NO COUNTRY FOR OLDMEN

No Country for Old Men/ 2007

122 min. / United States / English-Spanish

Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Written by Novel:Cormac McCarthy
Screenplay:Joel Coen andEthan Coen

Starring Tommy Lee Jones/Javier Bardem/Josh Brolin/Woody Harrelson
Kelly Macdonald /Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Editing by Roderick Jaynes

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 crime thriller film adapted for the screen and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name No Country for Old Men tells the story of a botched drug deal and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance the Coen brothers have previously explored in Blood Simple and Fargo.
No Country for Old Men has been highly praised by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as good a film as the Coen brothers...have ever made." Guardian journalist John Patterson said the film proved "that the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors." The film was honored with numerous awards, garnering three British Academy of Film awards, two Golden Globes, and four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem).

Synopsis:
It is 1980. In a West Texas police station, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) uses the handcuffs around his wrists to garrote the deputy who had arrested him. He steals a squad car and intercepts a random motorist. He kills the motorist using a compressed air gun then steals his car.Somewhere else in the desert, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles across the carnage of a drug deal gone bad. Mexican criminals and pit bulls lie dead on the ground; only a mortally wounded driver remains alive. The driver asks for water but instead Llewelyn follows the trail of one of the criminals who had gotten away. Llewelyn tracks him to a tree where the criminal died. He finds a satchel filled with two million dollars. He takes the money and returns home to his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly McDonald) who is irritated that he has been gone all day and refuses to tell her where he found the guns and money he had brought home. That night, Llewelyn feels guilty for not giving the wounded driver water and resolves to take him a jug. He arrives around dawn and discovers that the driver has been shot and killed. More gunmen appear, disable his truck and fire on him, hitting him in the shoulder. They chase him to a river bank where Llewelyn tries to swim away. The gunmen's pit bull leaps in to the water after him. Reaching a far shore, Llewelyn is barely able to shoot and kill the dog before it is upon him. Realizing he is facing some dangerous individuals, he tends his wounds then sends Carla Jean to stay with her mother in Odessa while he travels separately with the money.At a service station, Chigurh becomes suspicious when the elderly clerk (Gene Jones) asks him if he's from Dallas. Chigurh flips a coin to decide whether or not to kill the clerk. The clerk correctly guesses that the coin came up heads. Chigurh gives the man the coin and tells him not to mix it with any other coins. Later that night, two well dressed men take Chigurh to the site of the failed drug deal. After he takes the VID tag from Llewelyn's truck and examines the corpses, the well dressed men give him a tracking device that he can use to find the satchel of money, which has a transponder in it. Chigurh then kills them.Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) and Deputy Wendell (Garret Dillehunt) find the motorist's burning car. They then follow another trail to the drug deal site. Ed Tom recognizes Llewelyn's disabled truck. He and Wendell perform a preliminary examination of the scene then decide to call in the federal authorities. Ed Tom is disturbed by what he sees.Chigurh uses the VID tag to find out Llewelyn's address. He uses the air gun to break in to Llewelyn and Carla Jean's trailer. He tries to intimidate the trailer park manager into revealing Llewelyn's place of employment but has to settle for a phone bill that reveals the couple make a lot of calls to Odessa, TX. Llewelyn gets a room at a motel and hides the satchel of money in the air ducts. He then purchases tent poles and shotgun at a local sporting goods store, which he fashions into a hook and sawed-off shotgun. He then rents another room behind the first room. Later that night when returning to the motel he sees the Mexicans' truck in front of his first room. He goes to his second room and begins to retrieve the money using the tent-pole hook to pull it through the air duct. Meanwhile, Chigurh happens past the motel and the tracking device goes off. He rents a room, determines which room has the satchel and uses his air gun to break into the room. He finds three Mexicans and kills them with a high powered rifle with a silencer. Meanwhile, Llewelyn has escaped with the money.In Dallas, the businessman who hired Chigurh (Stephen Root) is upset about the violence Chigurh is causing. He hires Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) to neutralize Chigurh and get the money back.Chigurh tracks Llewelyn to a small border town, where Llewelyn has rented another room. Chigurh kills the desk clerk then finds Llewelyn's room. Llewelyn shoots at him with his sawed off shotgun and escapes through the window. Chigurh chases him and kills another driver who has stopped to help Llewelyn, causing an accident. Llewelyn uses the confusion to shoot Chigurh, forcing him to retreat. Wounded, Llewelyn hides the money along the banks of the Rio Grande then crosses into Mexico and pays some people to take him to a hospital.Ed Tom continues to be disturbed by what he saw in the desert and the apparently deteriorating state of morals in the world. He goes to visit Carla Jean in Odessa and asks her to put him in touch with Llewelyn. Almost absent mindedly, he tells her how a local farmer was nearly killed by an animal he was trying to slaughter, and how slaughterhouses now used compressed air guns to kill cattle immediately. In the border town, Chigurh steals medical supplies and, in a motel room, cleans his wounds.Carter visits Llewelyn in the Mexican hospital and suggests that he just hand over the money so Carter can protect him. Llewelyn refuses and Carter tells him which hotel he is staying. On the way back across the border, Carter sees the satchel from the bridge. Back at his hotel, the same one at which Llewelyn was staying, Carter is confronted by Chigurh. Carter pleads for his life but when Llewelyn calls Chigurh kills him. Chigurh tells Llewlyn that if he brings him the money, he won't kill his wife (though Llewelyn's life is forfeit). Llewelyn tells Chigurh he will kill him then hangs up. He calls Carla Jean and tells her to meet him in El Paso. Chigurh goes to Dallas and kills the businessman for hiring not only Carter but the other Mexicans well.The Mexicans have been watching Carla Jean in Odessa. They follow her and her mother (Beth Grant) to the airport. One of the Mexicans helps Carla Jean's mother who tells him she and Carla Jean are going to El Paso. In the airport, Carla Jean calls Ed Tom and tells him which motel Llewelyn is staying in El Paso. Ed Tom drives there but discovers that the Mexicans have beat him there and killed Llewelyn. All Ed Tom can do is comfort Carla Jean when she arrives. Later that night, Ed Tom and the local sheriff (Rodger Boyce) have coffee and bemoan the declining morals of American society. Afterwards, Ed Tom returns to the motel and nearly misses being killed by Chigurh who had been searching the room for the satchel of money.Ed Tom visits his uncle, Ellis (Barry Corbin) to tell him he's retiring because he is too disturbed by the violence he's seen. Ellis tells him he's being vain and relates the story about how Ed Tom's grandfather had died: shot by outlaws, he bled to death on his front porch as they watched. Meanwhile, Chigurh visits Carla Jean, who has just buried her mother. She understands why he's there but still finds it meaningless. Chigurh flips a coin but Carla Jean refuses to play his game. After killing her, Chigurh drives away. His car is struck by another car and he suffers a compound fracture. He buys a shirt from a boy to use as a sling then walks away.At home, Ed Tom tells his wife (Tess Harper) about a dream he had. In it, he was horseback riding with his long-deceased father. It was cold and his father rode ahead to prepare a fire for them.-----

THE NEAUTYFUL COUNTRY

The Beautiful Country ( 2004)
125 min. / U.S.A / Vietnamese, English, Mandarin, Cantonese

Directed by Hans Petter Moland
Written by Sabina Murray
Starring Damien Nguyen/Bai Ling/Tim Roth/Nick Nolte/Temuera Morrison
Music by Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematography Stuart Dryburgh
Editing by Wibecke Rønseth

The Beautiful Country is a 2004 Vietnam-related drama film set in 1990. It is directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Damien Nguyen, Nick Nolte, Bai Ling, Chau Thi Kim Xuan, Tim Roth, Anh Thu, Temuera Morrison and John Hussey. The screenplay was written by Sabina Murray, a writer who teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers.


Plot summary
The film tells the story of a Binh, a "bui doi" Vietnamese boy (fathered by an American soldier during the Vietnam War). After a life of prejudice and servitude, Binh decides to leave his tiny Vietnamese village and search for his mother in Saigon. Binh finds his mother, Mai, and discovers he has a younger brother, energetic and precocious Tam. Mai is employed by Mrs. Hoa, the cruel mistress of a great house. After getting a job at the house with his mother, Binh discovers that she is sexually harassed constantly by Mrs. Hoa's son.

While dusting with his mother, Binh lifts a red glass statue of Buddha, a precious family heirloom, to allow his mother to dust. As Binh lifts the statue to see it glow in the sun, the mistress walks in and charges Binh, calling him a thief. As Binh tries to keep the Buddha safe in his arms, the mistress slips on a wet patch of the floor, falling to her death. Binh and his mother quickly escape the house back to their apartment. They frantically pack the belongings of Binh and Tam. His mother gives them American money, the address of Binh's American father, and passage on a boat.

Binh and Tam both make it onto a boat bound for the United States, but a storm knocks them off course and instead takes them to Malaysia. Stuck in a refugee camp, Binh and Tam adapt to their new circumstances and meet Ling, a Chinese prostitute whose passage to America was also detoured to Malaysia. Binh and Ling seem to develop feelings for each other, kissing after Ling sings a ballad in Mandarin and dances for him.

Ling had been selling sexual favors for some time (though she dreams of a life as a singer) and had managed to buy herself, Binh, and Tam's way out of the refugee complex and onto a barge captained by the British Captain Oh. During the voyage Binh, Ling, and Tam suffer under shortages of food and rationing of fresh water. A gambling game (two contenders shout off American brand names in succession) threatens the other passengers by unfairly winning their food, water, and money. Several people succumb to the conditions, as does little Tam. A heartbroken Binh and Ling give him a funeral at sea.

The immigrants finally reach the United States, but are quickly rushed into transport trucks, bound for Chinatown in New York City. Binh works at a Chinese restaurant as a delivery boy and Ling works in a Chinatown cabaret, though she still keeps prostitution as her main source of income. Ling eventually meets a wealthy businessman to support her. Binh's feelings for Ling go unanswered. Binh sends a letter explaining Tam's death to his mother, along with all the money he had saved thus far.

Binh finds out (over a poker game with his friends) that Vietnamese children born to American fathers are allowed free airplane passage to the United States and granted citizenship. Angry because he didn't have to lose his brother, he promptly leaves his job and hitch hikes toward Austin, Texas, meeting amputee Vietnam War veterans and a Hispanic family along the way. Upon reaching the address Binh finds a woman, his father's ex-wife. His father had relocated after their divorce, working as a handyman at a ranch in Sweetwater, Texas. Binh is finally confronted with his father, blinded after opening a crate filled with explosives he thought was beer during the war. While Binh doesn't confess that he's his son, his father realizes it and the film ends with Binh and his father joking and laughing as he cuts his father's haira

WORLD THEATER DAY CELEBRATIONS

The Cochin Film Society will share the stage with Orthic Creative Center for the World Theatre Day celebrations at Orthic Creative Center on March 27 , 6 pm followed by screening of Oscar award-winning short films.
The films are This Charming Man (2002), Gridlock (2001) and I’ll Wait for the Next One…(2002).
This Charming Man is a 30-minute-long Danish film directed by Martin Strange-Hansen and it won the Academy Award for best short subject.
It has Lars Hansen, an immigrant, going through a series of mix-ups after officials confuse his papers with El Hassan and his attempts to woo teacher at the job training centre.
Hansen disguises himself as Hassan, because if the student did not turn up, the teacher would lose her job. He tries to woo the teacher Ida as Hansen, but her sympathies are with Hassan. More confusions follow.
The seven-minute-long Dutch film, directed by Dirk Belien, Gridlock is about the decision by a young executive, all worked up at the traffic gridlock on Antwerp motorway, to use his brand new mobile phone and irreversible changes that happen to his life after that.
The film is based on an old joke in which the man calls up home, only to be told by his daughter that mummy is in the bedroom with Uncle Wim. Both the caller and the girl know there is no Uncle Wim in the family.
The even shorter, four-minute-long, French film I’ll Wait for the Next One… is about a man waiting for his luck in dating at a subway train station.
The film is directed by Phillippe Orriendy.
The films will be screened at Orthic Creative Centre, Karikkamuri, at 6 p.m.

MARCH 2009

15-03-2009 SUNDAY 5.30 PM

REMEMBERING ARAVINDAN

( AN EVENING DEDICATED TO LATE SRI.G.ARAVINDAN )

AT

HOTEL B.T.H,

DURBAR HALL ROAD, KOCHI.

( PROGRAMME ORGANISED IN ASSOCIATION WITH KERALA KALAPEETOM)

SRI. AKKITHAM NARAYANAN,

SRI. MADHUPAL,

SRI.K.L.MOHANAVARMA,

SRI.M.V.DEVAN,

WILL PARTICIPATE...

26 FEBRUARY 2009 : 6 PM AT COCHIN MEDIA SCHOOL, NEAR SOUTH OVER BRIDGE: ERNAKULAM

KAKKANADAN
OUR OWN BABYCHAYAN

DOC/MAL/80 MINUTES

Here is an eighty minutes long documentary designed as a magnificent tribute to

great writer George Varghese Kakkanadan.

It takes its place among the most meticulously chosen documentaries about the present day malayalam fictioners.

BANNER: NESMA MOVIE MAKERS

EDITING: NANDAN SOLAR

MUSIC: L.J.BENISON

CAMERA: SANTOSH V. DEY,BIJU BHOOTHAKKULAM

PRODUCTION: P.A.SAMAD

SCREEN PLAY/DIRECTION: BIJU NETTARA


FOLLOWED BY FACE TO FACE WITH THE DIRECTOR.

Maria Full Of Grace (2004)

Colombia/United States /Spanish/ 101 min.

Writer /Director: Joshua Marston

Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza,

Yenny Paola Vega, Johanna Andrea Mora
Cinematography Jim Denault
Editing by Anne McCabe,Lee Percy

Synopsis:

Winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, two major awards at the Berlin Film Festival and six awards at the Cartagena Film Festival, Joshua Marston's Maria Full Of... Winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, two major awards at the Berlin Film Festival and six awards at the Cartagena Film Festival, Joshua Marston's Maria Full Of Grace follows a bright, gutsy young woman on a life-changing - and life-threatening - journey. The film sweeps us along on its heroine's unpredictable odyssey from Colombia to New York, weaving a gripping narrative of risk, determination and survival. Confronting crises that test her to the very core, Maria finally emerges at the threshold of a new future, one that will be defined by what she wants rather than what she rejects. Pausing at that threshold, Maria makes her choice and moves forward, carried by her grit and grace. Maria Full of Grace is not a true story, but it is a story that happens every day. Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) has grown up in a small rural town tucked inside the rolling green-gold hills north of Bogotá. It's a place where three or more generations of a family might share the same house; Maria lives in a modest concrete house with her grandmother, mother, sister and infant nephew. Each morning Maria leaves before dawn to catch the bus that takes her to work in the large industrial rose plantation that lies outside of town. The job is mind-numbingly tedious and strictly regimented. Along with her best friend Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega), Maria spends long days on her feet stripping thorns off flowers and preparing bouquets for export abroad. Sometimes, the weekend brings a party on the plaza that draws almost everyone in town for live music; Maria is determined to dance to every salsa and cumbia, while her boyfriend Juan (Wilson Guerrero) is content to hang on the sidelines, drinking aguardiente. At 17, Maria - bright, spirited, fearless - looks out at a world that would keep her in a small, limited place, and refuses to go along. At home, she clashes frequently with her family, particularly her older sister Diana (Johanna Andrea Mora). Maria's weekly paycheck now goes to care for Diana's baby, and though Maria loves her little nephew, she resents having to shoulder Diana's share of the household finances. At work, Maria resists abiding by a system that rigidly rations everything from bouquet types to bathroom breaks. And she is unwilling to play the pliant girlfriend to Juan, who neither shares nor understands Maria's sense of adventure. Only Blanca seems to appreciate Maria's assertive, rebellious nature; somewhat shy herself, Blanca is usually content to follow Maria's lead. But Maria's nature is about to lead her in a sharply different direction. One day at work, Maria, nauseated, requests permission to go the bathroom. Her supervisor bluntly refuses, and lectures her about her unacceptable lack of work ethic. In the ensuing battle of wills, Maria abruptly quits. Her family is stunned and angry, but Maria refuses to apologize for her impulsive decision, much less reconsider it. However, there is another matter occupying Maria's mind: the secret knowledge that she is pregnant. Juan offers to marry her, but only because that is what he is supposed to do - and to Maria, that is no reason at all. With few local job options, Maria's best lead is a friend who works as a maid in Bogotá. She is on her way to the city when another option presents itself, in the person of Franklin (Jhon Alex Toro), a hip, self-assured young stranger Maria met at a weekend party. With his stylish leather jacket and easy charm, Franklin provides a sharp contrast to Juan and the other boys in Maria's town; he even comes from a different part of Colombia. He knows how to pay a compliment, and he piques Maria's interest with talk of a cool job that involves travel - something Maria has never done. When Franklin says the word "mule," Maria knows immediately what he's talking about: swallowing dozens of thumb-sized rubber pellets full of heroin and transporting them to the United States. Maria has heard about captured mules on the news and is wary, but Franklin, with the air of one who knows, describes those people as fame-seekers who deliberately get caught in order to be on TV. A smart girl like Maria will have no problem. The decisive factor for Maria is the money: up to $5,000 for one trip, an amount that would forever change Maria's life. Putting aside her misgivings, Maria meets her prospective employer, Javier (Jaime Osorio Gómez), a disarmingly paternal man who explains the job in simple terms. Javier insists on giving Maria a little something to help solve her financial problems while she thinks about his offer. Although Javier assures her that his gift has no strings attached, Maria realizes the deal has been sealed. She seeks out and befriends another mule, Lucy (Guilied López), who tells Maria everything she needs to know: how to prepare herself physically, how to dress, how to act - and how if even one pellet breaks inside her, she'll die. Lucy has traveled as a mule twice before, and those jobs appear to have given her an economic independence, with an airy, uncluttered home all to herself. However, when Lucy talks about her trips to New York, she sadly confides that she hadn't the nerve to see her older sister, who lives in Queens. With a fuller understanding of the risks that await her as a mule, Maria is alarmed and angry when Blanca announces that she, too, is going to be a mule. Blanca, however, will not and cannot backtrack; she's already taken the money. Over the course of the next 24 hours, Maria is forced to swallow pellets one by one - 62 in all - while Javier keeps a watchful eye. Boarding the plane the following day, Maria discovers that she is traveling on the same flight as Blanca, Lucy and a fourth mule. It is not the uneventful trip that Franklin had promised. During the flight, Lucy begins to show telltale signs of illness, suggesting that a pellet has opened in her stomach and is slowly poisoning her system. Once in the United States, the situation grows even more precarious as alert Customs officials quickly take the fourth mule into custody. Maria, Blanca and Lucy soon find themselves in a cramped New Jersey motel room, coldly supervised by a pair of young toughs as they begin the humiliating process of expelling the drug capsules. Meanwhile, Lucy's condition is growing worse; Maria does what she can, but the young men are indifferent. When Maria wakes the next morning, the bathroom is covered in blood, and Lucy and the two boys are gone. She grabs Blanca and they flee with the drugs they have transported. In this unfamiliar environment, Maria has only one bit of information to guide her: the name and address of Lucy's sister, Carla (Patricia Rae). Over the next few days, Maria will confront situations that will test her strength, courage and humanity. With only instinct and intelligence to guide her, she emerges with an understanding and grace that will carry her forward into a new life. HBO Films and Fine Line Features present Maria Full of Grace. Written and directed by Joshua Marston, and produced by Paul Mezey. Starring Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied López, Jhon Alex Toro, and Patricia Rae. The co-producer is Jaime Osorio Gómez, the associate producers are Orlando Tobón and Rodrigo Guerrero, and the line producer is Becky Glupczynski. Ecuadoran production services were provided by Gigia Jaramillo and Pocho Alvarez of Altercine. The director of photography is Jim Denault, the production designers are Monica Marulanda (Colombia) and Debbie De Villa (New York), the editors are Anne McCabe and Lee Percy, A.C.E., and the costume designers are Lauren Press and Sarah Beers. With casting by Ellyn Long Marshall and Maria E. Nelson (New York); and El Barco Producciones, Jorge Valencia, and Maria Eugenia Salazar (Colombia). The composers are Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum, and the music supervisor is Lynn Fainchtein. Maria Full of Grace made its world premiere in Official Competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Dramatic Audience Award. It screened at the Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Alfred Bauer Prize for Best First Film and Catalina Sandino Moreno won the Silver Bear for Best Actress. At the Cartagena Film Festival in Colombia it won six prestigious awards - Opera Prima (Best First Film), Mejor Actriz (Best Actress), Mejor Pelicula Colombiana (Best Colombian Film), Premio Especial del Jurado (Special Jury Prize), Premio del Publico (Audience Award) and El Premio de OCLACC (Organization of Catholic Clergy). -

Central Station
113 min. / Brazil / France / Portuguese

written,Directed by Walter Salles

Cast:Fernanda Montenegro (Dora),Marília Pêra (Irene),Vinícius de Oliveira(Josué),Soia Lira (Ana).Othon Bastos (César),Otávio Augusto(Pedrão),Stela Freitas(Yolanda)Matheus Nachtergaele(Isaías)
Music : Antonio Pinto/Jaques Morelenbaum
Cinematography: Walter Carvalho
Editing :Felipe Lacerda

Central Station (Portuguese: Central do Brasil) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning 1998 drama film set in Brazil. It tells the story of a young boy's friendship with a jaded middle-aged woman. The movie was adapted by Marcos Bernstein and João Emanuel Carneiro from a story by Walter Salles and it was directed by Salles. It features Fernanda Montenegro and Vinícius de Oliveira in the major roles. It was an international co-production between Brazil and France. The film's title in Portuguese, Central do Brasil, is the name of Rio de Janeiro's main railway station.

Plot

Dora is a former school teacher who is now a bitter old woman. She works at Rio de Janeiro's Central Station, writing letters for illiterate customers in exchange for some money. She hates her customers, and often does not mail the letters she writes, putting them in a drawer or even tearing them apart. Josué is a poor 9-year-old boy who has never met with his father, Jisus, but hopes to do so. His mother sends letters to his father through Dora, saying that she hopes to reunite with him soon, but when she is run over and killed in a bus accident in the station, Josué is left helpless. Dora takes him in and sells him, but encouraged by her friend Irene, later steals him back.

Dora is initially reluctant to be responsible for the boy, but she ends up deciding to take a trip with him to Nordeste, in order to find his father's house and leave him there.

Dora tries to leave Josué on the bus but he follows her, forgetting his rucksack which contains Dora's money. Penniless, they are picked up by a kindly, religious truck driver who abandons them when Dora grows too friendly. By hitching they reach Jisus' house but he has sold it to buy alcohol. In the town, Josué saves them from destitution by suggesting Dora write letters for pilgrims. This time, she posts the letters.

By chance, they find Josué's two half-brothers. Their father has disappeared, but Dora reads the letter he had sent six months ago: he had gone to Rio in search of Josué's mother and the son he has never seen. The brothers realise he too must be dead. The next morning, while Josué sleeps, Dora takes the bus for Rio. Josué wakes up too late to prevent her departure. Both are left with a photo by which to remember one another.


(Over 1,500 boys auditioned for the role of Josué. The winner, Vinícius de Oliveira, was a shoe-shine boy.The movie was shot entirely in the sequence of its script.
When Fernanda Montenegro set up her table at Central do Brasil, real people (who didn't recognize her) approached her to write letters for them. Some of these real requests were incorporated in the film by Salles.)

30 DECEMBER 2008 : 6 PM

AT
COCHIN MEDIA SCHOOL,
NEAR SOUTH OVER BRIDGE
SAHODARAN AYYAPPAN ROAD,
ERNAKULAM

INDIAN CINEMA
Dir: Hubert Niogret

Looking at Indian film beyond just Bollywood, Niogret weaves details of history, regional characteristics, contemporary celebrity, and trends with filmmaker, historian, and actor interviews to paint a picture of one of the world’s biggest film industries in the world’s second most populous country. Niogret takes his educational tour to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and others, along the way delving into the mystery of what defines Indian cinema when the thousands of films produced each year emerge from within socially, religiously, and politically independent.

Hubert Niogret :
Hubert Niogret. Journalist, writer, university professor and producer of features and documentaries, including: Julien Duvivier ; Jacques Becker ; René Clair ; Benny Moré-King of Rhythm ; Hong-Kong Cinema ; Interview with Wong Kar-wai ; Shaw Brothers Story ; Memories of French Cinema ; and The Nine Lives of Korean Cinema . A Member of the Editorial Committee of the French monthly movie magazine, Positif . Author of books about Akira Kurosawa, Julien Duvivier, Shohei Imamura. Supervisor of the book 100 Directors of Today – 50 Years of the Magazine Positif. He was one of the FIPRESCI jury members of 11th IFFK.

Encounter Point (2006)

85 min / USA/Arabic English Hebrew
Directors:Ronit Avni
Julia Bacha (co-director)
Writer:Julia Bacha
Encounter Point is an 85-minute feature documentary film that follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their communities. The film explores what drives them and thousands of other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief to work for grassroots solutions. It is a film about the everyday leaders in our midst.

For 2 years, the Just Vision crew followed the stories of ordinary people who feel driven to work for an end to bloodshed and occupation in favor of peace. They traveled from Tel Mond to Tulkarem, from Hebron to Haifa documenting the courageous, painful and moving stories of regular people who refuse to sit back as the conflict escalates. These civic leaders navigate suicide bombings and checkpoints to confront militancy on both sides, the wounded and apathetic masses.

Encounter Point's Israeli/Palestinian/North American/ Brazilian production team of young women includes: director & producer Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS), co-director Julia Bacha (co-writer/editor of the award-winning documentary, Control Room), producers Nahanni Rous and Joline Makhlouf, the first Palestinian female pilot. Encounter Point was edited in Jerusalem and Park Slope, Brooklyn, and features original music by Kareem Roustom, who combines classical Arabic melodies and instruments with traditional Jewish Klezmer to form a harmonious fusion that mirrors the subject matter.

Encounter Point's World Premiere was at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. The Canadian premiere was at Hot Docs, and the West Coast premiere was at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Encounter Point has subsequently won the 2006 Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Rencontres Film Festival in Montreal, the Best Musical Score Award at the Bend Film Festival and the 2006 Spirit of Freedom Award at the Bahamas Film Festival. It has screened in Dubai, Jerusalem, Jenin, Gaza, Ramallah, Amman, Sderot and more than 150 cities worldwide. It recently appeared on CBC in Canada as well as on Al Arabiya, one of the largest Arabic satellite stations in the world.

Synopsis:

A clash of civilizations: suicide bombers and kidnappers on one side spewing hateful, nihilistic rhetoric, and one of the world’s most powerful armies on the other, reining down its massive force to subdue the local population and maintain its occupation. These are the archetypes that characterize coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Caught in the crossfire are thousands of Palestinian and Israeli civilians who reject violence and who seek to build a secure, peaceful future for their children.

Reverberations from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are felt worldwide. It is perhaps the most divisive, polarizing and documented political issue of our time. Encounter Point moves beyond sensational, dogmatic and canned images to tell the story of an Israeli settler, a convicted Palestinian fighter, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian ex-prisoner who sacrifice their safety, public standing, communities and homes in order to press for a grassroots movement for nonviolence and peace. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to stem hatred among their peoples and confront fear within themselves. Encounter Point explores what drives these and thousands of other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief to work for peace. Without dogma or righteousness, it implicitly asks why, with the world’s cameras focused on this conflict, we have never heard about these courageous and vital efforts?

The film’s protagonists, true civic leaders, endure suicide bombings and checkpoints to meet with militants on both sides, the wounded and apathetic masses. Audiences are left with a sense that the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians is at once bridgeable and tremendously wide.

"EncounterPoint is a very touching and convincing film with powerful visuals. It shows how human beings are trying to build bridges of understanding despite their personal pain and suffering.”

Encounter Point’s Israeli/Palestinian/North American/Brazilian production team of young women includes: director & producer Ronit Avni, co-director Julia Bacha (co-writer/editor of the award-winning documentary Control Room), producers Nahanni Rous and Joline Makhlouf, the first Palestinian female pilot.
Encounter Point was edited in Jerusalem and Park Slope, Brooklyn, and features original music by Kareem Roustom, who combines classical Arabic melodies and instruments with traditional Jewish Klezmer to form a harmonious fusion that mirrors the subject matter.

Winner! Audience Award, Best Documentary
- Rencontres Film Festival, Montreal, 2006

Winner! Audience Award, Best Documentary
- San Francisco International Film Festival, 2006

Vacas

Spain/Spanish/1992/96 min
Directed by :Julio Médem
Written by: Julio Médem,Michel Gaztambide
Starring: Carmelo Gómez,Emma Suárez,Ana Torrent,Karra Elejade,Txema Blasco
Music by :Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography: Carles Gusi

The political and social climate of the Basque country of Spain is constantly in flux, yet the cows of the region are steadfast and calm, observing the unusual changing human culture without reaction. This is one of the themes of Julio Medem's (LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE) insightful film about the insecure government and often frightening living situation in Spain. It was Médem's first film and he won the 1993 Goya Award as Best New Director.

Plot
Fighting in the trenches at Biscay in 1875 during the Third Carlist War, Carmelo Mendiluze, an army sergeant, learns from a young errand boy named Ilegorri that Manuel Iriguíbel, his neighbor from his native village, has joined their exhausted battalion. Eager for news of his child's birth, Carmelo befriends the inexperienced soldier whose reputation as an expert aizcolari (competition log cutter) cannot conceal his apprehension and fear of armed combat. Panicking under fire, Manuel drops to the ground and smears himself with blood gushing hot from the neck of his mortally wounded neighbor, Mendiluze. When the battle is over, Manuel crawls out from a cartload of the dead, naked bodies as he is transported away from the front lines. Nobody has seen his escape, except a curious, solitary cow.

Thirty years later, in 1905 in rural Guipúzcoa, a lingering animosity has continued between the Mendiluze and Iriguíbel families. Manuel, now an old man, is still regarded as a coward; he spends his time painting the family’s cows watched over by his three granddaughters, the offspring of his son Ignacio Iriguíbel and his wife Madalen. Ignacio and Carmelo's son, Juan Mendiluze, have maintained family traditions by honing their skills as aizcolari. Despite the strained relations between the neighbors, the destinies of the two families are fatefully interconnected. Juan's sister, Catalina, cannot conceal her romantic interest for Ignacio as she furtively watches him practice cutting logs in the woods - an attraction that proves to be mutual through Ignacio's playful attempts to catch her already piqued attention. Paulina, the Mendiluze widow, warns her daughter that her interest for Ignacio Iriguíbel will bring the downfall of the Mendiluze family. In an attempt to capitalize from the rivalry between the two families, Ilegorri, now a grown man, arranges a waged competition between Ignacio and Juan. Ignacio wins and his career as an aizcolari contender is launched. Catalina and Ignacio start a secret affair.

Ten years later, in the spring of 1915, Ignacio comes back home after being traveling to national competitions. He now enjoys fame and success. Although Ignacio takes cares of his family farm, he neglects Madalen, his wife. He is promptly reunited with Catalina, and they have a ten-year old son. After the death of their mother, the relationship between the bitter Juan and Catalina is increasingly strained. Juan, still a bachelor, is more obsessed and delusional in his incestuous feelings for his sister. Catalina, afraid of him, wants to escape to America with Ignacio. A close childhood friendship develops between Peru, Catalina and Ignacio's ten-year-old illegitimate son, and his half-sister Cristina; they wander amidst the mountain forest under the supervision of their limp and old grandfather, Manuel. Eventually the boy's parents elope to America and take him with them.

In the summer of 1936, Peru has left his family behind, coming back to Guipúzca, as a photojournalist reporting on the Spanish Civil War. The Mendiluze farmhouse is empty. Juan, his uncle, has put on his Carlist red beret, joining the Nationalists. Peru is reunited with Cristina, his half-sister and childhood sweetheart. He stays at the Iriguíbel’s farm. Cristina has had a relationship with Lucas, Iligorri’s son. She shows Peru the last paintings made by their grandfather. The Spanish Civil War comes to the village. The men try to find refuge in the forest when the Nationalists come. Peru and Crisitna follow them and are joined by Lucas, who offers to protect them. Lucas is killed and Peru is captured with the surviving men of the region. The men are executed but Peru is spared thanks to the intervention of Juan who recognizes him as his nephew. Reunited with Cristina, Peru and Cristina flee to the French frontier.

Julio Médem

Born in San Sebastián, in northern Spain, in 1958. Still a teenager he made some short movies in a super-8 camera owned by his father. Some of those movies where "El ciego" (1976), "El jueves pasado" (1977) and "Fideos" (1979). At the same time, and willing to know more about the darkests corners of the human mind, he studied psychiatry. In 1985 he got a degree in medicine in the university of the Basque Country. By that time he has become a collaborator specialized in cinema in differents newspapers and magazines like "La voz de Euskadi", "Casablanca" and "Cinema 2000". In 1986, he directed a short in 35 mm titled "Patas en la cabeza" that won an award in the international Festival of Bilbao. In 1987, after winning the Telenorte prize for another short movie, "Las seis en punta", he decided to become a professional filmmaker. He worked as assistant, editor and screenwriter in differents projects for cinema and TV. He also wrote several screenplays but they were all refused by most of production companies. Finally, in 1991, when he was desesperate for not being able to make movies, he received a call from a new production company called SOGETEL. They were interested in one of his stories titled "Vacas" about the fight of two families along three generations, from 1875 till 1936. Released in 1992 it became a big success. It won the Goya of the Spanish academy for best new director and prizes in the festivals of Tokyo, Torino and Alexandria. In 1993, he made a second movie, "La ardilla roja" confirmed his talent and also won prizes in Fort Lauderdale, Bogotá and Bucarest. His third movie, "Tierra" released in 1996, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, the most important in the world.

In 1998 he released "Los amantes del Círculo Polar" considered his best movie by most of his fans. It also became a box-office hit with more than one million spectators in Spain. The film was also released abroad. In 2001, his fourth movie, "Lucía y el sexo", also became a huge hit and discovered actress Paz Vega who won the Goya of the Spanish academy for best new actress.

2003 was a difficult year for Medem. The release of "La pelota vasca", a documentary that portrays the phenomenon of nationalism in the Basque Country, in northern Spain, was very polemical. Actually, Medem is one of the most importants and original spanish filmmakers