Thessaloniki 49 opens with The Wrestler
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Darren Aronofsky’s Golden Lion winner The Wrestler opened the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), which is headed by Despina Mouzaki and runs this year from November 14-23.
Greece’s most important film festival hosts three main sections: the International Competition, Out of Competition and Special Screenings.
The International Competition comprises 14 titles, six of which are European: Szabolcs Tolnai’s The Hourglass (Hungary), Adrian Sitaru’s Hooked (Romania), Daniel Hernández’s Ordinary Boys(Spain), Diastème’s Sunny Spells [trailer] (France) and Petros Sevastikoglou’s Three Moments and Αlexander Avranas’ Without, both from Greece.
Special Screenings include British director Richard Jobson’s New Town Killers and Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum, alongside US titles W., Rachel Getting Married and a host of films from throughout the world.
Fernando Eimbcke’s Lake Tahoe is one of three Out of Competition titles.
TIFF also offers retrospectives on Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Ousmane Sembene Retrospective and Terence Davies. As well as parallel sections Greek Films, Division And Unity: Cinema In The Middle East, Experimental Forum, Balkan Survey: Tribute to Contemporary Turkish Cinema & Romanian Shorts and a tribute to Manos Zakharias.
Theo Angelopoulos’The Dust of Time will also screen during the festival and there will be over a dozen masterclasses held by, among others, the Dardenne brothers, DoP Haris Zambarloukos, Oliver Stone, Emir Kusturica, Davies, Angelopoulos and Jobson.
Irene Nikopoulou/Natasha Senjanovic Cineuropa.org