A Peek At The Main Festival Competition

GO GO TALES (Abel Ferrara) 

Tuesday, August 28--------Montreal has the distinction of being the only major film festival of the Fall season to have an awards competition. The Prix des Ameriques (Americas Prize) is quite the prestigious award and this year's World Competition Section lineup is the strongest in years. In the high stakes game of festival stragegy, itt is a given that if one premieres in Montreal, that Toronto (which begins a week from Thursday) is out. And while Toronto certainly commands a bigger profile, there is no competition there (save for an audience award). The chance of winning a prestigious prize in a tighter, more defined Festival atmosphere gives Montreal its own "secret weapon" for attracting world-class films.

Kuro-ObiSurviving My MotherNoodleA Outra Margem 

MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL---WORLD COMPETITION

 1 JOURNÉE (1 DAY)
Switzerland - France / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Jacob Berger, Cast : Bruno Todeschini, Natacha Régnier, Noémie Kocher, Zinedine Soualem, Luis Dussol, Amélia Jacob, Hiro Uchiyama, Véronique Mermoud, Julien George, Louis-Charles Finger
The chronicle of a decisive day in the life of a Swiss family: an unfaithful husband, his wife and their young son.

A OUTRA MARGEM (THE OTHER SIDE)
Portugal - Brazil / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 106 min / Dir.: Luís Filipe Rocha, Cast : Filipe Duarte, Maria d’Aires, Tomás Almeida, Horacio Manuel, Sara Graga, Eduardo Silva, João Pedro Vaz, Pompeu José, Teresa Faria, João Tempera
Recovering from an attempted suicide after the death of his partner, Ricardo moves in with his sister and befriends his down’s syndrome afflicted nephew. A quick bond develops to their mutual benefit.

BEN X
Beligium - Netherlands / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 90 minBVe / Dir.: Nic Balthazar. Cast : Greg Timmermans, Laura Verlinden, Marijke Pinoy, Pol Goossen, Titus De Voogdt, Maarten Claeyssens
Mildly autistic Ben lives in his own world, located mostly online, in the galaxy of computer games. Bullied mercilessly at school, Ben plots his revenge…

DER ANDERE JUNGE (THE OTHER BOY)
Germany / 2006 / 35 mm / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Volker Einrauch, Cast : Andrea Sawatzki, Barbara Auer, Peter Lohmeyer, Christian Berkel, Willi Gerk, Hinnerk Schönemann, Adrian Topol, Gustav Peter Wöhler, Tim Oliver Schultz, Helene Grass
The Morells and the Wagners, each a father-mother-son family, live near each other in a suburb of Hamburg. Perfectly happy neighbours on the surface, the boys are in fact

DP75-TARTINA CITY
Tchad - France - Morocco / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 88 min / Dir.: Issa Serge Coelo, Cast : Youssouf Djaoro, Felkissam Mahamat, Billy Joséphine, Adama Rahama
Adoum, a young African journalist finally gets his passport so he can go abroad and do a report on the situation in his country. But, at an inspection at the airport, a compromising letter is mysteriously found in his belongings…

GO GO TALES
Italy - France / 2006 / 35 mm / Colour / 100 min / Dir.: Abel Ferrara, Cast : Willem Dafoe, Bob Hoskins, Matthew Modine, Asia Argento, Roy Dotrice, Lou Doillon, Riccardo Scamarcio, Stefania Rocca, Bianca Batti, Sylvia Miles, Burt Young
Abel Ferrara’s screwball comedy is set in a downtown Manhattan “go go” cabaret called Ray Ruby’s Paradise, but all is not well in in this factory of dreams and if Ray doesn’t get some cash quick, his landlady is threatening to foreclose.

KURO-OBI (BLACK BELT)
Japan / 2006 / 35 mm / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Shunichi Nagasaki, Cast : Akihito Yagi, Tatsuya Naka, Yuji Suzuki, Takayasu Komiya, Yasuto Kosuda, Kenji Anan, Masahiro Sudo, Taro Suwa, Arashi Fukasawa, Narumi Konno
Set in the 1930s in Japan, three martial arts practitioners who are competing to inherit the mantle of their late master, are ordered to enlist in the military. Having no choice, the trio leave their dojo for an encounter with fate.

L’UOMO DI VETRO (A MAN OF GLASS)
Italy / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 96 min / Dir.: Stefano Incerti, Cast : David Coco, Anna Bonaiuto, Tony Sperandeo, Ninni Bruschetta, Francesco Scianna, Tony Palazzo, Elaine Bosangue, Ilenia Maccarone, Orazio Alba, Fabrizio Anzalone
One afternoon in 1973, Leonardo Vitale, an innocent-looking young man, walked into police headquarters in Palermo saying he wanted to confess to a long list of crimes. He was 31 years old and had spent half of those years following the orders of his uncle, a Mafia boss…

MUTLULUK (BLISS)
Turkey - Greece / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 105 min / Dir.: Abdullah Oguz, Cast : Talat Bulut, Özgü Namal, Murat Han, Mustafa Avkiran, Emin Gürsoy, Sebnem Köstem, Meral Cetinkaya, Erol Babaoglu, Idil Yener, Alpay Atalan
When a 17-year-old girl is found unconscious by a lake in remote eastern Turkey, her parents suspect she’s had sex and that she should pay for “dishonouring” the family. The task falls to the girl’s cousin, but he proves incapable of the deed…

NOODLE
Israel / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Ayelet Menahemi, Cast : Mili Avital, Baoqi Chen, Anat Waxman, Alon Aboutboul, Iftach Klein
When her Chinese cleaning lady is deported, leaving her passport-less 6-year-old son behind in Tel Aviv, an El Al flight attendant decides to take risky measures to re-unite the boy with his mother.

OH-OKU (OH-OKU, THE WOMEN OF THE INNER PALACE)
Japan / 2007 / 35 mm / Couleur / 128 min / Dir.: Toru Hayashi, Cast : Yukie Nakama, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Haruka Igawa, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Kaoru Sugita, Machiko Washio, Kaori Yamaguchi, Maki Kubota, Yuki Matsushita, Reiko Takashima
Set during the short reign of child Shogun Ietsugu Tokugawa, OH-OKU recounts the legendary power struggle between the young shogun’s natural mother and his official wife, who must watch her stake in the bloodline.

OTETS (FATHER)
Russia / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 82 min / Dir.: Ivan Solovov, Cast : Alexei Gousskov, Polina Koutepova, Svetlana Ivanova, Vassily Prokofiev, Roman Madyanov, Nina Rouslanova, Alexandr Bashirov, Yekaterina Vassilieva, Lyudmila Arinina, Lidia Velezheva, Anastassia Prirmotrova-Belova, Natalya Oungard, Ilya Khvostikov, Sasha Karlikova
The terrible ordeal of World War II is over, but instead of relief and happiness, Russian soldier Aleksei Ivanov is filled with apprehension. What will he come home to? Clouds of emotional doubt hang over his reunion with his wife and children. The war may be over but its wounds remain.

PARTES USADAS (USED PARTS)
Mexico - France - Spain / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Aarón Fernández, Cast : Eduardo Granados, Alan Chávez, Carlos Ceja, Damayanti Quintamar, Pilar Padilla, Raúl Adalid, José Antonio Barón
Fortteen-year-old Ivan lives with his uncle Jaime, a dealer in stone car parts. Both dream of a better life in Chicago and are working to save the money necessary to get across the border…

SAMIRA FI ADAYAA (SAMIRA’S GARDEN)
Morocco / 2007 / Video / Colour / 96 min / Dir.: Latif Lahlou, Cast : Sanaa Mouziane, Mohamed Khouyyi, Youssef Britel, Mohamed Majd
Samira’s new husband, selected by her father, is a widowed farmer with no family. But Samira quickly discovers that he is impotent and only interested in her as a nurse for his father and as a guardian for his nephew. Samira must seek affection elsewhere…

SEPTEMBER DAWN
United States / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 111 min / Dir.: Christopher Cain, Cast : Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Jon Gries, Lolita Davidovich, Terence Stamp, Taylor Handley, Dean Cain, Shaun Johnston, Franklin E. Levinson, Huntley Ritter, Krisinda Cain, Jack Alma
An up-close look at the devastation wrought by religious fanaticism with this romantic drama set against the backdrop of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. As a wagon train of westward-bound settlers makes its way across southern Utah, a confrontation with a congregation of Mormons led by the venerable Brigham Young soon leads to deadly consequences for all involved.

SPINNING INTO BUTTER
United States / 2007 / 35 mm / Colour / 105 min / Dir.: Mark Brokaw, Cast : Sarah Jessica Parker, Mykelti Williamson, Beau Bridges, Miranda Richardson, James Rehorn, Victor Rasuk
Sarah Daniels, dean of students at an elite New England college is thrust into a racial hate crime investigation against an African-American student, forcing her to confront her own prejudices.

SURVIVING MY MOTHER
Canada / 2007 / 35mm / Couleur / 88 min / Dir.: Émile Gaudreault, Cast : Caroline Dhavernas, Ellen David, Adam J. Harrington, Véronique Le Flaguais, Colin Mochrie, Louison Danis, Christian Bégin, Frank Schorpion
A dramatic comedy about the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, SURVIVING tags along as a mother is taken on an emotional roller-coaster ride when she delves into the troubled life of her 21-year-old daughter.

TERESA: EL CUERPO DE CRISTO (TERESA)
Spain - France - United Kingdom / 2006 / 35 mm / Colour / 101 min / Dir.: Ray Loriga, Cast : Paz Vega, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, José Luis Gómez, Eusebio Poncela, Álvaro de Luna, Paula Errando, Ángel de Andrés, Ampara Valle, Andrés Gertrudis
Rejecting her designated role as a woman in the man’s world of 16th century Spain, Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, daughter of an Avila nobleman, founds a new order of Carmelites, establishes over a dozen monasteries and authors some of the most remarkable works in the mystical literature of the Roman Catholic Church.

TOI (YOU)
Canada / 2007 / Vidéo / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: François Delisle, Cast : Anne-Marie Cadieux, Laurent Lucas, Marc Béland, Raphaël Dury, Jean-François Casabonne, Ève Cournoyer, Marie-France Lambert, Michèle Rossignol
Michèle shares her life with Paul, her husband and colleague at work. She also has a lover, Thomas, a musician with whom she’s been in love for some time. Attracted by Thomas’ love of life and his non-conformity, Michèle decides to leave her husband, son and profession to live her passion to the fullest.

UN SECRET (A SECRET)
France / / Dir.: Claude Miller, Cast : Mathieu Amalric, Patrick Bruel, Cécile de France, Julie Depardieu, Ludivine Sagnier, Annie Grégorio, Robert Plagnol, Yves Jacques, Laurent Lafitte, Olivier Forest, Joffrey Platel
The saga of a Jewish family after the end of World War II. A lonely boy invents a brother and reimagines his parents’ past, but on his fifteenth birthday he discovers a secret — tying his family’s past to the Holocaust — that will finally enable him to develop his own sense of self.

Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal World FF Dailies Editor