European cinema set to take Les Arcs by storm

by Fabien Lemercier

20/10/2009 - The impressive line-up for the 1st Les Arcs European Film Festival (December 5-12, 2009) was unveiled yesterday in Paris. The selection was put together by Frédéric Boyer, head of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Set to open with German director Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen [trailer] (Special Jury Prize at Venice: see review and video interview), the event at the Savoyard ski resort will present 50 features, reflecting the quality, diversity and future of European film production.

In the competition, whose jury is presided by Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo, 12 titles will battle it out for honours. These include Dorothée van den Berghe’s Belgian/Dutch/Luxembourg co-production My Queen Karo [trailer]; Norwegian director Rune Denstad Langlo’s North [trailer, film focus]; Piggies [trailer] by Poland’s Robert Glinski (see news); Alexis dos Santos’ UK production Unmade Beds [trailer], starring Belgian actress Deborah François; Filippos Tsitos’ Greek/German co-production Plato’s Academy [trailer, film focus] (winner of three awards at Locarno); Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic’s Honeymoons (unveiled at Venice: see review); Slovakian/Austrian/Czech co-production Cooking History by Peter Kerekes (see interview); The Good Heart [trailer] by Iceland’s Dagur Kari; Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love [trailer, film focus]; and Cell 211 [trailer, film focus] by Daniel Monzón (see video interview), which received great acclaim at Venice (see review).

The Panorama section will give audiences the chance to discover 33 Scenes from Life [trailer] by Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska (see interview); Ole Christian Madsen’s Danish blockbuster Flame and Citron; Finnish director Dome Darukoski’s The Home of Dark Butterflies [trailer]; Nae Caranfil’s Rest is Silence [trailer] (Best Romanian Film 2009); and Javor Gardev’s film noir Zift [trailer] (Bulgarian representative in the 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination race - see news).

Also on the Panorama line-up are Damjan Kozole’s Slovenian/German/Serbian/Croatian co-production Slovenian Girl [trailer] (see news); Estonian director Liina Paakspuu’s A Wish Tree; and Irish/Scandinavian co-production Kisses [trailer] by Lance Daly (crowned Best Director at the IFTA Awards 2009).

Avant-premieres include Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s Sweet Rush [trailer] (see news); Felix Van Groeningen’s The Misfortunates [trailer, film focus] (Belgian hopeful for the 2010 Oscar - lauded in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight - see review); French director Jean-Paul Guyon’s Sommeil Blanc (“White Sleep”); and Tommy Wirkola’s Norwegian parodic horror movie Dead Snow [trailer].