Bruno Ganz and John Sales’ visits confirmed for Mar del Plata

25th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, that will take place from Saturday 13th to Sunday 21st November, confirmed the presence of Bruno Ganz and John Sayles, and the International Competition Jury.

Bruno Ganz: angel and evil.

An existentialist angel in Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1978), or Adolf Hitler in his last hours in Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2005): two roles that show the diversity of an actor of indelible image and which stayed in every movie-buff’s imagery. Two out of many personalities (the most famous ones) in which the Swiss actor –the most well-known German-speaking one- sealed his fame as non-classifiable. From complex roles to restrained characterizations, Bruno Ganz passed along titles such as Ripley’s game (Wim Wenders, 1977), Bread and Tulips (Silvio Soldini, 2000), Youth without Youth (Francis F. Coppola, 2007) or The day of the Cat (Wolfgang Panzer, 2010), the last production that has him as the leading actor and which will be screened at the Festival –together with Downfall- as part of a tribute to his figure.

John Sayles: the harshness of independence

At this point, talking about an independent film maker is almost a commonplace that is repeated in almost any circumstance. But with John Sayles there is no choice: for many people, he is one of the greatest referents of North American art films, sometimes called “the father of independent cinema” (although he jokes that he is its grandfather). At his sixty years old, Sayles has fabulous credentials to show: he gave his first steps with Roger Corman, wrote scripts for two classics of genre like Piranha and The Howling (both directed by Joe Dante) and directed films like Lianna (1983), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996), among many others. In this occasion he will be in Mar del Plata presenting Amigo, his last film as a director, a personal look at a military conflict between the United States and Philippines at the beginning of XX Century. He is coming to Mar del Plata city together with his wife, Maggie Renzi, actress and producer of almost all of Sayles’ films.

International Competition Jury

The five members that will make up the International Competition Jury are already confirmed.

- Mario Canale: Italian film maker of many titles for television, between series and documentaries, apart from Il Male, Zut and Frigidaire magazines writer. He is coming with Marco Ferreri, il regista che venne dal futuro, film he directed about La Grande Bouffe’s director.

- Román Gubern: one of the most well-known theoreticians and writers of the last years, author of Historia del cine (1969) and Patologías de la imagen (2004), among others.

- Ruy Guerra: He was born in Mozambique, studied in Paris but formed as a professional in Brazil, where he became one of the fundamental names of Cinema Novo, with titles like Os Cafajestes (1962) and Os Fuzis (1964). He also worked as an actor, with an outstanding role in Aguirre, Wrath of God.

- Graciela Maglie: vice president of Civil Association “Woman and Cinema” has a wide career as a TV and cinema scriptwriter, with titles like Un muro de silencio (1993), El caso María Soledad (1994) and La fuga (2004), among others.

- Dominique Sanda: listing some of the films in which she took part as an actress should make us shiver. She worked with Robert Bresson in Un femme douce (1969), with Bernardo Bertolucci in El Conformista (1976), with Jacques Demy in Une chambre en ville (1982), with María Luisa Bemberg in Yo, la peor de todas (1990) and with Marcos Bechis in Garage Olimpo (1999), among others.