US cult director Terrence Malick premieres his To The Wonder starring Ben Affleck at a crisis-themed Venice film festival next month alongside new talent from Guatemala, Nepal and Saudi Arabia.
We have taken risks. There are many established directors but also less famous ones and many unknown young directors...
Hollywood hunk Mr Affleck, who stars in Mr Malick’s romantic drama, is expected on the red carpet of the world’s oldest film festival, along with stars including Javier Bardem and Kate Hudson, organisers said.
“The main recurring theme is the crisis,” festival director Alberto Barbera told reporters in Rome. “The economic crisis, which is having devastating social effects but also the crisis of values, the political crisis.
The 2012 edition of the festival on the shores of the watery city will feature the latest works by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano (Outrage Beyond) and South Korean director Kim Ki-duk (Pieta).
In the first, a sequel to Mr Kitano’s 2010 Outrage, Japanese criminal gangs clash as police try to outwit the gangsters, while in Pieta, a loan shark’s world is turned upside down when he meets a woman claiming to be his mother. The festival, which runs from August 29 to September 8, will feature 51 world premieres including The Company You Keep, a thriller about a left-wing militant on the run from the FBI, directed by and starring Robert Redford.
Also showing for the first time are Passion by Brian De Palma and Spike Lee’s documentary about Michael Jackson Bad 25.
The hotly-awaited Passion, Mr De Palma’s first feature film in six years, stars Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace in a Basic Instinct style thriller which draws inspiration from Alain Corneau’s 2010 French film Love Crime.
Bad 25, which focuses on the iconic artist’s Bad album, features over 40 interviews conducted by Spike Lee with friends, collaborators and musicians involved in the Bad tour, from Kanye West to Mariah Carey and Sheryl Crow.
Other offerings include Shokuzai (Penance) a five-hour horror epic by Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa originally shown as a television series, which Mr Barbera said was “absolutely extraordinary”.
The festival kicks off with a showing of US-based Indian director Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist − a political thriller about a young Pakistani torn between Wall Street ambitions and the call of his homeland.
Italian director Marco Bellocchio, who was awarded the Career Golden Lion at the Venice festival last year, returns with Dormant Beauty, a film which explores the theme of euthanasia and the meaning of life.
Mr Barbera said the festival included several well-established directors but also aimed to showcase up-and-coming cinematographers to reflect what he called “a great productive ferment” in the industry despite the crisis.
One example is the film Wadjda by female director Haifaa Al Mansour from Saudi Arabia − where cinemas are banned and women face discrimination.
“We have taken risks. There are many established directors but also less famous ones and many unknown young directors from countries without cinematic traditions and without real access to the market,” Mr Barbera said.