Official selection of feature films 2012
The official selection of the feature films 2012 is as follows.
- Ceuta, Prison by the sea, by Jonathan Millet and Loïc H. Rechi
- Five Broken Cameras, by Guy Davidi and Emad Burnat
- Los Herederos, by Eugenio Polgovsky
- Into the Abyss, by Werner Herzog
- Even a Bird Needs a Nest, by Christine Chansou and Vincent Trintignant-Corneau
- The Parade, by Srđan Dragojević
- Rebelle (War Witch), by Kim Nguyen
Kim Nguyen
Komona, a 14-year-old teenager, tells her baby in her womb the story of her life since she goes to war: it all began when she was kidnapped at 12. Since over two years, she fights with a kalachnikov, trained by force within the rebel army. The only one who listens to her is The Magician, a 15-year-old boy who wants to marry her. Over the months spent together, Komona and The Magician fall for each other.
As they believe to be free from the war, fate has other ideas and Komona needs to put right the mistakes of the past in order to survive.
REBELLE is 21st century fable which takes place in sub-Saharan Africa, a love story between two young broken souls caught in the middle of a world of violence, beauty and magic.
REBELLE, a story of hope and redemption.
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Time : Wednesday, November 7th 2012, at 8pm.
Premiere.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
Jonathan Millet, Loïc H. Rechi
« Ceuta, Prison by the sea » places the conditions of five young men into today’s major immigration issues. Cameroonian, Somali and Indian, they have left it all to try their luck into Europe only to find themselves locked up in an open sky prison – the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Northern Morocco. Torn between the hope of getting a pass to continental Europe and the fear of being deported to their countries, these migrants have trouble confessing the truth about their situation to their close ones. They all face a repetitive, painful and wearing everyday life. Their routine obviously recalls prison living conditions. The film is shot with a total closeness to the protagonists — without any off screen voice nor interviews facing the cameras – in immersion in their daily lives.
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Time : Thursday, November 8th 2012, at 8pm.
World premiere, with the directors in person.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
Christine Chansou, Vincent Trintignant-Corneau
Even a Bird Needs a Nest is a documentary film about forced evictions in Cambodia, a phenomenon that is raging throughout the country.
The government grants land concessions to powerful companies to use for commercial purposes. Some of this land belong to the people.
Facing threats, intimidations, and a corrupt justice system, those who dare to protect their land risk their lives doing so.
In Phnom Penh, the capital, residents of the Boeung kak district are forcibly evicted from their homes, obliged to live in relocation camps, without basic services and infrastructures. Furthermore, the camps are far from work opportunities.
Those that refuse the government’s proposition, have their homes bulldozed by the private companies, with the violent assistance of the police force.
But a group of unintimidated women lead by the charismatic Tep Vanny continue to protest and resist.
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Time : Saturday, November 10th 2012, at 8pm.
Premiere, with the directors in person.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
Eugenio Polgovsky
In the Mexican countryside, poverty is often passed down from a generation to the next. Young people repeat the elder’s gestures in a similar fight for survival. A child plays, laughs, jokes. The one who works for an adult does too!
With Los Herederos (The Children Heirs), the Mexican film director questions our relation with legacy : What do we left to our children? What kind of education do we transmit? What if the most common legacy was poverty?
Los Herederos is an atypical and striking documentary film, a poignant and valuable movie. The director sets "miserabilism" aside to make way for beauty and emotion. Through a remarkable ability in following these children running along sinuous mountain trails, Polgovsky offers us a frightening assessment of the urgency of the situation, as well as a shining fable.
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Time : Saturday, November 10th 2012, at 10pm.
With the distributor Jacques Pélissier in person.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
Srđan Dragojević
A homophobic, middle-aged, Serbian gangster ends up sacrificing himself to protect Gay freedom in his country. Radmilo (35) and Mirko (30) are young and successful gay couple, and they would be a happy couple anywhere else except in - Serbia. They try to live discreetly but still, every day they are abused by the homophobic majority. Plus, Mirko is a gay rights activist, and his dream is to organize the first successful Pride event in Belgrade. This is almost a "mission impossible"; in 2001, an attempt to hold Pride in Belgrade ended up in bloodshed. One decade later, the situation is not much better - nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations prepare another massacre in case of holding the gay parade, while the police refuse to provide protection for the participants. A strange couple arrives in Radmilo’s and Mirko’s life - Lemon (45) an ex criminal and war veteran, the owner of a small security company and his fiance - Pearl (30) a beauty parlor owner…
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Time : Sunday, November 11th 2012, at 8pm.
Premiere.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
Werner Herzog
The film profiles Michael Perry, a man on death row convicted of murdering Sandra Stotler, a fifty-year-old nurse. He was suspected, but never charged, in two other murders which occurred in Conroe, Texas, with his accomplice Jason Burkett. Perry was convicted eight years earlier of the October 2001 murder, apparently committed in order to steal a car for a joyride. Perry denies that he was responsible for the killings, blaming Burkett (also appearing in the film) who was convicted of the other two murders. Burkett, who received a lesser life sentence for his involvement, likewise blames Perry.
Perry’s final interviews for the film were recorded only 8 days before his execution on July 1, 2010. The film also includes interviews with victims’ families and law enforcement officers. Burkett’s wife appears in the film, a free woman who met and married Burkett after his conviction. They were only allowed contact by holding hands under guarded supervision, but she claims to be pregnant with his child. In the film, Herzog implies that Burkett’s wife was able to smuggle a sperm sample out of the prison.
The film does not focus on Perry’s guilt or innocence, and has a minimal amount of narration, with Herzog, unlike in many of his films, never appearing onscreen.
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Time : Monday, November 12th 2012, at 8pm.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
Guy Davidi, Emad Burnat
There are five cameras – each with a story of their own. When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born in 2005, self-taught cameraman Emad Burnat, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. At the same time in his village of Bil’in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers begin to resist this decision.
For the next years, Burnat films this non-violent struggle, which is lead by two of his best friends, while at the same time recording the growth of his son. Very soon, these events begin to affect his family and his own life. Daily arrests, violent attacks, bulldozers knocking down olive trees, the loss of life and night raids in the village scare his family. His friends, brothers and even himself are either shot or arrested. One camera after another used to document these events is shot or smashed. Each camera unfolds a part of history and his story.
Eventually, Burnat joins forces with Guy Davidi – an Israeli filmmaker and together from these five broken cameras and the stories that they represent, these two filmmakers create a powerful piece of work entitled 5 Broken Cameras.
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Time : Sunday, November 11th 2012, at 8pm.
Premiere // closing ceremony, with the directors and jury in presence.
Location : Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts.
See also
Have a look at our call for short films!
Remember the feature films selection of the 2011 festival.
Remember the feature films selection of the 2010 festival.
