Italy delivers with Quiet Chaos, Black Sea and A Perfect Day; and Belgium with the brilliant new Dardennes
brothers’ film The Silence of Lorna. Then there’s Slovakia’s Blind Loves; Denmark’s Flame & Citron, and
The Candidate; Iceland’s darkly funny Country Wedding; Austria’s Revanche; and from the Czechs,
Of Parents and Children, and The Karamazovs.
What about the Brits? Hunger, by artist Steve McQueen is meant to be strong stuff, covering Bobby Sands’ hunger strike
in the Maze Prison. Michael Winterbottom’s Genova and Richard Eyre’s The Other Man should prove that we can do
grown-up almost as well as the French.
Terence Davies’ short but heartfelt tribute to his hometown, Of Time And The City is a must-see, and the likes of
Telstar, 1234, Helen, Incendiary and I Know You Know look very promising.
Further afield, North America brings classy and indie goodies in equal measure. Check out Atom Egoyan’s Adoration, broad
Steve Coogan satire Hamlet 2, documentaries Religulous and American Teen, the delightful Nick and Norah’s
Infinite Playlist, and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York.
Mexico is always ripe with new talents in directing and acting – so make a beeline for The Desert Within and Parque Via.
There’s also some promising stuff coming out of China, like The Warlords, plus Korea’s latest sensation, The Good, The Bad, The Weird.
And Egypt’s Hassan and Morcos, and the Lebanese thriller Beirut Open City are both worth investigating.
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