Sunday highlights at the AFI FEST 2005:
Gavin Hood's Tsotsi (South Africa / U.K., 96 min., 1:00pm), based on Athol Fugard's novel, is the story of a gang leader who rediscovers his humanity while helping to take care of a baby he had accidentally kidnapped. Both of the film's previous screenings were sold out, so a third one was added on Sunday. The same has happened with A Dios Momo (Uruguay, 100 min., 4:00pm), the tale of an 11-year-old street kid who befriends an older man during Carnival time.
Besides Tsotsi, I'll also try to see Pål Sletaune's Naboer / Next Door (Norway, 78 min., 4:00pm), a psychological thriller that revolves around neighbors Kristoffer Joner, Cecilie A. Mosli, and Julia Schacht's complex sex triangle.
At 7:30pm, the festival will come to a close with a screening of Lasse Hallström's Casanova, with Heath Ledger in the title role.
Recommended (see the warning below):
Caché / Hidden (Austria / Italy / Germany / France, 117 min., 2:30pm) stars Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil as a bourgeois French couple whose complacent lives are turned upside down when they start receiving videotapes showing their home, accompanied by bizarre, violent drawings. Hidden is a first-rate psychological thriller. Warning: There are two horrifically violent scenes in the film, one of which involves an animal.
European Film Academy 2005 nominees
A selection of notable films screening at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, Calif.
Full list of winners at the 2005 Tokyo International Film Festival
List of films submitted to the 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award
You should see The White Ribbon.
Hidden is an excellent movie. haneke's best.