ABOUT TIME
More films announced for the 2013 Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF). Director Richard Curtis’ ABOUT TIME will be the Southampton opener on Friday, October 11th and Saturday’s Centerpiece Film is AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY directed by John Wells. The Spotlight films include: BREATHE IN, FREE RIDE, HER, LABOR DAY, LOUDER THAN WORDS, MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, THE PAST and CAPITAL.This year the festival will pay special tribute to Oscar Award winning director Costa-Gavras before the screening of his latest film CAPITAL.
The Festival will host the World Premiere of AMERICAN MASTERS –MARVIN HAMLISCH: ONE SINGULAR SENSATION as well as the U.S Premiere of Oscar Winner Alex Gibney’s latest doc THE ARMSTRONG LIE about Lance Armstrong. Additional World Cinema highlights include the World Premiere of GERALDINE FERRARO: PAVING THE WAY, the North American Premiere of A FRAGILE TRUST and the Palme d’Or prize winner from the 2013 Cannes film festival, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR.
For World Cinema feature films, HIFF boasts five foreign titles in the lineup that are in contention for Academy Award consideration including THE ROCKET (Australia), THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN (Belgium), IN BLOOM (Georgia), THE NOTEBOOK (Hungary), and MOTHER, I LOVE YOU (Latvia). HIFF will also present special screenings of THE SHORT GAME, the SummerDoc Audience Award winner at the Southampton Center, and ABSOLUTE WILSON.
SPOTLIGHT FILMS
BREATHE IN (USA)
East coast Premiere
Director: Drake Doremus
As summer turns to fall, music teacher Keith (Guy Pearce) privately reminisces about his days as a starving artist in the city. When his wife Megan (Amy Ryan) and his daughter decide the family should host foreign exchange student Sophie (Felicity Jones), the British high school senior soon rekindles an impetuous aspect of Keith’s personality. Director Drake Doremus, last seen at HIFF with his stunning coming-of-age film LIKE CRAZY (also starring Jones), penetrates the family’s dysfunction and Keith’s mid-life crisis with a sensitive eye for detail.
CAPITAL “Le capital ”(France)
Director: Costa-Gavras
The acclaimed master of political thrillers such as Z and MISSING, Oscar winning director Costa-Gavras unfurls his latest nail-biter in the dog-eat-dog world of high-stakes international banking. Cutthroat corporate climber Marc Tourneuil becomes the CEO of France’s important Phenix Bank, appointed by the company’s board of directors as an interim leadership solution—or so they think. Tourneuil wields his new power with Machiavellian daring, stunning the old guard, producing dramatic financial results, and ultimately catching the scheming eye of Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne), an American hedge fund honcho and stakes holder at Phenix.
FREE RIDE(USA)
World Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Shana Betz
Set in the 1970s, FREE RIDE stars Academy Award® winner Anna Paquin (THE PIANO, HBO’s TRUE BLOOD) as a single mother who moves to Florida with her daughters in search of a better life but gets pulled into the perilous drug-trade business. This accomplished, gritty directorial debut, based on writer/director Shana Betz’s life story, delivers as both a provocative crime thriller and a powerfully rendered family portrait. Paquin’s dynamic star turn and a vivid supporting cast, including Cam Gigandet and THE SOPRANO’s Drea De Matteo help make FREE RIDE an unforgettable trip.
HER(USA)
Director/Screenwriter: Spike Jonze
Written and directed by Spike Jonze, HER is an original love story that explores the evolving nature—and the risks—of intimacy in the modern world. Set in Los Angeles in the near future, it follows Theodore, a complex, soulful man, heartbroken after the end of a relationship, who becomes intrigued with a new,advanced operating system promising to be an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. Upon initiating it, he meets “Samantha,” a bright voice who is insightful, sensitive, and surprisingly funny. As their needs and desires grow in tandem, their friendship deepens into an eventual love.
LABOR DAY(USA)
Director/Screenwriter: Jason Reitman
LABOR DAY, from writer/director Jason Reitman (UP IN THE AIR, JUNO), centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele (Kate Winslet) while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin), a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.
LOUDER THAN WORDS(USA)
World PremiereDirector: Anthony Fabian
John Fareri (David Duchovny) and his wife Brenda (Hope Davis) live an idyllic suburban life. After the sudden death of their young daughter, and deeply shaken by the less than ideal conditions of her hospital, the couple decides to build a premier children’s hospital, with the help of consultant Bruce Komiske (Timothy Hutton). Inspired by true events, this touching film portrays a family who instead of being gripped by loss created an extraordinary place of healing for thousands of ailing children and implemented a national standard for family health facilities.
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM(South Africa)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Justin Chadwick
The great Idris Elba, best known for his roles on TV’s THE WIRE and LUTHER, transforms into the legendary Nelson Mandela in this exhilarating screen adaptation of the political leader’s autobiography. Director Justin Chadwick’s (THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL) portrait charts the incredible true story of the many struggles that took Mandela from South Africa’s rural Cape region to armed struggle and arrest, and then to the president’s mansion as his nation’s first democratically elected leader. More than just a historical biopic, the film also tracks the incredible love story between Mandela and his wife Winnie, soulfully embodied by Naomie Harris.
THE PAST “Le passé”(France/Iran)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Family secrets and domestic strife lurk under the surface of this riveting new drama from Asghar Farhadi, the writer/director of A SEPARATION, the 2011 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) travels from Iran to France at the behest of his estranged wife Marie (BéréniceBejo, THE ARTIST) to finalize their divorce. Further escalating their immediate tension, Marie insists Ahmad stay in her home with live-in boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim, A PROPHET), and Samir’s children from his own stalled marriage. With this latest film, Farhadi cements his status as one of the world’s preeminent filmmakers.
The full slate of World Cinema films for the Festival is listed below.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY
AMERICAN MASTERS – MARVIN HAMLISCH: ONE SINGULAR SENSATION (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Dori Berinstein
This hugely entertaining documentary tracks the supernova career of one of our most beloved modern composers. Touched with an extraordinary musical gift, Hamlisch went from a Julliard-enrolled protégé at age of six, to the young film composer of such classics as THE WAY WE WERE and THE STING, to writing Broadway’s then most successful show of all time, A CHORUS LINE. A real showman with a love for theatrics, Hamlisch became a household name, a rare distinction for a composer. Don’t miss this rousing biographical portrait, bursting with Hamlisch’s hit music and featuring interviews with dozens of performing legends.
THE ARMSTRONG LIE (USA)
US Premiere
Director: Alex Gibney
After years of avoiding doping allegations, Lance Armstrong admitted to lying about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, an admission that led to one of the most notorious defrocks in sports history. Alex Gibney, the Academy Award®-winning documentarian behind TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, and MEA MAXIMA CULPA, masterfully pieces together raw, unseen footage and interviews from the 2009 Tour de France, documenting Armstrong’s post-cancer return to cycling and the deafening controversy surrounding his current cultural status as a shamed athlete and role model.
EMPTYING THE SKIES (USA)
North American Premiere
Director: Douglas Kass, Roger Kass
Based on a New Yorker article by best-selling writer Jonathan Franzen, EMPTYING THE SKIES chronicles the poaching of migratory birds in southern Europe and introduces us to the intrepid volunteers trying to stop it. Trapped at “pinch points” near the Mediterranean, these globetrotting songbirds are considered culinary delicacies and reap big bucks on the black market, yet many species are endangered and some face extinction. Directors Douglas and Roger Kass skillfully bring the spirit of Franzen’s words onto the screen and deservedly win this year’s Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award. Preceded by the short film, TODAY
GERALDINE FERRARO: PAVING THE WAY (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Donna Zaccaro
In 1984, New York attorney and US representative Geraldine “Gerry” Ferraro made history by accepting the Democratic Party nomination and becoming the first female vice presidential candidate. Featuring interviews with political luminaries and with Ferraro herself before her death in 2011, the documentary traces Ferraro’s journey through the peaks and valleys of political success, providing insight into the outlook of a feminist icon. Compelling and genuine, GERALDINE FERRARO paints a portrait of the woman who inspired countless future trailblazers—including Hillary Clinton, whom Ferraro assisted in the 2008 presidential nomination campaign.
THE HUMAN SCALE (Denmark)
New York Premiere
Director: Andreas Dalsgaard
After one of the worst earthquakes to hit New Zealand, the people of Christchurch took a different approach to rebuilding their city. They studied how their city could serve humans better. They studied car culture, bike lanes, and pedestrian walkways. They studied the work of Jan Gehl, the Danish architect who for 40 years has been analyzing the symbiosis of cities and their inhabitants. With emerging countries and their economies looking at the viability of urban growth, director Andreas Dalsgaard takes us around the world to see how Gehl’s seminal work is being translated within modern city centers like New York, Copenhagen, Chong Quing, and Dahka.
IF YOU BUILD IT (USA)
New York Premiere
Director: Patrick Creadon
In the poorest county in North Carolina, activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller work with students to introduce design and creativity as a tool for community improvement. Barely getting by on grants and loans, Pilloton and Miller are committed to their yearlong initiative to empower their students to reinvent themselves and their struggling community. Culminating with a final project to build a new farmers’ market pavilion, IF YOU BUILD IT, from the director of WORDPLAY, offers a vision for a new kind of classroom and examines design’s power to be an engine of civic transformation. Family Film: Ages 12 and up
HE LAST SAFARI (Kenya/USA)
World Premiere
Director: Matt Goldman
When renowned photojournalist Elizabeth L. Gilbert returns to the Rift Valley in Africa to visit the tribes she photographed just a decade earlier, she bears witness to the changes wrought on the region. After her book is published, she hires a crew from Nairobi to assist her in screening a cinema slideshow to tribes-people, like the Masai, in their remote villages. But her ambitious safari is fraught with inclement weather, security issues, and self-doubt. Matt Goldman’s first feature captures the reunions, the dramas, and ultimately the triumphs of this remarkable journey. Preceded by the short film, SKINNINGROVE
MISFIRE: THE RISE AND THE FALL OF THE SHOOTIING GALLERY (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Whitney Ransick
The Shooting Gallery was one of the premier production companies for independent film in the 1990s, responsible for art-house hits like LAWS OF GRAVITY, SLING BLADE, and YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. After the success of fellow alum Hal Hartley, a cabal of grads from SUNY Purchase decided to start a fast-paced company with a can-do, DIY attitude. But success came at a cost. Many of the original founders left, as business self-interest replaced the earlier common purpose and expansion into “new media” came to the fore. Director Whitney Ransick, one of the original crew, retells a fascinating, universal story about the “Enron of independent films. Director Whitney Ransick will participate in a Rowdy Talk on Sunday, October 13 at 10am.
RUNNING FROM CRAZY (USA)
Director: Barbara Kopple
Hopeful and heartbreaking, RUNNING FROM CRAZY opens with a vision of perfection: a blonde modeling in the wilderness. This particular pretty face, however, belongs to Mariel Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s youngest granddaughter, famous for her role in Woody Allen’s MANHATTAN. Hemingway’s family history of depression, substance abuse, and suicide is not limited to her legendary grandfather. Two-time Academy Award® winner Barbara Kopple uses fascinating archival footage of the Hemingways to explore mental illness as one of the last American taboos and the family’s struggle to heal while communicating honestly about the past. Barbara Kopple will be featured at Rowdy Talk on Friday, October 11 at 10am.
THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Brian Koppleman, David Levien
When Jimmy Connors arrived at the 1991 U.S. Open, the one-time tennis superstar was eight years removed from his last Grand Slam title, ranked 174th in the world, and approaching his 39th birthday. But on the verge of a first-round exit, Connors unexpectedly re-captured his magic, embarking on an extraordinary run than included an epic contest with Aaron Krickstein. THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT not only illuminates this improbable march past a series of talented and youthful adversaries, but also explores how Connors became a provocative personality who helped make tennis a high-octane spectator sport.
TIM’S VERMEER (USA)
Director: TellerTim
Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest art mysteries: How did 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (“Girl with a Pearl Earring”) manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? The epic research project Jenison embarks on is as extraordinary as what he discovers. Spanning a decade, the astounding documentary TIM’S VERMEER tracks Jenison to Delft, Holland, where Vermeer painted his masterpieces; on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artist David Hockney; and eventually even to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen’s Vermeer.
WORLD CINEMA NARRATIVE
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR “LA VIED’ADÈLE, CHAPITRES 1 & 2” (France)
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Based on a graphic novel, BlUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR follows the story of Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a high school junior who locks eyes on Emma (Léa Seydoux), a blue-haired college student. They soon ignite a complicated and passionate love affair. Stricken with the stress of homophobia and a turbulent relationship, their lives begin to unravel, revealing the difficulties of growing up together. Winner of the prestigious Palme D’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, this controversial feature has garnered international critical acclaim as a gritty, realistic tale of love and loss. Contains scenes of a sexually explicit nature. Featuring Léa Seydoux: Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch
BOB BIRDNOW’S REMARKABLE TALE OF HUMAN SURVIVAL AND THE TRANSCENDENCE OF SELF (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Eric Steele
Bob Birdnow is a curious candidate for a motivational speaker. Balding, crippled, and past middle-aged. He does have something no one else has though: a remarkable tale of human survival and the transcendence of self. When asked by his old friend to speak at a conference, he avoids the subject, opting for a more traditional speech. However, when forced off the script and desperate, Birdnow takes the audience on an outré, radical, and unforgettable journey that brings us face-to face with one of life’s biggest questions. Based on the hit one-man play/experimental theatre piece by HIFF alum Eric Steele. Preceded by the short film, BALANCE
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN (Belgium)
Director: Felix Van Groeningen
When Didier and Elise meet, they instinctually know they have both found their match. While his true love was once was reserved only for American bluegrass music, this fiery tattoo artist plucks away all semblance of the brutish bachelor he once was. They bond over music and culture, and dive headfirst into a sweeping romance that plays out on and off stage. When an unexpected tragedy hits, everything they know and love is tested. An intensely moving portrait of a relationship from beginning to end, THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN has been hailed by audiences internationally as a must-see film.
CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915 (France)
New York Premiere
Director: Bruno Dumont Academy Award® winner Juliette Binoche stars as the troubled French sculptor Camille Claudel, confined to a mental institution after her doomed love affair with painter Auguste Rodin. This immersive, austere film follows the ill-fated artist over the course of a week, early in her incarceration at the Avignon asylum where she will live for the rest of her life. Director Bruno Dumont and Binoche, in a career-topping performance, channel Claudel with heartbreaking clarity, detailing her struggle to maintain her intelligence and dignity amid grueling conditions and her gnawing paranoia.
CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (USA)
Director: Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels
With dialogue taken from actual black box transcripts of six real-life major airline emergencies, CHARLE VICTOR ROMEO is a haunting, riveting theatrical experience superbly translated to film by directors Robert Berger and Patrick Daniels. Started on stage in 1999 at the Collective: Unconscious Theater on the lower East Side, this compelling, almost experimental piece recreates the tense cockpit scenes word-for-word based on the CVR, or Cockpit Voice recorder. With unsparing truthfulness, the film has been embraced by the aviation community and used as a training video for pilots. It is truly unique cinema, stretching the boundaries of film, theater, and the traditional documentary.
EXIT MARRAKECH (Germany)
US Premiere Director: Caroline Link
When 17-year-old Ben visits his divorced dad Heinrich in Morocco for the summer, he realizes his dad is as foreign to him as the country itself. Struggling to reconnect, their old conflicts bubble up and eventually push Ben to leave the luxury confines of his father’s world for the wonders the exotic country has to offer. From the colorful streets of Marrakech to the Atlas Mountains, with deserts and oases in between, Academy Award®-winning director Caroline Link (NOWHERE IN AFRICA), takes us through the unexpected twists and turns of Ben’s adventures and Heinrich’s search for his son.
IN BLOOM “GRZELI NATELI DGEEB” (Georgia)
US Premiere
Director: Simon Groß, Nana Ekvtimishvili
Early Nineties, in Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast, and vigilante justice plaguing their society. But for Eka and Natia, 14-year old inseparable friends in bloom, life simply unfolds around them in the streets and at school. It rolls about as friends or elder sisters deal with the brutish dominance of the men, early marriage, and disillusioned love. With two startling lead performances by its young actresses, IN BLOOM is an evocative slice-of-life drama with the capacity to shock. Georgia’s Oscar entry.
JIMMY P. (USA)
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
WWII veteran and Native American Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro) returns from France and is admitted to the Menninger Clinic, a Kansas military mental health facility. He suffers from dizzy spells, temporary blindness, and hearing loss; yet when doctors can’t find anything wrong with him physiologically, he’s labeled a schizophrenic. In a bold move, the hospital decides to seek the opinion of Georges Devereaux (Mathieu Amalric), a French psychoanalyst and specialist in Native American culture, to try the “talking cure.” A showcase for Arnaud Desplechin’s measured direction, JIMMY P also features beguiling performances by two actors at the height of their craft.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (Japan)
Director: Hirokazu Kore-Eda
After learning their six-year-old sons were switched at birth, two families struggle to adapt to their new lives and deal with the emotional roller coaster that ensues. This powerful story explores issues of class and parenthood in modern day Japan and what lengths one will go through to keep their family together. Portrayed through moving performances and gracefully realized by master director Hirokazu Kore-Eda (STILL WALKING, NOBODY KNOWS), this stunning evocation of family dynamics and relationships was awarded the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
THE MAID’S ROOM (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Michael Walker
Drina, a young immigrant from Columbia, is hired by the Crawford family as a live-in maid for their second home in East Hampton. When the Crawfords’ son Brandon comes home from college one weekend, something horrible occurs; Drina unwittingly becomes the only person outside the family to know. But before her conscience gets the best of her, the Crawfords have something to say about it. Annabella Sciorra, Philip Ettinger, and Paula Garces star in Michael Walker’s haunting psychological thriller that explores the complex relationships between truth and justice, hubris and power, wealth and fear.
MYSTERY ROAD (Australia)
US Premiere
Director: Ivan Sen
A brutal crime. A rookie cop out of his depth stands alone between two worlds, where the mystery lies just below the surface. In this incendiary and impeccably shot noir-meets-Western by writer/director Ivan Sen, an indigenous cowboy detective, Jay Swan, returns to his Australian outback hometown to solve the murder of a teenage girl, whose body is found under the highway out of town. Alienated from both the white-dominated police force and his own community, including his teenage daughter, Jay stands alone in his determination to fight back for his town and his people.
THE NOTEBOOK “LE GRANDECAHIER” (Germany/Hungary/Austria/France)
US Premiere
Director: János Szász
This stunningly shot tale follows the adventures of 13-year-old twin brothers sheparded by their mother to the Hungarian countryside towards the end of World War II. Once pampered, they must discipline themselves to be tough and emotionless to survive. They write everything down in a notebook, keeping a written record of all they have witnessed during the war and following a strict code: prose free from emotion, notes precise and objective. Yet over time they are initiated into the horrors of a war-torn world, and, after brief post-war visits from each parent, must face their own ultimate separation. Selected as Hungary’s entry for the 2013 Academy Awards.
OH BOY (Germany)
Director: Jan Ole Gerster
The smart aleck Niko drifts through his twenties content to let life (and responsibilities) chug on by. But over the course of a single day, the cosmic balance shifts, imperceptibly at first, and a series of unfortunate and surprising encounters snowball into what could only be described as an existential crisis. If only he could grab a cup of coffee. Jan Ole Gerster’s hilarious and brilliant first feature swept the 2013 German Oscars, and rightfully so: with its sly subversion of Generation Y clichés, assured direction, and timeless black-and-white photography, OH BOY represents one of the most confident debut films in recent memory.
THE ROCKET (Australia)
Director: Kim Mordaunt
When his mother passes away during his family’s forced exile from their village, young Ahlo is branded as a bearer of bad luck by his father and grandmother. Traveling the picturesque countryside with orphan Kia and her uncle Purple (an alcoholic ex-soldier with a James Brown obsession), Ahlo and this destitute group of misfits might be able to afford a new home if they win an annual rocket building competition in a distant town…but first they must get rid of their self-doubts. This spirited drama was the Audience Award winner for Best Narrative Film at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
SARAH PREFERS TO RUN “SARAH PRÉFÈRE LA COURSE” (Canada)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Chloé Robichaud
When Sarah has a chance to go to a first-class university and to join its premiere athletic club, her suburban mother is fearful of the change and refuses to help financially. But Sarah’s roommate knows that they will get a grant if they marry. Sarah agrees, only to discover that her true heart lies elsewhere: Sarah prefers to run. A smart, incisive, and charming chronicle of one young woman’s blossoming passions, SARAH PREFERS TO RUN announces two great new voices in Quebec filmmaker Chloé Robichaud and actress Sophie Desmarais.
A SHORT HISTORY OF DECAY (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Michael Maren
Brooklyn hipster wannabe writer Nathan Fisher (Bryan Greenberg, HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA) has a lot of growing up to do. He’s a writer who doesn’t write and a boyfriend who won’t commit. When his father suffers a stroke, he heads to Florida where he also has to deal with his mother’s Alzheimer’s. Nathan gets a crash course in love, loyalty, family, and forgiveness in this dark comedy about stepping up when your parents are going downhill. A terrific supporting cast includes veteran stage and screen stars Linda Lavin and Harry Yulin as Nathan’s stricken parents.
STEPHANIE IN THE WATER (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Ava Warbrick
Pro Surfer Stephanie Gilmore won her first World Title at 17, on a day off from high school, during her rookie season. She led the World Tour for the next four years, spending most of her life at press events or traveling from beach to beach. She never lost a match, despite little formal training. Then, following a terrifying attack, for the first time in her life, she didn’t win. STEPHANIE IN THE WATER is an intimate documentary portrait about the culture of pro surfing, growing up a professional athlete, and what it means to be the best.
TANTA AGUA (Uruguay)
Director: Ana Guevara
Curtains of rain spoil the vacation that divorced dad Alberto has eagerly arranged at a hot springs; because he seldom sees his kids, he refuses to allow anything to ruin his plans. Nothing could be worse for teenage Lucía than to be cooped up indoors with Dad and little brother Frederico. But the springs are closed until further notice, and Lucía’s adolescent rebellion clashes against her father’s efforts toward quality family time. A taught, wondrous gem, TANTA AGUA captures the emotions of this universal domestic transition in the most naturalistic sense, even given the meteorological impediments.
TASTING MENU “MENÚ DEGUSTACIÓ” (Spain/Ireland)
North American Premiere
Director: Roger Gual
A year ago, married couple Marc and Rachel made dinner reservations at the world-famous restaurant Chakula on the Catalan coast. By the big night, however, they’d already spent several months divorced, living in different countries. Upon discovering Chakula is closing its doors forever, they both decide to show up—as do an eccentric Irish widow, a solitary man of mysterious origins, Rachel’s new fiancé, and two Japanese businessmen competing for the head chef’s attention with their overeager translator. An enjoyable ensemble film, TASTING MENU is a love letter to fine dining and fleeting connections.
UNDER THE RAINBOW “AU BOUT DU CONTE” (France)
US Premiere
Director: Agnès Jaoui
Laura meets her prince charming in aspiring composer Sandro… at least until her aunt Marianne’s neighbor Maxime puts an end to her childish fantasies about love. In turn, Marianne, a divorced single mother/actress, finds companionship in her driving lessons with Pierre, Sandro’s father, who is secretly planning his life around a fortuneteller’s prophecy about his date of death. Set in Paris, the world’s most romantic city, and full of characters reminiscent of those in fairy tales, UNDER THE RAINBOW is, refreshingly enough, about everyday life and how it fails to meet (and yet somehow exceeds) our expectations.
VICTOR YOUNG PEREZ (France/Israel/Bulgaria)
International Premiere
Director: Jacques Ouaniche
In the early 1930s, flyweight Tunisian Jewish boxer Victor Young Perez moves to Paris with his coach and older brother Benjamin to become the youngest world champion in boxing history. Their rags-to-riches story takes a tragic turn when Victor and Ben are imprisoned in Auschwitz and forced to box Aryans for the Nazi’s amusement. Based on a true story, VICTOR YOUNG PEREZ features a beautiful, remarkable physical performance from first-time actor (and record holding athlete) Brahim Asloum, the first Frenchman to win both a light Flyweight World Championship and an Olympic Gold at the 2000 Sydney Games.
WALKING WITH THE ENEMY (USA)
World Premiere
Director: Mark Schmidt
Inspired by a true story, WALKNG WITH THE ENEMY follows the heroic lives of a world leader and a young man during the horrors of WWII in Hungary. Regent Horthy (Academy Award® winner Ben Kingsley) is faced with ceding power to German adversaries or witnessing the execution of his son, while countryman Elek (Jonas Armstrong) watches as his family is ripped away from him. Determined to be reunited, Elek takes on the German enemies by becoming one of them. Disguised as a Nazi Officer, he embarks on an unforgettable mission to save his family and thousands of others.