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LOCARNO 2003 Competition

Festival Unveiled

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- The programme of the 56th edition (6-16 August) is presented: 10 of te 20 films in competition are European and Piazza Grande will showcase plenty of premieres

The 56th Locarno Film Festival is no longer a secret. Today’s press conference revealed the programme of Switzerland's premiere film event (6-16 August) (see Festival), and the 20 films from 17 countries in competition.
The European contingent is particularly strong with ten features, two of which are French co-productions with, respectively, Kazakstan: Little Men by Nariman Turebayev, and Germany and Pakistan: Sabiha Sumar’s Silent Waters.
The common thread running through all the films is either historical or cultural transition, and the start of a new life. In Au sud des nuages, Switzerland’s Jean- François Amiguet brings us the story of one old peasant's travels in China. Italy’s Fiorella Infascelli will present her Il vestito della sposa (The Wedding Dress)in which her heroine, Stella, tries to get over a violent rape. The United Kingdom’s Richard Jobson brings us 16 Years of Alcohol about an adolescent called Frankie who must choose between his mates and his girlfriend. France’s Claire Devers will present her Les Marins Perdus about sailors whose ship is literally sold from under them by the unscrupulous owner, leaving them stranded on-board in a foreign port.

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The traditional outdoor Piazza Grande programme is just as interesting: the highlights include the premieres of Tom Barman’s Belgian hit Anyway the Wind Blows [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Calendar Girls by the UK’s Nigel Cole, Italian Pasquale Scimeca’s Gli indesiderabili and Frenchman Philippe Le Guay’s Le coût de la vie (The Cost of Life).
The experts called on to judge this year's winners of the Leopard awards are French film critic, Franck Nouchi, English producer Nik Powell, Swiss actor Jean-Luc Bideau, Indian writer and director Girish Karnad, American composer David Robbins plus Italian writer Niccolò Ammaniti, and actress Stefania Rocca.

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(Translated from Italian)

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