20/03/2014 - The crème de la crème of the world’s documentaries are screening until 30 March at the 36th edition of the festival in Paris

Sacro GRA by Gianfranco Rosi

The winner of the Golden Lion at the last Venice Film Festival, Sacro GRA [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile] by Italian director Gianfranco Rosi (which will be released next Wednesday in French theatres by Alfama Films), is today opening (out of competition) the 36th edition of the Cinéma du Réel Festival, one of the best-known international events within the field of documentaries.

The programme for the event (which will be taking place in Paris until 30 March at the Pompidou Centre) that has been cooked up by Maria Bonsanti (artistic director for the second year running) includes, among other things, an international competition involving 11 feature films, which will be judged by a jury comprising four filmmakers: Frenchman Nicolas Philibert, his fellow countrywoman Elisabeth Kapnist, Greek director Maria Konminos and China’s Xiaolu Guo. Among the titles battling it out are the Franco-Italian co-production The Stone River by Giovanni Donfrancesco, When I Will Be Dictator [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Belgium’s Yaël André, German films In Sarmatien by Volker Koepp and Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten by Harun Farocki, Once Upon A time by Turkish director Kazim Öz, the French production Iranien by Mehran Tamadon (unveiled in the Forum section of the 2014 Berlinale), the Franco-Argentinian co-production Carta a un padre by Edgardo Cozarinsky, and Examen d'Etat by Dieudo Hamadi (a co-production between France and the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Three other competitive sections feature on the festival’s menu, the first intended for French films (ten titles having their world premiere), the second dedicated to nine international feature debuts, and the third bringing together ten short films. The line-up is rounded off by an anthology of Portuguese films (including titles directed by Rui Simões, João César Monteiro, António Campos and Pedro Costa) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, a focus on the work of Britain’s John Berger (including Ways of Listening, where the novelist chats to Tilda Swinton), an homage to Brazilian filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho (who passed away on 2 February this year) and the out-of-competition screening of What Now? Remind Me by Joaquim Pinto (which won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno – read the review).

(Translated from French)