16/07/2009

The 62nd Locarno International Film Festival (August 5-15) has just announced its line-up. Exile, identity and the relationship between man and nature are the dominant themes of the selection unveiled by artistic director Frédéric Maire.

On the legendary Piazza Grande, audiences will have the chance to enjoy 16 films, including 11 world premières. Among them are the Larrieu brothers’ major French production Les Derniers Jours du Monde [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“The Last Days of the World”), starring Mathieu Amalric, Catherine Frot, Sergi López and Karin Viard; Spanish director Marc Recha’s Petit Indi (“Little Indi”, also starring López); and Amos Gitaï’s The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness.

Other highly-anticipated titles include German actor-director Detlev Buck’s film Same Same But Different, featuring Shooting Star David Kross (see interview); and closing film Two Horses of Genghis Khan, the new work by Mongolian filmmaker Byambasuren Davaa (The Cave of the Yellow Dog), produced by Germany’s Grasland Film.

Swiss cinema is also well represented, with three features shown in world première on the Piazza Grande: Christoph Schaub’s ensemble comedy Giulias Verschwinden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Schaub
film profile], written by Martin Suter; young director Mihály Györik’s debut narrative feature The Valley; and Robert Wiedmer and Peter Guyer’s documentary Sounds and Silence.

Besides the opening film 500 days of Summer by Marc Webb (in European première), viewers will also be able to discover another US film, My Sister’s Keeper by Nick Cassavetes, starring Cameron Diaz and Jason Patrick.

In International Competition are 18 films from four continents, including seven debut works: nine European (Russian works included), five Asian, three US and an African title. Fourteen films have been selected to screen in world première: Sarah Leonor’s Au Voleur [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Thief!”), starring Guillaume Depardieu (France); Frédéric Mermoud’s Complices [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Frédéric Mermoud
film profile] (“Accomplices”), featuring Gilbert Melki and Emmanuelle Devos (France/Switzerland); Laurent Perreau’s L’insurgée (“Rebel”), starring Michel Piccoli (France); Diego Martinez Vignatti’s La Cantante de Tango [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“The Tango Singer”, Belgium/Argentina); Urszula Antoniak’s Nothing Personal (Netherlands/Ireland); Eugène Green’s A Religiosa Portuguesa (“A Portuguese Nun”, Portugal/France); Filippos Tsitos’ Akadimia Platonos (Greece/Germany); Bernard Emond’s La Donation (“The Donation”, Canada); Esmir Filho’s The Famous and the Dead (Brazil/France); Santiago Loza’s La Invención de la Carne (“The Invention of Meat”, Argentina); Babak Jalali’s Frontier Blues (Iran/UK/Italy); Ho Yuhang’s At the End of Daybreak (Malaysia/Hong Kong/South Korea); and Wakaranai (“Where Are You?”) by Japan’s Masahiro Kobayashi, who won the Golden Leopard in 2007.

Screening in the Filmmakers of the Present competition, a hotbed of bold and inventive narrative and documentary films, are 17 titles, including nine works in world première and eight in international première. This cocktail of drama and fantasy has a strong Latin American flavour, one of the highlights being Brazilian director Alejo Mogouillansky’s Castro.

At the end of the festival, Maire will leave Locarno to take the reins of the Swiss Cinémathèque. He will be replaced by Olivier Père, who until recently headed the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.