14 foreign films in 14 days

Movie buffs are in for a special treat when the third edition of the International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow week, bringing 14 movies from around the globe to a local audience.

The two-week festival is being organised by KRS Film Distributors Ltd in collaboration with the Embassy Complex. The movies will be shown at the Embassy Cinemaworld in Valletta.

KRS director Charles Pace said several people had requested that the festival be held in Valletta since it is central and can be easily reached by public transport.

He said the local response to foreign films was well below expectations, making it difficult for KRS to persuade suppliers to make their movies available for exhibition in Malta.

"Notwithstanding the problem, we have always maintained that if there is an audience for such films, however small it is, we will do our best to acquire them."

As a group, the movies chosen for this year's two-week festival are better than last year's, Mr Pace said. The trailers, shown to the media during a press conference yesterday, gave a promising glimpse of the 14 movies.

The festival opens on November 1 with a French production. The Last Mitterrand describes the last months of former French president François Mitterrand through a dialogue between the president and young biographer Antoine Moreau.

Chilean production Machuca will be shown on November 2. The movie describes the story of two boys - one from a bourgeois family and another from the Santiago slum - who become great friends in the midst of conflicts which lead Chile into the military coup on September 11 1973.

Spanish production Volver, directed by Pedro Almodovar, narrates the story of three generations of women. The female ensemble cast, including Penelope Cruz, won the Best Actress award in the Cannes Film Festival, while the director took home the Best Screenplay award. Volver will be shown on November 3. The Edukators, a German production about a kidnapping by three activists, is scheduled for November 4 while Japanese production The Hidden Blade, about a love affair between classes, will be shown the next day.

Italian production Tickets, which shows different people's experiences of Europe while travelling on the same express bus to Rome, will be shown on November 6. Venezuela's Secuestro Express, about a young couple abducted by three men, is scheduled for November 7.

The second week will kick off with The Wind That Shakes The Barley, one of only two movies without subtitles. The UK production, directed by Ken Loach, revolves around Ireland in the early 20th century and two brothers torn apart by anti-British rebellion. It will be shown on November 8. The other subtitle-free movie - Good Night And Good Luck - is scheduled for November 11. The US movie was nominated for six Oscars and won 19 awards. Evil, a Swedish production scheduled for November 9, revolves around Erik, who was expelled from school for fighting and ends up at a private boarding school where the senior students control the young ones. The movie was nominated for an Oscar in 2004 and won seven awards.

South African production Tsotsi shows how an emotionally frozen street hoodlum finds himself lumbered with the baby of a wealthy couple after a carjacking goes wrong. The baby starts to thaw Tsotsi's damaged soul in the movie to be shown on November 10.

Lady Vengeance, from South Korea, will be shown on November 12 while Israeli production Ushpizin will be shown the next day.

The festival will come to an end on November 14 with Palestinian movie Paradise Now, about two close friends who are recruited as suicide bombers in Tel-Aviv. The movie was nominated for one Oscar and won 13 awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

Each movie will be screened during the day at 10 a.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tickets are at Lm2 for all shows.