Tidal wave of European films hits Arras for L’Autre Cinéma

by Fabien Lemercier

09/11/2009 - The Arras L’autre Cinéma Festival (November 6-15), which has a growing reputation, is in full swing in the Picardy city. In a new addition for its 10th anniversary, there will be a European competition whose jury is presided by director Philippe Lioret and includes Belgian actor Olivier Gourmet, German director Emily Atef, French actress Anne Consigny and producer Christophe Rossignon.

Films vying for honours include German director Maren Ade’s Berlin competition title Everyone Else [trailer, film focus]; Scratch [trailer] by Poland’s Michal Rosa (unveiled at Venice Days: see review); The Other Irina by Romania’s Andrei Gruzsniczki (see news); Who’s Afraid of the Wolf by Czech filmmaker Maria Prochazkova (see interview); Croatian/German co-production Buick Riviera by Goran Rusinovic (see interview); Serbian/German/US feature Here and There [trailer] by Darko Lungulov (see interview); and two Finnish titles: Dome Karukoski’s Forbidden Fruit [trailer] (lauded at Karlovy Vary: see review) and Fredrik Edfeldt’s The Girl [trailer, film focus] (see interview).

In the European Discoveries section are Bulgarian director Kamen Kalev’s Eastern Plays [trailer, film focus] (LUX Prize 2009 competition); Made in Hungaria by Hungary’s Gergely Fonyo (see interview); A Woman’s Way [trailer] by Greece’s Panos H. Koutras; The Over the Hill Band by Belgium’s Geoffrey Enthoven; Black Sea [trailer] by Italian director Federico Bondi; three UK productions (Duncan Jones’ Moon [trailer], Jan Dunn’s The Calling and Paul Cotter’s Bomber [trailer]); and three Romanian films: Corneliu Porumboiu’s Cannes award-winner Police, Adjective [trailer, film focus], Radu Jude’s The Happiest Girl in the World [trailer] and the collective work Tales from the Golden Age [trailer].

The Arras festival will pay homage to Patrice Chéreau and Pavel Lounguine, who will both be in attendance.

The line-up of 18 avant-premieres includes Vincere [trailer, film focus] by Italy’s Marco Bellocchio; Storm [trailer, film focus] by Germany’s Hans-Christian Schmid (LUX Prize 2009 competition); Xavier Giannoli’s Cannes competition title In the Beginning [trailer] (see review); Chéreau’s Persecution [trailer] (unveiled at the Venice Film Festival: see review); and Mia Hansen-Løve’s Father of My Children [trailer, film focus] (prize-winner in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes - see review).

The programme also includes Tony Gatlif’s Freedom [trailer], Jérôme Bonnell’s The Queen of Clubs, François Favrat’s The Holy Victory, Eléonore Faucher’s Sisters, Albert Dupontel’s The Villain, Nicolas Vanier’s Wolf, Jean-Jacques Zilbermann’s He Is My Girl, Jane Campion’s Bright Star [trailer], Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro [trailer] and Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [trailer].

(Translated from French)