There are two collections. The General collection from several
distributors. The French collection courtesy of the French Institute
and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Luna papa
Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov, Tajikistan/ Uzbekistan / France / Germany / Russia
/ Austria / Switzerland, 1999, 107mins
In a small village, seventeen-year old Mamlakat dreams of becoming an actress.
One moonlight night, she is seduced by a mysterious stranger who claims to
be a friend of "Tom Cruise". He then disappears, leaving Mamlakat pregnant.
Her father Safar and brother Nasreddin set out to find the culprit and restore
the family's honour. From inside the womb, Khabibulla, who was conceived
on that miraculous night, provides a commentary on the incredible adventures
and bizarre mishaps that befall the threesome on their search for his father.
A fantastic trip through the wild landscapes of Central Asia in which tradition
and superstition clash with the chaos of the post-modern world.
Source www.filmconnection.org
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Mon petit doigt m’a dit
Pascal Thomas, France, 2005, 104mins
Mon petit doigt m’a dit is a rare French adaptation of By the Pricking
of my Thumbs a novel by Agatha Christie. With a distinguished cast,
André Dussolier and Catherine Frot veteran director Thomas orchestrates
a complex web of charm and investigation featuring the amateur detecting
duo of Bélisaire Beresford and his wife Prudence. It all begins when
Bélisaire and Prudence Beresford decided to visit their aunt Ada at
a retirement home in the countryside. Prudence meets a very odd woman, Rose
Evangelista. When several pensioners of an old people’s home start dying
mysteriously, and Rose Evangelista disappears Bélisaire and Prudence
with patience and humour, are only too happy to follow the trail of adventure
to discover the stunning truth.
A humoristic detective story filled with suspense and surprise but which
still succeeds at exploring serious themes such as the current heat wave,
family, the army and the elderly. It is extremely moving and we can’t
help but closely follow the steps of these amateur detectives.
Source: www.alliancetnt.com
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Le pére noël est une ordure
Jean Marie Poiré, France, 1982, 88mins
One of the most controversial comic films to have been made in France in
the 1980s, Le Père Noël est une ordure has since
matured (as a fine wine might) into one of that country's most highly regarded
cult classics. One Christmas Eve, the staff of "SOS Détresse", a Paris
based social services team, have their hands full. Unaware that their colleague
Madame Musquin is trapped in the elevator, Pierre and Thérèse
man the phones and try to console the Capital's depressed and distressed.
An obviously pregnant woman, Zézette, suddenly arrives at their office,
demanding sanctuary from her violent husband, Félix, who is close
behind her. Pierre and Thérèse eventually manage to subdue
Félix - who is still dressed in his working clothes as a street Father
Christmas - and he ends up in hospital. The series of "catastrophes" reaches
its climax when Félix appears unexpectedly, brandishing a gun. In
the ensuing crisis, Katia is nearly crippled, Pierre makes an honest woman
of Thérèse, a lift repairman is killed, and Félix and
Zézette devise an ingenious method for disposing of a dead body.
Source: filmsdefrance.com
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Samia
Philippe Faucon, France, 2000, 73mins
Fifteen-year-old Samia lives in Marseille’s periphery. Sixth in a family
of eight children of Algerian descent, she suffocates in the moralistic
atmosphere made oppressive by beliefs and rules she respects but no longer
shares. Yacine, her unemployed older brother, justifies himself by upholding
family and religious traditions. Older sister, Amel, has excluded herself
from family life by her involvement with a boy from a different cultural
background. Samia’s other sisters are completely focussed on academic
achievement...and Samia, a series of school failures in her wake, forced
to take up technical studies that don’t suit her, obliged to keep her
first romance secret, becomes aware that it’s absolutely necessary that
she alone decides just what to do with her life.
Source: French Institute
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Les Soeurs fâchées (Me and My Sister)
Alexandra Leclère, France, 2004, 93mins
Two of France's finest actors - Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Frot - go
mano a mano in this unsettling comedy about the troubled reunion of two sisters.
Country mouse Louise (Frot), a beautician living in her native Mans, comes
to stay with her city mouse sister Martine (Huppert) for a few days. Well-off,
always beautifully coiffed and dressed, Martine has lots of time on her hands.
Louise on the other hand is a whirlwind of energy, managing a business and
a family and even finding time to write a novel (the reason for her trip
to Paris). The sisters don't see each other much, and it's easy to see why,
but this encounter will wind up transforming both of them. Director Alexandra
Leclère, here making her feature debut, doesn't pull any punches;
while the film has some very funny moments, it's a work that always seems
to be just on the edge - you're never quite sure what the outcome of the
many blow-ups between these women will be.
Source: www.filmfestivaltoday.com
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Tilaï
Idrissa Ouédraogo, Burkino Faso / France / Switzerland, 1990,
81mins
Following his own Yaaba, and in parallel course with Mali's
Souleymane Cissé, another of Africa's leading figures in cinema, Ouedraogo
offers with Tilai a delightful and colourful touch of universal
themes from a sensitive and ultimately perceptive angle. As Saga (Rasmane
Ouedraogo) returns to his village after a long absence he is confronted with
the bitter fact of his beloved girl Nogma (ma Cisse) having married his father.
Ostracising himself in an act of despair and anger, Saga leaves the village
only to settle in a nearby hut. However he gets frequent visits from Nogma
- who confesses that she still loves him which eventually lead to incest.
Unluckily, they are seen by a villager. "Tilai", the law of the community,
prescribes death as a punishment. This makes things more complex as nobody
is willing to carry out such a task.
Ouedraogo conducts with remarkable acuteness a story which at first glance
looks rather simple, perhaps due the modest nature of his cinematography,
but which ultimately raises all sorts of questions as to the absolute or
relative validity of social mores, the loyalty which members of a community
give to them, and the extent to which the individual freedom and action is
thwarted by them. The actors express a peculiar sadness, capturing splendidly
the emotional atmosphere which the incident has spread to the village. Tilai
might not stay in your memory for years but it will certainly provide, with
almost uncomfortable honesty, a stark and idiosyncratic perspective of the
society's most firm invention: law.
Spiros Gangas, Edinburgh University Film Society
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La Trahison (The Betrayal)
Philippe Faucon, Belgium / France, 2006, 80mins
The setting is war-torn Algeria during the early 1970s. When he discovers
evidence that would seem to indicate a close confidant’s treachery,
a sympathetic French lieutenant in the occupying forces is compelled to make
decisions likely to cause ethnic tensions to erupt into violence, in this
elegant, understated thriller.
Source: www.seattlefilm.org/festival/
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Voisins, voisines
Malik Chibane, France, 2004, 95mins
In the suburbs of Paris, the residents of the Mozart estate, a privatised
former public housing estate, get a new caretaker, Paco, and a new neighbour,
a rap musician. The rapper, lacking inspiration, only has three days to write
his lyrics, otherwise he can say goodbye to the advance he received from
the record company... Ideas? Lyrics? Music? But what if his inspiration were
right there on the doorstep? The rap musician observes, composes, writes
and sings. The Mozart estate becomes the stage for a hip hop fable as the
rapper turns into the good genie of his neighbours’ destiny...
Source: French Institute
“A keenly observed, bittersweet ensembler, Malik Chabane's Voisins
Voisines is a small triumph of writing and thesping.”
www.variety.com
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West Beyrouth (West Beruit)
Ziad Doueiri, Lebanon / France / Belgium, 1998, 105mins
Much has been made of Ziad Doueiri's service as assistant or second unit
cameraman on all Tarantino's films, but his assured, semi-autobiographical
debut as writer and director is strong enough to be judged on its own terms.
Set in 1975, it recreates the initial stages of Lebanon's civil war through
the experiences of three teenagers: Muslim friends Tarek (the director's
younger brother Rami) and Omar (Mohamad Chamas), and the former's Christian
neighbour May (Al Amin).
Not that religion or politics concern them very much; while Tarek is happy
to torment teachers at his French high school and spout a few fashionable
slogans now and then, he's more preoccupied with pop, sex, smoking and his
beloved cine camera, and barely understands why mum wants to leave the city
against dad's wishes. Indeed, the division of Beirut into Christian-controlled
East and Muslim West is simply an excuse to skip school... until he needs
to get his Super-8 film printed up over the frontline. With a light touch
wisely applied both to the chaos of a city in turmoil and to the rites-of-passage
narrative arc, Doueiri's film succeeds by offering up sturdy performances,
attention to detail, humour, drama and a refusal to sermonise or take sides.
It marks Doueiri as a talent to watch.
Source: www.timeout.com
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