10/03/2009

Existential searches lie at the heart of the eight edition of the Alba International Film Festival (March 17-22), for the second consecutive year under the artistic direction of the Holden School of Turin. There are 10 films in competition, by first and second-time directors from Europe, Asia, Africa and America.

"All the films pose questions on that nucleus of thoughts and feelings that are part of our deepest and most intimate experiences", said Bruno Fornara, film critic and one of the festival organizers.

The competition titles are: Rouhollah Hejazi’s Among the Clouds (Iran), winner of Best Debut Film at Teheran; Better Things [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (UK), the feature debut by photographer and painter Duane Hopkins; Emily Atef’s The Stranger in Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Germany); Masahide Ichii’s Naked of Defenses (Japan); Emmanuel Finkiel’s Nowhere Promised Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (France); Leon Dai’s No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (Taiwan, 2008); So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain (South Korea/USA); Renzo Martens’ Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty (Netherlands); Havana Marking’s Afghan Star (UK/Afghanistan); and Khaled Gorbal’s Un si beau voyage (Tunisia).

There are three other sidebar sections besides the competition: eXistenZe (whose theme this year is “bonds” and “passion” in all their forms); They have a dream, Political and civic passion between Italy and the United States; and Lo specchio delle passioni, a tribute to John M. Stahl.

There will also be four Masterclasses and an advanced screenwriting course for European professionals Script&Pitch Workshops, which is this year open also to international screenwriters and story editors thanks to a partnership with the Training portion of the TorinoFilmLab. Also, for the first time at Alba, a TorinoFilmLab Development workshop. The film criticism course organised by Nisi Masa will also be held.

(Translated from Italian)