Mediterranean films shine at Montpellier

by Fabien Lemercier

22/10/2010 - This evening, Pierre Salvadori’s Full Treatment (see news) will open the 32nd Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, which will close on October 30 with François Ozon’s Potiche [trailer].

In official selection, 49 films will screen in competition (features, shorts and documentaries) and 51 films in the Panorama (features, shorts and experimental films). The event’s line-up also includes homages and retrospectives dedicated to Carmen Maura, Marco Ferreri, Ronit Elkabetz, Hiam Abbas and Dario Argento.

Among the 12 features in competition are Italian director Paolo Virzi’s The First Beautiful Thing [trailer] (Italy’s representative in the nomination race for the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar); Venice competition title The Passion by fellow Italian Carlo Mazzacurati; Black Field [trailer, film focus] by Greece’s Vardis Marinakis; Reha Erdem’sTurkish/Bulgarian co-production Kosmos [trailer]; Rajko Grlic’s Just Between Us [trailer] (Croatia/Serbia/Slovenia); Srdjan Koljevic’s German/Serbian co-production The Woman with a Broken Nose [trailer]; The Mosquito Net [trailer] by Spain’s Agustí Vila; and Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s Turkish/Greek co-production Hair.

Among the avant-premieres, highlights include four French films: Angelo Cianci’s Top Floor, Left Wing (see news); Audrey Estrougo’s Toi, Moi, Les Autres (“You, Me, The Others”, see news); Philippe Le Guay’s Service Entrance; and Michel Leclerc’s The Names of Love [trailer] (unveiled in Cannes Critics’ Week – see review).

Also in the programme are Eran Riklis’s Israeli/German/French/Romanian co-production The Human Resources Manager (winner of the Audience Award at Locarno); Kiss Me Again [trailer] by Italy’s Gabriele Muccino; Draquila – Italy Trembles [trailer] by fellow Italian director Sabina Guzzanti; Portuguese maestro Manoel de Oliveira’s The Strange Case of Angelica [trailer]; and Damjan Kozole’s Slovenian Girl [trailer].

The festival is also hosting a Panorama including four Spanish features: Carlos Martín Ferrera’s Suspicious Minds, Ventura Pons’s A la Dériva, David Marqués’s Desechos (“Waste”) and Elisa K. [trailer] by directorial duo Judith Colell and Jordi Cadena. They are joined by four Italian titles: Massimo Coppola’s Afraid of the Dark (Bruises) [trailer], Rocco Papaleo’s Basilicata Coast to Coast [trailer], Edoardo Leo’s 18 Years Later [trailer] and Marco Righi’s Days of Harvest. Finally, the bumper line-up includes 4 Black Suits by Greece’s Renos Haralambidis, Motel Nana by Serbia’s Predrag Velinovic and Vavien by Turkey’s Durul and Yagmur Taylan.

(Translated from French)