Foreign Titles Dominate 41st New Directors/New Films Festival

An anticipated event on the annual festival circuit in the U.S. the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) unveiled the full lineup for the New Directors/New Films series taking place March 21 – April 1 in NY. The 41st edition of the event will spotlight 29 features and 12 shorts by emerging talent. Foreign titles are heavily represented in this year’s lineup with only a few Americans making the cut. Sony Classics’ Where Do We Go Now? by Nadine Labaki join the large group of foreign titles this year. Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot, Sundance ’12 titles How To Survive A Plague by David France and An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty by Terence Nance are among the new U.S. offerings this year. ND/NF will break some precedent this year, hosting a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Fear And Desire, twenty years older than the festival itself. Also new for the closing night is a surprise screening that will be revealed as the curtain raises April 1st. The 41st New Directors/New Films features selections include: THE AMBASSADOR (Ambassadren) (2011) 94min Directed by Mads Brgger Country: Denmark The consummate agent-provocateur–his method fittingly described as Graham Greene meets Borat–Brgger (THE RED CHAPEL, NDNF 2010) shocks and mightily entertains by performing an artistic intervention in reality using role-playing and hidden cameras to expose an awful truth about life in central Africa. BREATHING (Atmen) (2011) 90min Director: Karl Markovics Country: Austria The remarkably assured directorial debut from veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics (THE COUNTERFEITERS) creates a slipstream between the perilousness of youth and the inevitability of death as it tells the story of an inmate at a juvenile detention center whose last hope of parole rests on his ability to hold down a job…as a morgue assistant. A Kino Lorber release. CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND (2011) 73min Director: Anca Damian Country: Romania Anca Damians documentary utilizes hand drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques, combined with some very dark humor to create a striking documentary about a young Romanians hunger strike in a Polish jail. DONOMA (2011) 133min Directed by Djinn Carrnard Country: France Rumored to have been shot for about $200, DONOMA announces the arrival of an intriguing new talent on the French scene, Haitian-born, Paris based Djinn Carrnard. Devised, shot (often guerrilla-style) and edited over a period of years, the film is a choral piece that chronicles the romantic destinies of three women, offering a fresh, funny portrait of an emerging French generation. FEAR AND DESIRE (1953) 72min Director: Stanley Kubrick Country: USA Directed, photographed, and edited by the talented and ambitious 24-year-old Kubrick, FEAR AND DESIRE was written by his high school classmate, Howard Sackler, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in playwriting.Some Kubrick scholars see this wartime drama of five soldiers behind enemy lines and their encounter with a native woman as a dry run for PATHS OF GLORY; others see it as the original to the second half of FULL METAL JACKET. A Kino Lorber release. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS (2011) 90min Directors: Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi Countries: Palestine/Israel/France Emad Burnats and Guy Davidis documentary began five years ago in the Palestinian town of Bilin when Burnat bought a camera to record the birth of his son Gibreel. Gibreels arrival, however, coincided with a period of great unrest in the area, which is witnessed by five video cameras, each subsequently damaged by bullets or rocks. A Kino Lorber release. FOUND MEMORIES (Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas) (2011) 98min Director: Julia Murat Country: Brazil The original title, which translates as “stories that only exist when remembered,” beautifully expresses the theme and core sentiment of Julia Murat’s poetic rendering of the fictive town of Jotuomba. A magical confluence of generations and cultures is occasioned by the visit of Rita, a young photographer, to this place where time has seemingly stood still and life is rooted in the fixed roles of tradition soon to be rendered obsolete. A Film Movement release. GENERATION P (2011) 116min Director: Victor Ginzburg Country: Russia Ginzburgs GENERATION P could be described as a metaphysical Mad Men from the go-go 1990s – a wonderland of images and ideas that emerged from the rebirth of a nation as a marketers paradise. The film offers a view of post-Communist Russia as the arrival of democracy and Pepsi-Cola brought the advance of capitalism with all of its mechanisms and fuzzy messages. GIMME THE LOOT (2012) 81min Director: Adam Leon Country: USA In his feature film debut, Adam Leon has created a raucous, car-less road trip that is an homage to street-smart kids and NY City. Malcolm and Sofia, two determined teens from theBronx, are the ultimate graffiti writers. When their latest masterpiece is wiped out by a rival gang, they must hustle, steal and scheme to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest graffiti writers in the city. GOODBYE (B omid didar) (2011) 104min Director: Mohammad Rasoulof. Country: Iran In his latest film, celebrated Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof creates a dramatic and tense tale set in Tehran, where a young woman is desperately attempting to acquire a visa to leave the country. The beautifully shot film uses the confinement of space to cinematically express claustrophobia, its precise framing catching every subtle expression on the face of the astonishing Leyla Zareh, who plays the disbarred human rights lawyer, Noora, looking for a way out. HEMEL (2012) 80min Director: Sacha Polak Country: The Netherlands/Spain Sacha Polaks HEMEL features Hannah Hoekstra as a strong-willed, complicated, and vulnerable heroine who longs (perhaps too much) to connect with her elusive father and ultimately find herself.The film is a powerful investigation of a sexually-empowered woman and her search for physical and intellectual intimacy. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012) 109min Director: David France Country: USA David Frances immersive moving-image document chronicling the rise of AIDS activism shows a movement though the lenses of those who captured it firsthand.Desperate people leveraged the skills they hadsome wrote, some lobbied, many marched, and all mobilizedto flight a plague that vast swaths of society saw as just punishment for immoral actions.A Sundance Selects release. HUAN HUAN (2011) 90min Director: Song Chuan Country: China Song Chuans first feature captures the dreams and desires, disappointments and regrets, of a life not fully lived via the title character. In a rural Chinese village, a young woman who is the local doctors mistress struggles against her family, government bureaucracy and social mores to move away and create a life for herself. IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE (Z daleka widok jest piekny) (2011) 77min Directors: Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal Country: Poland Anka and Wilhelm Sasnals film is set in a Polish village effectively cut off from civilization, where rough and impassive Pawel makes a living scavenging for scrap metal. Theres bad blood between him and the community (a more spiteful collection of individuals would be hard to imagine), and when he goes AWOL his neighbors loot and vandalize his home. What if he returns? A brooding, almost wordless drama vision of a world in an advanced state of entropy. LAS ACACIAS (2011) 85min Director: Pablo Giorgelli Country: Argentina One of the discoveries of the 2011 Cannes Critics Week, Pablo Giogellis road movie with a difference takes a 900-mile trip from Asuncin in Paraguay to Buenos Aires in the company of Rubn, a gruff, taciturn truck driver and the two illegal immigrantsa young woman, and her new-born daughterhe is reluctantly transporting. THE MINISTER (Lexercice de ltat) (2011) 115min Director: Pierre Schller Country: France Pierre Schllers political thriller focuses on a cabinet minister (Olivier Gourmet) in charge of national transportation who believes himself to be a man of the people. He wants both to be and do good, but in order to get anything done he must, given the exigencies of compromise, cajole, bend and even betray. NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (O som ao redor) (2012) 124min Director: Kleber Mendona Filho Country: Brazil A thrilling debut from a breakout talent, Kleber Mendona Filhos NEIGHBORING SOUNDS delves into the lives of a group of prosperous middle-class families residing on a quiet street, close to a low-income neighborhood. A private security firm hired to police the street becomes the catalyst for an exploration of the neighbors discontents and anxieties, which are exacerbated by a palpable sense of unease over their societys troubled past and present inequities. NOW, FORAGER (2012) 93min Directors: Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin Countries: USA/Poland A quiet tale about the search for integrity and the perfect mushroom, Jason Cortlunds and Julia Halperins NOW, FORAGER followsLucien and Regina, an urban couple living off the land foraging for fungi in upstate NY with a dream of following the seasonal emergence of exotic varieties across the country.That is, until Reginas decision to take a job in the kitchen of a hip restaurant offers a more solid opportunity, even as it betrays Luciens off-the-grid ethos. OMAR KILLED ME (Omar ma tuer) (2011) 85min Director: Roschdy Zem Country: France Actor-turned-director Roschdy Zems OMAR KILLED ME tells a story of racism, politics, and injustice with the clarity of a documentary and the pacing of a thriller. When a rich widow was murdered in the south of France 20 years ago, her Moroccan gardener was convicted and jailed with no evidence; it took a committed journalist to try to unravel the rush to judgment that laid bare the racism that was hidden in the French justice system. OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (2011) 96min Director: Joachim Trier Country: Norway Daylight lingers at the end of August in Oslo, but sunlight is not a friend to Anders, a semi-recovered addict, facing a new life, which may not be appealing without former habits. Adapted from the same novel as Louis Malle’s THE FIRE WITHIN (1963), Joachim Triers OSLO, AUGUST 31ST follows Anders as he tries to adjust – making love, wandering through Oslo, having a job interview, seeing old friends, and trying to get comfortable with his situation. A Strand Releasing Film. AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY (2011) 95min Directed by Terence Nance Country: USA Frank, funny, and bracingly contemporary, visual artist Terence Nance gleefully bends the cinematic rules for his personal meditation on love in the new millennium with his film, AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF BEAUTY. Passages of live action sequences and direct-to-camera interviews are accented with a wide variety of animation styles as Nance analyzes his amorous history as well as his current circumstances. PORFIRIO (2011) 101min Director: Alejandro Landes Country: Colombia Paralyzed from the waist down by a stray police bullet, the title character in Alejandro Landes’ remarkable film spends his days selling minutes on his cell phone when not flirting with his comely neighbor, and secretly plotting his revenge. Landes worked on the film for five years, creating a tale that joined the most intimate details of Porfirio’s day-to-day life with an astonishing re-creation of his attempt to hijack an airplane. THE RABBIS CAT (Le chat du rabbin) (2011) 89min Director: Antoine Delesvaux Countries: France/Austria Adapted from the graphic novels by Joanne Sfar, THE RABBIS CAT is a vivid, lively, and imaginative animated film co-directed by Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux . Set in 1920s Algiers, a widower rabbi lives with his voluptuous and dutiful daughter and their pesky cat who swallows a parakeet and begins to speak, driving everyone crazy and moving the plot ahead by insisting on having a bar-mitzvah. THE RAID (2011) 100min Director: Gareth Huw Evans Countries: Indonesia/USA In Gareth Huw Evans sensational thriller, THE RAID, a police SWAT team storms a housing project ruled by gangsters and inhabited by machete-wielding lowlifesbut the mission has been leaked, the tables are turned, and a dwindling band of elite fighters find themselves massively outnumbered in a lethal game of cat and mouse. What ensues is a relentless and savage succession of close-quarters shoot-outs and punishing martial-arts combat sequences, each jaw-dropping smackdown unbelievably topping the previous one. This film is wild! A Sony Pictures Classics release. ROMANCE JOE (Ro-maen-seu Jo ) (2011) 115min Director: Lee Kwang-Kuk Country: South Korea In his playful first feature, Lee Kwang-Kuk expertly weaves several narrative strands into an elegant web and a meditation on storytelling. A teasing and pleasing portrait of a filmmaker in search of a story to tell, ROMANCE JOE begins as a young, self-possessed barmaid in a remote inn recalls the time she met the title character. TEDDY BEAR (2012) 92min Director: Mads Matthiesen Country: Denmark Mads Matthiesen’s character-based and understated comedy, TEDDY BEAR tells the story of a gentle giant of a body builder who self sculpts his muscles by day and lives quietly at home with his mom at night. But at 38, he really wants a proper girlfriend, and despite his mother’s resistance (she is a master of emotional manipulation) and his own profound awkwardness, he draws up the courage to find one–even if he has to leave Denmark to do so. TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) 105min Director: Angelina Nikonova Country: Russia TWILIGHT PORTRAIT is a powerhouse collaboration co-written and co-produced by Angelina Nikonova, who directed, and Olga Dihovichnaya, who stars in this very dark, provocative and constantly surprising debut feature film. In a modern Russian city where corruption, apathy and class warfare are the norm, a woman is raped, rather casually, by the police. What follows explodes the conventions of sexual politicsand will certainly have filmgoers talking. WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (2010) 100min Director: Nadine Labaki Countries: France/Lebanon/Italy/Egypt Labakis film focuses on a group of women of different religions in a remote Lebanese village that band together and invent schemes to prevent their men from killing each other in the intractable religious conflict that surrounds their community. This entertaining and unlikely near-musical tears down stereotypes of women in the Middle East and uses humor to explore serious subjects, with one eye toward Aristophanes Lysistrata and the other toward Bollywood. A Sony Pictures Classics Release.