary IFF Haifa IFF
Kamen Kalev Kamen Kalev was born in Burgas, Bulgaria in 1975. He graduated from the Femis Film School, Paris in 2002. Kamen’s short films ORPHEUS and MALTONIUS OLBREN were presented and received awards at many international film festival such as Berlin, ClermontFerrand, New York, Locarno, Stockholm... His short GET THE RABBIT BACK was in competition in Cannes in 2005. Two years later, his last short RABBIT TROÜBLES was again selected at the Critic’s Week in Cannes. He directed over 60 commercials and a number of music videos.
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
FISH TANK
UK 124 min
Written & directed by: Andrea Arnold Produced by: Kees Kasander & Nick Laws Director of photography: Robbie Ryan Main cast: Katie Jarvis (Mia), Michael Fassbender (Connor), Kristen Wareing (Joanne), Rebecca Griffith (Tyler), Harry Treadaway (Billy)
In FISH TANK, 15-year old Mia’s life is turned on its head when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
Production: Kasander Andrea Untitled ltd.
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World Sales: ContentFilm International 19 Heddon Street W1B 4BG London UK tel. +44 20 7851 6500 fax +44 20 7851 6506 London@contentfilm.com
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FISH TANK Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes 2009, in Competition: Jury Prize Edinburgh IFF 2009: PPG Award for Best Performance (Katie Jarvis) Munich 2009 Karlovy Vary IFF 2009 Melbourne 2009 Toronto IFF 2009, Vanguard programme
Andrea Arnold RED ROAD, her first feature, was awarded the Prix Du Jury at Cannes 2006. Previously she made 3 shorts. WASP won 38 international awards including the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short 2005. Both DOG and MILK screened at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes in 1998.
Andrea Arnold
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
FRYGTELIG LYKKELIG TERRIBLY HAPPY
Denmark 99 min
Directed by: Henrik Ruben Genz Written by: Henrik Ruben Genz & Gry Dunja Jensen Produced by: Thomas Gammeltoft Director of photography: Jørgen Johansson Main cast: Jakob Cedergren (Robert), Lene Maria Christensen (Ingelise), Kim Bodnia (Jørgen)
Robert Hansen (Jakob Cedergren), a young police officer from Copenhagen, is transferred against his will to the small town of Skarrild in Southern Jutland as a substitute marshall. The transfer is Robert’s chance to start over. Whether he is allowed to return to his job in Copenhagen, all depends on how well he performs in this frontier town. But Robert has a hard time understanding the locals and their uncivilized approach to law and order. In a town where everyone knows everyone, people like to take care of things themselves. Robert is approached by the irresistible and mysterious Ingelise (Lene Maria Christensen) who convinces him to help her get away from her abusive husband, Jørgen (Kim Bodnia). Robert’s involvement results in a direct confrontation with Jørgen who also happens to be a prominent and intimidating town figurehead. In order to get things done, Robert succumbs to the unwritten rules of this frontier marshland making use of the uncivilized norms and practices he previously found so difficult to understand. Meanwhile, all hope of returning to Copenhagen seems to sink deeper and deeper into the marshes of Southern Jutland and a state “terrible happiness” emerges.
Production: Fine & Mellow Mosedalvej 14 2500 Valby DENMARK tel. +45 36 18 85 00 fax +45 36 30 17 00 tg@finemellow.dk
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World Sales: TrustNordisk Filmbyen 12 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK tel. +45 36 86 87 88 fax +45 36 77 44 48 rikke@trustnordisk.com
Press: see Production
SELECTION www.frygteliglykkelig.dk
Terribly Happy is a dramatic and grotesque fable about abandoning one’s morals in order to achieve security and belonging. Director’s Statement: It sounded like a western, I thought. A foreigner-comesto-town-and-all-hell-breaks-loose story. Not that I’m particularly interested in westerns but here was a story that spoke my native language. The characters were strangely familiar and the landscape more immediate, than anything I’d worked on before. I had been looking for a story from my local area and here was finally a story where the setting was more than just a spectacular backdrop, but where nature also played the part of a dramatic co-narrator. The story unfolds on the flat marshlands of Southern Jutland. The characters are reflected in this somber landscape, in the way they engage their surroundings. People in these small towns live by their own rules and moral values which may seem absurd and introverted. Like the landscape, this behavior can be experienced as hostile by outsiders. The connection between the marshes and local attitudes is symbolic. For example, you don’t have to invite someone in or that one can be silently cordial. In this way, outsiders can either adapt, or disappear.
TERRIBLY HAPPY Festival Participation/Awards: Karlovy Vary IFF: Crystal Globe Valladolid IFF: best music + best script Chicago IFF: Silver Hugo for direction International Thriller FF Beaune: Special Police Prize Bilbao Fantasy FF: best film The Danish ROBERT for best film, best director, male lead, female lead, best script, best cinematography, best song. The Danish BODIL for best film, male lead, female lead, best cinematography, best supporting actor, and a special Bodil for Kåre Bjerkø for his work on TERRIBLY HAPPY and other films.
Henrik Ruben Genz Born 1959, Denmark. Graduate of The National Film School of Denmark, 1995. Received Best Film and Script Award for his graduation film CROSS ROADS at the Film school Festival in Munich. His short fiction film TEIS & NICO (1998), a festival hit worldwide, received the Crystal Bear in Berlin and an (US) Academy Award nomination. Has directed a number of TV series, including the Emmy nominee THE KILLING (2007). Genz’ feature film debut, SOMEONE LIKE HODDER (2003), also popular at festivals, was awarded in Buenos Aires, Chicago, London and Zlin, among others. CHINAMAN (2005) was a winner at Karlovy Vary and received the Grand Prix and Silver Arrow for Best Actor (Bjarne Henriksen). TERRIBLY HAPPY is Genz’ third feature film. 29
EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
HAKOL MATHIL BAYAM IT ALL BEGINS AT SEA
Israel 93 min
Written & directed by: Eitan Green Produced by: Eilon Ratzkovsky, Yossi Uzrad, Yochanan Kredo & Koby Gal-Raday Director of photography: Shay Goldman Main cast: Yuval Segal (Yuda), Dorit Lev Ari (Dina), Ron Jaegerman (Udi)
IT ALL BEGINS AT SEA is a drama with a few comic relieves, that tells 3 stories of the same 3 characters. In the first story, a 6-year-old goes to the beach with his parents. In the second story he is already 12 and out with his classmates on a fieldtrip, and in the last story he is 14 and moves with his family to a new apartment. In each story, a dramatic incident makes a change in the plot.
Production & World Sales: July August Productions 22 Ha’amal st. 52572 Ramat Gan ISRAEL tel. +972 3 5100223 fax +972 3 5100184 mail@jap.co.il
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Director’s Statement: None of us are born parents. Our children teach us how to be parents. They look at us in wonder, joy, embarrassment and, sometimes, sadness. The child’s gaze, imposed upon him by life, greatly interests me, the gaze of a child exposed to the adult world: to his parents and their relationship, to his neighbours, to his friends and their parents and their relationships. He sees his father when his father is alone, sees his mother when she is alone. It is these gazes from my own childhood that I try to recapitulate for the viewer through this film. “We live, as we dream – alone…” wrote Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness. Still and all, we live both with our parents and with our children forever. Eitan Green One of the founders of Israeli Cinema and Television, Eitan Green is a prolific and highly acclaimed film director and screenwriter. His work as a film critic, a senior lecturer, books editor, and Head of the Drama Department of Israeli Cables formed and shaped the Israeli Film Industry and Academy. These days Green also serves as film professor and Head of the Script Writing Department, MFA at the Tel Aviv University. His filmography includes, among the rest - LENA (1980) – Orleans IFF best Actress; WHEN NIGHT FALLS (1984) Official Selection - Cannes FF, Israeli entry for the Oscar - US Academy Awards, Munich IFF; AMERICAN CITIZEN (1992) Best Film - Israeli Film Critics Guild, AFI Los Angeles FF; AS TEARS GO BY (1996); HENRI’S DREAM (2004) Bangkok IFF.
IT ALL BEGINS AT SEA Festival Participation/Awards: World FF Montréal 2008: Innovation Award Haifa IFF 2008 42nd WorldFest-Houston Independent IFF 2009 PLATINUM REMI Award for Creative Excellence.
Eitan Green
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
JERICHOW
Germany 93 min
Written & directed by: Christian Petzold Produced by: Florian Koerner von Gustorf & Michael Weber Director of photography: Hans Fromm Main cast: Benno Fürmann (Thomas), Nina Hoss (Laura), Hilmi Sözer (Ali)
JERICHOW tells the story of Thomas (Benno Fürmann) returning home and starting a dangerous love affair with Laura (Nina Hoss). When Laura’s husband Ali (Hilmi Sözer) figures out the truth, a treacherous plan leads to catastrophe. Director’s Statement: When we were shooting my last film, YELLA, in the Prignitz region of Germany, there was a report in the local newspaper that the police had arrested a Vietnamese man. He was found on the highway standing next to his car which had a broken rear axle. The trunk was full of coins, and that was good enough reason to arrest him. It turned out that the man owned 45 snack-bars in the region, and the money in the trunk was change and daily receipts. He had built up his business and bought a house on the outskirts of town, deep in the forest away from the other homes, for himself and his family. Prignitz
Production: SCHRAMM FILM Koerner & Weber Bülowstr.90 10783 Berlin, GERMANY tel. +49 - (0)30 - 261 51 40 fax +49 - (0)30 - 261 51 39 koerner@schrammfilm.de
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World Sales: The Match Factory Michael Weber Balthasarstrasse 79-81 50670 Köln, GERMANY tel. +49 - (0)221 - 539 709 - 0 fax +49 - (0)221 - 539 709 - 10 michael.weber@matchfactory.de
Press: Arne Höhne Presse & Öffentlichkeit Boxhagener Str.18 10245 Berlin, GERMANY tel. +49 - (0)30 - 29 36 16 16 fax +49 - (0)30 - 29 36 16 2 info@hoehnepresse.de
SELECTION www.jerichow-der-film.de
County is a region in former East Germany dying a slow death. Nothing is produced, there is hardly any work. Nevertheless, the Vietnamese man had managed to start a business, buy a house, and find a “home” here. Finding-a-home is something that interests me, and people who manage to get their way against all odds too. Everywhere they turn, they are confronted with defeat and bankruptcy, but nevertheless they forge on. Often these “home-builders” are withdrawn. They are like islands. They are alone. The idea of being an islander reminds me of Robinson Crusoe: trade routes, modern capitalism, the yearning of people to understand it all and to begin anew, the result is reconstruction. That is what Robinson does, he reconstructs the world again. When other people, friendship, and love intrude into his world, it all falls apart. When the film was finished and we could view it with a bit of distance, we were surprised to see that there is not a single scene in which money doesn’t play a role. As an image, as a value, as betrayal, and as a means of exchange. I had the feeling that money had slipped into the film, into the images and between the characters: that it lubricated the story. I also noticed that it is always men who are these homebuilders. That is why they need money and a woman. “You can’t love, if you don’t have money!” says Laura. She doesn’t want to buy somebody. She doesn’t need a home. She needs money to be independent. The men aren’t happy with that. So a crime has to occur in the story. Christian Petzold Christian Petzold is one of the leading directors of New German cinema. The German Film Critics Association has twice awarded him Best Film awards, for urban drama GHOSTS and THE STATE I AM IN. He was twice named Best Director at the German Film Awards, for psychological drama WOLFSBURG and THE STATE I AM IN. His first fiction feature, 2000’s political drama THE STATE I AM IN, also won Best Screenplay at Thessaloniki (Greece) and the Grand Prize at Valenciennes (France). Petzold has also received much acclaim for the made-forTV features SOMETHING TO REMIND ME (TOTER MANN, 2002), Die Beischlafdiebin (1998) and CUBA LIBRE (1995). Born in 1960, Petzold studied German and Theater Studies at the Free University in Berlin, then graduated from the German Film & Television Academy (DFFB) in 1994.
JERICHOW Festival Participation/Awards: 65th Venice IFF, Competition Pusan IFF Antalya Golden Orange IFF German Film Week in Paris Rome Business Street Hofer Filmtage Les Visiteurs du soir, Nizza Europa Cinema Screening, Paris Copenhagen German FF Stockholm German FF IFF Rotterdam 2009 59th Berlin IFF, Neue deutsche Filme BAFICI, Buenos Aires German Films in Australia Shanghai IFF Edinburgh IFF
Christian Petzold Filmography: 1996 CUBRA LIBRE 1998 DIE BEISCHLAFDIEBIN 2001 THE STATE I AM IN (Die Innere Sicherheit) 2002 SOEMTHING TO REMIND ME (TOTER MANN) 2003 WOLFSBURG 2005 GHOSTS (Gespenster) 2007 YELLA 2008 JERICHOW
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
KALAT HAYAM JAFFA
France, Israel, Germany 105 min
Directed by: Keren Yedaya Written by: Keren Yedaya in collaboration with Illa Ben Porat Produced by: Jérôme Bleitrach, Emmanuel Agneray, Marek Rozenbaum, Benny Drechsel & Karsten Stöter Director of photography: Pierre Aïm Main cast: Dana Ivgy (Mali), Mahmoud Shalaby (Toufik), Moni Moshonov (Reuven), Ronit Elkabetz (Osnat), Roy Assaf (Meir)
In the heart of Jaffa, a city nicknamed «the Bride of the Sea» by the Palestinians, Reuven’s garage is a family business. His daughter Mali and his son Meir, as well as Toufik and Hassan, a young Palestinian and his father, work there for Reuven. No one suspects that Mali and Toufik have been in love for years. As the two lovers are secretly making their wedding arrangements, tension builds between Meir and Toufik...
Production: Transfax film production 3 Yagia Kapayim Street, 3rd floor 67778 Tel-Aviv, ISRAEL tel. +972 368 71 202 fax +972 3 6871499 sales@transfax.co.il
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World Sales: Rezo World Sales 29, rue du faubourg Poissonnière 75009 paris, FRANCE tel. +33 1 42 46 96 10 / 12 fax +33 1 42 46 96 11 infosrezo@rezofilms.com
Press: Bizibi 119 rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine 75011 Paris, FRANCE tel. +33 1 43 47 15 06 fax +33 1 43 47 15 09 elbizibi@free.fr
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JAFFA Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009, Official selection (out of competition)
Keren Yedaya Trained at a cinema and photography school in Tel-Aviv (Camera Obscura), Keren Yedaya is above all known for her political involvement. A member of numerous women’s rights associations, this feminist is also very active in protest groups against the occupation of Palestinian territories. Her films are a direct extension of her political commitment. They are portraits of women fighting for their dignity in a society that is male dominated, militarist and strongly divided into classes. Her film at the end of her studies, ELINOR (1994), describes the daily humiliations experienced by a young female draftee in the Israeli army. In her second short film, LULU (1998), she tackles the theme of prostitution for the first time. Noticed by French producer Emmanuel Agneray, she is invited to France, where she makes her third short film entitled UNDERWEAR (2000), a film that takes place in the dressing room of a large Parisian department store. In 2001, she is awarded a development grant at the Montpellier Mediterranean FF for her feature film project, OR. The film, which focuses on the relations between a prostitute and her daughter, has won the Caméra d’Or at the International Critics’ Week at Cannes 2004. Her second feature film, JAFFA, was selected at the Official selection (out of competition) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Keren Yedaya
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
KĂ„SKY TEARS OF APRIL
Finland 115 min
Directed by: Aku Louhimies Written by: Jari Olavi Rantala (screenplay), Leena Lander (novel) Produced by: Aleksi Bardy Director of photography: Rane Ronkanen Main cast: Pihla Viitala (Miina Malin), Samuli Vauramo (Aaro Harjula), Eero Aho (Emil Hallenberg)
1918 - the Finnish Civil War has just ended. The victorious Whites hunt down the remainig socialist Reds. One of the white soldiers, jaeger Aaro Harjula (Samuli Vauramo), has recently returned from Germany. The young idealist is shocked to see how a group of female red soldiers are gang-raped and then executed without a trial. An enemy soldier, Miina (Pihla Viitala) survives, and Harjula decides to take her to be court marshalled despite the objections of his superiors. The film is based on the novel Käsky by Finnish author Leena Lander: An edgy love story in the midst of the horrors of actual historical events. The newly born nation of Finland was delivered with over 40 000 victims that mainly died after the war in concentration camps and outside of the actual battlefields. Scars of the conflict still exist within the Finnish society.
Production: Helsinki filmi Vanha talvitie 11 A 00580 Helsinki FINLAND tel. +358 9 7740300 fax +358 9 77403060 annika.sucksdorff@helsinkifilmi.fi
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World Sales: Wide Management 40, rue Sainte-Anne 75002 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 95 04 64 fax +33 1 53 95 04 65 widemanagement@hotmail.com
SELECTION www.kasky.fi
TEARS OF APRIL Festival Participation/Awards: Espoo Ciné IFF 2008 New Nordic Films, Haugesund 2008 Nordische Filmtage Lübeck 2008 Marrakech IFF 2008: Best Actor (Eero Aho) Finnish Film Week in St. Petersburg 2008 Plus Camerimage, Lodz 2008 Finnish Film Week in Petroskoi 2008 35th Internationales Filmwochenende Würzburg Göteborg IFF 2009 Berlin IFF, EFM 2009 Hong Kong IFF 2009 Finnish contemporary films at Reflet Médicis 2009 Cannes Marché du Film 2009 Seattle IFF 2009 Transilvania IFF 2009
Director’s Statement: “In the midst of everything, man yearns for love and the good.” What is Love? What are we ready to do for it? What promises are trustworthy? Is there hope in the dark?
Aku Louhimies Filmography: 1992 MINUN PUNAINEN PALLONI (My red balloon), short 1995 JUNA (The Train), short 1995 SIRPALEITA (Splinters), TV 1997 ISO POIKA (The Big Boy), short 1997 ENSI TIISTAINA BRAHMSIA (Next Tuesday –Brahms), short 1998 JATKOAIKA , TV 2000 LEVOTTOMAT (Restless), first feature 2002 KUUTAMOLLA (Lovers and Leavers) 2004 PAHA MAA (Frozen Land) 2006 RIISUTTU MIES (Man Exposed) 2006 VALKOINEN KAUPUNKI (Frozen City)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
KISSES
Ireland 74 min
Written & directed by: Lance Daly Produced by: Macdara Kelleher Director of photography: Jake Francis Grennan Main cast: Shane Curry (Dylan), Kelly O’Neill (Kylie), Stephen Rea (Down Under Dylan), Paul Roe (Da Dunne), Neilí Conroy (Beatrice Dunne)
After a violent altercation with his father, Dylan runs away from home and Kylie decides to run away with him. Together they make their way to the magical night time lights of inner city Dublin, to search for Dylan’s brother, and in the hope of finding, through him, the possibility of a new life.
Production: Fastnet Films 75 Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2, IRELAND tel. +35314789566 fax +35314789567 enquiries@fastnetfilms.com
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Sales: Focus Features International Oxford House, 4th Floor, 76 Oxford Street, London W1D 1BS UK tel. +442073075591 fax +442073071348
SELECTION www.kisses.ie
KISSES
Director’s Statement: “When you kiss, you either give or you take.” Lance Daly Lance Daly has made three feature films. LAST DAYS IN DUBLIN was a no budget debut which came out in 2001. THE HALO EFFECT starring Stephen Rea followed in 2004. Third feature film KISSES was released in 2008, sold internationally through Focus Features, selected for Locarno, Telluride, Toronto and London film festivals. KISSES won best feature at Galway, Foyle and Jacksonville, the audience prize at Miami and the IFTA for Best Direction in Film, 2009.
Festival Participation/Awards: Galway Film Fleadh: Best Irish Feature Locarno IFF Telluride FF Toronto IFF London FF AFI Fest Foyle FF: Best Feature Palm Springs IFF Göteborg IFF Thessaloniki IFF Victoria FF Cinegale Montreal Portland FF EU Chicago FF Philadelphia FF Miami IFF: Audience Award Nashville FF Jacksonville FF: Jury Award for Best International Narrative Feature Beyond Borders IFF Minneapolis IFF Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA): Best Director, Best Editing
Lance Daly
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
DER KNOCHENMANN THE BONE MAN
Austria 121 min
Directed by: Wolfgang Murnberger Written by: Wolf Haas, Josef Hader & Wolfgang Murnberger Produced by: Danny Krausz & Kurt Stocker Director of photography: Peter von Haller Main cast: Josef Hader (Brenner), Birgit Minichmayr (Birgit), Josef Bierbichler (Löschenkohl), Simon Schwarz (Berti), Christoph Luser (Pauli)
Once again, something has happened. A man by the name of Horvath has vanished, and the only clue leads to the Löschenkohl Restaurant, a well-known country inn which specialises in roast chicken. And it would be most unlike Brenner if the bone-grinding machine in the cellar of the restaurant didn’t present him with a few additional mysteries. For him, minor transgressions and other human frailties are of moist interest here – but Brenner realises almost too late that he is in great danger. The attractive young landlady has turned his head to such an extent that he should be glad to find it still attached to his body at the end of the day.
Production: Dor Film Production Bergsteiggasse 36 1170 Vienna AUSTRIA tel. +43-1-42710-0 fax +43-1-427-1050 office@dor-film.at
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World Sales: Atrix Films Aggensteinstrasse 13 a 81545 München GERMANY tel. +49 (89) 642 82 611 fax +49 (89) 649 57 349 atrixfilms@gmx.net
Press: Filmladen Filmverleih GmbH Mariahilferstr. 58 1070 Vienna AUSTRIA tel. +43 523 436 2 fax 526 47 49 office@filmladen.at
SELECTION www.derknochenmann.at
Director’s Statement: Fear and hatred are two shadows of love. There wouldn’t be so many dead bodies in this story if there were not so much passion. Everything is unmasked at the village masked ball. Love, violence and plenty of black humour. Wolfgang Murnberger Wolfgang Murnberger was born in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria, on 13th November 1960. He studied directing, screenwriting and editing at the Vienna Film Academy and has been working as a freelance scriptwriter and director since 1991. Murnberger first attracted general attention with his graduation film HIMMEL UND HÖLLE, which was shown in Austrian cinemas in 1991 and gained awards both at home and abroad, including the 1990 Austrian Film Festival Prize, the 1991 Young Cinema Bronze in Tokyo and the First Prize at the Films of European Film Schools in Florence, along with the President of Saarland Prize at the Max Ophüls Film Festival, the Prize of the International Film Press in Rotterdam and the Young Filmmaker Award from the former Ministry for Art and Education. His feature film COME, SWEET DEATH, based on the novel by Wolf Haas, enjoyed great success: with cinema audiences numbering over 225,000 the thriller, staring Josef Hader, was the most successful Austrian cinematic production of the year 2001. SILENTIUM, viewed by over 200,000 cinema-goers, was the Austrian Film of the Year in 2004. The film was sold to Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Australia, and it was invited to numerous festivals (e.g. Berlin, Tokyo, Brussels, Pilsen, Cognac), winning the Grand Prix du Long Métrage in Cognac.
THE BONE MAN Festival Participation/Awards: Berlin IFF 2009, Panorama Special: Panorama audience award Diagonale 2009 (Graz) Titanic Filmfestival (Budapest) Beaune International Thriller FF, in competition Festival du Film Policier de Liège, in competition Wolfgang Murnberger Filmography: 1990 HIMMEL ODER HÖLLE 1994 ICH GELOBE 1994 ATTWENGERFILM 1995 AUF TEUFEL KOMM RAUS 1998 QUINTETT KOMPLETT 2000 KOMM, SÜSSER TOD 2001 WIR BLEIBEN ZUSAMMEN 2001 HAINBURG 2002 TAXI FÜR EINE LEICHE 2003 BRÜDER II 2004 SILENTIUM 2005 BRÜDER III – AUF DEM JAKOBSWEG 2006 LAPISLAZULI – IM AUGE DES BÄREN 2008 DER KNOCHENMANN
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
Greece 96 min Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos Written by: Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou Produced by: Yorgos Tsourgiannis Director of photography: Thimios Bakatakis Main cast: Christos Stergioglou (Father), Michele Valley (Mother), Aggeliki Papoulia (Older Daughter), Mary Tsoni (Younger Daughter), Christos Passalis (Son), Anna Kalaitzidou (Christina)
The father, the mother and their three kids live at the outskirts of a city. There is a tall fence surrounding the house. The kids have never been outside that fence. They are being educated, entertained, bored and exercised in the manner that their parents deem appropriate, without any influence from the outside world. They believe that the airplanes flying over are toys and that zombies are small yellow flowers. The only person allowed to enter the house is Christina. She works as a security guard at the father’s business. The father arranges her visits to the house in order to appease the sexual urges of the son. The whole family is fond of her, especially the eldest daughter. One day Christina gives her as a present a headband that has stones that glow in the dark and asks for something in return.
Production: Boo Productions 26, Ierou Lohou St. 15124 Athens GREECE tel. +30 210 6100730 fax +30 210 6106790 yorgos@booproductions.gr
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World Sales: MK2 55, rue Traversiere 75012 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 6 08 94 88 73 fax +33 1 43 44 20 18 mathilde.henrot@mk2.com
Press: see World Sales tel. +33 1 44 67 30 80 fax +33 1 43 44 20 18 manlin.sterner@mk2.com
SELECTION
DOGTOOTH Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF: Grand Prix Un Certain Regard – Prix de la Jeunesse Filmfest Mßnchen, International Panorama Cinedecouvertes Bruxelles Auckland FF Melbourne IFF, International Panorama Jerusalem FF Sarajevo FF, Competition Toronto IFF, Contemporary World Cinema
Yorgos Lanthimos Yorgos Lanthimos studied film and television direction at Stavrakos Film School in Athens. Since 1995 he has directed feature films, theatre plays, videodance and a large number of TV commercials. He was also a member of the creative team which designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Yorgos Lanthimos Filmography: 2001 Uranisco Disco, short 2005 Kinetta
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Sweden 114 min
Directed by: Tomas Alfredson Written by: John Ajvide Lindqvist Produced by: John Nordling & Carl Molinder Director of photography: Hoyte van Hoytema Main cast: Kåre Hedebrant (Oskar), Lina Leandersson (Eli), Per Ragnar (Håkan)
LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN is a story both violent and highly romantic, set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1981. Oskar is 12 and being bullied. His sadistic classmates Conny, Martin and Andreas torment him beyond reason. Oskar has recurring fantasies about revenge, about being strong, about defiance. One evening he is standing in the playground jabbing his knife into a tree, whispering the name of his tormentors. Suddenly, a girl is standing on the climbing frame – a girl his own age whom he has never seen before. Her name is Eli and she is full of contradictions – her wise look, her strange smell, that fact that she is wearing such thin clothing, her neglected and skinny – yet so beautiful – appearance. In the days that follow, Oskar and Eli clumsily reach out to one another. They meet at the playground after dark. Their friendship grows into love, and Eli becomes the first real hope in Oskar’s life. But there are complications: Eli is not like other people – she can’t be in sunlight, she can’t eat food, and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other peoples blood to live he’s faced with a choice. How much can love forgive?
Production: EFTI Sveavägen 52 111 34 Stockholm SWEDEN tel. +46 8 6781210 info@efti.com
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World Sales: Bavaria Film GmbH Bavariafilmplatz 7 82031 Geiselgasteig GERMANY tel. +49 (0) 89 - 64 99 -0 fax +49 (0) 89 - 64 92 507 info@bavaria-film.de
Press: Strandberghaage Tegnérgatan 34 113 59 Stockholm SWEDEN tel. +46 8 410 129 00 pelle@strandberghaage.se
SELECTION www.latdenrattekommain.se www.lettherightoneinmovie.com
Director’s Statement: When I read John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Let the right one in last summer I knew that I absolutely had to share this story on film. It’s a feeling you only get with one script or novel in a hundred. Most of the time there are parts of the material that grab me, a feeling here, a detail there – and I can’t wait to get my greedy hands on it and start rewriting. This time it was different. This is a story which is both fantastic literature and a fantastic drama. Despite the depressing background of a leaden grey Sweden, the harsh social conditions, bullying and the bloody violence, I see it as a romantic love story with a hopeful and a happy ending. I see the same dynamics between the dark background and the light foreground as in the stories of Charles Dickens, or the classical writers of horror, for that matter. This is an entertaining film rich in social pathos and an in-depth knowledge of mankind, capable of attracting a mass audience without being flat or calculating. I also believe that its unequivocal Swedishness lends it great opportunities for international success.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN Festival Participation/Awards: Göteborg IFF IFF Rotterdam Tribeca FF Indielisboa Seattle IFF Transilvania IFF Karlovy Vary IFF Melbourne IFF Espoo FF Sitges IFF of Cataluna São Paulo IFF Toronto After Dark FF Horror FF Tomas Alfredson Filmography: 1994 BERT 1995 BERT – DEN SISTE OSKULDEN (Bert: The Last Virgin), TV 1999 OFFER OCH GÄRNINGSMÄN (Victim and Perpetrator), TV 1999 EN LITEN FILM OM DÖDEN (A Short Film About Death), TV 1999 GUNNAR REHLIN – EN LITEN FILM OM ATT GÖRA NÅGON ILLA (Gunnar Rehlin – A Short Film About Hurting Somebody), TV 1999 BEN OCH GUNNAR (Ben and Gunnar), TV 1999 TORSK PÅ TALLINN (Screwed in Tallinn), TV 2000 SOLDATER I MÅNSKEN (Soldiers by Moonlight), TV 2001 GLENN KILLING PÅ GRAND, sketch show 2002 SPERMAHAREN, Internet site 2003 KONTORSTID (Office Hours) 2004 ICA, commercials 2004 FYRA NYANSER AV BRUNT (Four Shades of Brown) 2004 TÄLTPROJEKTET (The Tent Project), music show 2005 JULKALENDERN (Advent Calendar), TV
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
LILLE SOLDAT LITTLE SOLDIER
Denmark 97 min
Directed by: Annette K. Olesen Written by: Kim Fupz Aakeson & Annette K. Olesen Produced by: Ib Tardini Director of photography: Camilla Hjelm Knudsen Main cast: Trine Dyrholm (Lotte), Finn Nielsen (Father), Lorna Brown (Lily)
After yet another mission abroad, the young soldier Lotte returns home, completely disillusioned with life. Lotte’s unreliable father offers her a job as a chauffeur for his Nigerian girlfriend, the escort girl Lily. Both Lotte and Lily carry invisible scars and are reluctant at first, but a friendship slowly emerges between the two women, and things take an unexpected turn.
Production: Zentropa Anne Juul Filmbyen 22 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK tel. +4536868772 www.zentropa.dk
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World Sales: TrustNordisk ApS Filmbyen 12 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK tel. +45 3686 8788 fax +45 3677 4448 info@trustnordisk.com
Press: The Danish Film Institute Christian Juhl Lemche Gothersgade 55 1123 Copenhagen K DENMARK tel. +45 3374 3464 christianjl@dfi.dk
SELECTION www.lillesoldat.dk www.littlesoldier.dk
Director’s Statement: Trine Dyrholm and I discussed a story about a grown-up daughter, an ageing dad; the necessary separation and the longing to reach across to each other. Fupz (manuscript) and I had the desire to explore trafficking. And I started to focus on stories told by soldiers returning from the war. These stories are about being saved or saving somebody. Can you save somebody who doesn’t want salvation? And if you decide to save somebody, aren’t you really saving yourself just as much? What’s it really like being a soldier? There’s esprit de corps and what you do is meaningful. Soldiers are returning with after-effects. They are haunted by the experiences they’ve been through. They cannot have contact with people who know them, because they feel different. Many return to war where they feel at home. Lotte is a woman, too, who as a little girl she played daddy’s boy to gain his attention. The army life among men has forced her to seal off her femininity and emotions. Lotte’s encounter with Lily, and Lily’s with Lotte, becomes a kind of reversed mirror image. A woman feminized to the extreme. But both are soldiers in their own ways. What they share is that they have both staked their bodies to save somebody. That was an image that enthralled me. We discovered that brothels are to be found all over and there are very few prostitutes who’re here against their own wishes. They work to send money back to their families. They are not victims. This is the story of three characters all desperate to be saviors or save their own dignity. Annette K Olesen Born 1965, Denmark. Graduated in direction at the National Film School of Denmark, 1991. With her first four feature films selected for the competition at Berlin IFF, Olesen has become a Berlin-regular. Her feature film debut, SMÅ ULYKKER (Minor Mishaps, 2002), a festival hit, won the Blue Angel Award in Berlin. Her next three films, also selected for the Berlinale Competition, both screened at festivals worldwide: FORBRYDELSER (In Your Hands, 2004) was recipient of numerous awards, among these, honours from festivals in Bordeaux, Paris, Seattle, and Troia; and 1:1 (One to One) was awarded at Hamptons, Ljubljana and Lübeck. LILLE SOLDAT (2008) is Olesen’s fourth feature film and won the Oecumenical Prize at Berlinale 2009.
LITTLE SOLDIER Festival Participation/Awards: Berlin IFF 2009 Seoul Women’s FF 2009 CPH:PIX 2009 Seattle IFF 2009 Transilvania IFF 2009 Buenos Aires Danish FF 2009 Edinburgh IFF 2009 Bratislava International Art FF 2009 Taipei FF 2009 Galway Film Fleadh 2009 Motovun FF 2009 Brisbane IFF 2009 Montreal World FF 2009 Festroia IFF (Setúbal) 2009 Helsinki FF 2009 Rio de Janeiro FF 2009 Haifa IFF 2009 Warsaw FF 2009 Mumbai FF 2009 Lithuania Scanorama Film Forum 2009 Osaka European FF 2009 Dubai IFF 2009
Annette K. Olesen
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
LOFT
Belgium 118 min
Directed by: Erik Van Looy Written by: Bart de Pauw Produced by: Hilde de Laere Director of photography: Danny Elsen Main cast: Koen de Bouw (Chris van Outryve), Filip Peeters (Vincent Stevens), Bruno Vanden Broecke (Luc Seynaeve), Matthias Schoenaerts (Filip Willems), Koen de Graeve (Marnix Laureys), Veerle Baetens (Ann Marai)
LOFT tells the story of five married men who have secret rendezvous with their mistresses in a shared loft. Their secret deal suits them down to the ground until, one winter morning they stumble upon a young woman’s dead body. None of the five men knows who she is, where she comes from or how she found her way into the loft (which they each have their own key to). To save their own bacon, they decide to find out what happened and why. As the story evolves, they become increasingly suspicious of one another and it becomes quite clear that, each in their own way, they have been anything but totally open with one another.
Production & Press: WOESTIJNVIS Harensesteenweg 228 1800 Vilvoorde, BELGIUM tel. +32 (0)2 3033500 fax +32 (0)2 3033554 Hilde.delaere@woestijnvis.be
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Worldsales : The Works International 4th Floor, Portland House 4 Great Portland Street London W1W 8QJ, UK tel. +44 (0)20 7612 1080 fax +44 (0)20 7612 1081 joy.wong@theworksmediagroup.com
SELECTION www.loftthemovie.com
Director’s Statement: LOFT is basically a suspenseful, entertaining thriller, but it is also a dark story about deceit, betrayal and infidelity in all of its shapes and forms. It’s about people who redraw the moral boundaries and become so entangled in this that not even crime will stop them. Friendship, love, fidelity; everything becomes blurred until there is precious little left – a striking trait of our society. Not coincidentally, the film takes place in a world of material riches and yuppie-style arrogance. And the frightening thing is that the main characters are no ‘American Psychos’ by a long shot, but recognisable thirty-somethings with wives and sometimes even kids. Loft explores the oppressive materialism and cynicism of our times, often with a certain humorous touch, but always with the main objective to surprise the viewer or to possibly hold up a mirror. Erik Van Looy Erik Van Looy made his feature film debut in 1993 with AD FUNDUM. His second feature was SHADES (1999), starring Mickey Rourke. His real breakthrough as an internationally renowned director followed in 2003 with DE ZAAK ALZHEIMER (The Alzheimer Case), which grabbed several awards in both Belgium and abroad and became the year’s most successful indigenous film. Registering close to 750,000 admissions, it became the fourth bestscoring local film ever. Van Looy also directs several TV programmes for Woestijnvis. Being a film buff himself, he is given his own slot in De Laatste Show (a daily late-night talk show) revolving around informal, fun chats with famous Hollywood stars. Since 2004, he has been successfully hosting the toprating game show De Slimste Mens ter Wereld (The Most Intelligent Person in the World).
LOFT Festival Participation/Awards: Beaune International Thriller Festival, in competition Istanbul IFF, Midnight Madness IFF Emden, in competition Fantasy FF Sitges International Fantastic FF, in competition Osaka European FF
Erik Van Looy
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
LOOKING FOR ERIC
UK / France 116 min
Directed by: Ken Loach Written by: Paul Laverty Produced by: Rebecca O’Brien Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd Main cast: Steve Evets (Eric Bishop), Eric Cantona (Himself), John Henshaw (Meatballs), Stephanie Bishop (Lily)
Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers… His wife has gone, his stepsons are out of control and the house was chaotic even before a cement mixer appeared in the front garden. Life is crazy enough, but it is Eric’s own secret that is driving him to the brink. How can he face up to Lily, the woman of his dreams that he once loved and walked out on many years ago? Despite the comical efforts and misplaced goodwill of his mates, Eric continues to sink. In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend to help a lost postman find his way, so Eric turns to his hero: footballing genius, philosopher and poster boy, Eric Cantona. As a certain Frenchman says: “He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six.”
Production: Sixteen Films 2nd floor, 187 Wardour Street London W1F 8XB UK tel. + 44 (0) 20 7734 0168 fax + 44 (0) 20 7439 4196
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World Sales: Wild Bunch 99 rue de la Verrerie 75004 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 01 50 20 fax +33 1 53 10 50 49
SELECTION www.lookingforericmovie.co.uk
LOOKING FOR ERIC Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009, Official Selection
Ken Loach Ken Loach was born in 1936 in Nuneaton. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and went on to study law at St. Peter’s Hall, Oxford. After a brief spell in the theatre, Loach was recruited by the BBC in 1963 as a television director. This launched a long career directing films for television and the cinema, from CATHY COME HOME and KES in the sixties to LAND AND FREEDOM, SWEET SIXTEEN, THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, IT’S A FREE WORLD… and LOOKING FOR ERIC in recent years.
Ken Loach
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Sweden 152 min
Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev Written by: Rasmus Heisterberg & Nikolaj Arcel Produced by: Sören Staermose Director of photography: Eric Kress Main cast: Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander), Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomqvist), Sven Bertil Taube (Henrik Vanger), Peter Andersson (Niels Bjurman), Peter Faber (Martin Vanger)
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.
Production: YellowBird, a Zodiak Entertainment Company Søren Stærmose Magasin 1 / Frihamnen / Box 270 34 102 51 Stockholm, SWEDEN tel. +46(0)8 503 077 00 fax +46(0)8 503 077 01 soren@yellowbird.se
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World Sales: Zodiak Entertainment Distribution Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet 8 Boulevard des Capucines 75009 Paris, FRANCE tel. +33 153 109 131 fax +33 153 109 451 emmanuelle.bouilhaguet@zodiakentertainment.com
Press: Zodiak Entertainment Distribution Klara Halkjaer Second floor, 21 Warple Way London W3 0RX, UK tel. +44 20 8600 3780 fax +44 20 8600 3789 Klara.Halkjaer@zodiakentertainment.com
SELECTION www.yellowbird.se
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Festival Participation/Awards: Locarno IFF 2008: Special Prize of the Jury Toronto IFF 2008 Gdynia Polish FF 2008: Best Director, Critics Award, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress, Best Score Warsaw IFF 2008 Trieste FF 2009 Seattle FF 2009
Millennium is based on the trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson and has sold over 14 million copies worldwide. Tragically, Larsson did not live to see the phenomenon his work has become as he died suddenly in 2004 soon after delivering the manuscripts to his Swedish publisher. Director’s Statement: I wanted a film with strong emotions, strong characters an a controversial and intriguing story. This is my trademark already and this book by Stieg Larsson had it all. It was a very intriguing book, but I did not see it as a thriller. I saw it more as a mystery drama with strong and special characters, who develop throughout the story. I really connected with this material, Lisbeth being a dark rebel and Blomqvist a leftist watchdog.
Niels Arden Oplev Filmography (Feature): 1996 PORTLAND 2000 UNIT ONE, TV 2001 CHOP CHOP 2003 Defense, TV 2004-06 THE EAGLE, TV 2006 WE SHALL OVERCOME 2008 WORLDS APART 2009 MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA ÖGONBLICK EVERLASTING MOMENTS
Denmark / Sweden 130 min
Directed by: Jan Troell Written by: Niklas Rådström, co-writers: Jan Troell & Agneta Ulfsäter Troell Produced by: Thomas Stenderup Director of photography: Jan Troell & Mischa Gavrjusjov Main cast: Maria Heiskanen (Maria Larsson), Mikael Persbrandt (Sigfrid Larsson), Jesper Christensen (Pedersen, Piff Paff Puff), Callin Öhrvall (Maja, 15-22 years)
During the early 1900s, Maria, a young working-class woman, wins a camera in a lottery. Her first impulse is to sell it to buy food. But she decides to keep it – a decision which alters her whole life. She is married to Sigfrid Larsson, an unskilled laborer, quite a woman’s man and a periodical alcoholic. She is already a mother; eventually she will have seven children. Later when Maria needs money again, she seeks up the photographer Sebastian Pedersen, alias “Piff Paff Puff, but he thinks Maria should try the camera at least once. Pedersen teaches Maria the art of photography, and she starts to see the world through new eyes. And Pedersen sees Maria as the talented woman she is. The life of Maria is weighed down because of poverty and hard work. But at night – while Sigfrid sleeps off his drunkenness – Maria develops her pictures in the kitchen. Children, neighbors, cats – everything comes to life in photographs which will last, when all else is gone. As time goes by, Maria’s pictures narrate more and more of the “now” that she lives in – poverty and joys, the outbreak of war, a whole society undergoing change. Maria’s relationship to Pedersen disclose a possible path to freedom. To Sigfrid, this becomes a threat. But the camera gives Maria new strength and arouse a longing in her that Sigfrid can do nothing about. Violent arguments threaten to split the family, but also present opportunities for the family to grow stronger, to develop.
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Director’s Statement: Everlasting moments is the result of an involvement that began as far back as 1986 when Agneta, my wife, in real life met Maja, eldest daughter of Maria, the film’s central character. Maria was a poverty-stricken, workingclass woman with seven children who won a camera in a lottery and there after photographed the life of her family and the life around her, through the rest of her life. Agneta realized that this could become a marvelous book and she interviewed Maja up to her death at the age of 92. I, too, realized that this was unique material about life in Sweden at the turn of the 20th century. The description of the importance of photography really gripped me, as I have been a devotee of still photography since I was 14. The fantastic Fellini-like gallery of characters also fascinated me, so did the social perspective. When I grew up in Limhamn it was still a working-class suburb on the outskirts of Malmö, and even though my father was a dentist and I hailed from a different social class than that of my playmates and therefore had an outsider’s perspective, I have no problem recognizing the people and the milieu in which the story takes place. It was for many years a dream for me to make a film that takes place in precisely such an environment as this, a film story that affords me the opportunity of drawing on my own childhood feelings and memories. Jan Troell The Swedish director is famous for his understated rhythms and for writing, directing, editing, and shooting his own films. A former schoolteacher, Troell made short films, then worked as a cameraman for Bo Widerberg before making his feature debut with the coming-of-age story HERE’S YOUR LIFE (1966). After WHO SAW HIM DIE? (1968), he made his best-known works, THE EMIGRANTS (1971), which earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay) and its sequel, THE NEW LAND (1972), which together presented a sweeping account of Swedish immigrants coming to America in the 1840s, based on Vilhelm Moberg’s novel Unto a Good Land. The films were hailed collectively as the Swedish equivalent of GONE WITH THE WIND and were notable for Troell’s direct and humane treatment of his characters’ plight.
EVERLASTING MOMENTS Festival Participation/Awards: Telluride FF 2008 Toronto IFF 2008 Filmfest Hamburg 2008 Pusan IFF 2008 Warsaw FF 2008 Bergen IFF 2008 Chicago IFF 2008 Valladolid FF 2008: Best cinematography, Best actress Tallinn Black Nights Palm Springs IFF 2009 Scandinavian FF L.A. 2009 Jameson Dublin IFF 2009 Glasgow FF 2009 IFF Belgrade 2009 Festival du Cinéma nordique, Rouen: Young European jury award Istanbul IFF Karlovy Vary IFF 2009 Jerusalem FF 2009 Golden Globe Nomination 2009 6 Swedish Guldbagge Awards 2009 incl. best film
Jan Troell Filmography: 1966 HERE’S YOUR LIFE 1968 WHO SAW HIM DIE? 1971 THE EMIGRANTS 1972 THE NEW LAND 1982 THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE 1988 SAGOLANDET 1991 IL CAPITANO 1996 HAMSUN 1997 A FROZEN DREAM 2001 AS WHITE AS IN SNOW
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
MAX MANUS
Norway 113 min
Directed by: Espen Sandberg & Joachim Rønning Written by: Thomas Nordseth-Tiller Produced by: John M. Jacobsen & Sveinung Golimo Director of photography: Geir Hartly Andreassen Main cast: Aksel Hennie (Max Manus), Nicolai Cleve Broch (Gregers Gram), Agnes Kittelsen (Tikken Lindebraekke), Christian Rubeck (Kolbein Lauring), Knut Joner (Gunnar Soensteby), Ken Duken (Kriminalrat Siegfried Fehmer)
The film starts at the Sala front in Finland in 1940. The 25-year-old Norwegian Max Manus fights as a volunteer alongside the Finns against the Russian invaders. In March, a cease-fire is declared and foreign volunteers are sent home. However, on the 9th of April Hitler invades Norway. Max Manus starts in the resistance by joining friends printing illegal newspapers. Being of a reckless and wild nature he is soon caught. When the Nazi police show up in his apartment he chooses the fastest way out: jumping through the 2nd floor window! Miraculously he survives and wakes up in a hospital bed where he immediately starts planning his escape. His escape route takes him to England where he goes through sabotage training with the Free Norwegian Forces. In 1943 he parachutes over Norway to rejoin the growing resistance movement. The Max Manus legend as Norway’s most famous and colourful resistance fighter is born. His main adversary is the head of Gestapo in Norway, Siegfried Fehmer. A cultured, well-dressed and extremely bright police officer from Munich with movie star look and presence, Fehmer is also a charmer with the ladies, but an extremely dangerous opponent. As the war progresses he makes the hunt for Max Manus and his group his main objective. While Max Manus was the ultimate winner and Fehmer the loser, his war experiences slowly ruined Max’s nerves and turned him into an alcoholic. He was saved by the love of an exceptional woman who got him on his feet and helped him establish himself as a successful businessman and respected member of society.
Production: Filmkameratene AS Dronningens gate 8A, P.O. Box 629, Sentrum 0106 Oslo NORWAY tel. +47 23 35 53 00 film@filmkameratene.no
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World Sales: Trust Nordisk Susan Wendt Filmbyen 12 2650 Hvidovre DENMARK tel. +45 36 86 87 69 fax +45 36 86 87 88 susan@trustnordisk.com
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Director’s Statement: We believe Max Manus’ story is important. It tells us about the value of fighting for something you believe in with everything you’ve got. But the film doesn’t hide that such a fight can scar your soul for the rest of your life. Max saw his friends die, one after the other, and every time he lost a piece of himself. In a time where videogames instantly give you a new life after you die, and war is usually something remote on TV from far away lands, we believe this movie has an important message to the audience: violence is gritty, and has serious consequences both physically and mentally. We wanted to emphasize how our lead characters are being worn down as human beings by what they go through. But this is also a celebration of the things Max Manus and the “Oslo-gang” he belonged to achieved. Because some things are worth fighting for - and some things are worth dying for. It is also a story of how important friendship, hope and love is in the darkest hours and that those values that will carry us through the night and into a new day. The film has been seen by a quarter of the Norwegian population and sold to more than 30 countries. That is of course extremely gratifying, but to us, our greatest achievement was that it proved a favourite among young people - including the girls! The serious story we wanted to tell communicated with a generation who usually relates only to American mass entertainment. Espen Sandberg & Joachim Rønning Espen Sandberg (born 2 June 1971, Tonsberg, Norway) and Joachim Rønning (born 30 May 1972, Tonsberg, Norway) graduated from the Stockholm Film School, Sweden, in 1996. Under their professional name Roenberg, they have hundreds of outstanding commercials made all over the world to their credit. Among the many wellknown companies and organizations who have entrusted Roenberg with their image and message are Budweiser, Dresden Bank, Statoil, Nokia and Airbus to name a few. A couple of years ago, one of their commercials was elected America’s favourite TV-spot during the Superbowl broadcast. This is an annual poll conducted by the newspaper USA Today during America’s most watched television program. Sandberg and Rønning’s first feature film was BANDIDAS (2006) starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek for producer Luc Besson and EuropaCorp. MAX MANUS is their second feature film.
www.maxmanusfilmen.no
MAX MANUS Festival Participation/Awards: Kosmorama Trondheim IFF: 5 wins including Best Norwegian Film Toronto IFF Hamburg IFF 7 Norwegian Amanda Awards incl. Best Norwegian Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography.
Espen Sandberg & Joachim Rønning
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
NICIJI SIN NO ONE’S SON
Croatia 100 min
Directed by: Arsen Anton Ostojic Written by: Mate Matisic Produced by: Jozo Patljak Directors of photography: Branko Linta & Slobodan Trninic Main cast: Alen Liveric (Ivan), Mustafa Nadarevic (Izidor), Biserka Ipsa (Ana), Zdenko Jelcic (Simo), Goran Grgic (Inspector),
Ivan is a 36-year-old ex-rock singer and a disillusioned war veteran who lost both legs in the recent Croatian Homeland War. His father, Izidor, was a well-known political prisoner in the former Yugoslavia, and is now standing as an independent candidate for the Croatian Parliament. Then a face from the past re-appears: an impoverished Serbian refugee called Simo, who has recently returned to the town. As an ex-communist official, Simo imprisoned Izidor decades ago. He knows certain facts about Izidor that could destroy his reputation and wreck his political campaign. Simo demands money, in return for his silence and he also has a secret rendezvous with Ivan’s mother, Ana. Soon a long-buried secret surfaces once more – with huge repercussions for Ivan. He starts to provoke hard-line Croatians by singing Serbian nationalistic songs, daring them to kill him.
Production: Alka Film Dedici 21 10000 Zagreb CROATIA Tel. +385 1 467-4187 fax: + 385 1 467-4187 jozo.alkafilm@gmail.com
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Director: Arsen Anton Ostojic Palmoticeva 60 10000 Zagreb CROATIA mob. + 385 98 414-091 arsen@post.com
SELECTION www.arsenantonostojic.com
Director’s Statement: The most important element that attracted me to the screenplay No One’s Son, written by Mate Matisic and based on his own play, is the fact that the script offered an uncompromising and brave look into the reality of the Croatian society today through an emotional story about a physically disabled war veteran and his psychological traumas. Aside from being another “heavy” drama, this script, I felt, had successfully combined the elements of genre (crime story) and a classical Greek tragedy, in which characters are forced to make fundamental decisions about life and death and where father and son issues become a truly important subject. On one level this film functions as a crime drama featuring a police investigation, while, more importantly, it deals with fundamental problems that preoccupied the nations of the Western Balkans through centuries of bloody wars and migrations. This story does not only become a tragedy for all the characters in it, each of them paying for their own sins and the sins of their ancestors, rather it develops into a tragedy of the entire region where numerous wars shattered the lives of its inhabitants and where the issue of identity in the midst of that terrible mess was one of the most important ones.
NO ONE’S SON Festival Participation/Awards: Pula FF, competition: 6 Gold Arenas, Critics Award Pusan IFF, World selection; non-competitive Warsaw FF, competition FF Cottbus, competition Palm Springs IFF, competition Cleveland IFF, competition Vilnius IFF “Kino Pavasaris”, competition International Debut FF “Spirit of Fire”, Khanty-Mansiysk, competition IFF FEST Belgrade, competition Sofia IFF, Balkan program, competition Karlovy Vary IFF, East of the West competition
Arsen Anton Ostojic Arsen Anton Ostojic received his BA degree in film directing from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, and his MFA degree in filmmaking from the New York University, both with honors. He has made several award-winning documentaries and short films. He worked professionally on twenty feature films in Europe and in the US, and has taught in New York, Salzburg and Zagreb. His first feature film A WONDERFUL NIGHT IN SPLIT was nominated for the European Film Academy Discovery Award and received more than twenty awards at almost forty film festivals. NO ONE’S SON is his second feature film, the absolute winner of the Croatian national Pula Film Festival in July of 2008.
Arsen Anton Ostojic
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
NORD NORTH
Norway 79 min
Directed by: Rune Denstad Langlo Written by: Erlend Loe Produced by: Sigve Endresen & Brede Hovland Director of photography: Philip 0gaard Main cast: Anders Bas Mo (Jomar), Kyrre Hellum (Lasse), Marte Aunemo (Lotte), Mads Sjogärd Pettersen (Ulrik)
Following a nervous breakdown, ski athlete Jomar has isolated himself in a lonely existence as the guard of a ski park. When he learns that he might be the father of a child way up north, he sets on a strange and poetic journey through Norway on a snowmobile, with five litres of alcohol as sole provisions. On this journey through amazing arctic landscapes, Jomar seems to do everything in his power to avoid reaching his destination. He meets other tender and confused souls, who will all contribute to push Jomar further along his reluctant journey towards the brighter side of life.
Production: Motlys as Sagveien 18 0459 Oslo NORWAY tel. +47 22 80 83 70 motlys@motlys.com
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World Sales: Memento Films 6 CitĂŠ Paradis 75010 Paris FRANCE tel: +33 1 53 34 90 28
SELECTION www.nordthemovie.no
NORTH Festival Participation/Awards: Berlin IFF, Panorama Special (opening film) Instanbul IFF Sami FF, Kautokeino CHP:PIX, Competition Tribeca FF, Competition: Best New Narrative Filmmaker Jeonju IFF, Competition Seattle IFF, Competition Transilvania IFF, Competition: Best Cinematography Award to Philip Ogaard
Director’s Statement: In 2005, I was going through a depression that soon turned into anxiety and a series of panic attacks. One day, I passed in front of the old ski lift I used to take when I was a kid. I just stood there and thought about all the strange folks, who used to work there. They were always angry and worn out, you could smell the booze in their breath. It was at that time, when I was standing there, that the main character JOMAR came to life.
Rune Denstad Langlo Filmography: 2002 DID YOU LEAVE US, BLAKE, short 2005 TOO MUCH NORWAY, feature length documentary 2008 99% HONEST, feature length documentary 2009 NORTH
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
OORLOGSWINTER WINTER IN WARTIME
The Netherlands 103 min
Directed by: Martin Koolhoven Written by: Paul Jan Nelissen, Mieke de Jong & Martin Koolhoven Produced by: Els Vandevorst & San Fu Maltha Director of photography: Guido van Gennep Main cast: Martijn Lakemeier (Michiel van Beusekom),
January 1945. The last winter of WW II. In Holland, the earth is frozen. In the western part there’s a shortage of fuel and food. In the freezing cold many people are walking to the east of the country, where there’s still food to find. This is where our story takes place. WINTER IN WARTIME is the story of 14-year-old Michiel, who wants to be an adult and is longing to join the resistance. He regards his father - the mayor of the small village - a softie and adores his uncle Ben, who has joined the resistance. Michiels neighbour kid (Dirk) tells him that he is involved in an assault on an ammunition storage and asks Michiel to deliver a letter to the blacksmith Bertus van Gelder, in case something goes wrong. Michiel is glad; finally someone takes him serious. But there’s a betrayal of the raid. Dirk is caught and when Michiel is about to take the letter to Bertus, he is shot by the Germans. Michiel opens the envelope and finds a drawn map of the Dagdaler Woods, which leads him to a spot where an English pilot (Jack) is hiding. Dirk was to take Jack to a contact person in the town of Zwolle. Now that Bertus is not there either, it’s all up to Michiel. When Jack gets sick, Michiel is forced to ask for help from his sister (Erica), who is a nurse. Just after a failed attempt to reach Zwolle after all, a dead German soldier is found, who obviously has been killed. When the murderer is not found, the Germans in revenge arrest Michiel’s father. Michiel now desperately hopes that his uncle Ben will liberate his father... When the war is won only a few months later, Michiel has lost his innocence and will never be the same again.
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SELECTION www.oorlogswinterdefilm.nl
WINTER IN WARTIME Festival Participation/Awards: Pusan IFF 2009 Rembrandt Award 2009
Director’s Statement: Ever since I started directing I wanted to make a movie, set in World War II. When adapting the similar bestseller by Dutch writer Jan Terlouw into a movie, I focused on the emotional journey the young main character went through. Experiencing his personal growth - ultimately leading to his complete loss of innocence - became the purpose of the movie. It became clear to me that OORLOGSWINTER needed an emotional involvement rather than a historical drama approach. In Holland, there is a huge tradition of WW II movies. Most of them are - I must consider sadly - not that emotionally engaging. I wanted to get away from the archaic style of acting and conservative cinematic approach. I wanted to make an emotionally gripping film by creating a vital approach to the material. I felt a slightly more contemporary idiom (using many point of view shots). This direct style of acting brought the story closer to me. It made the story look less like a history lesson and made me forget I was watching a movie which is set almost 65 years ago. Almost as if I became part of it. To make the movie the emotional experience I intended, I was aware the music was to be very important. I’m very proud I was able to convince my youth hero Pino Donaggio to compose the soundtrack. I think it’s among the best work he has composed and luckily, he agrees with me.
Martin Koolhoven Filmography: 1997 DUISTER LICHT; 53 min 1999 SUZY Q; 82 min, Telefilm 2001 AMNESIA; 85 min 2001 DE GROT (The Cave); 90 min 2003 HET ZUIDEN (The South); 89 min 2005 HET SCHNITZELPARADIJS; 80 min 2005 KNETTER; 90 min 2006 ’N BEETJE VERLIEFD; 82 min 2008 OORLOGSWINTER; 104 min
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
PANDORANIN KUTUSU PANDORA’S BOX
Turkey / France / Germany / Belgium 112 min
Directed by: Yeşim Ustaoğlu Written by: Yeşim Ustaoğlu & Sema Kaygusuz Produced by: Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Muhammet Çakıral, Serkan Çakarer, Behrooz Hashemian, Setareh Farsi, Natacha Devillers, Catherine Burniaux, Michael Weber & Tobias Pausinger Director of photography: Jacques Besse Main cast: Tsilla Chelton (Nusret), Derya Alabora (Nesrin), Övül Avkiran (Güzin), Onur Unsal (Murat), Osamn Sonant (Mehmet)
When three forty-something siblings in Istanbul receive a call one night that their aging mother has disappeared from her home at the western Black Sea coast of Turkey, the three set out to find her, momentarily setting aside their problems. As the siblings come together, the tensions between them quickly become apparent, like Pandora’s box spilling open. They come to realize that they are very ignorant about each other. And more so, they are forced to reflect on their own shortcomings
Production: Ustaoglu Film Yapim Ustaoglu Films Marti Apt 24/A1 Kumrulu Sokak 80060 Cihangir Istanbul TURKEY tel. +90 212 249 76 44 fax +90 212 245 73 97 ddoser@ustaoglufilm.com
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World Sales: The Match Factory GmbH Balthasarstrasse 79-81 50670 Cologne GERMANY tel. +49 221 539 70 9 - 0 fax +49 221 539 70 9 - 10 info@matchfactory.de
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Director’s Statement: Pandora’s Box is a story of alienation and isolation. It is a story of individuals whose lives have been shaped by a sterile middle-class morality. It is a story that many people, in developing and/or developed countries touched by the inevitable combination of capitalism and modernity, can identify with. It is a kind of human landscape, both universal and singular at the same time ... Modern individuals Lost idealism that is insidiously replaced by conformism. Elitist intellectuals whose living space has been narrowed because of their concessions to the Status quo and to the slick politics that are strangers to reality. Contemptuous attitude towards “other people”, prejudices, hypocrisy. Depressions, escapism, nihilism. Class differences and class conflicts. False relationships. Lack of communication. Sense of guilt. Fear and loneliness ... In short, everything pertaining to modern individuals is hidden in this Pandora’s Box. Our story begins with every day life in the centre of Istanbul, a city in which the very modern and the very traditional, in every sense of the word, are completely intertwined. And then the story continues on through the journey of three people to the western part of the Black Sea region, which is characterized by coal mines and a working class way of life. This journey turns into an inner journey where the three protagonists sort out the conflicts long-kept in their subconscious, and confront the reality of themselves. The cast consists of professional actors and ordinary local people. Yeşim Ustaoğlu After making several award-winning shorts in Turkey, Yeşim Ustaoğlu made her feature film debut with 1994’s THE TRACE (IZ). The film was presented at numerous international festivals, including Moscow and Gothenburg. Yeşim Ustaoğlu received international recognition for her 1999 film, JOURNEY TO THE SUN. In competition at the Berlin IFF, the film received the Blue Angel Award (Best European Film) and the Peace Prize. The moving story of a courageous friendship undaunted by political cruelty, JOURNEY TO THE SUN swept the Istanbul Festival by winning Best Film, Best Director, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Audience Award. WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS was awarded NHK Sundance-International Filmmaker’s award 2003 and the DAAD scholarship (the foundation of the German Academic Exchange Service), Artists in Berlin program, to write her new Script WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS, the story of a woman forced to live for 50 years with the haunting secrets of a hidden identity.
PANDORA’S BOX Festival Participation/Awards: Toronto IFF, Contemporary World Cinema San Sebastian IFF, Competition Pusan IFF, World Cinema Antalya Golden Orange FF, Golden Orange Competition Tallinn Black Nights FF, Closing Film Thessaloniki IFF, Contemporary Turkish Cinema, Gijon IFF, European Women Filmmakers of the New Millemium IFF Rotterdam, Young Turks Berlin IFF, EFM IFF of Cartagena Vilnius IFF “Kino Pavasaris” Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz Tribeca FF, Showcase Section Jerusalem FF, Panorama
Yeşim Ustaoğlu Filmography: 1984 TO CATCH A MOMENT, short 1987 MAGNAFANTAGNA, short 1990 DUET, short 1992 HOTEL, short 1994 THE TRACE (IZ) 1999 JOURNEY TO THE SUN 2004 LIFE ON THEIR SHOULDERS, documentary 38 min 2004 WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS 2008 PANDORA’S BOX
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
POLITIST, ADJECTIV POLICE, ADJECTIVE
Romania 113 min
Written & directed by: Corneliu Porumboiu Produced by: Marcela Ursu Director of photography: Marius Panduru Main cast: Dragos Bucur (Cristi), Vlad Ivanov (Anghelache), Irina Saulescu (Anca), Ion Stoica (Nelu)
Cristi is a policeman who refuses to arrest a young man who offers hashish to two of his school mates. “Offering” is punished by the law. Cristi believes that the law will change, he does not want the life of a young man he considers irresponsible to be a burden on his conscience. For his superior conscience has a totally different meaning…
Production: 42 Km Films Costache Marinescu nr. 15, sector 1 011285 Bucarest ROMANIA tel. +40 311 006 837 fax +40 311 006 837 office@42kmfilm.ro
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World Sales: COACH 14 21, Rue Jean Pierre-Timbaud 75011 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 147 00 10 60 fax +33 147 00 10 02 sales@coach14.com
Press: see World Sales press@coach14.com
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Director’s Statement: I wanted to make a film about language, about its meaning or, better yet, about its lack of meaning. Cristi is a cop enforcing a law made out of words. At a certain point, he’s afraid to solve a minor case out of fear he might have a young man’s life on his conscience. In Anghelache’s office – his superior – the meaning of the words changes via the dictionary. Behind the words, there’s the dictionary; in the past, behind the words there was God, but that’s a world my characters no longer have access to. The crime genre seduced me because, every time around, it involved you, the viewer; it was like a game of puzzle in which you were involved and which provoked you to foresee what was to come. In the end, all things would be clarified and everything made sense. Working on this film, I chose to look in an almost clinical way at a police procedural and the way in which cops react; I followed him around the same way he, in his turn, follows his suspects around, with the strong belief that the cinema is witness to a meaningless world. Corneliu Porumboiu Corneliu Porumboiu was born in 1974 in Romania. He studied Film Directing at the National University of Drama and Film, Bucharest. His first notable short film A TRIP TO THE CITY (2003) received the Second Prize at Cinefondation, Cannes, and Best Short Movie Prize at Cinema Mediteranéen Film Festival, Montpellier. The medium length feature LIVIU’S DREAM (2003) won the prize for the Best Romanian Movie at Transylvanian Film Festival (2004) and was present in the official selection at Telluride FF in the Great Expectations section. In 2005 he enters a residency program at Cannes. In 2006 he makes his first feature 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST which is selected in the Quinzaine des Realisateurs and wins the Camera d’Or for debut and Label Europe, the film distributors’ award. The film took more than 20 awards in festivals all over the world and was distributed in more then 30 countries. POLICE, ADJECTIVE is the last film written, produced and
POLICE, ADJECTIVE Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF,Un Certain Regard: Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Int’l Critics Award Transylvania IFF, Main Competition: Transylvania Trophy Brussels FF, Cinedécouvertes: Prix de l’Age d’Or Toronto IFF
Corneliu Porumboiu
directed by Corneliu Porumboiu.
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
PRANZO DI FERRAGOSTO MID-AUGUST LUNCH
Italy 75 min
Written & directed by: Gianni di Gregorio Produced by: Matteo Garrone Director of photography: Gian Enrico Bianchi Main cast: Gianni Di Gregorio (Gianni), Valeria De Franciscis (Valeria), Marina Cacciotti (Marina), Maria Calì (Maria), Grazia Cesarini Sforza (Grazia), Luigi Marchetti (Vikingo)
Gianni is a middle-aged man, the only son of his widowed mother, with whom he lives in an old house in central Rome. Living under the tyranny of this impoverished aristocrat, his life drags on between housework and going to the bar. The day before the August bank holiday the condominium manager asks him to take his mother into his home for the two days of the bank holiday. In exchange, he will knock some money off the condominium debts Gianni has run up over the years. Gianni is forced to accept. The manager treacherously turns up with two women, since he doesn’t know where to take his aunt, he brings her along too. Gianni is overwhelmed and crushed by the clash between these three dominant characters, but heroically does his best to make them happy. At a certain point he feels faint and calls a friend of his who is a doctor. The doctor not only reassures Gianni, but foists his own elderly mother on him, since he is on shift at the hospital. Gianni goes through 24 hours of hell. But when at last it’s time to say goodbye, the women have other ideas…
Production: ARCHIMEDE SRL Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, 39 00185 Roma, ITALY tel./fax +39 06 43599188 info@archimedefilm.it
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World Sales: FANDANGO PORTOBELLO 12 Addison Avenue London W11 4QR, UK tel. +44 20 7605 1396
SELECTION www.pranzodiferragosto.it
Director’s Statement: As the only son of a widowed mother, for many long years I had to tackle my mother – a person with an overpowering personality – on my own (my wife and daughters had fled out of an instinct for survival), and live surrounded by her world. Even though it was a trying experience, I got to know and love the richness, vitality and strengths of the elderly. But I also saw their loneliness and vulnerability in a world that moves on quickly, without knowing where, because it has forgotten its history, has lost its continuity over time, and is afraid of old age and death, unaware that nothing has any value except the quality of feeling. In the summer 2000 the condominium manager, knowing that I was behind with my payments, really did ask me to look after his mother for the August bank holiday. In a show of wounded self-dignity I refused, but since then I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I had accepted. This is the result. After talking to some professional actresses, in the end I chose women who had never acted before, on the basis of their strength of character, and since they lacked any formal preconceptions. During shooting they swept me away; the story changed on the basis of their mood, but their contribution in terms of spontaneity and truth was crucial. I even did some takes without them realising. Gianni Di Gregorio Gianni Di Gregorio was born in Rome in Trastevere, where he still lives and works. He fell in love with cinema when he was still a child, spending his mornings at school and his afternoons in the local cinemas, sometimes watching up to three films a day. After studying classics at high school he went to university to study literature, but before graduating dropped out to go to the Accademia di Arti Sceniche in Rome, run by Alessandro Fersen, where he took a diploma in directing and acting. In 1986 he wrote the screenplay for SEMBRA MORTO MA È SOLO SVENUTO by Felice Farina and the story and screenplay for CAREFREE GIOVANNI by Marco Colli. In 1991 he wrote SHIPWRECKS directed by Marco Colli, and the following year he wrote the story and screenplay for AFFETTI SPECIALI directed by Felice Farina. In 2000 he wrote the screenplay for LONG LIVE THE MONKEY!, based on the short story Le due zitelle by Tommaso Landolfi and directed by Marco Colli. He met Matteo Garrone after seeing his first film, TERRA DI MEZZO. He started working with him, as assistant director, in 2000 with ROMAN SUMMER, and continued with THE EMBALMER and FIRST LOVE. In 2007, with Braucci, Chiti, Gaudioso, Saviano and Garrone, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film GOMORRAH, directed by Matteo Garrone.
MID-AUGUST LUNCH Festival Participation/Awards: 65th Venice IFF: Luigi de Laurentiis award for Best First Film Critics Week: Arca Cinemagiovani Award for Best Italian Film, Francesco Pasinetti Award for Best Film, Isvema Award for Best First or Second Film Times BFI London FF: Satyajit Ray Award for a first feature Bratislava IFF: Grand Prix David di Donatello award for Best First Film Ciak D’Oro award for Best First Film Nastro D’Argento award for Best First Film
Gianni Di Gregorio
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
UN PROPHETE A PROPHET
France 149 min
Directed by: Jacques Audiard Written by: Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain based on an original idea by Abdel Raouf Dafri after an original screenplay by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit Produced by: Chic Films, Page 114, Why Not Productions Director of photography: Stéphane Fontaine Main cast: Tahar Rahim (Malik El Djebena), Niels Arestrup (César Luciani), Abdel Bencherif (Ryad), Reda Kateb (Jordi le gitan), Hichem Yacoubi (Reyeb)
Condemned to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena cannot read nor write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the other convicts. He is 19 years old. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang who rules the prison, he is given a number of “missions” to carry out, toughening him up and gaining the gang leader’s confidence in the process. But Malik is brave and a fast learner, daring to secretly develop his own plans...
Production: WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS 3 rue Paillet 75005 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 48 24 24 50 fax +33 1 48 24 24 51 contact@whynotproductions.fr
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World Sale : Celluloid Dreams 2 rue Turgot 75009 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 49 70 03 70 fax +33 1 49 70 03 71 info@celluloid-dreams.com
Press: Marie-Christine Damiens 21, av. du Maine 75015 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 42 22 12 24 mc.damiens@wanadoo.fr
SELECTION www.whynotproductions.fr
A PROPHET Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009: Nominated for Golden Palm; Winner of Grand Prix
Jacques Audiard Filmography: 1994 REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER (See How They Fall) 1996 UN HÉROS TRÈS DISCRET (A Self-Made Hero) 2001 SUR MES LÈVRES (Read My Lips) 2005 DE BATTRE MON CŒUR S’EST ARRÊTÉ (The Beat That My Heart Skipped)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
QUESTIONE DI CUORE A MATTER OF HEART
Italy 104 min
Written & directed by: Francesca Archibugi Produced by: Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini & Marco Chimenz Director of photography: Fabio Zamarion Main cast: Antonio Albanese (Alberto), Kim Rossi Stuart (Angelo), Micaela Ramazzotti (Rossana), Francesca Inaudi (Carla)
Alberto’s and Angelo’s “engines seized” on the same night. Angelo is a young body shop owner from a very poor background who has done a bit of everything and finally made something of himself. Alberto, a successful screenwriter, crazy, loud-mouthed and clumsy as a rhinoceros, initially does not get the reference. They become friends in the emergency room. They connect instantly, and no one is more surprised than they are that they understand each other so completely. But they are men, and thus they often disguise their emotions behind jokes and jibes. Just like teenagers on their first camping trip. Once they have left hospital, life seems so different: they are conscious of every heartbeat, and they find they need each other. Staying together means being with the only person in the world who - at that moment - understands them. Alberto, who is instinctively a loner, is unable to commit to his girlfriend
Production: Cattleya S.r.l. P.le V. Massimo 7/8 00162 Roma ITALY tel. +39 06 367201 fax +39 06 3672050 info@cattleya.it
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World Sales: SND groupe M6 89 Avenue Charles de Gaulle 92575 Neuilly sur Seine Cedex FRANCE tel. +33 (0)141926666 fax: +33 (0)141927907
SELECTION www.yahoo.it/questionedicuore
and has withdrawn like a hermit crab into his shell, which in this case is Angelo’s house, right above his body shop specialising in classic cars, located in the Pigneto neighbourhood of Rome. It is an inscrutable world, at times wonderful, at others sinister. But in that house there is a family: Angelo’s wife, Rossana, voluptuous and pregnant with their third child, a kind of woman to the nth degree; and two children, Perla and Airton, an angry adolescent girl and a little boy agitated by recent events. Alberto begins to relax in the comfort of an atmosphere that is not only new to him but also something that he never wanted. Director’s Statement: “...via Fanfulla da Lodi, in the middle of Pigneto, with its low houses and its crumbling walls, was in its gritty grandiosity, its extreme smallness, a poor humble, unknown alley, abandoned under the sun, in a Rome that was not Rome.” Now, in that little street where Pasolini’s Accattone lived, there is an aroma of kebabs and of Cocktails with vodka and cranberries, hippy women bicycle between the Singhalese and the body shops and everything is both very up-to-date and very old. In the vicinity is the Mandrione of Juliet of the Spirits; the old Quadraro neighbourhood of II ferroviere, the Gordiani estate where they shot at Anna Magnani from a truck in Roma: CittÀ Aperta; and Torpignattara where the Citti brothers were surrounded. A Rome we no longer see in the cinema. How has it changed? How have we changed? I wanted to make a film about Italy, although in a slightly oblique way, through an encounter between two characters from two irreconcilable worlds, although not that far apart. And when someone dies, a world always comes to an end. Even if he is no one special, it is never insignificant. It means a lot, particularly for the family and for the narrators. Actors are important for all directors, but for those who make films centred on characters, they are the cornerstones of their work. I was also given the gift of exceptional actors: every one of them gave of themselves in a way that was moving and profound.
A MATTER OF HEART
Francesca Archibugi Filmography: 1988 MIGNON HAS COME TO STAY 1990 TOWARDS EVENING 1992 THE GREAT PUMPKIN 1994 WITH CLOSED EYES 1997 LA STRANA STORIA DI BANDA SONORA 1997 SHOOTING THE MOON 2000 TOMORROW 2002 RENZO E LUCIA (TV) 2005 FLYING LESSONS 2008 A MATTER OF HEART
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
THE READER
Germany 122 min
Directed by: Stephen Daldry Written by: David Hare Produced by: Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti & Redmond Morris Director of photography: Chris Menges & Roger Deakins Main cast: Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz), Ralph Fiennes (Michael Berg), David Kross (young Berg), Lena Olin (Rose Mather/ Ilana Mather), Bruno Ganz (Professor Rohl)
THE READER opens in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair. Michael discovers that Hanna loves being read to and their physical relationship deepens. Hanna is enthralled as Michael reads to her from The Odyssey, Huck Finn and The Lady with the Little Dog. Despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears one day and Michael is left confused and heartbroken. Eight years later, while Michael is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he is stunned to find Hanna back in his life - this time as a defendant in the courtroom. As Hanna’s past is revealed, Michael uncovers a deep secret that will impact both of their lives. THE READER is a haunting story about truth and reconciliation, about how one generation comes to terms with the crimes of another.
Production & World Sales: The Weinstein Company 375 Greenwich St 3rd Floor New York, NY 11013 USA tel. +1 212 941 3800 fax +1 212 941 3949
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Production: Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH August-Bebelstr. 26-33 14482 Potsdam GERMANY tel. +49 (0) 331 / 721 31 51 fax +1 212 941 3949
Press & Distribution: Senator Film Verleih GmbH SchĂśnhauser Allee 53 10437 Berlin GERMANY tel. +49 (30) 880 91 700 fax +49 (30) 880 91 744 info@senator.de
SELECTION www.dervorleser-film-de
THE READER Festival Participation/Awards: Berlin IFF 2009 (out of competition) 2009 Academy Awards: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 2009 BAFTA Awards: Best Leading Actress 2009 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Director’s Statement: “This is a film about truth and reconciliation. The book is of huge historical significance in Germany. It is the singular novel addressing the problem of ’How do we continue after what we have done?’ It exposes ordinary people who commit these crimes - the banality of evil. The only way to make the film was to do it in Germany, with a German crew - and one of the greatest ensembles of German actors in recent history.”
Stephen Daldry
Stephen Daldry Stephen Daldry’s first feature film BILLY ELLIOT won over 40 awards worldwide and received three Oscar nominations including Best Director. His second feature, THE HOURS, also won innumerable international awards and received nine Oscar and eleven BAFTA nominations. Daldry also produced two “Omnibus” programs for BBC2. Daldry’s stage adaptation of Billy Elliot recently opened to rave reviews on Broadway after successful runs in London and Melbourne. He previously directed a number of works for the Royal Court Theatre, including Via Dolorosa by David Hare who wrote the screenplay for THE READER. He was the director of several plays at the National Theatre. Daldry is on the Board of the Young and Old Vic Theatres and remains an Associate Director of the Royal Court. Daldry was the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre for 2002 at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. He has won many awards for his theatrical work both in the UK and the USA.
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
RETORNO A HANSALA RETURN TO HANSALA
Spain 95 min
Directed by: Chus Gutierrez Written by: Juan Carlos Rubio & Chus Gutierrez Produced by: Carlos Santurio, Antonio Pérez & Chus Gutierrez Director of photography: Kiko de la Rica Main cast: Jose Luís García Pérez (Martín), Farah Hamed (Leila), Adam Bounouacha (Said), Antonio de la Torre (Antonio)
That morning, some corpses are washed ashore. A small boat has sunk leaving twelve corpses on the sand and who knows how many more at sea. Martín, a man about forty, owns a funeral home in Algeciras. He manages a newly set-up business and faces numerous financial and legal difficulties. One of the deceased immigrants was a brother of Leila, a Moroccan girl who has lived in Spain for five years. She feels guilty for having given him the money to pay this trip. Now she will try to return the corpse of her brother to the natal village to give him a grave. The relationship between these two characters helps them to find a human side in one another which they had forgotten existed. They are two human beings wrapped in the million shells they have built for self-protection. Said, a youngster from the village of just about 16, guides them around the area to show the victims’ clothes. One day Said disappears. He has left on a small boat for Spain and this “paradise” everyone wants to find.
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SELECTION www.retornoahansala.com
Director’s Statement: RETURN TO HANSALA is a road movie that plunges us into the phenomenon of immigration through the eyes of its central characters – residing on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar – and the spectrum of emotions, guiding us towards a ‘forgotten world’ in which we are able to rediscover ourselves. This is the raw story of a common tragedy wrapped in a veil of hope and romanticism. This is a nonconformist film for it stems from the outrage we feel every day when we witness acts of unfairness and injustice. It is also romantic. It shows the nature of human kind, its ability to love and to hope despite the utmost horrifying and devastating life experiences so it is necessary since it allows us to experience the true life of the dispossessed helping us become a little more human. From the narrative point of view, RETURN TO HANSALA is also a tale of travel. This is a physical journey filled with all sorts of events, taking Martín and Leila from Algeciras (Spain) to Hansala (Morocco) in a funerary van with Leila’s brother’s corpse in the back. It also describes the moral route taken by each leading character. Martín will discover a new reality and uncover an unsuspected and better side of him. Leila will delve into the strength of her past and redefine her future. Maybe, together, they will start a better life? RETURN TO HANSALA stems from a short article published in a newspaper telling the story of a worker at the funeral home of Los Barrios. After a small boat sinks and one of the corpses is identified through a phone number, he travels to Morocco with the corpse and the clothes worn by the people who died in the wreck. The sister of the dead man believes many of the victims come from the same area and will be easily identified by their relatives from the clothes. Our idea for this film is to mix fiction and reality and use everything that a village which has lived such a tragedy can offer as well as share its life and experiences. For this reason, some of our characters will be real people within a fictional structure.
RETURN TO HANSALA Festival Participation/Awards: Toronto IFF 2008. Valladolid IFF 2008: Special prize of the Juror. Cairo IFF 2008: Principal Prize Golden Pyramid Tangier FF 2008: I reward Hercules granted by the public GOYA Awards: nominated for Original script, Original Song and Actress Revelation Chus Gutierrez Filmography: 1984 PORRO ON THE ROOF, short 1985 SNIKERS OF FIRE, short 1986 TROPICANA, short 1986 MERRY GO ROUND, short 1987 LA CINTA DORADA, short 1988 VIDEOCLIP XOXONEES, short 1989 PEZDRO, short 1991 SUBLET 1993 ORAL SEX 1995 GYPSY SOUL 1997 INSOMNIA 2002 PONIENTE 2003 IN THE WORLD TO EVERY MOMENT 2004 EL CALENTITO
Chus Gutierrez She is born in Granada, Spain. In 1983 she travels to New York where she is present at different courses of cinema and fulfils numerous shorts in super 8mm. In 1985 she joins a City College program of two years, dedicated to all aspects of the cinema.
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
SERAPHINE
France 125 min
Written & directed by: Martin Provost Produced by: Miléna Poylo & Gilles Sacuto Director of photography: Laurent Brunet Main cast: Yolande Moreau (Séraphine), Ulrich Tukur (Wilhelm Uhde), Anne Bennent (Anne-Marie), Geneviève Mnich (Mme Duphot), Nico Rogner (Helmut)
1912. Séraphine Louis, 42, lives in Senlis, a small town fifty kilometers outside Paris. She earns a living doing household chores and cleaning. In her spare time, Séraphine paints, on anything that comes to hand (plates, furniture, small wooden panels). She works as a maid for Madame Duphot, who rents an apartment to a German art critic and dealer, Wilhelm Uhde, an enthusiastic advocate of modern and “primitive” artists. At a dinner party given by Madame Duphot, Wilhelm comes across a small painting that Séraphine brought over a few days previously. Mesmerized, he snaps it up and insists that Séraphine show him the rest of her work. He buys it all and encourages her to continue developing her talent. The Great War breaks out. Uhde is forced to flee France and abandon Séraphine. During the fighting, through famine, poverty and harsh winters, Séraphine never stops painting. 1927. Back in France, Wilhelm Uhde now lives in Chantilly, not far from Senlis, with his sister, Anne-Marie, and his companion, Helmut. At Anne-Marie’s insistence, he visits an exhibition of amateur painters in Senlis, where, at the far end of one of the rooms, he glimpses huge, shimmering, mystical canvases. Wilhelm immediately recognizes Séraphine’s style. Overcome with emotion, he decides to take the elderly woman under his wing once more. In the next few years, Séraphine paints her most inspired works and sells many of them but gradually loses her reason. Interned in an asylum, she passes away in 1942.
Production: TS Productions 73 rue Notre Dame des Champs 75006 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 10 24 00 fax +33 1 43 26 92 23 tsproductions@tsproductions.net
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World Sales: Roissy Films 58 rue Pierre Charron 75008 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 53 50 50 fax +33 1 42 89 26 93 contact@roissyfilms.com
Press: Laurence Granec et Karine Menard 5 bis rue Kepler 75016 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 47 20 36 66
SELECTION www.seraphine-lefilm.com
Director’s Statement: Reading about the life of Séraphine de Senlis, shortly after I saw her inimitable work for the first time, my mind was filled with images. I pictured her sitting on the floor, struggling with her materials and pigments that she mixed in secret in her tiny room, completely committed to her art with the feeling of being “in the service of” some greater force. And then I pictured the actress Yolande Moreau, with her singular appeal, her hands, eyes, severity and gentleness, and I thought that, through her, I’d like to capture the intensity and incredible force that permeated Séraphine’s whole life. So, before I started to write the screenplay, I went to see Yolande at home in the country to confirm my intuition. We’d never met before. She was in her garden. I told her the story of Séraphine. I had already done a lot of research and taken a lot of notes. I had some reproductions of her paintings with me. When I finished speaking, she looked at me with strange, huge eyes (she was Séraphine already) and said, very softly, “I like it”. That was the trigger. The writing process centered on Yolande, driven by each new meeting and carried along by her enthusiasm and the perfect match between her and the character. One day, much later, I came across the hastily sketched portrait of Séraphine that appears on the front page of the script. I showed it to Yolande. The resemblance was so striking that she was even more unsettled by it than I was. When I started writing, I gradually sensed that Séraphine was questioning everything I believed in. In the script, I set out to structure Séraphine’s story around her friendship with Wilhelm Uhde, who was the first to see her as she really was and supported her to the very end. Through her meticulousness and intense faith, Séraphine imposes a particular style on the treatment of her life-story. In the film, I try to identify the process by which a woman of modest origins and naïve beliefs became a fully-fledged artist at a time when it was almost impossible to do so. And by which an urbane, sophisticated man, who was used to being served, came to serve a common working woman, then the artist and her work. I would like the film to be uncompromising, pure and uncluttered – as close as possible to Séraphine and the sensuality that distinguished her relationship to nature. Without overplaying the irrational aspects, I’d like to show the world as she saw it – sensing an invisible presence through expressions, absences, whispers. We have to enter Séraphine’s art, her suffering and rejection; experience with her the obsessive sense of purpose that makes for great art, and the sublimation of her sexuality in her relationship to her materials, in order to see grace emerge... the grace that led her into the realms of madness.
SERAPHINE Festival Participation/Awards: Toronto IFF Festival du Film Francophone d’Angoulême: Etoile d’or (meilleure actrice), Prix lumière (meilleure actrice), Valois d’or- Prix d’interprétation féminine Cairo IFF: Grand Prix Le Caire Gand New York, Rendez-vous with French Cinema Portland IFF ColCoa FF Newport: Best actor, best actress, best director, best film, best screenplay Edinburgh IFF 7 César: Meilleur Film – Meilleure actrice – Meilleur scenario – Meilleure photographie – Meilleur costumes – Meilleurs décors – meilleure musique
Martin Provost
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
UK 90 min
Directed by: Danny Boyle Written by: Simon Beaufoy Producer: Christian Colson Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle Main cast: Dev Patel (Jamal), Frieda Pinto (Latika)
Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s ‘‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ Arrested on suspicion of cheating, he tells the police the incredible story of his life on the streets, and of the girl he loved and lost. But what is a kid with no interest in money doing on the show? And how is it he knows all the answers?
Production: Celador Films 39 Long Acre London WC2E 9LG, UK tel. 44 207 845 6800
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World Sales: Pathe International 14-17 Market Place, Kent House London W1w 8AR, UK tel. +44 207 323 5151
Press: see World Sales
SELECTION www.slumdogmillionairemovie.co.uk
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE Festival Participation/Awards: Austin FF 2008: Audience Award Chicago IFF 2008: Audience Choice Award IFF Rotterdam: Audience Award Toronto IFF 2008: People’s Choice Award 8 Academy Awards (Oscar) 2009 incl. Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Cinematography, Directing, Editing. 7 BAFTA Awards 2009 incl. Best Film, Cinematography, Director, Editing 3 Golden Globes 2009 incl. Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Danny Boyle One of the UK’s finest directors, Danny Boyle has a wide spectrum of critically acclaimed and commercially successful film credits: SHALLOW GRAVE, TRAINSPOTTING, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY, THE BEACH, ALIEN LOVE TRIANGLE, 28 DAYS LATER, MILLIONS and SUNSHINE. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is his eighth international theatrically released film. Danny Boyle
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
Greece 113 min Directed by: Panos H. Koutras Written by: Panos H. Koutras & Panayiotis Evangelidis Produced by: Panos H. Koutras Director of photography: Olympia Mitilinaiou Main cast: Mina Orfanou (Strella), Yiannis Kokiasmenos (Yiorgos), Minos Theoharis (Alex), Betty Vakalidou (Mary)
Yorgos is released from prison after 14 years of incarceration for a murder he committed in his small Greek village. He spends his first night out in a cheap downtown hotel in Athens. There he meets Strella, a young transsexual prostitute. They spend the night together and soon they fall in love. But the past is catching up with Yorgos. With Strella on his side he will have to find a new way out.
Production: Panos H.Koutras Themistocleous 80 Athens 10681 GREECE tel: +30210 3807870 pcoutras@otenet.gr
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World Sales: Films Distribution 34, rue du Louvre 75001 Paris FRANCE tel: +33 1 53 10 33 99 fax +33 1 53 10 33 98 accueil2@filmsdistribution.com
SELECTION strellamovie.wordpress.com
Director’s Statement: STRELLA is the kind of story told at dinner parties, a kind of urban legend. These stories usually capture an element of mass consciousness, making direct references to archetypical myths, most often Greek. Which is exactly what STRELLA’s heroes are: Greeks, living in a country both ancient and contemporary, where the need for a new European identity and a new value system is more pressing than ever. Torn between east and west, Greece has to revise its cultural heritage without preconceptions and find a way to face the future. Panos H. Koutras Born in Athens. He studied at the London Film School and in Paris at the Sorbonne 1. He made several short films until 1995 when he founded the film company 100% Synthetic Film Ltd. with Ion Konstas in Athens and coproduced, wrote and directed his first feature, THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT MOUSAKA (www.mousakas.com), a subversive camp satire about modern Greece. It was released in 1999 in Greece provoking a strong reaction and in 2001 in France and Japan where it was welcomed as a gay extravaganza. It participated in more than twenty film festivals around the world among which many LGBT. It is considered a modern cult classic. REAL LIFE (www.alithinizoi.gr), his second feature, a dark, twisted melodrama about family and class values, is released in 2004 and is his first attempt at a more mainstream audience. The film participated in the Toronto Film Festival in 2004 and won the Greek Film Critics Award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece the same year. STRELLA is his third feature. A totally independent production, it was shot in 2007 over the period of 10 months. It was completed in 2009 and participated in the Berlin Film Festival (Panorama) in February of the same year.
Α WOMAN’S WAY - STRELLA Festival Participation/Awards: 59th Berlin IFF, Panorama 25th Freiburg Gay FF 28th Istanbul IFF Seattle IFF 2009 6th Tel Aviv International LGBT FF: Best Narrative Feature Festival International Du Film De La Rochelle 2009 20th Espoo Cine (Finland)
Panos H. Koutras Filmography: 1999 THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT MOUSAKA 2004 REAL LIFE 2009 STRELLA
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
TATARAK SWEET RUSH
Poland 84 min
Written & directed by: Andrzej Wajda Produced by: Michał Kwieciński, Leszek Andrzej Wyszyński & Waldemar Dąbrowski Director of photography: Paweł Edelman Main cast: Krystyna Janda (Mrs. Marta), Paweł Szajda (Boguś), Jan Englert (Doctor), Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak (Marta’s Friend)
A middle-aged woman, Marta (Krystyna Janda), wife of a small town doctor, doesn’t know about her terminal illness. One day Marta meets a much younger man, Boguś (Paweł Szajda), and is fascinated by his youth and simplicity. Their innocent “dates” at the shores of the river, marked by mutual fascination, are put to an end by a sudden and cruel twist of fate: it is Boguś who dies first, drowning, entangled in the roots of the sweet rush he was carrying for Marta. But this is just a first layer of this multidimensional tale: Sweet Rush is also a film on making a film and Andrzej Wajda is intertwining the story with real-life monologues of Krystyna Janda dealing with the premature death of her husband, the acclaimed cinematographer Edward Kłosiński. Sweet Rush is a subtle and touching story of impossible love and, at the same time, the director’s personal account of things eternal: love coming too late and death coming always too early. Director’s Statement: After three cinematographic encounters with Iwaszkiewicz’s prose, (Birch Wood, The Maids of Wilko, June Night) I had often been thinking of another of his stories, Tatarak, but the idea for a feature length film had always been delayed by the brevity of the story. Of course, I could have combined it with another story. However, such a literary masterpiece contained within it a self-sufficient organism, which would be unlikely to absorb external bodies. Eventually, after years of wavering I came across another story which was to complement Tatarak and which provided me with the impetus to start production. Then, quite unexpectedly, I was informed by Krystyna Janda that she couldn’t participate because of her husband’s serious illness. It was Edward Kłosiński – my great friend and cinematographer on my films Man of Marble, The Promised Land,
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Orchestra Conductor and Man of Iron. By the time we started shooting, a year later, he had died. In spite of this I continued with the original version of the script, the starting point for which was the story of Tatarak. When we were towards the end of shooting the final episode with doctor’s wife Marta, and a young man, Boguś, Krystyna handed me a couple of pages that she herself had written. To my surprise, what I read was her description of the final days of the life of Edward Kłosiński. “Is this for me personally or do you want everyone to know about it through the film?” When she admitted that she wanted to share her experience with others, I realized that every day she returned to her hotel and, in her solitude, mused on those thoughts. Instantly, my mind conjured up those images by Hopper of lonely women in their hotel rooms. And then I was greatly helped by Paweł Edelman, my director of photography on Sweet Rush, who suggested that only by using a totally immobile camera could we achieve what we wanted from these scenes in our film. I was 27 when I started my first film and at that time I thought we were all living just for filmmaking and that real life was purely an extension to our work. Now I know that even an actor who is totally devoted to performing still preserves an inner self because no illusion can substitute for reality. That is why I so appreciated the confessions of Krystyna, the film’s Marta. My desire to film the story of Tatarak had always been motivated by my wish to work with Krystyna Janda once again. Years ago she had started her film career in my picture Man of Marble. Thanks to these two circumstances, one with the Iwaszkiewicz prose and the other with Krystyna Janda taking the role of Marta, I have again found my own self. Whether this is visible in the film is not for me to judge. Andrzej Wajda Film and theatre director. Born on 6 March 1926 in Suwałki, Poland. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and the Film School in Łódź. Senator of the Republic of Poland 1989-91. Received numerous awards and prizes, including: BAFTA Fellowship 1982; Onassis Prize, Greece 1982; Oficier de la Légion d’Honneur 1982 France; Cesar Award, France 1983; Pirandello Artistic Award, Italy 1986; Kyoto Prize, Japan 1987; “Felix” European Film AwardsLifetime Achievement Award 1990; Order of Rising Sun, Japan 1995; Premium Imperiale, Japan 1997; Golden Lion Life Achievement Award, Venice,1998; OSCAR Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - Lifetime Achievement Award 2000; Commandeur de la Légion d`honneur France 2001; Golden Bear Life Achievement Award, IFF Berlin 2006.
www.filmtatarak.pl
SWEET RUSH Festival Participation/Awards: 59th Berlin IFF: Alfred Bauer Award Istanbul IFF, Out of competition (OOC) Transilvania IFF, OOC Yerevan Golden Apricot IFF, OOC Moscow IFF, OOC Karlove Vary IFF, OOC Split IFF, OOC Melbourne IFF, OOC NY IFF, OOC Locarno IFF, OOC Pusan IFF, OOC
Andrzej Wajda Filmography: 1954 GENERATION 1955 I’M GOING TO THE SUN 1957 ASHES AND DIAMONDS 1959 LOTNA 1960 INNOCENT SORCERERS 1961 SAMSON 1962 LOVE AT TWENTY 1965 POPIOŁY (Ashes) 1969 EVERYTHING FOR SALE HUNTING FLIES 1970 LANDSCAPE AFTER THE BATTLE THE BIRCH WOOD 1973 WESELE (The Wedding) 1975 THE PROMISED LAND 1977 MAN OF MARBLE 1978 WITHOUT ANESTHESIA 1979 THE MAIDS OF WILKO 1981 MAN OF IRON 1982 DANTON 1983 A LOVE IN GERMANY 1986 CHRONICLE OF LOVE AFFAIRS 1987 THE POSSESSED 1990 KORCZAK 1992 THE CROWNED – EAGLE RING 1994 NASTASYA 1995 THE HOLY WEEK 2002 ZEMSTA (The Revenge) 2007 KATYŃ 2008 TATARAK (Sweet Rush)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
THE TIME THAT REMAINS
France 105 min
Written & Directed by: Elia Suleiman Produced by: Michael Gentile & Elia Suleiman Director of photography: Marc-André Batigne Main cast: Elia Suleiman (Elia), Saleh Bakri (Fuad), Leila Muammar (Thuraya)
THE TIME THAT REMAINS is a semi biographic film divided in four historic episodes, about a family, spanning from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired of Elia Suleiman’s father’s diary of his personal accounts, starting from when he was a resistant fighter in 1948 and his mother’s letters written to family members who were forced to leave the country since then. The film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained in their land and were labelled “Israeli-Arabs” living as a minority in their own homeland.
Production: The Film Michael Gentile Hôtel de Retz 9 rue Charlot 75003 Pairs FRANCE mgentile@thefilm.fr
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SELECTION www.letempsquilreste-lefilm.com
THE TIME THAT REMAINS Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009, Official Selection
Elia Suleiman Filmography: 1991 INTRODUCTION TO THE END OF AN ARGUMENT (45’) 1992 HOMMAGE PAR ASSASSINAT (28’) (Takreem Bilkatl) 1996 CHRONIQUE D’UNE DISPARITION (Segell ikhtifa) 1998 RÊVE ARABE (30’) 2000 CYBER PALESTINE (16’) 2002 INTERVENTION DIVINE (Yadon ilaheyya) 2007 CHACUN SON CINÉMA OU CE PETIT COUP AU CŒUR QUAND LA LUMIÈRE S’ÉTEINT ET QUE LE FILM COMMENCE (segment «Irtebak») 2009 THE TIME THAT REMAINS
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
TOBRUK
Czech Republic 102 min
Directed by: Václav Marhoul Written by: Václav Marhoul (based on the Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane) Produced by: Václav Marhoul Director of photography: Vladimír Smutný Main cast: Jan Meduna (private Pospíchal), Petr Vaněk (private Lieberman), Robert Nebřenský (corporal Kohák)
North Africa, WWll, Fall 1941. Jiri Pospichal, 20 years old, signs up as a volunteer in the Czechoslovak army. His naive ideas about heroism are rawly confronted with the hell of the African desert, complicated relationships in his unit and the ubiquitous threat of death. All this takes its cruel toll in the shape of his gradual loss of self respect and courage. He is full of self-confidence and patriotic ideals, yet at the same time is deeply frustrated by his father, whom he views as a collaborator. His closest companion is a Jewish soldier, Jan Lieberman, in many ways more mature. Their opposite, in turn, is Corporal Kohák, a former member of the French Foreign Legion, for whom warfare is above all a profession The psychological drama between these three characters, the differing attitudes and personalities of each of them, are, during the course of the story and most clearly in its dramatic climax, brought into confrontation with a clear and harsh test of the moral character of all.
Production: SILVER SCREEN, s.r.o. Palác Lucerna Vodickova 36 110 00 Praha 1, CZECH REPUBLIC tel. +420 296 236 491 fax +410 296 236 493 silverscreen@oasanet.cz
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World Sales: INTRAMOVIES SRL Via E. Manfredi 15 00197 Rome, ITALY tel. +39 348 540 1397 fax +39 068 076 156 j.nuyts@intramovies.com
Press: 2MEDIA.CZ Nový Svet 85/19 118 00 Praha 1 Hradcany CZECH REPUBLIC tel. +420 602 667 755 pavlina@2media.cz
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Director’s Statement: There are two types of war films. The first is a filmic record of a given historical event, which reflects that event externally, in formal terms, and tends to disregard the individual destinies of the soldiers involved. The other approach (and the one adopted by this film) is to express the inner feelings of people who have found themselves in a tense situation, the story of an individual, in which history serves solely as the setting for an individual destiny. What is essential for a good war film is the representation of real life not through ideas but by means of specific dramatic action whose effectiveness lies in its raw portrayal of imminent death and the reliving of that extreme situation. The dramatic tension derives not so much from the individual battles but from how they are subjectively experienced and perceived by the protagonists. There is no need for an external plot: fear and the overcoming of fear speak for themselves. Some regard truthful war films as an attack on trumpeted patriotism, whereas in fact they are the only way to truly express those values. Václav Marhoul Born on 30 January 1960 in Prague. After completing studies at the renowned Prague Film Academy (FAMU), he spent several years working with the Prazská pětka (Prague Five) theatre group, the artists group Tvrdohlaví (The Hardheaded), and above all the Barrandov film studios: starting in 1984 as a production assistant and eventually working his way to deputy producer. In particular, he assisted in the production of films involving the actordirector Tomás Vorel such as PRAZSKÁ PĚTKA (Prague Five) and KOUŘ (The Smoke). At the start of the 1990s, he became part of the Barrandov studio management, serving for seven years as its CEO. In 1997, he founded the company Silver Screen, devoted above all to the production of full-length Czech films. 1998 witnessed the first film distribution by the company, the film POSTEL (The Bed) by director Oskar Reif, in which Marhoul acted as producer with Jan Bílek. In 2003, his company created its first full-length feature, MAZANÝ FILIP (Smart Phillip), and in 2008, TOBRUK. In addition to these achievements, Václav Marhoul continues to appear as an actor with the Basement Theatre (Divadlo SKLEP) along with occasional appearances in films and TV serials (e.g. Skřítek, Redakce, Gympl, Horákovi, Expozitura). He is a member of the presidium and governing board of the Czech Academy of Film and Television. In 2003, his debut film MAZANÝ FILIP (Smart Phillip) marked his breakthrough as a director. He certified himself as a director when in 2009 Czech Academy of Film and Televison Arts nominated his film TOBRUK in nine categories, among them for the best script, the best direction and the best movie.
www.tobruk.com
TOBRUK Festival Participation/Awards: XV Eurocine Festival de Cine Europeo en Colombia What´s hot in Europe, New York Finále Plzeň 2009, Czech Republic 31st Moscow IFF 44th Karlovy Vary IFF River Film Fest Písek 2009
Václav Marhoul
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
TURNEJA THE TOUR
Serbia / Bosnia & Herzegovina / Croatia / Slovenia 107 min
Written & directed by: Goran Marković Produced by: Svetozar Cvetković & Tihomir Stanić Director of photography: Radoslav Vladić Main cast: Tihomir Stanić (Stanislav), Jelenda Djokić (Jadranka), Dragan Nikolić (Miško), Mira Furlan (Sonja), Josif Tatić (Žaki), Gordan Kičić (Lale), Slavko Štimac (Djuro), Sergej Trifunović (Panter’s leader)
1993, the bleakest time of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A group of actors from Belgrade, utterly unaware of what they’re setting themselves up for, embark on a search for quick earnings – on a “tour” around the Serbian Krajina. However, there they are thrust into the heart of war and begin to wander from warfront to warfront, from one army to the next. During their horrible journey they meet Serbian, Muslim and Croatian fighters, are faced with hopeless situations but always seem to work their way out of them. Their naivety, which puts them in the midst of these horrific events in the first place, is also what saves them. While putting their acting skills to use, they manage to save themselves from perilous situations they encounter every step of the way. During their “tour”, filled with various ordeals and serious humiliation, they preserve the quality that every actor must have – a childish passion for play. That quality is so far removed from what is in the souls of the people who are at war that it leaves the fiends around them perplexed and protects the group of actors during their entire journey, as a sort of guardian angel. A few days later,they return to their theatre as different people. The war had changed them: they are no longer the innocent, child-like creatures who look forward to play but people with a dark shadow cast over their souls.
Production: Testament filmS d.o.o. Nebojšina 30/2 11000 Belgrade, SERBIA tel. +381 63 23 43 23 fax +381 11 3236 215 svetozarc@atelje212.rs
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World Sales: Eurovision Fiction L’ Ancienne-Route 17A CP45 1218 Grand-Saconnex (GE) SWITZERLAND tel. +41 (22) 717 28 83 fax +41 (22) 747 44 15 jeanrenaud@ebu.ch
SELECTION www.testament-films.rs/tour/
Director’s Statement: Every film about war is by definition an anti-war film. Art is by nature on the side of man, on the side of life, and against destruction and death. Thus, there need be no dilemma when it comes to the viewpoint The Tour is taking: this film will be heavily engaged in condemning the bloody events which recently took place on the territory of former Yugoslavia. However, what is special about this film is its perspective about that horrific war. It will be presented through a special group of actors who view the world a bit differently than the rest. The actors are at the same time a serious and frivolous sort. The nature of their art contains something very childish but also very, very deep. They often act like children, unaware of the complexity of the tasks life sets before them, but also like creatures who are able better than anyone else to adapt the essence of man’s destiny into something comprehensible to all. They are both children and philosophers, irresponsible yet very engaged, superficial yet passionate. The paradoxical position of the actor facing the atrocities of war is the main theme of this story. All the horrible things will be presented in a somewhat comic manner, with humorous situations easily developing into tragic ones. This film will be a classic road movie by type, but its more specific classification would be a war comedy or a tragicomedy, if you will. Goran Marković Son of Rade and Olivera Markovic - two highly reputed Yugoslav actors. He studied film directing (1965-1970) in Prague at the Film Academy (FAMU), with professor Zemen. He belongs to the so-called “Czech School” group of Yugoslav directors, which include Goran Paskaljevic, Srdjan Karanovic, Lordan Zafranovic, Rajko Grlic, Emir Kusturica.... The same Academy was attended (in the previous generation) by Milos Forman, Jurzi Mencl, Vera Hitilova etc. At the Academy he was taught literature by Milan Kundera and film directing by Elmar Kloss.
THE TOUR Festival Participation/Awards: WFF Montreal 2008: best director official competition; best film FIPRESCI award Pusan IFF Cairo IFF Sofia IFF, competition Jerusalem FF Seville European FF, Eurimages competition Thessaloniki IFF 2008: Fischer Public Choice Award Istanbul IFF Ankara FF, competition Copenhagen FF, competition München FF Palm Springs IFF, competition Washington DC IFF Napoli FF 2009: Premio Vesuvio Award Scultura in bronzo La Rochelle FF Goran Marković Filmography: 1977 SPECIJALNO VASPITANJE (Special Education) 1979 NACIONALNA KLASA (National Class Category Up to 785 ccm) 1980 MAJSTORI, MAJSTORI! (All That Jack’s) 1982 VARIOLA VERA 1985 TAJVANSK A KANASTA (Taiwan Canasta) 1987 VEC VIDJENO (Deja vu) 1989 SABIRNI CENTAR (The Meeting Point) 1992 TITO I JA (Tito and Me) 1995 URNEBESNA TRAGEDIJA 2001 SERBIE, ANNÉE ZÉRO (Serbia, Year Zero) 2002 KORDON (The Cordon) 2008 TURNEJA (The Tour)
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
UZAK İHTİMAL WRONG ROSARY
Turkey 90 min
Directed by: Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun Written by: Tarık Tufan, Görkem Yeltan & Bektaş Topaloğlu Produced by: Ismail Kılıçarslan, Tulin Çetinkol Soyarslan, Tarık Tufan & Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun Director of photography: Refik Çakar Main cast: Nadir Saribacak (Musa), Görkem Yeltan (Clara), Ersan Uysal (Yakup)
The young muezzin Musa visits Istanbul for the first time in his life when he is assigned to a mosque in Galata, Istanbul. Musa is lodged in to an apartment provided for him. His next door neighbors are Sister Anna and Clara who is taking care of her. An excitement and at the same time, a warm kind of sensation is emerged through the encounter of Clara, whose life is stuck between home and church and Musa, who comes to Istanbul to start a new life. At the beginning he was even hesitant to confess himself, but as time passes, the young muezzin’s love for Clara pervades all his life. Another story emerges when Musa and Yakup, who is a bibliopole, come across at the church which Clara attends regularly. Little surprises come out of the stories of three intersecting lives - Clara, Musa the muezzin and Mr. Yakup the bibliopole.
Production: HOKUS FOKUS Yeniyuva Sokak No:7/2 34433 Cihangir/Istanbul TURKEY tel. +90 212 252 47 63 fax +90 212 249 94 35 mahmutfazil@gmail.com info@hokusfokusfilm.com
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World Sales: see Production
Press: see Production
SELECTION www.wrongrosary.com
WRONG ROSARY Festival Participation/Awards: IFF Rotterdam 2009: Tiger Award İstanbul IFF 2009: Best Director Award, Best Actor Award, Best Screenplay Award 16th Golden Boll FF: Best Director Award , Best Actor Award, Best Actress Award Crossing Europe FF: Best Film FF Tofifest 2009: Special Award of the Jury
Director’s Statement: Istanbul is a rare city which shelters interesting stories within its colourful socio-cultural and religious environment. The cities where great ancient cultures had dwelt provide opportunities for vivid relations to arouse between its inhabitants. We believe that these cities have the power to add different meanings to the experience of everyday. Our aim in Wrong Rosary is to capture and reveal these deep and vivid sensations. This film follows a love story that could only take place in Istanbul or somewhere alike. Wrong Rosary is the story of three people who live in Istanbul, Galata. A Muezzin who has just arrived to Istanbul from the country, a young orphan girl who lives with the care of the church and who wants to be a nun and an old bouquiniste who is a native of Istanbul... Our starting point is to achieve a romantic but still realistic narration which makes use of this vivid atmosphere as a background to the story of the young muezzin’s love for the girl who dreams to be a nun. We strived to convey the humane instances that occur at the intersections of different cultures and religions through a minimalistic film language that carries a tone of humour.
Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun
Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun was born in 1973 and studied film at UCLA and Istanbul Bilgi University. He has been working professinally as a documentary and commercial director since 2000. Wrong Rosary is his first film.
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
VINCERE
Italy 128 min
Directed by: Marco Bellocchio Written by: Marco Bellocchio & Daniela Ceselli Produced by: Mario Gianani Director of photography: Daniele Cipri’ Main cast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Ida Dalser), Filippo Timi (Benito Mussolini), Michela Cescon (Rachele Guidi), Fausto Russo Alesi (Riccardo Paicher), Piergiorgio Bellocchio (Pietro Fedele)
When Ida meets Mussolini in Milan, he is the editor of L’Avanti! and an ardent Socialist who intends to guide the masses towards an anti-clerical, anti-monarchical, socially emancipated future. Ida already had a fleeting encounter with him in Trento and remained thunderstruck. Ida truly believes in him and his ideas. In order to finance Il Popolo d’Italia, a newspaper he has founded and the nucleus of the forthcoming Fascist Party, Ida sells everything she has. When the First World War erupts, Benito Mussolini enrols in the Army and disappears. When Ida finds him again in a military hospital, he is tended to by Rachele whom he has just married. Ida lashes out at her rival furiously, demanding her rights as Mussolini’s true wife and the mother of his first-born son. She is led away by force. For more than eleven years, she is locked away in an insane asylum (and her son in an institute) where she is put under physical restraint and tortured, never to see her son again. But Ida will not give up without a fight...
Production: Offside Srl Viale G. Mazzini 11 00195 Rome ITALY tel. +39 0645437597 fax +39 0645437803 info@offsidefilm.it
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World Sales: Celluloid Dreams 2 rue Turgot 75009 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 49 70 03 70 fax +33 1 49 70 03 71 info@celluloid-dreams.com
Press: RAI Cinema piazza Adriana 12 Paola Delle Fratte Roma ITALY tel. +39 0668470525
SELECTION www.offsidefilm.it www.01distribution.it
VINCERE Festival Participation/Awards: Cannes FF 2009 FICE Parma & Bologna 2009 Nastro d’Argento Taormina 2009 Globo d’Oro Rome 2009 Jerusalem FF 2009 Espoo 2009 Norwegian FF Oslo 2009 Telluride FF 2009 Toronto IFF 2009 Premiere Australia 2009 Bangkok FF 2009 Haifa IFF 2009 Pusan IFF 2009 London FF 2009 Tokyo IFF 2009 Prize Chioma di Berenice Roma 2009 N.I.C.E. USA 2009
Director’s Statement: I wasn’t interested in highlighting and exposing the vileness of the Fascist regime. However, I was greatly struck by this woman and her absolute refusal to accept any kind of compromise. After all, she could have easily agreed to go back into the shadows and perhaps, may have been generously rewarded, which happened with so many other mistresses of Mussolini’s. Marco Bellocchio Marco Bellocchio was born in Piacenza, Italy, in 1939. In 1959 he interrupted his philosophical studies at the University Cattolica in Milan to enter the cinema school Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. Between 1961 and 1962 he made the shortfilms ABBASSO LO ZIO, LA COLPA E LA PENA and GINEPRO FATTO UOMO and then he moved to London to attend the Slade School of Fine Arts. Bellocchio won international fame with his first feature, the powerful incest drama I PUGNI IN TASCA (Fist in His Pocket) which was presented at the Locarno IFF in 1965. Marco Bellocchio was part of the Official Jury for feature films in Cannes 2007.
Marco Bellocchio Filmography: 1965 FIST IN HIS POCKET 1967 CHINA IS NEAR 1967 DISCUTIAMO, DISCUTIAMO 1969 PAOLA 1969 VIVA IL PRIMO MAGGIO ROSSO 1971 IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER 1972 SLAP THE MONSTER ON PAGE ONE 1974 NESSUNO O TUTTI (later known as MATTI DA SLEGARE) 1976 VICTORY MARCH 1977 IL GABBIANO (The Seagull) 1979 THE CINEMA MACHINE 1980 VACATION IN VAL TREBBIA 1980 A LEAP IN THE DARK 1982 THE EYES, THE MOUTH 1984 ENRICO IV (Henry IV) 1986 DEVIL IN THE FLESH 1988 THE SABBATH 1990 THE CONVICTION 1994 THE BUTTERFLY’S DREAM 1996 THE PRINCE OF HOMBURG 1999 LA BALIA (The Nanny) 2002 THE RELIGION HOUR 2002 ADDIO DEL PASSATO 2004 GOOD MORNING, NIGHT 2006 THE WEDDING DIRECTOR 2006 SORELLE (Sisters) 2009 VINCERE
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
DAS WEISSE BAND THE WHITE RIBBON
Germany / Austria / France / Italy 145 min
Written & directed by: Michael Haneke Produced by: Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz, Margaret Menegoz & Andrea Occhipinti Director of photography: Christian Berger Main cast: Christian Friedel (The Schoolteacher), Leonie Benesch (Eva), Ulrich Tukur (The Baron), Ursina Lardi (Marie-Louise, The Baroness), Burghart Klaußner (The Pastor), Steffi Kühnert (Anna, his wife), Josef Bierbichler (The Steward), Gabriela Maria Schmeide (Emma, his wife), Rainer Bock (The Doctor), Susanne Lothar (Midwife)
A village in Protestant northern Germany. 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I. The story of the children and teenagers of a church and school choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all?
Production: X Filme Creative Pool Kurfürstenstr. 57 10785 Berlin, GERMANY tel. +49 30 230 833 11 fax +49 30 230 833 22 info@x-filme.de
Les Films du Losange 22, av Pierre 1er de Serbie 75116 Paris, FRANCE tel. +33- 1 444 387 10 fax +33- 1 444 387 40 production@filmsdulosange.fr
World Sales: see Films du Losange a.valentin@filmsdulosange.fr l.zipci@filmsdulosange.fr
Wega Film Haegelingasse 13 1140 Vienna, AUSTRIA tel. +43- 1 982 57 42 fax +43- 1 982 58 33 office@wega-film.at
Lucky Red Via Antonio Chinotto 16 00195 Rome, ITALY tel. +39 - 06 3735 2296 fax +39 - 06 3735 2310 info@luckyred.it
Press: see Les Films du Losange
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SELECTION www.dasweisseband.x-verleih.de www.filmsdulosange.fr/inter/uk_ prochainement_rubanblanc.html
THE WHITE RIBBON Festival Participation/Awards: Pusan IFF 2009 New York FF 2009 Toronto IFF 2009 Telluride FF 2009 Espoo Ciné IFF 2009 Norwegian IFF Haugesund 2009 Montenegro FF 2009 Motovun FF 2009 Melbourne IFF 2009 Era New Horizons IFF 2009 European FF Palić 2009 New Zealand IFF 2009 Karlovy Vary IFF 2009 Filmfest München 2009: CineMerit Award (Michael Haneke) Moscow IFF 2009 Cannes FF 2009: Palme d’Or, FIPRESCI Prize to a film in competition, Special Mention by the Oecumenic Jury
Michael Haneke Filmography: 1988 DER SIEBENTE KONTINENT (The Seventh Continent) 1992 BENNY’S VIDEO 1995 71 FRAGMENTE EINER CHRONOLOGIE DES ZUFALLS (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance) 1997 FUNNY GAMES 1997 DAS SCHLOSS (The Castle) 2000 CODE INCONNU (Code Unknown) 2001 LA PIANISTE (The Piano Teacher) 2003 LE TEMPS DU LOUP (Time of the Wolf) 2005 CACHÉ 2007 FUNNY GAMES U.S
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
WELCOME
France 110 min
Directed by: Philippe Lioret Written by: Philippe Lioret, Olivier Adam & Emmanuel Courcol Produced by: Christophe Rossignon Director of photography: Laurent Dailland Main cast: Vincent Lindon (Simon), Firat Ayverdi (Bilal), Audrey Dana (Marion), Derya Ayverdi (Mina), Thierry Godard (Bruno), Selim Akgül (Zorban)
Bilal, a young 17-year-old Kurdish boy, has travelled through the Middle East and Europe to join his girlfriend, freshly immigrated to England. But his journey comes to an abrupt end when he is stopped on the French side of the Channel. Having decided to swim across, Bilal goes to the local swimming pool to train. There he meets Simon, a swimming instructor in the midst of a divorce. To impress his wife and win back her heart, Simon decides to risk everything by taking Bilal under his wing.
Production: NORD-OUEST FILMS 41, rue de la Tour d’Auvergne 75009 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 20 47 20 fax +33 1 53 20 47 21 contact@nord-ouest.fr
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World Sales: FILMS DISTRIBUTION 34 rue du Louvre 75001 Paris FRANCE tel. +33 1 53 10 33 99 fax +33 1 53 10 33 98 info@filmsdistribution.com
Press: VIVIANA ANDRIANI 32, rue Godot de Mauroy 75009 Paris FRANCE tel./fax +33 1 42 66 36 35 Viviana.andriani@wanadoo.fr
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WELCOME Festival Participation/Awards: Berlin IFF 2009, Panorama COLCOA 2009 Istanbul IFF 2009 Seattle IFF 2009 Cannes IFF 2009
Philippe Lioret Filmography: 1993 TO MBÉS DU CIEL (Lost in Transit) 1997 TE NUE CORECTE EXIGÉE 2001 MADEMOISELE 2004 L ’ÉQUIPIER (The Light) 2006 JE VAIS BIEN, NE T’EN FAIS PAS (Don’t Worry, I’m Fine) 2009 WELCOME
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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
Index of films – Original Titles 33 SCENY Z ZYCIA .......................................................... LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS .................................................... ALLE ANDEREN ............................................................... ANTICHRIST .................................................................... APAFÖLD ........................................................................ DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX .................................. BROTHERS ..................................................................... BUMAZHNY SOLDAT ....................................................... CAMINO .......................................................................... COCO AVANT CHANEL .................................................... EASTERN PLAYS ............................................................. FISH TANK ...................................................................... FRYGTELIG LYKKELIG ...................................................... HAKOL MATHIL BAYAM .................................................... JERICHOW ....................................................................... KALAT HAYAM ................................................................. KÄSKY ............................................................................. KISSES ............................................................................ DER KNOCHENMANN ...................................................... KYNODONTAS ................................................................. LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN ............................................. LILLE SOLDAT ................................................................. LOFT ............................................................................... LOOKING FOR ERIC ......................................................... MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR ............................................ MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA ÖGONBLICK ............................ MAX MANUS ................................................................... NICIJI SIN ........................................................................ NORD ............................................................................. OORLOGSWINTER ........................................................... PANDORANIN KUTUSU .................................................... POLITIST, ADJECTIV ........................................................ PRANZO DI FERRAGOSTO ............................................... UN PROPHETE ................................................................ QUESTIONE DI CUORE .................................................... THE READER .................................................................. RETORNO A HANSALA .................................................... SERAPHINE ..................................................................... SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE .................................................. STRELLA ........................................................................ TATARAK ......................................................................... THE TIME THAT REMAINS ............................................... TOBRUK .......................................................................... TURNEJA ......................................................................... UZAK İHTİMAL ................................................................ VINCERE ........................................................................ DAS WEISSE BAND ......................................................... WELCOME ...................................................................... 100
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98
Index of films – English Titles 33 SCENES FROM LIFE .................................................... ANTICHRIST .................................................................... THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX .................................. BONE MAN, THE ............................................................. BROKEN EMBRACES ....................................................... BROTHERS ..................................................................... CAMINO .......................................................................... COCO BEFORE CHANEL .................................................. DOGTOOTH .................................................................... EASTERN PLAYS .............................................................. EVERLASTING MOMENTS ................................................ EVERYONE ELSE ............................................................. FATHER’S ACRE .............................................................. FISH TANK ...................................................................... THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO ........................... IT ALL BEGINS AT SEA .................................................... JAFFA .............................................................................. JERICHOW ....................................................................... KISSES ............................................................................ LET THE RIGHT ONE IN ................................................... LITTLE SOLDIER .............................................................. LOFT ............................................................................... LOOKING FOR ERIC ......................................................... A MATTER OF HEART ...................................................... MAX MANUS..................................................................... MID-AUGUST LUNCH ....................................................... NO ONE’S SON ............................................................... NORTH ............................................................................ PANDORA’S BOX ............................................................. PAPER SOLDIER .............................................................. POLICE, ADJECTIVE ......................................................... A PROPHET ..................................................................... THE READER ................................................................... RETURN TO HANSALA .................................................... SERAPHINE ..................................................................... SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE .................................................. SWEET RUSH .................................................................. TEARS OF APRIL ............................................................. TERRIBLY HAPPY ............................................................. THE TIME THAT REMAINS ............................................... TOBRUK .......................................................................... THE TOUR ....................................................................... VINCERE ........................................................................ WELCOME ...................................................................... THE WHITE RIBBON ........................................................ WINTER IN WARTIME ...................................................... A WOMAN’S WAY - STRELLA ........................................... WRONG ROSARY ............................................................
4 10 14 40 6 16 20 22 42 24 54 8 12 26 52 30 34 32 38 44 46 48 50 72 56 68 58 60 64 18 66 70 74 76 78 80 74 36 28 86 88 90 94 98 96 62 82 92
Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy (EFA) now unites more than 2,000 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting European film culture. Throughout the year, the EFA initiates and participates in a series of activities dealing with film politics as well as economic, artistic, and training aspects. The programme includes conferences, seminars and workshops, and a common goal is to build a bridge between creativity and the industry. These activities culminate in the annual presentation of the European Film Awards. The European Film Awards 2009 are presented by the European Film Academy e.V. and EFA Productions gGmbH with the support of the Minister President and the Minister for Federal and European Affairs and the Media of North Rhine-Westphalia, Filmstiftung NRW, RUHR.2010, the German State Minister for Culture and the Media, the MEDIA Programme of the EU, FFA German Federal Film Board, and TNT Express.