French films start their run in Kyiv
Mar 11, 2010 at 23:02 | Alexandra MatoshkoAll nine films of the program – “Le Concert,” “Home,” “Un-Zero,” “Bosta,” “La Symphonie Marocaine,” “Les Doigts Croches,” “1981,” “Welcome,” and “La Silence de Lorna” – will be shown in French with Ukrainian subtitles.
Romanian Radu Mihaileanu immigrated to Israel in 1980 and later moved to France. Since then, he has released a number of acclaimed movies, including “Va, Vis et Deviens” (Go, See and Become) that received several awards at the Berlin International Festival and a Cesar for best screenplay.
His film “The Concert” is focused on Russian Andrey Filipov – a celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Theater orchestra during the era of Leonid Brezhnev. After he refuses to fire some of his musicians on the basis of their Jewish ethnicity, he loses his prestigious job. Three decades later he is still working at Bolshoi – as a janitor. When Filipov happens to find a letter-invitation for Bolshoi to perform in Paris, he plots to gather his old musician friends and go to Paris, pretending to be the Bolshoi orchestra.
Ursula Meier’s “Home” starring iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert tells a story of a family with three children, living happily in a picturesque place next to an abandoned freeway. But their lives are seriously affected when the freeway is being put back into operation and is about to be filled with traffic.
The plot of “Un-Zero” (One-Zero) by Egyptian director Kamla Abu Zekry, revolves around eight characters whose fates become intertwined on the night of the African National Football Cup. One of the main topics of the movie is people’s nostalgia for Egyptian golden age and desperate desire to see their national team win the Cup – which in itself would be a great achievement for their country.
“Bosta,” by French Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi, is a musical road-movie about school friends who decide to revive their traditional Lebanese dance group after a 15-year break. They set out on a bus trip across Lebanon, performing their dance routines everywhere, and showing the viewer all the different sides of their country – at the same time.
The music plays a key role in most films by Moroccan musician-turned-film director Kamal Kamal, and “La Symphonie Marocaine” (The Moroccan Symphony) is no exception. A homeless musician comes up with an idea: he and his homeless friends, living together at a railway depot, will enroll into a musical contest and get to play the symphony he had written at Albert Hall in London.
“Le Doigts Croches” (Sticky Fingers), a debut feature film of Canadian director Ken Scott, is a story of Charles and his gang of swindler friends, who attempt a “robbery of a century.” However the guys get busted by police and go to prison. The real adventures begin when the unlucky robbers get out of prison a few years later, and attempt to track down one of the gang who got away with the money.
Italian-born Canadian Ricardo Trogi’s “1981” tells a tale of an 11-year-old boy Ricardo who moves to a new city area and enters a new school. There he quickly falls for pretty Anna, and tries to join an alternative music band to win her over, but to do that, he’s forced to lie a lot.
Philippe Lioret began his film career as a sound engineer and debuted as film director in 1993. His 2006’s movie “Je Vais Bien, Ne T’en Fais Pas” (Don’t Worry, I’m Fine) won two Cesar awards – for Most Promising Actress and Best Supporting Actor, while his latest “Welcome” won two awards of the Berlin International Film Festival. In “Welcome” Simon, a swimming coach in a small port town on the shore of the English Channel, is going through a difficult patch in his life – his marriage is about to break up. One day he gets an unusual and very determined student Bilal, a Kurdistan refugee, who needs to learn to swim so well that he can cross the Channel all by himself and get to Great Britain, where his fiancée is expecting him.
Brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne represent the social realism trend in the Belgian cinema. During the 30 years of joint work, they have made a great number of films, and received several awards at Cannes, including two Golden Palms for “Rosetta” (1999) and “L’Enfant” (2005). Their latest movie “Le Silence de Lorna” (The Silence of Lorna) is about an Albanian couple of immigrants Lorna and Sokol, who find themselves in a vicious circle. An aspiring gang boss from Italy wants to pay a French junkie to marry Lorna so she acquires citizenship, and later have her remarry a Russian cigarette smuggler so he obtains an EU passport – naturally for a hefty price. But what Lorna and her lover really want is be together and be free.
Kyiv
19 Chervonoarmiyska (Ploshcha Lva Tolstoho metro), 251-2199, 234-7381, www.kievkino.com.ua
March 14-20.
Le Concert – March 14 at 6 p.m.
Home – March 14 at 9 p.m., March 19 at 9:10 p.m.
Un-Zero – March 15 at 7 p.m., March 16 at 9:10 p.m.
Le Doigts Croches – March 15 at 9:10 p.m., March 17 at 9:10 p.m.
La Symphonie Marocaine – March 16 at 7 p.m.
1981 – March 17 at 7 p.m., March 18 at 9:10 p.m.
Welcome – March 18 at 7 p.m., March 20 at 9:10 p.m.
Bosta – March 19 at 7 p.m.
Le Silence de Lorna – March 20 at 7 p.m.