Film Favorites of the Week

Triumph of Love by Clare Peploe

Mira Sorvino appears in a new guise, literally, in The Triumph of Love, Clare Peploe's adaptation (in English) of Marivaux's 18th century French play which was screened at both Venice 2001 and Toronto 2001. In this classic comedy of manners about the conflict between reason and emotion, she plays a princess who has inherited a throne usurped by her father but has fallen in love with the rightful heir to the kingdom (Jay Rodan).

Baran by Majid Majidi

Acclaimed helmer Majid Majidi's Baran won best film at Montreal 2001 and now is at Filmfest Hamburg 2001where the director is being honored with the Douglas Sirk Award. The powerful story is set in present-day Tehran, where in a building site, Lateef, a 17 years old Iranian worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

A favorite on the festival circuit and closing film at Toronto 2001, Ray Lawrence's Lantana, is a dramatic tale about two couples who are in crisis: one involves infidelity; the other the death of a child. Lantana stars veteran actors Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey and Kerry Armstrong.

William Phillips' Treed Murray, screened at Toronto 2001, when smart, savvy Murray Roberts (David Hewlett) is ambushed by an inept young mugger (Kevin Duhaney), his scoffing resistance brings unexpected retaliation from the rest of the mugger's gang, a band of disaffected youths led by the charismatic Shark (Cle Bennett).