News

Saleh Bakri commands the screen as a teacher promoting nonviolence, who falls for British volunteer Imogen Poots while trying to protect a student looking for revenge

Here is a drama-thriller from British-Palestinian film-maker Farah Nabulsi, set in the West Bank: a geopolitical vale of angry tears. There is some pretty broad-brush storytelling here, but it is really well acted, particularly by its male lead, Saleh Bakri, who might be remembered from his performance in Elia Suleiman’s autobiographical film The Time That Remains, playing the director’s father Fuad. (I also remember him in the 2013 Sicilian mob thriller Salvo.)

Here Bakri plays Basem, a hardworking, idealistic and careworn Palestinian teacher of English, estranged from his wife (who is now living in Hebron) and troubled by his past. Basem has evolved away from his former life of radical resistance, now espousing nonviolent action; he is therefore deeply worried by a neighbouring...

The 30th Sarajevo Film Festival will pay tribute to Palestinian director Elia Suleiman in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the art of film.” The filmmaker will be presented with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award and honored with a retrospective of his selected works in the festival’s “Tribute to” program.

Suleiman was a guest at Sarajevo in 2019, where his film “It Must Be Heaven” was screened in the Open Air program. The film had received the special jury mention at Cannes the same year. He also served as the president of the jury at Sarajevo in 2016, and was a guest at the festival in 2013.

Jovan Marjanović, the festival’s director, said Suleiman’s “universal language of cinema speaks to fundamental human values and emotions: fear and hope, home and homeland.”

He added, “With his trademark wit, humor and profound insight, he navigates the complexities of our existence, shedding...

Elia Suleiman returned in 2019 to Cannes with his long-awaited fourth feature: It Must Be Heaven, an existentialist comedy which sees the director travel from his native Nazareth to New York via Paris on an existential(ist) journey peppered with surrealistic, mostly hilarious micro-encounters in the vein of the auteur’s previous works. Often central in Suleiman’s cinema is his own image, which in itself is largely based on his own persona and biography—acting as a concrete instance of a witness (onto which the spectator can project or latch themselves), caught in the fray of actions other than his own. He’s a silent yet nonetheless reactive observer of the oddities of quotidian life (thus inspiring comparisons with the work of the legendary Jacques Tati), which draw upon everything from a neighbor who gets territorial around an orange tree to French policemen zooming the streets on Segways, which he...

Dubayah worked on many of the major Palestinian films of the last 15 years.

The Palestinian film world has paid to tribute to prominent sound engineer Raja Dubayah, who has died at the age of 46 after a short illness.

Dubayah worked on many of the major Palestinian feature productions of the last 15 years including Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You and Wajib; Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar and The Idol; Mai Masri’s 3000 Nights; and Shady Srour’s Nazareth-set comedy Holy Air.

A rarity in the under-resourced Palestinian filmmaking scene, where it is difficult for aspiring technicians to get the training...

Exclusive: CAA has inked Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, whose fifth film It Must Be Heaven won the Jury Special Mention and Fipresci Critics’ Award at last May’s Cannes Film Festival, and will make its North American premiere at Tiff on Sept. 12.

It Must Be Heaven, which is Palestine’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, is comprised of comic vignettes set in Paris, Nazareth, and New York. The pic investigates the meanings of being in exile, and the absurdities of nationalism, normality, and identity: A church in Nazareth with a door that won’t open. A deserted Paris. A New York supermarket with as many guns as fresh produce.

It Must Be Heaven is repped by CAA Media Finance and Wild Bunch for the U.S. rights.

Suleiman’s best-known work, Divine Intervention, won the Jury Prize and International Critics Prize at the...

Sci-fi will be center stage at South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Asia’s largest genre film event. The ten-day film festival will run from Jun. 27 through Jul. 7.

Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” inspired the festival’s official artwork this year. The film will also play in special program ‘Robots: Future Beyond the Human Race’ along with Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and Fred M. Wilcox’s “Forbidden Planet.”

The festival opens, a few weeks earlier than its traditional mid-July slot, with the Asian premiere of Edgar Nito’s “The Gasoline Thieves.” Korean period mystery drama “The 12th Suspect” by Ko Myoung-sung will close the festival, which packs in 288 films from 49 countries.

“BiFan has decided to gear itself for the coming 100 years of Korean cinema, instead of looking back on the past 100 years. We will take the head in nurturing the next NaWoon-gyu, Kim Ki-young, Yu Hyun-mok,...

UK’s Loach to start shooting new film this autumn exploring precarity in the age of the gig economy.

Wild Bunch is set to launch a raft of upcoming films by long-time collaborators at Cannes this year, including UK director Ken Loach’s hard-hitting social drama Sorry We Missed You, exploring the issue of hardship in modern-day Britain through a young couple scraping to get by in a casual jobs market.

The Paris-based company’s Cannes slate also includes future films by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Elia Suleiman, Arnaud Desplechin, Hirokazu Kore-eda, who will direct a French-language film for the first time in his career,...

Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, one of the world’s most renowned directors who has won awards at many prestigious European film festivals, has been named jury president for the 54th International Antalya Film Festival, it was announced today by Antalya Film Festival Artistic Director Mike Downey.Elia Sulieman

Elia Suleiman has participated in numerous festivals as a jury member including Cannes Film Festival (2006) and was a President of the Jury of The New Horizons Competition, Abu Dhabi Film Festival (2010), Deauville Asian Film Festival (2012), Rotterdam Film Festival (2014).

He has been given tributes amongst which are the MoMA in New York, Istanbul Film Festival, and Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival in Portugal. He was the recipient of the 1992 Rockefeller Award and the 2008 Prince Claus Award. In 2009, he was named the Variety Magazine Middle-East filmmaker of the year in Abu Dhabi Film Festival where he was awarded the Black Pearl Award for The Time That Remains.

The Time That Remains director set for jury stint at Turkish festival.

Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman has been named jury president for the 54th Antalya Film Festival in Turkey (Oct 21-27).

The Nazareth-born director is known for Chronicle Of A Disappearance, which won the Best First Film Prize at Venice in 1996; Divine Intervention, which won the Jury Prize and Fipresci Prize at Cannes in 2002; and The Time That Remains, which played In Competition at Cannes in 2009.

He is currently servicing as artistic advisor for the Doha Film Institute, and is prepping his next feature film.

Suleiman has a lengthy history of stints on festival juries. In 2006, he served on the main competition jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and more recently he was president of the competition jury at the Sarajevo Film Festival last year.

Earlier this month, Antalya appointed Mike Downey as its new artistic director.

He commented on the selection of Suleiman: “Elia Suleiman is a film...

Palme d’Or-nominated director to head Competition jury at Sarajevo Film Festival.

Palestinian director Elia Suleiman has been named jury president for the feature film competition at the upcoming 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20).

The filmmakers is perhaps best known for Chronicle Of A Disappearance, which won the Best First Film Prize at Venice in 1996; Divine Intervention, which won the Jury Prize and Fipresci Prize at Cannes in 2002; and The Time That Remains, which played in Competition at Cannes in 2009.

In 2012, Suleiman made a short film titled Diary Of A Beginner, part of a collective feature titled 7 Days In Havana, which played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

The Nazareth-born director is currently serving as artistic advisor for the Doha Film Institute and is preparing his next feature film, which remains under wraps but promises “a voyage that will be crossing countries”.

At Sarajevo last year, the Feature Film Competition jury was presided over by Călin...

Read More: Fantastic Fest Announces First Wave of Programming Picks: 'Bone Tomahawk' World Premiere to Close Festival The United Arab Emirates has not been the most cinematically fruitful region up until now, but it looks like that's all about to change given the explosive new trailer for Majid Al-Ansari's directorial debut, "Rattle The Cage." Also called "Zinzana," the psychological thriller tells the story of a falsely accused prisoner and the psychopathic man who keeps him locked up. The superbly edited trailer gives off a strong Tarantino vibe, promising visual intensity, hyper-stylized violence and heaps of black humor. From this early look, "Rattle The Cage" seems to feature two knockout performances facing off in a battle of malice and mind games. Saleh Bakri ("The Time That Remains") stars as Talal, the desperate inmate trying to save his family's life, opposite Ali Suliman ("Paradise Lost"), who plays the...

I had the good fortune of spending some time speaking with the CEO of the Doha Film Institute, Fatma Al Remahi, whom I had met previously at the Toronto Film Festival. She is a woman of rare talents and I intend to devote a "Women to Watch" feature on her when I return to Los Angeles. With her this day in Cannes were Khalil Benkirane, Head of Grants and Elia Suleiman, the Palestinian filmmaker known for his wry comedies/ commentaries of the current state of affairs around the Mideast, like "Divine Intervention", "The Time That Remains", "Chronicle of a Disappearance", winner of five major awards, and a segment in the 2012 omnibus, "7 Days in Havana".

They are here to celebrate being in Cannes with five films that they have invested in and which have won slots in the festival, thus proving how well their grants have worked. Even this past fall in Venice two of their films won prizes, one, "Sivas" from Turkey and Germany won the Special Jury Prize and Best Actor Award, and "Theeb" from Jordan UAE, Qatar and UK.

Before going into the films the Doha Film Institute is granting not only money to, but greater support from the filmmaking community in the Mideast and the larger world, I asked Suleiman how he envisaged his role. His answer was that, "with age, as strong passions wind down a bit, one has time and the wish to give back to the young, fresh filmmakers. In the process, you learn from their experience, and your own passion is rekindled by theirs. We all felt the same way at the same time, and the new grants program started very quickly with a wholeness to it.

It offers a way to stay connected and alert. Personally, it gives us a community, helping others and in doing this, we help ourselves. That is why we are here."

CEO Fatma Al Ramahi added that after five years of curating projects, granting financial aid and co-financing projects, they had come full circle and Dfi was now offering filmmakers more in what resembles an ecosystem.

I pointedly asked about the place of women in this "ecosystem" to which Khalil Benkirane replied, it depends upon the submissions. They preselect some and others are chosen; the decisions are based upon the combination of merit, narrative story, content, relevance and a direction toward a cinema for tomorrow, bringing in a new voice. The last three sessions before this one included more projects by women than men. This last session had less than 50% by women, more like 30%. But they have no quota which they must fill. They are conscious, but the chose by merit. Women may be in greater numbers because they offer fresh, new voices. In five years we will see more features by women.

I asked about the presence of USA projects their selection, having noticed a little known incident dramatized in "Houston, We Have a Problem!" by Ziga Virc (Slovenia, Germany, Croatia, Qatar) which occurred in March, 1961 when Yugoslavia sold its secret space program to the USA. Two months later, President Kennedy announced that Americans would travel to the Moon.

They pointed out the USA coproduction, "Liyana" by Aaron and Amanda Kopp (USA, Swaziland, Qatar), a feature doc about some talented orphaned children in Swaziland who create a fictional heroine and send her on a dangerous quest.

In their first year, 30 projects from the Us were submitted by Sundance and none made the cut. Last year saw some strong Us docs. This year they saw some real USA indies which were submitted by individuals who heard the call. These were indies not influenced by Us commercial concerns, wanting to fill TV slots or other such systemic strictures.

I agree with them that Us filmmakers need to look abroad for more originality and cannot remain Us-centric if they want to break the constraints of TV and Hollywood imposed styles.

Since those early years, Sundance itself has changed its direction and expanded its international slate, and Us itself has become more multi cultural.

Submissions for the Fall 2015 grants session will open July 18 and close August 1, so act now!

By and large however, topical themes of exile, the aftermath of war, coming of age and the importance of family feature figure prominently in the Institute’s Spring 2015 session of its grants program whose recipients were announced today at the Cannes Film Festival.

Twenty-five projects – comprising 14 narrative feature films, 5 feature documentaries, 1 feature experimental film and 5 short films – will receive funding for development, production or post-production.

This round’s selection also highlights the strength of submissions from first- and second-time feature filmmakers from the Mena region along with a strong group of short films receiving grants, reflecting the Doha Film Institute’s dedication to supporting emerging new talent.

After expanding the grants criteria to include established filmmakers from the Mena region for the category of post-production, this cycle also sees Mai Masri (Palestine) and Merzak Allouache (Algeria) awarded funding for their respective new projects – Masri’s ‘"3000 Nights," a narrative feature about a newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher who gives birth to her son in an Israeli prison and Allouache’s "Madame Courage," a narrative feature about an unstable and lonely teenager, living in a slum in the suburbs of Mostaganem, Algeria.

Former grantees Leila Hotait Salas ("Crayons of Askalan") and Nejib Belkadhi (‘Bastardo’) are also returning with new projects. Hotait Salas’ narrative feature "Stolen Skies," is set against the demonstrations in Cairo in 2011 about a women who remembers her Lebanese lover from 30 years ago and Belkadhi’s narrative feature ‘Retina’, is about a Tunisian immigrant forced to return to his country to take care of his autistic son.

Gulf representation in the short films includes Fahad Al Kuwari’s "One of Them’ from Qatar" and Amal Al-Agroobi’s "Under The Hat" from the UAE. Qatari feature film, "Sahaab" by Khalifa Abdullah Al Muraikhi marks the first Qatari feature awarded for a production grant and is a project which recently participated in Qumra – the first edition of the Institute’s new industry platform dedicated to the development of first- and second-time filmmakers.

In the feature documentary category, stories from or about Syria and its ongoing civil war and set against a backdrop of political, social and emotional turmoil form the subject matter of several projects selected for grants including Boutheyna Bouslama’s "Seeking The Man With the Camera" (Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Qatar), Ziad Kalthoum’s "Beirut Rooster" (Syria, Lebanon, Qatar) and Noura Kevorkian’s "Batata" (Lebanon, Qatar).

In the feature narrative category, regional projects from Algeria, Lebanon and Palestine span a variety of genres and cover a range of subject matter such as modern-day life in the Middle East, lost love and immigration; projects include Muhannad Lamin’s "Tin Hinan," Lidia Terki’s "Paris The White," Firas Khoury’s "Alam, The Flag" and Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s innovative genre film "Film Kteer Kbeer."

Five projects from outside the Mena region have received funding, including grants for filmmakers from Singapore (‘Apprentice’ by Junfeng Boo) and Slovenia (‘Houston, We Have a Problem’ by Ziga Virc) for the first time.

The new-wave of filmmaking coming out of Argentina, a story of familial secrets between sisters and a moving documentary about orphan children in Swaziland form an eclectic selection of projects chosen from the rest of the world by filmmakers Francisco Varone ("Road To La Paz"), Manu Gerosa ("Between Sisters") and Aaron and Amanda Kopp ("Liyana").

Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, said: “Our Spring grantees demonstrate the strength of new work coming from emerging filmmakers with 23 projects awarded to first- and second-time directors and a strong selection of short films by new talents to watch.”

“These grants give support to projects with diverse regional perspectives and genres, underlining the Doha Film Institute’s commitment to the development of innovative new voices in cinema which is also echoed in our recently launched development platform, Qumra.”

What is Qumra? I asked and they showed me the recent Screen International Cannes supplement about it. Those of you in Cannes can get it off the trade stands or in the Screen offices. It is no red carpet event, nor is it a series of matter lasses. It is a regional conference aimed at deepening the conversations of experienced experts and emerging filmmakers. No masterclass or labs replace the personal conversations though there are workshops and grants involved. The grants are not merely monetary; they are grants of support, mentorships and approval which open the way for the filmmakers to optimize their chances to move ahead with their projects toward their intended goals.

It is a question of control often for filmmakers who may be forced to fit an organization's requirements when they receive funding. In Qumra, they have their own space without an authoritarian producer, although the producer is also invited and is treated well. Because the projects and producers themselves are curated, the producers are committed to committing themselves as it were to the projects. They are not forced to take on projects if they don't find the one that fits, but they are only invited if they intend to consider the projects seriously for their own portfolio. That filmmakers and producers both come out of Qumra contented is crucial.

“We have funded more than 220 projects through the grants programme since it was established and I am pleased to welcome back some of our grantee alumni who are returning this session with their new films. I am also pleased to introduce in this funding round a new avenue of support for established Mena directors, which reflects an integral part of our mission to support voices from the Arab world.”

Films supported in previous sessions of the grants programme are strongly represented in the Festival de Cannes this year with five grantees making their world premiere in various sections. They are: "Waves ’98" by Elie Dagher (Lebanon, Qatar) competing in the Official Short Film Competition; "Dégradé" by Tarzan and Arab Abunasser (Palestine, France, Qatar) and "Mediterranea" by Jonas Carpignano (Italy, France, Germany, Qatar) in the Critics’ Week sidebar which is dedicated to showcasing innovative works by new filmmakers; ‘"Lamb" by Yared Zeleke (Ethiopia, France, Qatar) in the main world cinema showcase, Un Certain Regard; and "Mustang" by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar) selected for the Directors’ Fortnight.

Submissions for the Fall 2015 grants session will open July 18 and close August 1, so act now!

The fund is primarily for first and second-time filmmakers with the exception of the category of Post-Production which is available to established filmmakers from the Mena region.

For more information about eligibility and submission process visit:

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/grants/guidelines

A full directory of past grant recipients is available to view online at:

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/projects/grants

Doha Film Institute grantees for the Spring 2015 session are:

Development

Feature Narrative

"Seeking the Man with the Camera" by Boutheyna Bouslama (Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Qatar)

An investigative documentary that follows the narrator as she seeks out Seymo, a childhood friend with whom she used to play in the streets of Homs.

"Stolen Skies" by Laila Hotait Salas (Lebanon, Qatar)

Against the backdrop of the demonstrations in Cairo in 2011, a woman wants to remember the Lebanese lover she had 30 years ago – but first she will need to forgive herself.

"Tin Hinan" by Muhannad Lamin (Libya, Qatar)

A mythical coming-of-age tale in which a young girl is forced to travel into the Sahara to find a new home, ‘Tin Hinan’ depicts the struggle for identity in the midst of a revolution.

Production

Feature Narrative

"1982" by Oualid Mouaness (Lebanon, Qatar)

When 11-year-old Wissam decides to tell a classmate that he loves her, his will is challenged, his courage falters and an impending war threatens to separate them permanently.

"Alam, The Flag" by Firas Khoury (Palestine, France, Qatar)

Tamer, a young Palestinian high-school student, takes part in the mysterious Operation Flag mission on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day celebrations – a day of mourning for Palestinians.

"Paris the White" by Lidia Terki (Algeria, France, Qatar)

Aicha, a woman of 70, leaves her village in Algeria for the first time to go to Paris in search of her husband, who has not contacted her in years.

"Retina" by Nejib Belkadhi (Tunisia, Qatar)

Lotfi, a Tunisian immigrant who lives in France, is forced to return to his homeland to take care of his autistic child.

"Sahaab" by Khalifa Abdullah Al Muraikhi (Qatar)

When Nasser and his friends are lost in the desert, struggling to retrieve their falcon, their search turns out to be a deadly journey.

Short Narrative

"Aya" by Moufida Fedhila (Tunisia, France, Qatar)

‘Aya’ is a story about faith in God and in humanity, and of making changes and sacrifices in order to save one’s soul.

"The Boss" by Rzgar Huseein Ahmed (Iraq, Qatar)

A group of boys decides to select a boss from among themselves. Then the boss becomes the group’s dictator.

"One of Them" by Fahad Al Kuwari (Qatar)

Khalid finds himself in an enigmatic situation when he suddenly develops immunity to religious advocacy.

"Under the Hat" by Amal Al-Agroobi (United Arab Emirates, Qatar)

A mosque’s mu’athen loses his voice and looks for a replacement in his neighbor – the young vocalist in a heavy metal band.

Feature Documentary

"Batata" by Noura Kevorkian (Lebanon, Qatar)

While war rages back home, a family of Syrian potato farmers works the fields in neighboring Lebanon.

"Ghosts Hunting" by Raed Andoni (Palestine, France, Qatar)

Director Raed Andoni assembles an eclectic group of Palestinian ex-prisoners to rebuild the Israeli investigation centre in which they were imprisoned – a place they never in fact saw, because they were always blindfolded.

Short Experimental or Essay

"The Most Pretty Dudes" by Mohammad Dibo (Syria, Qatar)

In Homs, a city destroyed by war, two embattled groups negotiate to ensure their safe escape from the building they are both trapped in.

Post-production

Feature Narrative

"3000 Nights" by Mai Masri (Palestine, France, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE, Qatar)

A recently wed Palestinian schoolteacher gives birth in an Israeli prison, where she fights to protect her son, survive and maintain hope.

"Apprentice" by Junfeng Boo (Singapore, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Qatar)

Aiman, a corrections officer, is transferred to a high-security prison. There, he befriends Rahim, who, it turns out, is chief executioner. Can Aiman overcome his conscience and become Rahim's apprentice?

"Film Kteer Kbeer" by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya (Lebanon, Qatar)

Intending to smuggle the amphetamine Captagon to Iraq in film canisters, a small-time Lebanese drug-dealer transforms himself into a film producer and, with the help of an underrated filmmaker, slyly manipulates public opinion.

"Houston, We Have a Problem!" by Ziga Virc (Slovenia, Germany, Croatia, Qatar)

In March, 1961, Yugoslavia sold its secret space programme to the USA. Two months later, President Kennedy announced that Americans would travel to the Moon.

"Madame Courage" by Merzak Allouache (Algeria, France, Qatar)

Omar, an unstable and lonely teenager, lives in a slum in the suburbs of Mostaganem.

"Road to La Paz" by Francisco Varone (Argentina, The Netherlands, Germany, Qatar)

Sebastián is hired to take Jahlil, a Muslim retiree, on the most important mission of his life. What begins as an inconvenient trip turns out to be a life-changing adventure.

Feature Documentary

"Beirut Rooster" by Ziad Kalthoum (Syria, Lebanon, Qatar)

While Syrian workers rebuild Lebanon, a country ruined by a lengthy civil war, their hometowns in Syria are destroyed during the brutal conflict there. Who will rebuild their houses?

"Between Sisters" by Manu Gerosa (Italy, Qatar)

Before life runs out, Ornella decides to confront her aging sister Teresa with a painful untold story – one that might change their close bond forever.

"Liyana" by Aaron and Amanda Kopp (USA, Swaziland, Qatar)

In Swaziland, some talented orphaned children create a fictional heroine and send her on a dangerous quest.

Feature Experimental or Essay

"In My Head, A Roundabout" by Lahcene Ferhani (Algeria, France, Qatar)

In the Ruisseau District of Algiers, workers and animals come together for a last dance of death: the city’s main slaughterhouse is about to close forever.

The Palestinian film-maker is set to direct a new feature later this year or in the first half of 2016, marking his first film since 2009’s The Time That Remains.

“I’ve just finished the script,” Suleiman said of the as-yet-untitled work. He did not unveil the plot but noted “all of my films are to do with something personal.”

“It’s a voyage that will be crossing countries. It’s the first film I will do that doesn’t take Palestine as a microcosm of the world.”

Suleiman added the project could shoot in Europe, the Us or Palestine. Like all his work it will have “a brushstroke of the political time we live in.”

He will produce the film alongside his regular collaborator Vincent Maraval at Wild Bunch as well as Edouard Weil at Rectangle Productions.

In an interview with Screen at the Doha Film Institute’s inaugural Qumra event where he serves as artistic advisor...

HeyUGuys recently had the opportunity to catch up with first time writer-directors Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia, to get under the skin of their silent and haunting debut feature Salvo.

Antonio and Fabio spoke with us about confronting the expectations of Sicilian narratives, the current challenges facing Italian filmmakers, contending with one blind and one silent protagonist, slowly constructing empathy, before taking a moment to look ahead to following up a Sicilian mafia character drama with a Sicilian ghost story.

Why a career in filmmaking? Was there that one inspirational moment?

Antonio Piazza: Fabio and I worked together for a number of years as writers and script consultants for other people, as well as a couple of Italian production companies. A few years ago we decided we wanted to write and direct own story, and so the first thing we did was to go back to Sicily where we come from.

W hite Sun is one of the twenty-three films selected for the co- production market of Film Bazaar 2013.

Deepak Rauniyar

Project description. Language.

White Sun is a dark comedy about life in a Nepali village in the wake of the decade-long conflict that ended in 2006. Little Pooja lives with her mother Durga and grandfather Chitra in a remote mountain village. She has never met her father, Agni, who joined the Maoist guerrillas and left their village years ago to fight the government. The devastating war is over, and Agni’s rebel Maoist party now heads the government.

Agni returns to the village for the first time in 10 years for Chitra’s funeral. Pooja watches her father and mother readjust to each other’s presence and her father fight with the family’s closest friend, Suraj – who fought on the government side during the war. When Suraj leaves, Agni cannot find...

The massive 20th Chicago Underground Film Festival has come and gone and, surprisingly, the city is still standing!

But, in the epic event’s wake is left the exhausted bodies of several award winners, chosen by a three-panel jury composed of Mimi Brody, Frederic Moffet and Jack Sargeant; as well as a special award chosen by the audience.

Actually, the audience was so enamored of all the films screening at Cuff this year, they couldn’t make a decision of what they enjoyed the most. So, the Audience Award resulted in a tie between the feature film debut of Drew Tobia, See You Next Tuesday, and the anti-war documentary Hit & Stay by co-directors Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk.

The jury gave the Most Visionary Award to the very personal documentary A Body Without Organs by Stephen Graves. And they bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award on underground filmmaking legend Jon Moritsugu,...

The mighty and all-powerful Chicago Underground Film Festival has done the absolute unthinkable: Reached their 20th year of operation! How many underground festivals have accomplished that feat? None, until now! Well, “now” being March 6-10 at the fest’s new location: The Logan Theatre.

Obviously, there are a lot of people who have worked with the fest over the years to help make it last for exactly two fantastic decades, but, truly, there is one special person who has to be specially lauded for his tireless dedication to the advancement of underground film and its makers. Especially because Cuff hasn’t just been around for 20 years: It’s been fucking awesome for 20 years.

That person, of course, is Artistic Director Bryan Wendorf, who has been with the fest for the very first edition to it’s most recent, mind-blowing one. Year after year, Wendorf has guided Cuff into defining, challenging,...

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The anthology film, in its successes, is so often a serendipitous art; after all, how much control can any one contributor have over the project as a whole? This fact is painfully reminded to us in Cuban travelogue 7 Days in Havana, a visually dazzling but thematically sparse tableau.

Quite possibly a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, even if those cooks are by-and-large first-rate film directors, 7 Days of Havana aims disappointingly low with its ambition, telling tales that either feel derived from soap opera, or fail to adequately convey the aspect of Cuban culture that they so desperately want to.

With each story comprising one day of the titular week, Benicio Del Toro’s “El Yuma” is first up to bat, starring Josh Hutcherson as a film student enjoying the city’s sights before he begins class. Following that, Pablo Trapero (Carancho) depicts despondent...

After Paris, je t’aime and New York, I Love You, it’s fast becoming an indie film staple: The loving portrait of a modern cosmopolitan city as an ensemble feature-length anthology film, comprised of more-or-less discrete chapters helmed by different, internationally flavored directors. 7 Days in Havana turns our attention to the Cuban capital, with each short film comprising a day of the week. Actor Benicio Del Toro helms the first segment, “El Yuma,” starring The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson as a young actor on a whirlwind tour of the famed city. The other segments are helmed by Pablo Trapero...

The anthology movie is coming back in a big way, and among the (how appropriate) several takes arriving over the next few years, 7 Days in Havana definitely holds the greatest promise. For any definitive proof, simply look at the lineup of directors: Gaspar Noé, Benicio Del Toro, Laurent Cantet (The Class), Elia Suleiman (The Time That Remains), Pablo Trapero (Lion’s Den), Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia), Juan Carlos Tabio (Guantanamera).

I don’t need a trailer to be immediately interested; Twitch has that, anyway, and it’s a nice hint of things to come. While I’d like to determine when I’m seeing footage shot by Noé, for example, a stylistically consistent whole piece would be nice — disparate segments only tangentially stitched together in an editing room are usually my sticking point with omnibus films — and the style here looks to capture the city in loving detail, too.

Throughout the month of December, Filmmaker‘s writers will be commenting on their favorite films of the year as well as business, tech, and cultural trends. To kick off, here’s Zack Wigon’s Top 20 Films of 2011.

1. Shame. Shame is unquestionably the real deal when it comes to the easily-melodramatic territory of the Addiction Film – the words “searing” and “raw” come to mind without irony – but what makes it the best film of 2011 is the fact that Steve McQueen seems hell-bent on upending everything we know about how stories are supposed to be told in cinema. For the second time now, he’s made a film which treats exposition as the hindrance to narrative and character development that it is; it’s a narrative philosophy found all-too-rarely in contemporary cinema. The result is a film both subtle and punishingly direct, somehow, at the same time; the tone is economically conveyed in the opening eight-minute sequence,...

7 Days in Havana will be a Cuban-set drama made up of seven vignettes helmed by seven different directors. (Think Paris Je T’aime.) According to Deadline, the slate of directors include Laurent Cantet (The Class), Gaspar Noe (Enter the Void), Elia Suleiman (The Time That Remains), Pablo Trapero (Lion’s Den), Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia), Juan Carlos Tabio (Guantanamera), and the oft enigmatic Benicio Del Toro, star of Che and The Wolfman.

This will not be Del Toro’s first time in the director’s chair, as he helmed the 1995 short Submission, which featured Matthew McConaughey. This time ’round, he has chosen The Kids Are All Right star Josh Hutcherson as his leading man. Hutcherson will play tourist in the segment titled Monday, which follows documentary-style him as he, “explores the culture of the island for the first time.”

Though Del Toro’s segment has already been shot, 7 Days...

Tahar Rahim in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet Best Film 1. A Prophet 2. Winter's Bone 3. Toy Story 3 4. The Social Network 5. Dogtooth 6. Inception 7. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Remember His Past Lives 8. The Road / Bad Lieutenant 9. Mother 10. The Illusionist /A Room and a Half / Of Gods and Men Best Director 1. Jacques Audiard, A Prophet 2. David Fincher, The Social Network 3. Werner Herzog, Bad Lieutenant 4. Christopher Nolan, Inception 5. Luca Guadagnino, I Am Love 6. Clio Barnard, The Arbor 7. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Remember His Past Lives 8. Jessica Hauser, Lourdes / Giorgos Lantimos, Dogtooth 9. Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer / Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist / Elia Suleiman, The Time That Remains / Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island 10. Warwick Thornton, Samson and Delilah / Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, A Room and a Half Best Actress 1. Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's [...]...

Simultaneously autobiographical and fantastical, the films of Elia Suleiman mine the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis for humor, pathos, and eerie poetry. The Time That Remains completes Suleiman’s trilogy that began with 1996’s Chronicle Of A Disappearance and continued with 2002’s Divine Intervention, and it’s the most ambitious, wide-ranging film of the trio, spanning 60 years of life in Nazareth via four vignettes drawn from Suleiman’s family history. Throughout, Suleiman contemplates how much has changed in his homeland since the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948, and how the natives have tried to ...

January 7-9th 2011

There was a lot of movement in the top ten films over the weekend with one significant accomplishment-True Grit lasso.ed itself into the number one spot bringing in $14,605,135 and horse kicked Little Fockers into number two pulling in $13,487,245.

The surprise of the weekend was Relativity.s new release Season Of The Witch, starring Nicolas Cage, flying into the number three position with a decent showing of $10,612,375. It was released in 2,816 theaters with an average $3,769 per theater.

Tron: Legacy was barely edged out of the spot, but only moved down to the number four slot.

Screen Gem.s Country Strong strummed its way into number six by opening in 1,422 more theaters. Now with a 1,424 theater showing, it had the second highest per theater average of $5,145.

The number one highest grossing per theater average was The King.S Speech with $8,462 in 758 theaters. The unfortunate two movies finally...

There's always the temptation to stay inside during the winter, made even more compelling by the wide array of films you can watch at home. But that would be ignoring the 89 reasons why the only place more inviting than a couch near the fireplace is a seat at your local arthouse where the options range from the ancient Roman war epic "The Eagle" with Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell to the fantastical Palme d'Or-winning elegy "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" from Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Many awards contenders will expand across the country while those sick of such serious fare can fall back on revenge-themed thrillers with Jason Statham, Nicolas Cage or the deadly Korean twosome of "The Housemaid" and "I Saw the Devil," the action stylings of Donnie Yen ("IP Man 2") and Tony Jaa ("Ong Bak 3"), or the comedies of John C. Reilly and Ed Helms ("Cedar Rapids...

If it's too cold to leave the house for your local theater, there's plenty of options if you stay inside online, on demand and on DVD. What follows is your guide to all the new releases coming your way between now and April.

Online and On Demand

My French Film Festival

Thanks to bids for Oscar consideration, the winter is traditionally one of the rare times foreign films get plenty of attention in the States, particularly at West Coast festivals such as Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. However, Francophiles in particular will be excited to know you won't have to go to California or New York -- or even Paris for that matter -- to be able to catch some of the most recent cinema from France since uniFrance is unveiling My French Film Festival, which is being billed as the "first exclusively online film festival celebrating French talent" that...

Award-winning Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman (Divine Intervention) makes idiosyncratic films about the endless conflict between Arabs and Israelis, stitching together wryly humorous tableaux that speak to the absurdity of life under occupation. Suleiman himself is often a character in these tragicomic dramas, a mute witness quietly observing the agitations of the Middle East at ground level, with lidded eyes and a mournful face that commentators have repeatedly likened to Buster Keaton’s. As a youth infatuated with socialism, Suleiman (now 50) fled a pending arrest warrant in Nazareth (the authorities were under the impression he was a gang member) and moved to London, where he met author John Berger, an important mentor and lifelong friend whose Ways of Seeing literally opened his eyes to the world. Later, in New York City, he befriended the late critic Edward Said (Orientalism) and producer James Schamus, both of whom exerted an equally powerful influence...

We'll get to what all else is online from the new issue of Film Comment in a moment, but first, here's Joumane Chahine on a film playing at the IFC Center in New York through Tuesday: "Although it actually stands as the final act in Elia Suleiman's loosely linked trilogy of semi-autobiographical 'chronicles' of Palestinian life (Chronicle of a Disappearance, 96; Divine Intervention, 02) The Time That Remains suffered in some ways — and rather unfairly — from the 'curse of the sophomore effort' when it premiered at Cannes in 2009… Subtitled 'Chronicle of a Present Absentee,' The Time That Remains may very well be a much deeper and more mature piece than Divine Intervention — and a much more ambitious one too. Inspired by Suleiman's father's diaries as a resistance fighter during the events that surrounded the creation of Israel, as well as by his mother's letters to exiled family members over the decades that followed,...

Elia Suleiman is among the few living filmmakers to employ slapstick comedy in his work, and the only one to politicize it. But where his 2002 feature "Divine Intervention" decried his Palestinian family's oppression at the hands of Israeli troops in Nazareth with a caustic, angry satiric bent, "The Time That Remains" strikes a decidedly mournful tone. The third entry in a trilogy preceded by the aforementioned Cannes winner and ...

Just in case you needed a reminder that it's January, here's a quick rundown of the lacklustre line-up of films playing in theatres this weekend. The only major release is Season of the Witch starring Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman, and while it's something I might watch out of curiosity on TV on a Sunday afternoon, I don't know that I'd actually pay to see it since early reviews have been about as bad as you'd expect. The other new film playing in a significant number of theatres is Country Strong starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. Your best bet this weekend is probably to catch The Social Network again since it's returning to theatres for an Academy run on 600 screens, just a few days before its DVD and Blu-ray release. What will you be checking out this weekend? Season of the Witch [1] Country Strong [2] (semi-wide) The Social Network [3] (re-release...

Don't call Elia Suleiman a Palestinian filmmaker. "It's a kind of ghettoization, frankly," says the 50-year-old Nazareth-born director, and he has a point. True, his name often heads lists of filmmakers working in the Middle East -- Suleiman's last two features have both premiered at Cannes to wide acclaim -- but his work also displays a universality and accessibility that reaches beyond politics or questions of identity. His films manage an irresistible -- and somewhat paradoxical -- blend of Jarmuschian irony, Tatiesque slapstick, and occasional bits of documentary, while also working with deeply emotional, almost romantic undercurrents.

The films have never been particularly political, even though they often tackle potentially explosive topics: 2002's much-admired "Divine Intervention" climaxed with an Israeli checkpoint being blown to bits, "Matrix"-style. (It was a comedy, believe it or not.) Suleiman's third feature, "The Time That Remains," is certainly his most ambitious yet, examining the...

The Time That Remains, an official selection in the Festival De Cannes (Cannes Film Festival), opens up in Us theaters on Jan 7, 2011 from IFC Films. This foreign comedy about life in the Israeli Arab Community is Written and Directed by Elia Suleiman (7 Days in Havana) and stars Suleiman, Saleh Bakri, Leilia Mouammar, Ali Suliman and Bilal Zidani.

About The Time That Remains:

The Time That Remains is a humorous, heartbreaking film composed of elegantly stylized autobiographical episodes from the life of writer/director Elia Suleiman. The film explores life among the Israeli Arab community, and is shot largely in homes and places in which Suleiman’s family once lived. Inspired by his father’s diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation, and the director’s own recollections, the film spans from 1948 until the present, recounting the saga of the filmmaker’s family in subtly hilarious vignettes.

Sundance Selects has released the official movie trailer for Elia Suleiman‘s The Time That Remains. The film, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival garnered serious critical praise, and now you’ll get a chance to see what all the commotion is about before it hits limited theaters on January 7th (before seeing a wider opening May).

Official Synopsis:

The Time That Remains is a humorous, heartbreaking film composed of elegantly stylized autobiographical episodes from the life of writer/director Elia Suleiman. The film explores life among the Israeli Arab community, and is shot largely in homes and places in which Suleiman’s family once lived. Inspired by his father’s diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation, and the director’s own recollections, the film spans from 1948 until the present, recounting the saga of the filmmaker’s family in subtly hilarious vignettes.

[1] Sundance Selects has released the official movie trailer for Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains. The film, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, is an "examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day." The film has a 83% on Rotten Tomatoes with 15 of 18 positive reviews. Empire Magazine called it "a touching and insightful black comedy that gracefully spans sixty years." Watch the trailer embedded after the jump. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Official Plot Synopsis: The Time That Remains is a humorous, heartbreaking film composed of elegantly stylized autobiographical episodes from the life of writer/director Elia Suleiman. The film explores life among the Israeli Arab community, and is shot largely in homes and places in which Suleiman's family once lived. Inspired by his father's diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation,...

There’s no telling what’s going on in Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains, and in rare form, the trailer probably does more to obfuscate any possible plot than it does to enlighten. From the minute we get, it looks sort of like Peter Sellers made a movie about Palestine after discovering trance music. Suleiman’s first feature was the 1990 experimental documentary Introduction to the End of an Argument, but he’s perhaps best known as the director of Divine Intervention which deals with the same subject matter of Remains – the comedic and dramatic and absurd moments of living under the occupation of Palestine. Check out the trailer for yourself, and if you can figure out what’s going on, drop me a line and let me know: Along with Four Lions, Arabic and Islamic life may be emerging as a more popular subject matter for American audiences. The Time That Remains...

Over at Apple we’ve just received a trailer for the Belgian/French/Italian film The Time That Remains. Written and directed by Elia Suleiman, it premiered at Cannes in 2009. Taking what’s said to be a somewhat more comedic than usual look at the conflict between Israel and Palestine, it looks pretty different than anything that’s come out recently, and the trailer definitely piqued my interest on the film.

Personally I think this looks pretty fantastic, and reviews for it have seemed to confirm that it delivers on the promise shown here. The combination of humor, politics and action on display strongly reminds me of something like Lord of War, a movie that I admire greatly, so that’s a similarity that has me even more excited. Hopefully this around my will play in my area at some point and I won’t have to wait until home video to check it out.

The Chaplin Festival at the Belcourt in Nashville opens today and runs through December 5. Poster by Sam Smith.

This evening at 7, Not Coming to a Theater Near You is presenting Freddie Francis's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) at the 92YTribeca. Also in New York: UnionDocs presents A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory along with three of Williams's works. And Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now, Part I carries on at MoMA. Related reading: Vadim Rizov for the L on Elia Suleiman's Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), Divine Intervention (2002) and The Time That Remains (2009), a "loose trilogy of occupation comedies [that] politicize the international language of deadpan."

Tonight in San Francisco, at Other Cinema, Patrick Macias, editor of Otaku USA, and August Ragone, author of Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, pay tribute to Ishiro Honda, director of the original Godzilla,...

Danny Glover (left), Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Louverture Films poses at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York for the kick-off to MoMA's Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to New, Part 1 series. Elia Suleiman's "The Time That Remains" served as the opening night screening. Suleiman was also on hand for the night's event (second from right), as was series curator Jytte ...

By Ali Naderzad - October 24, 2010

Subtitled “Chronicle of a Present Absentee” and the final installment in a trilogy that previously gave us "Chronicle of a disappearance” and “Divine intervention,” “The time that remains” is a new film by Elia Suleiman set among the Israelo-Arab community and shot largely in homes and places in which Suleiman’s family once lived. Inspired by his father’s diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation and the director’s own memories, the film spans from 1948 until the present and tells of the saga of Suleiman’s family. Inserting himself as a silent observer Suleiman trains a keen eye on the absurdities of life in Nazareth.

Born in Nazareth in 1960 to Arab parents, Elia Suleiman studied cinema at New York University and made his first short films there before moving to Jerusalem in 1994 and creating a film department at Birzeit University,...

MacGruber; Villa Amalia; The Time That Remains; London River; StreetDance 3D

What is it about Saturday Night Live spin-off movies that induces such soul-crushing torpor? For every rare success (Wayne's World, The Blues Brothers) there are umpteen duffers (Coneheads, It's Pat, The Ladies Man, Blues Brothers 2000) which demonstrate just how poorly TV skits translate to the big screen.

Few SNL stinkers could be worse, however, than MacGruber, an execrable dirge which suffers not only from stretching a single joke over an excruciating hour and a half, but also from spoofing an 80s TV show (MacGyver) which few in the UK either saw or care to remember. "I'm proud of how bad this film is," announced Val Kilmer whose character name, Dieter von Cunth, is about as close as the script gets to humour. "In fact, I can't believe I just called it a film. It's a two-hour skit."

Just...

Elia Suleiman makes tender, funny films about Palestinian life. Why has his latest caused outrage? Steve Rose finds out

We're in a street in occupied Ramallah. A young Palestinian man is taking out his rubbish. An Israeli tank is parked nearby, its gun barrel pointed right at the man's head. As he walks to the bin and back, the tank turret tracks him in whirs and clanks, the barrel dipping when he steps off the pavement. The man is about to go inside when his phone rings. He starts talking to a friend about a party, pacing back and forth, ignoring the tank, which is still noisily following his every move. When he goes back inside, the gun swivels to point directly at the camera.

This is a scene from Elia Suleiman's latest film, The Time That Remains, and it encapsulates the director's keen eye for the absurdities of...

In the Us, the sequel came in third after Shrek and Prince of Persia. Why was it a disproportionate hit here? Plus, how some canny strategising saved Chris Morris's Four Lions from slipping too far down the charts

The winner

Sex and the City 2 may have opened disappointingly in the Us, taking just $37m (£25m) to land at number three, but here in the UK it's a totally different story. The critically lambasted sequel took £6.1m over the three-day weekend, and £7.4m including bank holiday Monday. By rule of thumb, the Us result indicated a UK opening of around £3.7m was likely, but the actual outcome was 65% better than that. It's hard to know what went so right in Britain and so wrong in North America, although it's perhaps relevant that the film faced stiffer competition from fellow new entrant Prince of Persia in the Us (whereas that...

Elia Suleiman's movie about life and death in the heat of the Middle East conflict is a cool, controlled minor masterpiece

Born in Nazareth in 1960 to Arab parents, Elia Suleiman studied cinema in New York and made his first short films there in the 1980s, before settling in Jerusalem in 1994 and creating a department of film and media studies under the aegis of the European Commission at Birzeit University, the first college of higher education in the Palestinian territories. He emerged on the international scene at Venice in 1994 with Chronicle of a Disappearance. In 2002, he wrote, directed and starred in Divine Intervention, a series of interlinked sketches set in a middle-class area of Nazareth and at an Israeli checkpoint on the road between Jerusalem and Ramallah, which won the jury prize at Cannes.

A sophisticated film exhibiting a dark, dry, deadpan sense of humour, Divine Intervention was widely compared with work by Jacques Tati,...

The Time That Remains (15)

(Elia Suleiman, 2009, UK/Ita/Fra/Bel) Elia Suleiman, Saleh Bakri, Samar Tanus, Shafika Bajjali. 110 mins

As he did in 2002's Divine Intervention, Suleiman fashions Middle East tensions into something resembling a deadpan arthouse sketch show at times, but the stylised comedy is folded into 60 years of family history this time. The first portion is particularly striking, dealing with the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and Suleiman's father's part in it as a Palestinian resistance fighter. As time and relatives move on, the story becomes more reflective and fragmented, but elegant choreography and tender observation hold it together.

Sex And The City 2 (15)

(Michael Patrick King, 2010, Us) Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon. 146 mins

Us-Arab relations get a stiletto in the eye, as the foursome descend on Abu Dhabi in this overlong but doubtless unstoppable sequel, adding Islamophobic cultural challenges to their perpetual relationship/ageing/wardrobe issues.

Elia Suleiman's conclusion to his trilogy about Israel and Palestine is frustrating yet breathtaking.

Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains is the third in a loose trilogy of movies about the Israeli state and the Palestinian people, to go with his Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) and Divine Intervention (2002). The movie tells the story of Suleiman's own family in Nazareth, and his father, Fuad Suleiman, played here by Saleh Bakri as a sensitive, dreamily handsome man, with a look of the young Alain Delon.

In the late 40s, as Arab resistance to the Israeli army peters out, Fuad is a metalworker, whose lathe has been used for making guns for the rebels. Fuad is brutally arrested, bound and blindfolded with other prisoners on a hillside, subjected to mock execution, but finally freed and in later years, as father to the teenage Elia, he is a sadly withdrawn grey-haired figure,...

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time (12A)

(Mike Newell, 2010, Us) Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina. 116 mins

You can tell by the title, the presence of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the colossal expense how badly this wants to be the next Pirates Of The Caribbean. But it follows the family-friendly franchise formula so slavishly, there are few surprises. On the plus side, the leads are perfectly likable, the pace lively and the Arabian-themed spectacle impressive, but the British accents and incongruous Iraq-invasion parallel only point up what a dubious post-Orientalist wish-fulfilment it really is.

Bad Lieutenant (18)

(Werner Herzog, 2009, Us) Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer. 122 mins

At last Herzog finds a replacement for the infamous Klaus Kinski, as Cage's long-repressed wild side is, er, uncaged, in an ironic portrait of post-Katrina cop corruption. Nothing like the original, it's more of an insane black comedy, with pulp crime...

Istanbul is enjoying its year as the European Capital of Culture, with cultural and arts events taking place in the city from one end to the other, inaugurated with a series of ceremonies held in January. The 29th International Istanbul Film Festival took place in the city’s vibrant cultural atmosphere this year from the 3rd of April through the 18th.

Having been conceived as the Istanbul Cinema Days in 1982, the festival eventually became one of Europe’s most important film festivals thanks to the extraordinary work of the organizer, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (Iksv), led by its charismatic chairman Şakir Eczacıbaşı. This year’s festival was marked by the absence of this important figure, as he passed away in January 24, 2010. Another absent friend of the festival was the Emek Movie Theatre, an beautiful old movie theatre which has been the host venue of the festival from the beginning,...

Sci-Fi-London, London

The days when we're getting it on with blue-skinned aliens can't come soon enough for some, but in the meantime you'll find plenty of predictions for humanity 40 years hence here – most of them bad, but ingeniously so. And some of them not so far-fetched. Hungary's Transmission, for example, simply imagines a world where TVs and computers stop working, while 8th Wonderland sees social networkers ganging up on "real" countries, and genetic tinkering breeds bad news for Adrien Brody in Vicenzo Natali's Splice. Less serious are some trashy sci-fi all-nighters, or Bollywood oddity Love Story 2050, which predicts a Mumbai full of crap robots, flying cars and epic dance routines.

Apollo Piccadilly Circus, W1, Wed to 3 May, visit sci-fi-london.com

London Palestine Film Festival, London

With regular blockades and bombardments, it's an achievement to get anything made in Palestine, let alone a full-length feature. What's emerging instead is a steady flow of smaller,...

Paris -- After her global hit "2 Days in Paris," writer-director-actress Julie Delpy will spend seven weeks in Brittany to shoot French comedy "Skylab," the film's producer, Michael Gentile confirmed Tuesday.

"Skylab" stars Delpy alongside "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" star Eric Elmonsino, Gallic actresses Noemie Lvovsky, Aure Atika and Bernadette Laffont among the large cast that encompasses the three generations of family upon which the story centers.

"It's a real feel-good movie. It's tender and funny, in the spirit of '2 Days in Paris'," Gentile said in an interview, adding: "It's really Julie Delpy's vision of France through the eyes of a French woman who has lived in the U.S. for many years."

Delpy is also set to direct and star in "2 Days in Paris" sequel "2 Days in New York."

The "Skylab" in the title refers to a Nasa space station that crashed onto earth in 1979, six years after launching into orbit.