Middle East Film Festival 2007 - Official Competition Line-Up
by Andre Soares
The Middle East International Film Festival, to be held in Abu Dhabi between Oct. 14-19, has announced its Official Competition line-up for the Black Pearl awards. Most of the films in competition were directed by new talent.
The film synopses/info below are from the MEIFF press release.
Fiction Competition:
BEN X (Belgium) directed by Nic Balthazar. With Greg Timmermans, Marijke Pinoy, Laura Verlinden, Pol Goossen, Titus De Voogdt, Maarten Claeyssens.
Ben is a mildly autistic boy, frequently the target of school bullies. Inspired by his token online computer game, ArchLord, and Scarlite, a mystery girl he met in the game, Ben devises a plan.
**Official Belgian submission for the Academy Awards® Foreign Language Film. Received the Most Popular Film, the Grand Prix des Amériques, and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2007 Montreal World Film Festival.
CARAMEL (France/Lebanon) directed by Nadine Labaki. With Nadine Labaki, Adel Karam, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gisele Aouad, Sihame Haddad.
A warm-hearted comedy following the lives of women working in a Lebanese beauty salon, where love, laughter and tears fight for attention.
**Official Lebanese submission for the Academy Awards® Foreign Language Film. Screened at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
THE COUNTERFEITERS (Die Fälscher) (Germany/Austria) directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. With Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Marie Bäumer, Devid Striesow.
In the biggest counterfeit money scam of all time, over 130 million sterling pounds are printed by a team of prisoners from German concentration camps.
**Official Austrian submission for the Academy Awards® Foreign Language Film. 2007 German Film Awards Best Actor in a Supporting Role Award – Devid Striesow. Screened in Competition at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival and the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
ECHO (Denmark) directed by Anders Morgenthaler. With Peter Stormare, Kim Bodnia, Sine Fischer Christensen, Villads Milthers Fritsche.
Simon is a police officer who recently lost custody of his six-year-old son in a divorce. In his desperation, he abducts his son and takes him to the country where they hide in a vacated summerhouse.
**Screened at the 2007 San Sebastian Film Festival and 2007 Danish Film Institute Festival.
THE GOOD NIGHT (USA/United Kingdom) directed by Jake Paltrow. With Penélope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, Danny DeVito.
Gary Shaller is at a crossroads in his life. As a former pop star who now writes commercial jingles for a living, he experiences a mid-life crisis. Set in London and New York, the film follows a man’s search for perfection in a world where life rarely measures up to idealized images.
**Premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and screened at 2007 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the 2007 Moscow Film Festival.
GRACE IS GONE (USA) directed by James Strouse. With Nathan Adloff, John Cusack, Doug Dearth, Gracie Bednarczyk.
Upon hearing his wife was killed in the Iraq war, a father takes his two daughters on a road trip.
**Screened in Competition at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
LA ZONA (Spain/Mexico) directed by Rodrigo Plá. With Daniel Giménez Cacho, Maribel Verdú, Daniel Tovar, Alan Chávez.
A teenager living inside an isolated residential ‘Zone,’ guarded by private security, finds himself protecting a boy accused of murder by his vigilante father and neighbors.
**Received the 2007 Toronto FIPRESCI International Critics’ Award and the Luigi De Laurentiis Award at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.
LUCKY MILES (Australia) directed by Michael James Rowland. With Kenneth Moraleda, Rodney Afif, Srisaco Sacopraseuth, Don Hany, Glenn Shea, Sean Mununggurr, Sawung Jabo, Arif Hidayat.
When a group of Iraqi and Cambodian refugees are abandoned in a remote part of Western Australia, three of the men escape arrest and begin an epic journey through the desert.
**Received the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2007 Sydney Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
THE MILKY WAY (A Via Láctea) (Brazil) Directed by Lina Chamie. With Marco Ricca, Alice Braga, Fernando Alves Pinto.
Heitor and Júlia are deeply in love. After a heated phone conversation, he decides to go and see her face-to-face. On his way through the streets of São Paulo at sunset, Heitor observes the city as it begins to interfere in his thoughts.
**Received Casa de América Award at the 2006 San Sebastian Film Festival and screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
NOT BY CHANCE (Não Por Acaso) (Brazil) directed by Philippe Barcinski and produced by Fernando Meirelles. With Rodrigo Santoro, Leonardo Medeiros, Letícia Sabatella, Branca Messina, Rita Batata, Graziela Moretto, Cássia Kiss, João Paulo Zucatelli.
Two men have never met, but they have a common lifestyle based on precision, control and method, until an unpredictable accident involving two women will forever change the course of their lives.
**Received the Alfred P. Sloan Grant at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress Awards at the 2007 Recife CE PE Audiovisual Festival. Developed at Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
THE OWL AND THE SPARROW (Cú và chim se se) (United States/Vietnam) directed by Stephane Gauger. With Cat Ly, Le The Lu, Pham Thi Han.
A beautiful flight attendant looking for love; a lonely zookeeper hiding within his animal kingdom from a changing society; a little orphan girl selling roses on the streets. It’s modern-day Saigon, where eight million people are just trying to keep up with the pace.
**Received the Audience Award and Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival and the Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 San Francisco Asian American Film Festival. Screened at the 2007 Rotterdam International Film Festival.
PERSEPOLIS (France) directed by Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud. With Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian, Gabrielle Lopes, François Jerosme.
A poignant coming-of-age story about a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic revolution.
** Official French submission for the Academy Awards® Foreign Language Film. Awarded the 2007 Cannes Jury Prize. Screened at the 2007 Telluride Film Festival, in Special Presentations at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and will be the Closing Night Film at the New York Film Festival.
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