From Cannes to Virton
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The 29th Virton European Film Festival (November 6-15) kicks off today.
The festival – which attracts a rather limited audience – is offering the 10,000 inhabitants of the town in the province of Luxembourg the chance to see over 30 films from 13 European countries.
The eclectic line-up puts the spotlight on European auteur films and includes avant-premières, unreleased titles and recent must-see European works hardly shown in theatres.
The festival programmers seem to have looked to Cannes for inspiration in their quest to attract audiences. Several gems from different sections of the 2007 and 2008 editions will screen at Virton. In official competition are Ulrich Seidel’s Import/Export [trailer] (Austria), Andry Zvyagintsev’s The Banishment (Russia), Emir Kusturica’s Promise Me This [trailer] (Serbia), Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah [trailer, film focus] (Italy) and Kornel Kundruzco’s Delta [trailer] (Hungary).
Claire Simon’s God’s Offices [trailer] (France), Jan Bonny's Counterparts [trailer, making of] (Germany) and Lenny Abrahamson’s Garage [trailer, film focus] (Ireland) will give viewers a taste of the Directors’ Fortnight, while Andreas Dresen’s Cloud 9 (Germany) and Bent Hammer’s O’Horten [trailer] (Norway) offer a glimpse of the Un Certain Regard.
Cannes Critics’ Week will also be represented at Virton, in particular on Belgian Film Day (November 9), which will present Séraphine (recently released in theatres). The event will also offer viewers the opportunity to (re)discover Rumba [trailer, film focus] and see the avant-première of Swiss director Ursula Meier’s Home [trailer, film focus], which will be launched in theatres next week.
Among the avant-premières are Antonio Luigi Grimaldi’s Italian title Quiet Chaos [trailer, film focus], starring Nanni Moretti; the intriguing Unspoken by young Flemish filmmaker Fien Troch; and Louise Michel by Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delepine, which won an award at the latest San Sebastian Film Festival.
Aurore Engelen cineuropa.org