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FESTIVALS France

Montpellier, the perfect backdrop for Mediterranean cinema

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- The 38th Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival will open today featuring a rich and diverse line-up

Montpellier, the perfect backdrop for Mediterranean cinema
Tour de France by Rachid Djaïdani

This Friday, 21 October, the curtain will be raised on the 38th edition of Cinemed, the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, which, from 21-29 October, will offer a wide range of the works that this intersection of diverse cinema industries has to offer (read the interview with festival director Christophe Leparc). The event, which will be opened by Rachid Djaïdani’s Tour de France [+see also:
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interview: Rachid Djaïdani
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, will also feature a number of sections dedicated to Spanish actor Sergi Lopez, his compatriot, director Imanol Uribe, French filmmakers Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, and the works of Italian director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The festival will also host tributes to the late filmmaker, Ronit Elkabetz, Italian maestro Ettore Scola and the animation master Jean-François Laguionie (featuring his latest opus, Louise by the Shore [+see also:
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, among others), a special screening entitled "Algérie: nouvelles vagues", a retrospective on the works of Italy’s Mauro Bolognini and a programme known as "le printemps du cinéma tunisien".

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Nine feature films will duke it out for the Golden Antigone, which will be handed out by a jury chaired by French actress Laetitia Casta. The line-up consists of Fiore [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: Claudio Giovannesi
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by Italy’s Claudio Giovannesi (discovered at the Directors’ Fortnight), Vivir y otras ficciones [+see also:
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interview: Jo Sol
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by Spanish filmmaker Jo Sol (presented in a special screening at San Sebastian), Slovene filmmaker Damjan Kozole’s Nightlife [+see also:
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interview: Damjan Kozole
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(featuring in competition at Karlovy Vary), Suntan [+see also:
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interview: Argyris Papadimitropoulos
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by Greece’s Argiris Papadimitropoulos (the winner of awards at Edinburgh and Brussels, also screened at Rotterdam), Isreali films Personal Affairs by Maha Haj (unveiled in Canne’s Un Certain Regard) and Sand Storm [+see also:
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by Elite Zexer (Winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize), Turkish director Emre Konuk’s The Apprentice (winner of the Best First Feature at Istanbul), Burning Hope [+see also:
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by Lotfi Achour (a French-Tunisian co-production) and The Star of Algiers by Rachid Benhadj.

Eight titles will make up the Features Panorama, including two Spanish works, The Open Door [+see also:
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by Marina Seresesky and Julie [+see also:
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by Alba González de Molina. Also on the line-up are Al di là del risultato [+see also:
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by Italy’s Emanuele Gaetano Forte, French filmmaker Chrisian Philibert’s documentary, Massilia Sound System Le Film, French-Belgian co-production Timgad [+see also:
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by Fabrice Benchaouche, Lebanese director Vatche Boulghoujian’sTramontane [+see also:
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(lauded at Cannes’ Critics’ Week), the French-Armenian co-production, Bravo virtuose [+see also:
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 by Lévon Minasian, and French-Lebanese co-production Tombés du ciel [+see also:
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by Wissam Charaf.

Rounded out by a documentary competition and two sections dedicated to short films, the festival will also include a host of pre-release screenings, including such French titles as Brotherhood [+see also:
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by the directorial duo of Renaud Fely and Arnaud Louvet, Patients [+see also:
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 by Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir, La Mécanique de l'ombre [+see also:
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de Thomas Kruithof, Carole Matthieu [+see also:
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 by Louis-Julien Petit, documentaries A Young Girl in Her Nineties [+see also:
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by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Yann Coridian, and Rocco [+see also:
trailer
interview: Thierry Demaizière, Alban T…
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by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurial, among others. Belgian director Marion Hänsel’s Upstream [+see also:
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interview: Marion Hänsel
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, Banana [+see also:
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by Italy’s Andrea Jublin, Mohamed Ben Attia’s Golden Bear-winning Hedi [+see also:
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, Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces by Egypt’s Yousry Nasrallah will also be screened, alongside four Spanish majority productions: A Perfect Day to Fly [+see also:
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by Marc Recha, The Lost Man [+see also:
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by Christophe Farnarier and documentaries J: Beyond Flamenco [+see also:
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by Carlos Saura and Bosch. The Garden of Dreams [+see also:
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by José Luis López-Linares.

The 38th Montpellier Mediteranean Film Festival will also host its industry section, the Cinemed Meetings, from 25-27 October, about which Cineuropa will provide other, detailed reports.

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(Translated from French)

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