Windows on Europe Film Festival
Dendy Canberra is proud to showcase the 2012 season of the European Union Windows on Europe Film Festival. This festival explores the best in European cinema with its rich diversity and talent. It includes gems from Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, UK, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. The versatility of European cinema is reflected in the many genres represented including comedy, drama, thriller, romance and documentary.
The festival will be screening from Friday 10th February to Thursday 16th February. Check out the list of films playing below.
Coriolanus
Release: 12 February 2012
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler and Brian Cox.
Directed by Ralph Fiennes.
Classification: E18+, 104 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Ralph Fiennes’s directorial debut of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus (originally set in pre-imperial Rome) is an updated study of modern warfare reconfigured into a fictional Balkan-type contemporary Rome. Our hero, a great soldier and a man of inflexible self-belief despises the people and his extreme views ignite a mass riot. Rome is bloody. Manipulated and out-manoeuvred by politicians and even his own mother Volumnia, Coriolanus is banished from Rome. He offers his life or his services to his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius. Coriolanus and Aufidius march on Rome intending to destroy the city. Volumnia appeals to her son who he tries to reject but eventually breaks. Aufidius, feeling bitterly betrayed, brutally murders Coriolanus.
The Girl on the Train
Release: 10 February 2012
Starring Émilie Dequenne, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Blanc.
Directed by André Téchiné.
Classification: E18+, 105 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: French (subtitled).
A drama centred on a young woman who claims she was the target of an anti-Semitic attack and the subsequent media sensation it creates. Jobless, soul-searching, rollerblading Jeanne lives in a Paris suburb with her widowed mother Louise. In the hope that Jeanne will be offered a job, Louise introduces her to her old flame, now a famous lawyer and Jewish activist. Meanwhile, Jeanne meets and moves in with Franck, a thuggish athlete and aspiring wrestler. Her world is soon shattered by a violent turn of events and Jeanne and the lawyer’s opposite worlds are set on a collision course, as the film becomes a complex psychological drama raising issues of race, religion and identity. Based on the play by Jean-Marie Besset this is a one-way ticket to drama!
His and Hers
Release: 10 February 2012
Starring Leah Holohan, Grace McGee and Eimear Peters.
Directed by Ken Wardrop.
Classification: E18+, 80 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Using his mother’s life as inspiration, the filmmaker has created a film that explores how we share life’s journey with the opposite sex. His and Hers is an investigation into the ordinary to discover the extraordinary. It finds comedy in the mundane, tragedy in the profound and provides an original insight into life. The hallways, living rooms and kitchens of the Irish Midlands are used as the canvas for the film’s rich tapestry of some 70 female characters. The story unfolds sequentially from young to old with a charmingly unabashed array of Irish ladies, and there’s not a man in sight…!
Garbo, the Man who Saved the World
Release: 11 February 2012
Starring Rupert Allason, José Antonio Escoriza and Aline Griffith.
Directed by Edmon Roch.
Classification: E18+, 88 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Spanish (subtitled).
A compelling account of Juan Pujol, an extraordinary Spanish double agent during WWII who helped change the course of history. The director could easily have sat back and let this ripping yarn tell itself, instead, he creates a dazzling mixture of feature film and archival footage, interviews and music, which beautifully underscores the theme of the shifting border between truth and falsehood. In 1940, Juan Pujol offered his services to the British as a spy against the Nazis but was rejected. Instead, he set himself up as a German agent, operating out of Lisbon but pretending to the Nazis that he was based in London. The peak of his career came in 1944, when he succeeded in diverting German defence forces to Calais while the Allied landings were taking place in Normandy, thus averting considerable bloodshed.
Roosters Breakfast
Release: 11 February 2012
Starring Vlado Novak, Primoz Bezjak and Pia Zemljic.
Directed by Marko Nabersnik.
Classification: E18+, 124 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Note: English subtitles.
Slovenia’s most commercially successful film of all time, Roosters Breakfast is set in a small town rife with eccentric characters, perennially drunken friends, a local mob boss, and a neighbourhood sex bomb (who, not surprisingly, is the wife of aforementioned mob boss)! A movie revolving around multiple storylines with a cast of interesting and irresistible characters who all interact at the garage run by Gagas an ageing mechanic and his gregarious apprentice Djuro. Djuro’s tranquil life is disturbed by the arrival of the beautiful Bronja who is married to Lepec, the local ruffian and pimp. The two begin a risky love affair that does not go unnoticed in this quiet rural village. Meanwhile, Gajas himself has his own love fantasies and dreams about Severina, a well-known pop singer, who is on a tour and coming to town.
Run if You Can
Release: 11 February 2012
Starring Robert Gwisdek, Jacob Matschenz and Anna Brüggemann.
Directed by Dietrich Brüggemann.
Classification: E18+, 101 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: German (subtitled).
In his debut feature, director Dietrich Brüggemann provides us with a light-hearted, humorous and unusual love triangle. Tart-tongued, wheelchair-bound paraplegic Ben is finishing his master’s thesis and making life difficult for his assistants. However, he meets his match when he’s assigned easy-going Christian, an aspiring medical student unwilling to be drawn into the power games Ben likes to play. The growing friendship between the two is strained when they both take a shine to Annika, a pretty cellist with a bad case of performance anxiety. Annika likes the playful Christian, but she’s also drawn to the prickly Ben, whose verbal brilliance and appreciation for music makes her overlook his handicap. The three become close friends, putting Annika in the middle of an emotional, and somehow dangerous, ménage à trois. While conquering Annika is nothing very serious for career-focused Christian, Ben’s love for Annika reminds him of his past and forces him to face his most remote fears.
Forbidden Fruit
Release: 11 February 2012
Starring Marjut Maristo, Amanda Pike, Malla Malmivaara.
Directed by Dome Karukoski.
Classification: E18+, 104 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Finnish (subtitled).
Two 18-year-olds from apostolic Lutheran families (a sect that takes the Bible literally and prohibits contraceptives, television, alcohol, rhythmic dancing and premarital sex), wind up sampling “Forbidden Fruit” in this melodramatic coming-of-age movie. Sassy brunette Maria leaves her repressive home in Northern Ostrobothnia to experience the pleasures of the flesh in Helsinki. She figures she can always repent and be welcomed back to the fold (“All your sins forgiven in the name and blood of Christ”) per Laestadian liturgy. When community elders dispatch Maria’s prissy blonde best friend Raakel to save her from eternal damnation, they fail to consider Raakel’s own vulnerabilities.
The Wedding Photographer
Release: 11 February 2012
Starring Björn Starrin, Kjell Bergqvist and Tuva Novotny.
Directed by Ulf Malmros.
Classification: E18+, 102 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Swedish (subtitled).
Robin is from a remote town in Sweden, Värmland. He’s a country bumpkin with a passion for leather trousers, chains and photography. Following a chance encounter with an over-the hill television personality and the closure of the local factory, Robin moves from his beloved home town to Stockholm. Having arrived in Stockholm, he is desperate to make it as a professional photographer and despite some initial setbacks and his rural background, he is commissioned to photograph an upper class wedding in Djursholm, the ritziest district in Stockholm. He promptly falls in love with the bride’s sister and is willing to change everything about himself, from his outlook on life to his hairstyle, in order to win her heart. What follows is a comical clash of cultures and class as the down-at-home Robin tries to woo the girl of his dreams.
Bathory
Release: 11 February 2012
Starring Anna Friel, Karel Roden and Vincent Regan.
Directed by Juraj Jakubisko.
Classification: E18+, 124 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Note: English subtitles.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory is infamous for killing many young women as, according to legend, she thought that bathing in their blood would preserve her youth. Eventually the royal authorities investigated, and she was walled up in her castle, where she died four years later. This gruesome tale has been recounted by historians, writers, poets, playwrights, musicians, painters, and moviemakers throughout the years and she has even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most prolific mass murderer. This is a crime story full of political intrigue, and the drama of an intelligent woman, Elizabeth Bathory, who, in short, was unfortunate to have been born at the wrong time in history.
Swan
Release: 12 February 2012
Starring Beatriz Batarda, Miguel Nunes and Israel Pimenta.
Directed by Teresa Villaverde.
Classification: E18+, 103 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Portuguese (subtitled).
A poetic, coming of age movie, Swan, revolves around the lives of three people. Vera, a singer in her thirties who is in Lisbon to give the final performance of her concert tour; Sam, her long-term lover who wants to be left alone to contemplate their relationship and Pablo, Vera’s new assistance. Finding comfort in the company of Pablo and exploring the streets of Lisbon, Vera soon learns that Pablo has his own problems when she discovers that a boy in his care has killed a man. Vera comes to the rescue and takes the child under her wing and in trying to save him also saves herself and ultimately, Sam.
Suicide Room
Release: 13 February 2012
Starring Jakub Gierszal, Roma Gasiorowska and Agata Kulesza.
Directed by Jan Komasa.
Classification: E18+, 112 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Polish (subtitled).
Dominik, a high school senior is popular, dates the prettiest girl in school and comes from a wealthy family, but one innocent kiss with a mate changes everything. He begins to isolate himself from the outside world, spending all his time on his computer. He meets a mysterious girl online who introduces him to the virtual world of the “Suicide Room”, a place from which there is no escape. Caught in a trap woven of his own emotions, Dominik becomes entangled in a web of intrigue and gradually loses what he cherishes most.
Kolorado Kid
Release: 15 February 2012
Starring Zsolt Nagy, Lilla Sárosdi and Tibor Gáspár.
Directed by András Vágvölgyi B..
Classification: E18+, 111 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Hungarian (subtitled).
In the summer of 1959 Béla Kreuzer, a loaner and gambler, is arrested and placed in detention. At first he thinks it’s because of his dubious activities on the racecourse but it soon transpires that the official reason was because of his participation in the revolution in 1956. During the investigation old friends turn their backs on him as does his girlfriend. His ruthless prosecutor would rather have him hanged, but the detective on the case, just wants the whole thing off his hands. The prosecutor seeks capital punishment, but the judge opts for a sentence of 15 years in jail, which Béla serves to the day. It is 1974 when he is released and he finds the world to be a very different place than the one he remembered.
Tirza
Release: 16 February 2012
Starring Sylvia Hoeks, Johanna ter Steege and Abbey Hoes.
Directed by Rudolf van den Berg.
Classification: E18+, 100 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Dutch (subtitled).
Jörgen’s world is crumbling. Forced into early retirement and harassed by his ex-wife, the only part of his life which made sense, raising his beloved daughter, Tirza, is disrupted when she disappears on holiday in Namibia. After weeks of terrified uncertainty, Jörgen goes searching for her, but the heat, his drinking and bad memories combine to unhinge him. His only ally is a child prostitute and together they journey into the wilderness to discover her fate.
Correction
Release: 16 February 2012
Starring Giorgos Symeonidis, Ornela Kapetani and Savina Alimani.
Directed by Thanos Anastopoulos.
Classification: E18+, 87 mins.
Official Site: http://www.delaus.ec.europa.eu/News&events/Cultural/FilmFestival2011/index.htm
Language: Greek (subtitled).
A film about right-wing hooliganism, discrimination against immigrants and the brutality of thuggish soccer fans. A hand held camera follows the main character, Yorgos as he gets ready to leave prison and return to civilian life. With nowhere to go he wanders through contemporary Athens among the migrants, homeless, and other marginalised members of society. Along the way, he meets a woman and a little girl. This is a story about ordinary people which allows both the hero and the viewers an opportunity to contemplate issues of guilt and forgiveness, the preservation of human dignity and also current problems of ethnic intolerance.
