A HIDDEN LIFE (Una vida en secreto)
BRAZIL, 2002
Director: Suzana Amaral
Drama, 98 minutes, 2001
 Director Amaral made her auspicious debut in features in 1985 with the THE HOUR OF THE STAR, winner of numerous prizes in Brazil and around the world. Una vida en secreto (“A Hidden Life”) is based on the book by Autran Dourado, and it opens with a “dress-up” comedy. But you can sense something melancholic in the air. Little by little, this drama of the emotions unfolds in which every tiny detail counts - from the look of the principal actress to the positioning of objects in the scene. The sparseness of the house where the story takes place emphasizes the isolation of the main character, Biela, played by the excellent Sabrina Greve. This motherless teenage girl, lives with her father on a Brazilian coffee plantation. When her father dies, she is whisked away to live with cousins in a small village. Here, her aunt Constança, sets about preparing Biela for entry into polite society, ordering dresses for the girl and teaching her “manners”. But Biela will not be improved and remains comfortable only in the company of the kitchen staff. One day, she is introduced to a boy - Modesto - who has been chosen to be her husband. Although she feels little for him, when he subsequently abandons her, she is devastated and confines herself to her bedroom, concealing her humiliation in painful silence. She tears up her fine dresses and returns to wearing her farm clothes. She spends her days in the kitchen with the maids, refusing to join her cousins at the dining table. Her only source of joy is a sick dog who she rescues from the street and cares for as if it were her own child. Finally, she decides to take the dog and return to the lost paradise of her childhood.
"Suzana Amaral continues her obsession with the dictum that in cinema less is more. Faced with a Brazilian cinema groaning under the weight of its own excess, exhibitionism, and the vanity of its diretors, she has chosen a path less trodden.” – Luis Zanin (O Estado do Sao Paulo)
PRINCIPAL CAST: Sabrina Greve, Eliani Giardini, Cacá Amaral, Neusa Borges, Eric Novinsky, Ge Martú, Itamar Concalves, Nayara Guerico, Luri Saraiva, Viramundo, Cida Mendes, Claudia Rezende.
AWARDS: “Best Actress” (Sabina Greve) and “Best Sound”, Brasilia Film Festival 2001 – “Best Film”, “Best Actress” (Sabina Greve), “Best Photography”, “Best Art Direction”, Ceará Film Festival, Brazil, 2002 – “Special Jury Prize”, Huelva Int. Film Festival, Spain, 2002.
ABOUT BUñUEL
SPAIN/MEXICO/FRANCE, 2000
Directors: José Luis López Linares & Javier Royo
Feature Doc, 98 minutes
Aggressive, ingenious and aloof, Luis Buñuel was one of the most important artists of the 20th Century and rubbed shoulders with the privileged minds of his time. He helped Picasso hang the “Guernica” canvas; was expelled from a Hollywood film set by Greta Garbo; visited orgies organized by Chaplin; observed Cocteau smoking opium; patiently contemplated how Einstein sold himself to capitalism; tried to strangle French poet Paul Eluard’s wife Gala (she later ran away with Dalí)…and yet, this enigmatic figure was considered by his friends to be a respectable Spanish gentleman with a passion for arms and martinis. An artist who hated pornography and is buried in Mexico under the altar of the Dominicans –the oldest order that provides exorcisms in the Catholic Church.
“It’s a film made with material from his work” says director Royo “other scenes we shot with stories of people who knew him well. People who knew his phobias and passions. What he liked and what he hated. This is not a reverential film, but rather a Buñuelesque bio pic, non-chronological, nor trying to be faithful to a real story; it’s more a re-reading of his darker areas and also his crystal-clear ones.”
With insightful interventions from Spanish director Carlos Saura, actors Michel Piccoli, Francisco Rabal, Angela Molina, Jean Rochefort and Mexican writers Carlos Fuentes and Elena Poniatowska, and members of his family and friends.
CONDOR CRUX: The legend
ARGENTINA/SPAIN, 2000
Director: Juan Pablo Buscarini, Swan Glecer and Pablo Holcer.
Adventures in Space/Futuristic Animation Video, 76 minutes
An impressive futuristic-adventure film suitable for anyone over six.
It is the first Argentinean feature length film entirely produced through a computer and will surely mark a “before and after” in that country’s animation production. It is a futuristic Argentine story supported by the use of new image technologies, taking the audience to a South America half a century into the future.
Darwin, 2068. A city located somewhere in South America and governed by the authoritarian Phizar, head of Gloria Mundi Corporation, a character who controls his fellows through a tight net and sophisticated technology. It is into this scenario that Doctor Crux, a rebel whose ideology is opposed to this controlling system, makes his entrance. His mission is to activate a satellite that has been abolished by the Gloria Mundi Corporation, excluding the city of Darwin, from the rest of the world. Dr. Crux hopes that by his actions he will be able to generate an uprising of the citizens against the established order. In a word: a revolution. His son, Captain Juan Crux, is enlisted in the Gloria Mundi Army. Called on duty to capture and kill the revolutionary leader, he discovers that the rebel is his own father. He disobeys orders and lets his father free. Accordingly, he will be prosecuted and will have to try to escape. Not before an amazing trip through Machu Picchu, El Dorado, the Southern Glaciers and the founding of the New Darwin. A Magician will help him find a way to rescue his father and to free the people from oppression.
PRINCIPAL CAST: The voices of: Pepe Soriano, Leticia Bredice (Nine Queens), Arturo Maly, Damián De Santo, Favio Posca.
AWARDS: “Best Animated Film”, Argentina, 2001 – “Best Film”, Oporto Film Festival, Portugal, 2001.
DOG IN THE MANGER (EL PERRO DEL HORTELANO)
SPAIN, 1996 (Classics Section)
Director: Pilar Miró
Comedy, 104 minutes
This film has rarely been seen in Canada and was the last one Spanish director Pilar Miró did before her death in 1997. It gave her innumerable Awards and distinctions.
The director took high risks in bringing Lope de Vega, one of the most universal and stimulating authors of the Spanish Golden Age to the screen, and to do so she chose one of his most entertaining comedies: El Perro del Hortelano. The film is a brilliant adaptation of the best Spanish theater, and it shows the skills achieved by Pilar Miro as well as the outstanding improvement in Spanish cinematography.
“Like the dog in the manger, he neither eats nor lets anyone eat,” Miró said referring to an attitude that doesn't allow another to enjoy what one has access to, yet doesn’t want.
Diana, Countess of Belflor (Emma Suárez) is a young woman, who breaks with the female archetype usually seen in comedy.
Aristocratic Diana sees her love grow for her secretary Teodoro (Carmelo Gómez) when she finds out that he is going to marry one of her maids. She punishes them with separation, and works arduously at conquering Teodoro, thus feeding her own ambition.
The adaptation of Lope's verses, along with the acting (especially Emma Suárez's naturalness) leads to agile, funny and ironic dialogues. A pleasant surprise to the audience, in particular the character of the leading lady, a young impulsive woman whose perspicacity allows her to see through the masks of the female archetypes of the age. The brightly-coloured costumes and clever set design put the finishing touches to a comedy which is as sophisticated and surprising now as it was when it was originally written.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Emma Suárez; Carmelo Gómez, Ana Duato, Fernando Conde, Miguel Rellan, Maite Blasco, Angel DeAndres López, Juan Gea.
AWARDS: Goya (Spanish Oscars) for “Best Director”, “Best Actress” (Emma Suárez); Best Cinematography; Best Production - The Golden Ombú Best Film (Mar del Plata, Argentina); Best Cinematography and “Best Actress” (Pescara, Italy.)
DURVAL DISCOS
BRAZIL, 2002
Director: Anna Muylaert
Comedy, Drama, 96 minutes
With its colourful production design, eccentric characters and a soundtrack full of Brazilian pop music (the scratches on the vinyl are still audible), Durval Discos comprises all the elements of a light-hearted comedy. The feature debut of TV maker and former film critic Anna Muylaert gradually escalates into a dark absurdist tale with a surprising end.
Rocker Durval does not keep up with the times. He still lives with his aging mother; his haircut hasn't changed since the 1970s and in his record shop he still only sells vinyl – out of conviction. If he had sold CDs, his shop would have been called Durval CDs, he tells the occasional customer who comes in and asks for a CD.
His mother, Carmita, starts to get confused. When she even forgets the recipe for Durval's favorite egg dish, Durval has had enough:. He hires a maid called Celia. who is a little strange, but stunningly beautiful. However, on her first day at work, she disappears without trace and leaves her five-year-old daughter Kiki behind with Carmita and Durval. Carmita's maternal instincts are immediately aroused and after an initial hesitation, Durval also falls for the little girl. Then on the evening news, they see that a five-year-old girl has been kidnapped...From then on, the film turns to “side B” playing a detective plot with very Latin American surreal overtones.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Ary Franca, Etty Fraser, Isabela Guasco, Marisa Orth, Leticia Sabatella, Rita Lee, Theo Werneck, André Abujmra.
EL LEYTON (Until death do us part)
CHILE/FRANCE, 2002
Director: Gonzalo Justiniano
Comedy/Drama, 95 minutes
 This is a surprising film set in the fishing village of Horcón, on the beautiful sea side coast of Chile. A film that could have easily been Italian, starring Gian Carlo Giannini playing the wonderful Modesto. The fact that the Modesto character is played by the unknown (to-now) Luis Wigdorsky winning Best Actor at many Festivals around the world, says a lot about how well the Chilean film system is operating.
The long-ago disappeared Leyton (Juan Pablo Saez) reappears in a village cemetery. The townspeople, demanding an explanation, gather in eager anticipation in the bar-turned-courthouse. Speaking into a vintage microphone, Leyton agrees to tell his story to the Felliniesque crowd. It is then than Leyton’s tale of friendship and betrayal unfolds in flashbacks.
Leyton and Modesto are fishermen and life long friends. Leyton is a scrounger who takes things as they come and enjoys the moment without complications, specially from the women who have been “neglected” by their husbands. Modesto, Leyton’s friend and confidant is his opposite; quiet, hard working and without love stories. To everyone’s surprise, Modesto marries Marta (Siboney Lo) a beautiful and shy girl without much love experience. Marta is harassed by Leyton and to his own surprise, she doesn’t tell her husband about it, therefore beginning to live a dangerous adventure which will have serious consequences for them and the entire community.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Juan Pablo Saez, Siboney Lo, Luis Wigdorsky, Gabriela Hernández, Ramón Llao, José Martín, Carolina Jerez, Pilar Zderich, Francisca Arce.
AWARDS: “Best Actor” (Luis Wigdorsky) as Modesto, Cartagena Film Festival, 2003 – “Best Actress” (Siboney Lo) as Marta, Miami Latin Film Festival 2003 – Official Selection San Sebastian Film Festival 2002 – Official Selection La Havana Film Festival 2002 – Official Selection Turin Film Festival 2002 -
THE ELUSIVE GOOD
PERU, 2001
Director: Augusto Tamayo
Romantic-Drama, Adventure, 140 minutes
 "The Elusive Good"/El Bien Esquivo is set in the XVII century in an important moment of Peruvian and Latin American History in which national identity is being defined. The mixing of blood and culture, the traumatic encounter of two worlds, the process of religious syncretism, but also personal ambition and self-determination set the background for the journey of a man and a woman, two outcasts, who must confront intolerance and prejudice.
Jerónimo de Avila is the son of a Spanish conqueror and an Indian princess. Half breed without inheritance, he has fought for many years in the European wars and has returned to Peru in 1618 seeking to have his name, his legitimacy and his property recognized.
In Lima he finds himself driven into conspiracies and quarrels and ends as an outlaw, not only of colonial justice but of the ecclesiastical Court for the Extirpation of Idolatry. Knowing that he needs to prove himself descendant of a noble Spaniard so as not to be judged in the Indian Court, he travels in search of his mother so that she can help him prove his case. In his search he meets Inés Vargas de Carvajal, a beautiful young novice who lives her vows more by compromise than by conviction, keeping to herself within the convent, away from frivolous novices. She hides a furtive intellectual vocation: to write poetry. Pursued by Ignacio de Araujo, an ascetic Jesuit of rank in charge of investigating their respective misconduct, they both end up running away together trying to find a refuge outside the social order, and a chance of survival.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Diego Bertie (Jerónimo de Avila), Jimena Lindo (Inés Varas de Carbajal), Orlando Sacha (Ignacio de Araujo), Paul Vega (Fray Mateo), Gianfranco Brero (Hermano Abraham), Delfina Paredes (Francisca Chaupistanta) Carlos Gassols (Obispo).
AWARDS: First Prize, National Film Council of Peru. Fonds Sud Prize for Screenplay, French Ministry of Culture. “First Critics Prize”, Lima Film Festival, 2001. “Best Director Award”, Viña del Mar Film Festival – “Best Photography” Award, Santa Cruz Film Festival, 2002. Nominated for the Oscars selection - the Spanish GOYA competition and the Mexican ARIEL competition, for “Best Foreign Film”. Selected among the best six Spanish-Latin American films of the last two years for the "Luis Buñuel" Prize of the Federation of Spanish-Latin American Audiovisual Producers (FIPCA)
EVERY STEWARDESS GOES TO HEAVEN
ARGENTINA, 2002
Director: Daniel Burman
Dramatic Comedy, 93 min.
 Stewardesses have always excited a certain fascination and Argentine director Daniel Burman has built his second film, a metaphorical romantic comedy, on the demystification of the myth.
Teresa is a stewardess, a free-spirited woman unhappy in love, who meets Julian, a doctor mourning the loss of his wife, during a stop over.
A fable set at the end of the world, Every Stewardess Goes To Heaven bathes in a desolate beauty. The film embraces Ushuaïa, its snow-covered peaks and frozen plateaux, as well as its frail, insecure inhabitants. The director multiplies allegories, making the stewardess an angel whose wings could be those of a plane while the hospital is shown to us like a corridor towards another life. The slow images pass by quietly, supported by an atmospheric soundtrack, that makes the film a visually bewitching work.
Teresa (Spanish actress Ingrid Rubio) is in the sky. She works and lives in her heaven of pantomime and little trays of frozen food. She has a fear of “grounded” life: a world full of men, love, motherhood and family. She prefers a life of airports and eternal flight. Down below on the ground, we meet Julián (Alfredo Casero) a young widowed doctor who must go to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to keep the promise of scattering his wife’s ashes (also a stewardess) at the place where they first met…
PRINCIPAL CAST: Ingrid Rubio (Teresa) Alfredo Casero (Julián) Guest star: Norma Aleandro (Teresa’s mother), Emilio Disi(Airport worker), Valentina Bassi (Lili), Verónica Llinas (Enfermera), Daniel Hendler (Taxi driver), Kayne Dipilato (Camila)
HUMAN BEINGS (SERES HUMANOS)
MEXICO, 2001
Director: Jorge Aguilera
Drama, 80 minutes
Mexican film critics have called it: “A stormy, uncompromising film by Mexican newcomer Jorge Aguilera. It recalls the cinema of Kieslowski and Atom Egoyan” (Rafael Aviña, Reforma National Newspaper). “One of the most poetic and original cinema narrations in the history of contemporary Mexican cinema” (Gerardo Ochoa Sandy); “SERES HUMANOS opens up a new vein in our national cinema” (Javier Betancourt, Proceso Magazine, Mexico.)
It is the landscape of contemporary life in the city of Mexico. Dalia dies at age six. Her mother, father and brother find ways of eluding the pain. Eleven years later, the memory returns and each one must now take on the suffering where they left it.
There are voices that reflect the sound of silence.
Scandal
To scream so as not to listen
Oblivion
Not to listen
Absence
The voice suspended
Insanity
To flee so as not to listen
Human beings undertake long journeys in which they frequently expose their lives; as they return to the place of origin, they have only begun to grow.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Rafael Sánchez Navarro (Derek), Clarissa Malheiros (Dulce), Osvaldo Benavides (Damián), Diego Jáuregui (Joaquín), Jerildy Bosch (Fabiana), Pedro Guerrero (Damián, niño), Giselle Kuri (Dalia), Ari Brickman (Wizard), Phillip Hernández (Phillip Dame), Carlos Cobos (TV Producer), Martha Claudia Moreno (Emilia Morales), (Rony), Vicky Fox (Alba).
I AM BOLIVAR (Bolívar Soy Yo)
COLOMBIA, 2002
Director: Jorge Alí Triana
Comedy, 91 minutes
Note: The Film I AM BOLIVAR (COLOMBIA) has been confirmed and it will played as programmed.
With this film, director Alí Triana, one of the most talented of a group of filmmakers enjoying a wave of critical and popular support in Colombia, achieved an unprecedented success in his country competing and surpassing the usual Hollywood block busters at the box office.
In this dark comedy, Santiago Mariño is an actor starring in one of the most popular soap operas in Colombia. Playing Simón Bolivar on the show "The Lovers of the Liberator," Santiago becomes delusional. He accuses the show of misinterpreting history and wants to rewrite and direct the remaining episodes to show the real vision and dream of Bolivar. Wavering between sanity and lunacy, Santiago decides to resurrect and accomplish what Bolivar set out to do: create the "Great Colombia" by unifying five countries and rebuilding a region that faced 160 years of internal wars. Hoping to spark a revolution, his antics lead him to kidnap the President of Colombia to force a summit of all the "Bolivarian" nations of South America.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Robinson Diaz, Amparo Grisales, Jairo Camargo and Fanny Mikey.
AWARDS: Golden Ombú (Argentinian Oscar) for “Best Film”; Silver Ombú for “Best Hispanic American Film”, Mar del Plata Int. Film Festival 2002 - “Best Film”, Special Award from the Audience, Toulouse Film Festival, France, 2002 -
PLAYING DUMB
CUBA/SPAIN/GERMANY, 2000
Director: Daniel Díaz Torres
Comedy, 107 minutes
“Hacerse el sueco” the original Spanish title of this film, is a common Cuban expression comparable to the English “playing dumb”. The origin of the expression comes from the fact that when many Swedish immigrants arrived in Cuba at the end of last century, they seemed to the locals to be “dumb” as they didn’t understand Spanish and adopted a somewhat distant demeanor.
A jewel thief masquerades as a Swedish literature professor named Bjorn in order to plot the perfect heist in this colorful Cuban comedy. When the thief falls in love with the beautiful daughter of Amancio, a retired police officer, and is welcomed into her family with open arms, he must quickly decide which he values more: love or money. Can he successfully "play the Swede" long enough to find a way out of this predicament? A tale of love, larceny and an impromptu lecture on Pippi Longstocking.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Peter Lohmeyer (Bjorn), Enrique Molina (Amancio), Ketty de la Iglesia (Alicia), Coralia Veloz (Concha), Rogelio Blaín (Rocasolano)
AWARDS: Audience Award and Jury Special Mention, !5th Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, 2001 – Audience Award, La Havana Int. Film Festival, Cuba, 2001 – Special Mention, Jury, Ecumenical Prize, 2001.
PORTRAIT OF A NUDE WOMAN
ITALY, 1983 - (CLASSICS SECTION)
Director: Alberto Lattuada and Nino Manfredi
Comedy, 112 minutes
This print, courtesy of Mr. Rocco Mastrangelo – MVP, 604 College St.
 It is not easy these days in Canada or for that matter anywhere else, to be able to see good Italian films. Something that, from now on, we’ll try to remedy in our Festival, starting this year with a comedy by Directors Lattuada and Manfredi.
A former law student, Nino Manfredi established himself as a prolific character actor. In 1962, he began directing and writing, winning his first Director’s Award at Cannes Film Festival with “Per Grazia Ricevuta”/By Grace Received in 1971, which he also scripted. Since then, Manfredi has written or co-written most of his films, among them the unforgettable “Bread and Chocolate”.
In this film, amid the magnificent canals, architecture and carnival of Venice1982, Manfredi works wonders. He plays Sandro, an extrovert, native of Rome married for 16 years to the cultivated and beautiful Laura (Eleonora Georgi) a Venetian, with whom he has a daughter. But it seems the marriage is in turmoil and after yet another argument, Sandro decides they need a separation.
The first night that Sandro passes away from home, he is invited to a photographer friend’s 18th Century castle, where he discovers a woman’s nude photograph seen from the rear. A few days later he is appalled to discover that his wife once posed nude for a painting. His shock is intensified when word gets around that the artist's model was a prostitute. Slowly, he becomes involved with the exuberant and warm Riri, the model, who, incredibly enough, happens to look just like his wife. The rest of the film consists of Manfredi's hilariously frantic efforts to get to the bottom of things (as it were).
PRINCIPAL CAST: Nino Manfredi, Eleonora Georgi, George Wilson, Jean-Pierre Cassel
REFLECTIONS
SPAIN, 2002
Director: Miguel Angel Vivas
Drama, 104 minutes
 Shot in and around Madrid, this is an excellent and complex Spanish thriller that chillingly brings to the memory of Torontonians the murder (still unsolved) of little Holly his year. REFLECTIONS, written and directed by newcomer Miguel Angel Vivas, was the winner screenplay (Antenna 3 & Via Digital) among hundreds of competitors from Spain and Latin America. It features well known French/Greek actor George Corraface and Ana Fernández, the wonderful star of the awarded Spanish film SOLAS, among others.
Jaime Narbona (actor George Corraface) inspector of the Special Homicide Brigade of the Judicial Police, has the challenge of a new case: to discover who is behind a sudden wave of child murders, one of whose latest victims has been the son of his friend and colleague Tony (actor Carlos Kaniowsky). On the scene of the crime Jaime will read on one of the walls of the house: “Welcome to the game”. The message reminds him of another crime years back. For him it is clear that the author of the murder is Lázaro Herranz (actor Emilio Gutiérrez Caba) a killer he’s been trying to jail for the last 3 years. Jaime in incensed by the memory of those crimes where he witnessed the games of a perverse mind conceiving the perfect murder, escaping justice, and doing it again.
The suspected Lázaro has become for him a personal failure, a failure that has affected his marriage to Julia (actress Ana Fernández) and a marriage in need of repair.
The ghosts of the past will show up again. Although it seemed clear at the time, nobody had actually proven that Lázaro was guilty of the murders, and the case was not solved. Jaime will now try to learn from his past mistakes, with help from experienced forensic medical doctor Virginia (Magüi Mira) and his investigative pal Iván (Alberto Jiménez.) But in the meantime, new victims appear forcing Jaime to start a race against the clock…
PRINCIPAL CAST: George Corraface (Jaime), Ana Fernández (Julia), Emilio Gutiérrez Caba (Lázaro), Alberto Jiménez (Lázaro), Carlos Kaniowsky (Tony), Magüi Mira (Virginia), Ana Otero (Sonia.)
THREE NIGHTS OF A SATURDAY
CHILE, 2002
Director: Joaquín Eyzaguirre
Drama, humour, 80 minutes
 In his first feature film, director Eyzaguirre brings us a complex, dramatic and humoristic study of the real people behind the so called “three social classes” in contemporary Chile. Part comedy, part ensemble piece, the film presents a real yet sometimes sarcastic vision of the social layers of Chilean society.
“It is like a portrait of ourselves” the director has said “but in motion”. “It takes into account the Chilean identity through stories where love and betrayal don’t contradict but rather boost one another”.
It is a Saturday night in Santiago and soccer is on every television screen across the city. From street bars to the bedroom of a high society house.
For a group of strangers, this night will bring about new beginnings and ending to their relationships.
• For Ben and Quena, a night meant to celebrate their wedding anniversary, results in their separation.
• Friends gather to celebrate Alfredo’s promotion, not knowing he has actually been fired.
• And a chance meeting between Genaro and Rosi leaves them searching for a hotel room.
Strangers at first, their lives will intersect in a very unexpected way before the night is over.
PRINCIPAL CAST: Paola Volpato, Felipe Armas, Lobos Tichi, Tejo Alejandro and Macarena Basterrica.
AWARDS: Grand Jury Prize; “Best Actress”, “Best Actor”; Viña del Mar Film Festival, 2002 – Grand Audience Award, Iberoamerican Film Festival, Huelva, Spain, 2002 – El Mercurio Prize, “Best Director”, “Best Actrees”, Chile, 2002 – Altazor Prize 2003, 4 Nominations, Chile, 2003 – Nominated for the Luis Buñuel Award, Spain, 2003.
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