Screen fest

This dark comedy film by Steven Soderbergh is based on a non-fiction book about Mark Whitacre written by Kurt Eichenwald. The film,which is scheduled to open the festival,revolves around Whitacre (Matt Demon)—a rising star at Decatur,Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). He ends up blowing the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics,on his wife’s insistence.

Sweet Rush (Poland)

DIRECTED by the acclaimed Andrzej Wajda,it is based on a story by Polish writer Jaros?aw Iwaszkiewicz. The film,set in post-World War II Poland,focuses on middle-aged Martha (Krystyna Janda),who leads a lonely life with a workaholic husband,until she meets a young man. They spend time at the shores of a river,where the sweet rush grows. Their happiness ends when the young man drowns.

Chéri (France)

THIS romantic drama directed by Stephen Frears is an adaptation of the novel by French author Colette. The film,starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend,is set in 1900s Paris. It tells the story of the end of a six-year affair between an aging courtesan and a flamboyant young man nicknamed ‘Chéri’. They believe their relationship is casual until they are separated by Chéri’s marriage.

Katalin Varga (Romania/Hungary)

WRITTEN and directed by Peter Strickland,this rural tragedy begins with a housewife,Katalin Varga (Hilda Péter),being banished from her village when her husband discovers that he’s not the father of their son Orbán. As she travels across an empty landscape,Katalin decides she needs first to avenge the rape that resulted in the birth of Orbán. The restrained performance of Péter is superb.

Disgrace (Australia)

STEVE Jacobs’s adaptation of Nobel laureate JM Coetzee’s best-selling 1999 novel faithfully reproduces the shocking events of post-apartheid South Africa.

Driven to resign after an affair with a student,a white Cape Town professor,David Lurie (John Malkovich),seeks refuge with his daughter Lucy on her lonely homestead.

Rwanda,The Day God Walked Away (France)

THE 1994 genocide in Rwanda,in which 800,000 people were massacred,has captured the imagination of many filmmakers in recent times. Directed by Philippe van Leeuw this film explores this horrific episode in history by following the life of Jacquelin—-a young Tutsi who works for a European family in Kigali. It is genocide in miniature,and all the more heartbreaking for that.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (USA)

THIS episodic and stylised 1985 film by Paul Schrader is based on the life and work of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The film,which features in the Schrader retrospective,was produced by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Schrader,who wrote the screenplay of Taxi Driver,considers Mishima the best film he has directed.

Shakespeare-Wallah (UK)

SCREENED as part of the retrospective of Shashi Kapoor’s work,James Ivory’s directorial venture is loosely based on the real-life Kendal family. It follows the story of nomadic British actors as they perform plays by Shakespeare in towns in post-colonial India.

Deliver us from Evil (Denmark)

DANISH filmmaker Ole Bornedal narrates the story of Johannes and his family who move his childhood town in search of a new lifestyle. When his drunken brother Lars accidentally runs over a local and plants false evidence pointing at the emigrant,Johannes stands up to defend the latter. The town reveals its ugly face,making the life of Johannes’ family a nightmare.

The Dust of Time (Greece)

The second part of Theo Angelopoulos’s trilogy unfolds in the former Soviet Union,the Austrian-Hungarian borders,Italy and New York between 1953 and 1974,from the eve of Stalin’s death to Nixon’s resignation in the United States and the fall of the Greek junta.

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