BIFF Announces Remainder of Film Line-Up

Some 74 films from 34 countries will screen at the event, including eight films by first- or second-time directors in the festival's competition narrative features category, three films suitable for children in the BIFF Kids category sponsored by Butterfield Bank, three films in a sidebar focusing on modern South Korean cinema, and three special presentation films.

Films with an asterisk beside their names are sub-titled.

The final films selected to screen at BIFF are:

Fresh Visions - Competition Features

CONVERSATIONS ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON
(d. Khalo Matabane, South Africa, 80 minutes)

The intimate conversations in this film are part documentary and part narrative and entirely new for the people of South Africa. Director Khalo Matabane is looking past issues of reconciliation, to examine the new role of South Africa as a nation of safe refuge - a promised land - for those fleeing other war zones. On his singular journey through Johannesburg's migrant neighbourhoods, Keniloe meets refugees from Kenya, Congo, the former Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, and the conversations begin. Why did you leave? Can you go home? Where is your home? Is the war over now?

FESTIVAL
(d. Annie Griffin, United Kingdom, 107 minutes)

Every August, more than a million people converge on the Scottish capital for the single largest arts festival in the world, The Edinburgh Festival. Snuggled between the cultural hierarchy of the arts events and the splendour of the Military Tattoo is the black sheep, the infamous Fringe, and it is here that the hopes, dreams and nightmares of many a comic performer are realised. The film features a motley and hilarious cast of characters including ambitious comedians and comediennes, a corrupt and lusty awards judge, a flaky experimental theatre group, a confused man of the cloth and an actress presenting a one-woman show based on the life of Dorothy Wordsworth. With tangled loyalties, explosive secrets, humour and tears, you'll be sure to leave the theatre laughing.

LOOK BOTH WAYS
(d. Sarah Watt, Australia, 100 minutes)

In this tender comedy, Meryl is struggling to meet a work deadline on Friday while still numb from her father's funeral. Nick has just learned he has testicular cancer and will discover his prognosis on Monday. Andy needs to decide by the end of the weekend what he will do about his girlfriend's unplanned pregnancy. They meet at the site of a train crash and, though the circumstances are unusual, Nick and Meryl begin an affair that seems doomed to failure: both of them are preoccupied with disasters and full of fear about the future. The film portrays characters facing complex and difficult choices about their futures.

THE PROPOSITION
(d. John Hillcoat, Australia, 104 minutes)

Set against the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the 1880s Australian Outback, The Proposition is a visually stunning tale of loyalty, revenge, and the quest for justice in a land without rule. Brothers Charlie, Mikey and Arthur Burns are renegades living in the lawless frontier. When local law enforcer Captain Stanley captures Charlie and Mikey, he offers Charlie a bleak choice in an attempt to end the brutality that surrounds them: the only way to save his younger brother Mikey from the gallows is to track down and kill Arthur, his psychotic older brother. Both men face an impossible moral dilemma that leads to a murderous climax …

THE RING FINGER (L'Annulaire) *
(d. Diane Bertrand, France-Germany-United Kingdom, 100 minutes)

The Ring Finger follows Iris (Olga Kurylenko), who moves to a port town after cutting off the tip of her ring finger in an industrial accident. She quickly finds lodging in a hotel down by the harbour, but is forced to share a room with a sailor who works at night and sleeps while she is out in the day. While searching for work, by chance she comes across an old girls' school that now houses a man (Marc Barbe) who preserves and stores personal artifacts that people bring to him. Taking a job as the man's office assistant, she soon becomes involved in a sort of relationship with him, while at the same time being intrigued by the sailor (Stipe Erceg), whom she only knows through the things left in their shared room.

SHARK IN THE HEAD (Žralok v hlave) *
(d. Maria Procházková, Czech Republic, 75 minutes)

The film takes us inside the head of Mr. Seman, the charming but odd character we all know, who has lots of time on his hands and endless observations to make to anyone. To pass time, Mr. Seman either hovers by his window engaging known (and unknown) passers-by or he paces on the sidewalk outside his building. In a film full of gentle humour, we see him interact with the outside world mainly via a beautiful local woman and her daughter. The window divides the chaos of the city from his equally, but differently chaotic, inside world. This is a film meeting and missing; about people we meet everyday but still not know. In this striking character study, we are drawn inescapably into Mr. Seman's world.

SISTERS (Hermanas) *
(d. Julia Solomonoff, Argentina-Spain, 89 minutes)

Argentina's Dirty War, the Generals' attack on their own people, is the backdrop for this tense drama of guilt and redemption. Exiled Argentinean journalist Natalia (Ingrid Rubio) visits her sister Elena (Valeria Bertuccelli), also exiled and now, in 1984, living in Texas with her husband Sebastian (Adrian Navarro) and their son, Tomas (Milton de la Canal). Natalia fled Argentina for Spain the night her boyfriend Martin was kidnapped by a paramilitary squad. Who informed on Martin? When the sisters reunite, the phantoms of the past have to be faced.

THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR
(d. David Scheinmann, United Kingdom, 90 minutes)

This is a film about the awkwardly funny and all too familiar perils of modern urban relationships … a celebration of sex, deceit, therapy and true love. Love-hungry Kath (Sara Sutcliffe) organises a weekend away to seduce passing acquaintance Jamie (Danny Scheinmann). As a smokescreen for her desires, she invites another couple, Natasha (Rebecca Cardinale) and a pretentious psychologist Greg (David Annen), to a house in the seaside resort of West Wittering. It is an embarrassingly funny sex comedy of errors that tells a story of bed-swapping and sadistic revenge about four emotionally uptight 30-something Londoners whose lives spiral out of control after a crazy weekend in the country.

BIFF Kids Children's Films

IN ORANGE (In Oranje) *
(d. Joram Lürsen, The Netherlands, 90 minutes)
Ages 8 and Up

Twelve-year-old Remco is a fanatical little soccer player with only one dream - to play in the Dutch national team. Erik, his father and coach, is perhaps even more fanatical about Remco's career prospects and is convinced he can make the national squad. But Remco's world falls apart when his dad unexpectedly dies. Remco misses Erik so much that he doesn't feel like playing anymore - not even when he is invited to a tryout for the regional select team. With the help of his soccer mate Winston, his girlfriend Anneke and winti, a strange voodoo that Winston's grandmother is conjuring up to contact Erik, Remco strives to overcome all the hurdles and make his soccer dreams come true. Winner: Golden Film Award, Netherlands Film Festival; Audience Award, Hamburg Children's Film Festival; Best Film, Tokyo Children's Film Festival.

VIVA CUBA *
(d. Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, Cuba, 80 minutes)
Ages 8 and Up

Children Malu and Jorgito promised each other that they would remain friends for life, even though their families hate each other. When Malu's grandmother dies and her mother decides to go live abroad, Malu and Jorgito run away to seek a new hope for their love. Their journey takes them across Cuba and they encounter tourists, talent shows, gremlins, and spelunkers. This is the first live action children's film from Cuba and the first Cuban film to have children playing the lead roles. It is a marvelous depiction of children taking control of their lives, won the children's film prize at Cannes and was Cuba's entry into the Oscar competition for foreign language films. It is a charming, uplifting, delightful love story that will enchant young and old alike.

THE COLOUR OF MILK (Ikke Naken) *
(d. Torun Lian, Norway-Sweden, 93 minutes)
Ages 10 and Up

Twelve-year-old Selma wants to win the Nobel Prize for science, and a truly scientific mind does not dabble with love. Selma and her friends swear off ever falling in love, until one by one, Selma's friends disappoint her by acquiring a boyfriend. Selma finds herself forced to hang out with the boys, led by Andy. Andy enjoys science too and he makes a perfect friend for Selma, until he falls in love with her. How dare he? Selma is alone again, but the attempt to stay apart proves more difficult for Selma than she imagined. Can love be scientific? This charming film seemlessly intertwines humour and drama to tackle the struggle that is first love. This film will warm the heart and please the entire family. Winner, Children's Audience Award, Newport International Film Festival.

Special Presentations

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
(d. Jeff Feuerzeig, United States, 109 minutes)

This is the story of talented and tormented Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love. Jeff Feuerzeig's film artfully melds current footage, vintage performances, home movies and dozens of recorded audiotapes from Daniel's life. Testimony from supportive friends and a deeply committed family adds a rich layer to his personal history, but it is Daniel's poetic songs interwoven throughout the film, that tell their own passionate, haunting, and truly unforgettable story. Winner, Director's Award, Sundance Film Festival.

THE PASSENGER (Professione: reporter) *
(d. Michelangelo Antonioni, France-Italy-United States-Spain, 119 minutes)

Originally released in 1975, The Passenger is, on the simplest level, a suspense story about a man trying to escape his own life. This haunting film is a portrait of a drained journalist, played by Jack Nicholson, whose deliverance is an identity exchange with a dead man. As with all of Antonioni's work, however, there is another dimension. From beginning to end we are witnessing a probing study of the human condition. The protagonist's fate reflects each individual's own private thoughts about real and/or imagined destiny. The climax of the film, alone - a final sequence lasting seven minutes and taking 11 days to shoot - is truly a synthesis of the movie and a tribute to the director's art.

RETRIBUTION
(d. Steven Lewis Simpson, United Kingdom, 88 minutes)

A Serbian hitman travels to Edinburgh to try and kill a couple of witnesses to a crime. His client has already tried once to have them killed, resulting in the slaughter of nine innocent people. When the hitman succeeds in killing the witnesses, Stan Miller, the detective in charge of their protection, is suspended but vows to hunt down their killer and his client, who as a result of the death of the witnesses is now free on remand. When the client fails to pay the hitman his second payment for the job it becomes a three-way battle leading to a dramatic conclusion. Sequel to The Ticking Man which was shown at BIFF 2004….the film works on its own and does not require a knowledge of the first.

Modern South Korean Cinema

THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG (Geuddae Geu Saramdeul) *
(d. Im Sangsoo, 104 minutes)

Im Sang-soo's The President's Last Bang is a deadpan, sardonic, and disquieting depiction of the assassination of the South Korean president in 1979. When the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency decides to kill President Park one night during a small party at the president's house it is both a spur-of-the-moment decision and one that seems motivated mostly through personal disgust than grand, regime-changing ambitions. It is here that Im plays the situation for its comedic undertones: the nonchalance of the decision, planning, and execution of the President of Korea is completely unreal, and while the after effects of different politicians and ministries scrambling to make sense of the situation and grab power seems understandable, the sheer banality and ease of which Director Kim murders his friend and president is startling.

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (Chin-jeol-han-Geum-ja-ssi)*
(d. Park Chan-Wook, 112 minutes)

This latest, eagerly anticipated blast of ultra stylish cinema from South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook, is as deliriously inventive, blood-soaked and beautiful as we have come to expect from the director of Oldboy and completes the so-called 'Revenge' trilogy which began with 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. This new film proves to be as iconoclastic and nerve jangling as the other parts of the triptych, but introduces a new strain of hope and redemption amongst the murder and the mayhem.

WHEN ROMANCE MEETS DESTINY *
(d. Hyun Suk Kim, 100 minutes)

In this romantic comedy, shy Kwang Shik has never been on a date in his entire life although he had a crush on Yoon Kyung back in college. When he meets her again, Kwang Shik is overwhelmed to learn that she remembers him. Younger brother Kwang Tae is a typical playboy with a stubborn approach to life and romance. His motto is: "Never sleep with the same woman more than twelve times." Although a first encounter with the attractive Kyung Jae ends without much progress, Kwang Tae seizes a second chance and begins a passionate relationship with her. Told in three chapters, the film portrays love's impact on these immature brothers with delicacy and sincerity. It unveils the truth about men's notions of love and romance with wit and drama.

Tickets to the festival will be available beginning Wednesday March 8, online only, at www.biff.bm. The festival box office will open on Saturday March 11 at 10 a.m. at the BIFF Front Room festival headquarters at # 6 Passenger Terminal, Front Street, Hamilton.