The film line-up for the 50th Times/bfi London Film Festival, which runs between Oct. 18-Nov. 2, has been announced.
Among the selections are the following:
The Last King of Scotland (UK), the London Festival's opening night gala screening, tells the story of a fictional Scottish doctor (played by James McAvoy) who becomes an advisor to Uganda's mad ruler Idi Amin Dada (Forest Whitaker). Directed by Kevin MacDonald (whose One Day in September won the 1999 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award), and written by Peter Morgan (Venice Film Festival winner for The Queen) and Jeremy Brock, The Last King of Scotland is based on Giles Foden's novel.
Stranger Than Fiction (US) is the tale of a taxman (Will Ferrell) whose life belongs more to a novelist (Emma Thompson) — who's writing about a character just like him — than to himself. Compounding matters, the novelist is about to kill off her protagonist. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah are also in the cast of this comedy directed by Marc Forster and written by Zach Helm.
Bamako (Mali / France /US) is writer-director Abderrahmane Sissako's attack on the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions ruled by the moneyed elite of the richer nations. (Bamako, by the way, is the name of the capital of Mali.) In the cast: AÁ¯ssa MaÁ¯ga, Tiécoura Traoré, and Hélène Diarra. (Plus Danny Glover and Elia Suleima in a cowboy film-within-a-film.)
Les petites vacances / Stolen Holiday (France), one of the entries in the "French Revolutions" sidebar, stars veteran Bernadette Lafont as a grandmother who takes off with her two grandchildren to the Swiss Alps. This psychological drama was directed by Olivier Peyon, from a screenplay by Peyon and Cyril Brody. Also in the cast, the invariably excellent Claude Brasseur.
Also in the French Revolutions sidebar, director-writer Bruno Dumont's Flandres / Flanders (France), described as the story of young men who "are conscripted into a war out east, where they brutalize, and are brutalized. Not every viewer will find it easy to subscribe to Dumont's picture of a bestial humanity, toiling and rutting in harsh proximity with the earth." In the cast: AdélaÁ¯de Leroux, Samuel Boidin, Henri Cretel.
Aurore (France), a fairy tale directed by Nils Tavernier (Bertrand's son) about a dancing princess who's forbidden to dance. The ball sequences were choreographed by Carolyn Carlson, Kader Belarbi, and Yann Bridard. Tavernier also wrote the screenplay, along with Marjolaine Nonon, Marc Quentin, and Jean Cosmos. In the cast: Carole Bouquet, Margaux Chatelier, and Anthony Munoz.
In the "World Cinema" sidebar, Pablo Trapero's Nacido y criado / Born and Bred (Argentina / France / Chile / UK / Spain) from a screenplay by Trapero and Mario Rulloni, portrays the struggles of a man who tries to rebuild his life in Patagonia following a family tragedy. Starring Federico Esquerro, Martina Gusman, and Guillermo Pfening.
In the "Cinema Europe" sidebar, Annette K. Olesen's 1:1 (En til En) / 1:1 (One to One) (Denmark), the story of the murder of a young white man in a poor Copenhagen suburb inhabited by dark-skinned immigrants, examines issues such as racism, social inequity, and the clash of cultures. Screenplay by Kim Fupz Aakeson. In the cast: Mohammed-Ali Bakier, Joy K. Petersen, and Anette StÁ¸velbaek.