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Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) is a film based on the memoir of an Iranian-American author and Professor Azar Nafisi. The memoir was released in 2003. Eran Riklis, the director of this film is well known for his earlier films, “Lemon Tree,” “The Syrian Bride,” and “Dancing Arabs” among others. He stands opposed to the Israeli establishment’s views/policies/ treatment of Palestinians. Nadav Lapid is another Israeli film director who has similar views regarding Palestinians.

Be that as it may, the screen adaptation of the memoir has four parts. The narrative starts in a linear mode but digresses in the mid-part of the film. As this writer has not read the memoir, he is unable to gauge its actual adaptation. In other words, the intertextuality of this film, hence, also the cinematic liberties taken by the director. Any close observer of the developments in Iran over the last 4-5 decades will...

Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known for his work in the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, whose career was later overshadowed by a conviction for molesting a 14-year-old girl, has died at the age of 86.

According to a representative, Yarrow died on Tuesday, January 7th, following a prolonged battle with bladder cancer.

Yarrow began performing while a student at Cornell University in New York. After graduating, he became immersed in the city’s fledging folk scene, eventually crossing paths with music manager Albert Grossman, who pitched him on the idea of forming a new age folk group. Yarrow was soon paired with Mary Travers and Noel Stookey to form Peter, Paul & Mary, and the trio released their eponymous debut album through Warner Brothers in 1962. Featuring songs including “Lemon Tree,” “500 Miles,” and a cover of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer,” the album proved a mammoth hit, spending seven weeks at No.

Peter Yarrow, a five-time Grammy winner who co-founded the hitmaking folk-pop trio Peter, Paul & Mary and co-wrote its memorable “Puff the Magic Dragon,” died Tuesday of bladder cancer at his New York City home. He was 86.

His daughter Bethany announced the news via reps. “Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life,” she wrote. “The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest.” Read a statement from bandmate Paul Stookey below.

Born on May 31, 1938, in Brooklyn, Yarrow teamed with Stookey and Mary Travers as Peter, Paul and Mary and rode the folk-pop tsunami of the early 1960s. The group scored six Top 10 singles that culminated with their sole chart-topper, the young John Denver-penned “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” in 1969.

The trio...

On Oct. 1, as Iran was firing a fusillade of missiles on his country, Israeli director Eran Riklis was in Tel Aviv “trying to cling on to the fact” that he would hopefully soon be premiering his new film “Reading Lolita in Tehran” — which he calls “an iconic Iranian story, featuring iconic Iranian actresses” — at the Rome Film Festival.

On Oct. 27, one day after Israel launched retaliatory missile strikes on Iran, Rikils beamed on stage as he accepted the Rome event’s audience award and special jury prize alongside most of the film’s ensemble female cast that includes Golshifteh Farahani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mina Kavani, Lara Wolf, Isabella Nefar and Raha Rahbari.

At a time when tensions between Israel and Iran are soaring, “Reading Lolita in Tehran” – an adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s bestselling autobiographical novel about a fearless literature teacher in post-revolution Tehran – stands as a powerful symbol of...

Across “Lemon Tree,” “The Syrian Bride” and “Shelter,” Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis has built a sturdy body of work, telling defiant stories of Middle Eastern women from different walks of life. With “Reading Lolita in Tehran” — a moving adaptation of Iranian-American author and professor Azar Nafisi’s memoir — he adds an understated, yet generally absorbing and similarly minded entry to his oeuvre, warmly transposing Nafisi’s experience in the post-revolution Iran onto the screen with sensitivity.

Unfolding in episodic segments and significant jumps in time that sometimes feel too abrupt, the screenplay by Marjorie David follows Nafisi (an expressive Golshifteh Farahani) across a 24-year period, after the young academic holding a fresh American degree settles in Tehran with her husband Bijan (Arash Marandi) in 1979, on the heels of the country’s Islamic Revolution. A title card at the start contextualizes the couple’s return to their homeland. Historically, it was...

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (known as PÖFF) has unveiled the full lineup of its flagship Official Selection, whose 18 features from 23 countries will compete for the coveted €20,000 Grand Prix.

They include 11 world premieres. The jury is helmed by acclaimed German director Christoph Hochhäusler.

Tiina Lokk, the founder and director of the festival, said “the Official Selection Competition has it all! There’s a psycho-thriller that approaches horror, a psychological family drama, and sci-fi genre is represented. The selection is broad, and so is the range of countries. We’re not trying to highlight a certain theme or a particular region, we are free in our choices,” she noted.

Emphasizing the various topics covered, Lokk cites old age, the end of life and euthanasia “perhaps due to the influence of Covid,” domestic violence and war, “not tackled in the traditional form” but rather via psychological dramas.

“Last year there were...

Related Images is a column in which filmmakers invite readers behind the scenes, into their sketchbooks, or otherwise through the looking glass to learn more about their creative processes.Rachel Walden's Lemon Tree is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries.Gordon Rocks (The Son). Photograph by Eli Freireich.Several years before I made Lemon Tree, my mother encouraged me to ask my grandfather about “the road trip he took with the orange tree." She said that it would make a great short film. This is the transcription of J. L. Burgess (a.k.a. Papa)—one of the best storytellers I have ever met—telling me that story, which I worked into an outline/beat sheet that would later become Lemon Tree. I decided not to work from a formal script, so we made the entire film off that outline. People always ask me where the lemon tree is in the movie.

The LA film festival scene just got a bit brighter.

The Los Angeles Festival of Movies (Lafm), co-presented by Mubi and Mezzanine, announced the full lineup for its inaugural festival taking place April 4-7, 2024. The new festival will screen 11 titles including one world premiere, three 4K restorations, plus a featured artist talk, documentary series, and a curated short film program. Passes are currently on sale, and single film tickets go on sale March 14.

Per the festival’s organizers, Lafm was created to redefine Los Angeles as a destination for independent film. There are many film festivals in LA, primarily led by AFI Fest in the fall, but rarely do they make independent film their only focus.

The festival’s screenings will all take place at three recently opened venues on the east side of Los Angeles: Vidiots in Eagle Rock, 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown, and Now Instant Image Hall in Chinatown.

Palestinian-French actress Hiam Abbass and her filmmaker daughter Lina Soualem touch down at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday with documentary Bye Bye Tiberias.

The intimate work takes the mother and daughter back to the Arab village, situated within Israeli borders in the Lower Galilee, which Abbass left behind in the early 1980s to pursue her acting dreams in Europe.

There, they explore the lives and legacies of four generations of women, all marked in different ways by the consequences of the first generation being expelled from the long-time family home city of Tiberias in 1948, on the eve of the creation of Israel.

Abbass’s near-100 credits have included Tunisian drama Red Satin, Moroccan hit Rock The Casbah, Israeli productions The Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree; Syria civil war-set Insyriated, Palestinian dramas Degradé and Gaza Mon Amour as well as parts in Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits Of Control.

Exclusive: Arthouse distro Circle Collective has acquired worldwide rights to Luca Balser’s (Uncut Gems) NYC anthology film What Doesn’t Float, starring and produced by Pauline Chalamet (Sex Lives of College Girls), and shot by DPs Sean Price Williams (Good Time) and Hunter Zimny (Good Time).

The film is set to make its world premiere at the Lighthouse Film Festival this month and will be released theatrically in the U.S. from September with an international fest tour planned in the fall/winter.

What Doesn’t Float stars Chalamet, genre filmmaker and actor Larry Fessenden (Depraved), and Keith Poulson (Pvt Chat) as New Yorkers at their wit’s end. Script comes from Shauna Fitzgerald and Rachel Walden (Funny Pages) also produces.

The project is the first from NYC-based production company Gummy Films, headed by Chalamet, Balser and Walden who last month attended the Cannes Film Festival with their short film Lemon Tree...

The film was shot in Italy and is now in post-production.

London-based WestEnd Films has boarded Eran Riklis’ Reading Lolita In Tehran starring Golshifteh Farahani and Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, and will introduce the film to buyers in Cannes.

The film was shot in Italy and is now in post-production.

Adapted from Azar Nafisi’s autobiographical novel, the story centres around a teacher in Iran who secretly gathers a group of female students to read forbidden western classics. Marjorie David wrote the screenplay.

It is an Italy-Israel co-production between United King Films, Topia Communications, Eran Riklis Productions, Minerva Pictures and Rosamont with Rai Cinema.

A long-anticipated adaptation of the 2003 bestselling novel “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi is hitting the Marché du Film at Cannes this month.

Directed by award-winning director Eran Riklis (“Lemon Tree”) and written by Marjorie David, the film stars an ensemble cast led by Golshifteh Farahani (“Pirates of the Caribbean”), Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”) and Mina Kavani (“Red Rose”).

Set in post-revolution Iran as extremism took hold, Nafisi’s book tells the autobiographical story of a fearless teacher who secretly gathered seven of her female students to read forbidden Western classics.

According to a synopsis: “As the Islamic Republic took power, morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran and as fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, the women in Nafisi’s living room, whose rights had been systematically removed, risked everything to find a safe space to remove their veils and speak their minds. Despite the grave danger they are in,...

Golshifteh Farahani (Pirates of the Caribbean, About Elly, Paterson) and Zar Amir-Ebrahami (Palme d’Or-winner in 2022 for Holy Spider) — two of most recognized and in-demand Iranian stars working outside of Iran today — have teamed for the feature adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s bestselling Iranian novel Reading Lolita in Tehran.

The two lead an ensemble cast in the the drama — from award-winning director Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree, The Syrian Bride, Dancing Arabs) and written by Marjorie David — alongside Mina Kavani (Red Rose, No Bears). WestEnd Films are launching sales of the film in Cannes.

Translated into 32 languages across the world and set after the revolution in Iran as extremism took hold, Reading Lolita in Tehran tells the autobiographical story of a bold and inspired teacher, who secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden western classics while their world as they knew it closed in around them.

The lineup for the 2023 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at Cannes has been announced. See also the lineup of the Official Selection and Critics' Week.Creatura.Feature FILMSThe Goldman Case (Cédric Kahn)Agra (Kanu Behl)The Other Laurens (Claude Schmitz)Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Thien An Pham)Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani) Blazh (Ilya Povolotsky)She Is Conann (Bertrand Mandico)Creatura (Elena Martín Gimeno)Déserts (Faouzi Bensaïdi)In Flames (Zarrar Kahn) Légua (Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra)The Book of Solutions (Michel Gondry)Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam)Riddle of Fire (Weston Razooli)The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something has Passed (Joanna Arnow)The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)A Prince (Pierre Creton)A Song Sung Blue (Zihan Geng)In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo)Short FILMSThe House Is on Fire, Might as Well Get Warm (Mouloud Aït Liotna)A Storm Inside (Clément Pérot)The Birthday Party (Francesco Sossai...

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight lineup has been unveiled ahead of this year’s festival.

Set for May 16 through May 27, the Directors’ Fortnight will debut 20 feature films and 10 short films this year.

Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case” is the opening night selection. The film centers on the 1976 trial of left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman who was convicted of multiple armed robberies and later murdered.

Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s “In Our Day” will conclude the festival. The feature stars Kim Minhee and Ki Joobong in parallel stories of cat owners grappling with their felines’ respective mortality.

Directors’ Fortnight highlights also include Oscar winner Michel Gondry’s French comedy “The Book of Solutions,” starring Pierre Niney as a filmmaker with writer’s block. The film marks “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Gondry’s first feature in seven years.

“Good Time” director of photography Sean Price William makes his directorial feature...

The Match Factory will launch sales on the debut film by Ehab Tarabieh, “The Taste of Apples Is Red,” at the Toronto Film Festival, where the film will be premiering in the Discovery section.

Tarabieh’s previous short films have won several prizes, including Best Short Film at Doha Tribeca Festival for “The Forgotten” (2012) and a nomination for a European Academy Award for “Smile and the World Will Smile Back” (2015).

“The Taste of Apples Is Red” is the first film to deal with the intricacies of the Druze faith. The director grew up in this closed off and secretive community, which separated from Islam and has aspects of Hindu and Greek philosophy. During the civil war in Syria, the Druze, who are spread throughout Syria, Israel and Lebanon, were divided between those who support Assad and those who despise him.

The film is set in the Golan Heights, where the...

Portrait of a refugee dreaming of home in a sensitive, sombre documentary that also has thoughts about friendship, politics and birds

Artist and film-maker Sarah Beddington makes her feature documentary debut with this record of her friendship with Fadia Loubani, a Palestinian woman in Bourj el-Barajneh in Beirut, one of the 58 Un refugee camps. Loubani’s story is fraught with drama and sadness: when she was a much younger woman – and a widow – her extended family had the chance to get refugee status and EU citizenship in Denmark, but bureaucratic qualifications meant her children would only be eligible if she sent them on alone without her. She chose instead to keep them with her, closer to that yearned-for Palestinian homeland which is just a few miles away but behind grim barriers.

Loubani’s friendship with Beddington is complicated by history but she tells Beddington about her family’s home village...

You’d be forgiven for being surprised that Twelve Carat Toothache is the first studio album in three years for 26-year-old Austin Post. Putting aside the way the pandemic turned time into taffy, the tattoo-studded pop star known as Post Malone kept busy since the release of 2019’s blockbuster Hollywood’s Bleeding, playing a much-beloved Nirvana tribute livestream, appearing in ads for cred-hungry products, and even covering Hootie and the Blowfish to celebrate a quarter-century of Pokémon.

More importantly, his kitchen-sink take on pop, which borrows ideas from the past few decades of music,...

Stockholm-based Momento Film, the company behind “Tiny King for a Day” and Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market-bound work in progress “Dogborn,” has confirmed start of production and E.U. partners on Daniel Espinosa’s “Madame Luna,” its biggest project ever.

Principal photography in Sicily and Calabria is set to begin May 5 on the €5 million ($5.6 million) refugee drama, penned by Maurizio Braucci (“Gomorrah”) and Suha Arraf (“Lemon Tree”) from an idea by Binyam Berhane.

David Herdies is producing for Momento Film, with co-production partners Marco Alessi and Massimiliano Navarra of Italy’s Dugong Films, Peter Nadermann of Germany’s Nadcon and Katja Adomeit and Pål Røed of Denmark’s Adomeit Film.

The film marks Chilean-born Espinosa’s return to Swedish-language filmmaking, after a string of Hollywood movies including “Safe House,” “Life” and Sony Pictures’ upcoming Spider-Man spin-off “Morbius”.

“It’s going to be interesting and inspiring to enter a cinematic tradition that really was my roots,...

Eran Riklis is developing a new feature that he hopes will strike a chord at this week’s Mia Market in Rome, where the acclaimed Israeli director will be pitching it to potential partners.

“Last Chord in Thessaloniki” follows a family of jazz musicians who are forced to confront their dysfunctions while traveling together to perform in Greece’s second city, where the family’s roots, though buried deep in the past, upend the present and cast a dark shadow over the future. Setting off on a journey from Tel Aviv to Thessaloniki, they are waylaid and sidetracked along the way – offering an opportunity, however, for them to arrive at an unexpected destination.

“Sometimes you have to travel really far in order to rediscover yourself,” Riklis explained. “The distance is possibly quite short. It’s actually traveling somewhere between your mind and your heart. The fact that you’re out...

The industry centerpiece at Series Mania’s Forum, Monday’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions take on a special relevance this year as the number of admissions have almost doubled – up to 560, near twice the usual number, says Series Mania director Francesco Capurro. “Producers have had more time to develop with Covid-19. Projects run a wide gamut. The idea is tat there will be something for everybody attending,” Capurro explains. Ambitions – budgetary, artistic – are often high. There are multiple period thrillers, as projects wrestle with key issues – identity, peace, high-tech, big business, sacrifice, survival – crucial to these convulsive times.

“Amal,” (Eran Riklis, Israel)

Powered by one of the most established talents at the Forum, reputed film director Riklis (“Lemon Tree”). Also one of its most ambitious projects, an epic yet intimate love story between a Palestinian woman and Israeli man, spanning three decades and Columbia U, Hollywood, Ramallah and Gaza through to...

Trini Lopez, the guitarist and singer whose renditions of “If I Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree” climbed the charts in the 1960s and an actor who appeared in films including The Dirty Dozen, has died of complications from Covid-19, the Hollywood Reporter reports. He was 83.

The news was confirmed to THR via Lopez’s songwriting and business partner Joe Chavira. The pair had recently finished a song called “If By Now,” which was intended to benefit food banks during the pandemic. “And here he is dying of something he was trying to fight,...

Trini Lopez, a singer and guitarist who performed a cover of the song “If I Had a Hammer” and also appeared in “The Dirty Dozen,” has died due to complications of Covid-19. He was 83.

Trinidad “Trini” Lopez III died on August 11, according to the Palm Springs Life Magazine, where he had been a resident since the 1960s.

Some of his other hits included “Lemon Tree,” “I’m Comin’ Home, Cindy” and “Sally Was a Good Old Girl.”

A documentary film called “My Name Is Lopez” had just been completed on Lopez’s life from filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes, and the filmmakers had just shown a cut of the film to Lopez as recently as last week. The directors hope to premiere it in 2021.

Also Read: Smash Mouth Frontman Steve Harwell Tells Mask-Free Sturgis Rally Crowd, 'F- That Covid S-!'

Lopez’s debut album in 1963, “Trini Lopez at PJs,...

Trini Lopez, an actor and singer-guitarist who co-starred The Dirty Dozen actor and had hits with “If I Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree” — which was referenced in a popular Seinfeld episode — died today in Palm Springs. He was 83. Palm Springs Life magazine reported the news but didn’t give a cause of death. A source tells Deadline it was from Covid-19.

Lopez already was a recording star when he was cast as Pedro Jiminez — aka Number 10 — in The Dirty Dozen, the star-studded 1967 World War II drama directed by Robert Aldrich. It followed the story of a rebellious U.S. Army Major (Lee Marvin) who is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers. Its ensemble cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland.

Lopez also appeared in the Frank Sinatra...

Trini López, the singer and guitarist who in the 1960s had hits with the songs "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree" and appeared in the classic war movie The Dirty Dozen, has died. He was 83.

López died Tuesday of complications from Covid-19 in a hospital in Palm Springs, songwriting and business partner Joe Chavira told The Hollywood Reporter.

The good-natured Dallas native and son of Mexican immigrants was signed by Frank Sinatra to his Reprise Records label, and he worked with the Gibson Guitar Corp. to design a pair of signature guitars. He recorded more ...

Trini López, the singer and guitarist who in the 1960s had hits with the songs "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree" and appeared in the classic war movie The Dirty Dozen, has died. He was 83.

López died Tuesday of complications from Covid-19 in a hospital in Palm Springs, songwriting and business partner Joe Chavira told The Hollywood Reporter.

The good-natured Dallas native and son of Mexican immigrants was signed by Frank Sinatra to his Reprise Records label, and he worked with the Gibson Guitar Corp. to design a pair of signature guitars. He recorded more ...

Streaming online via video presentations from March 25, Series Mania’s experimental Digital Forum will make or break on the quality of its centerpiece, its Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. This year’s lineup, at least on paper, looks particularly strong.

Following, a break-down on the 16 originally selected projects:

“The Abduction of Yossele Shuchmacher” (Israel)

Co-created and to be directed by celebrated Israeli cineaste Eran Riklis, based on a notorious true case in 1961 and co-created by “Fauda” writer Moshe Zonder.-Backed by veteran producer Michael Sharfshtein, the title “blends an intimate, painful drama within a powerful social-political set up, wrapped as a psychological thriller,” says Riklis.

“The Black Lady”

An English-language six-part bio-series led by Brussels-based At-Prod about Madga Goebbels which author Hélène Duchateau describes as a “depressingly modern” miniseries: “Beyond Madga Goebbels’ unique experience, it echoes the growing populist trends in Europe and the processes of radicalization in our time.”

“Casa Girls” (France)

A comedic,...

This week sees the release of director Eran Riklis’ atmospheric espionage thriller, Spider in the Web, starring Ben Kingsley as an Israeli Mossad agent, who is assigned to investigate an organisation that could be selling chemical weapons to a Syrian dictatorship.

Monica Bellucci plays the mysterious Angela Caroni, a shady operative who may also be involved in the weapons supply while harbouring other, darker secrets.

Heyuguys recently caught up with Bellucci to discuss the film, her role, balancing family life with film-making and the magical moments bringing characters to life.

Heyuguys: Your character Angela is quite elusive and enigmatic, but the story was also complex and labyrinthine? Was it the character that appealed to you more, or the script?

Monica Bellucci: What really drew me to the story was the humanity more than the espionage. The characters have great depth and delicateness which is ultimately their downfall. To me,...

Budapest Israeli Film Week Wrap

By Alex Cousy Deleon

Apparently about basketball, but not really …

There were altogether some fourteen films programmed in this overview of recent Israeli films, however, due to overlapping scheduling at the Puskin Art Mozi it was not possible to get to them all. One or two that looked particularly enticing were missed. What films were seen indicate that the Israeli film industry is thriving, loaded with talent, entering into many co-productions to expand productivity, and forging full steam ahead. The last film I managed to get to was the following.

Playoff 2011 director Eran Riklis is also the director of The Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree, two of the highest profile Israeli films at festivals and generally during the past dozen years.

This latest Riklis effort, ( # Editor note below) filmed entirely in Germany with non-Israeli actors, featured American actor Danny Huston as “Max Soller” a legendary...

"There are a lot of people out there who'd do anything to stop me from exposing the truth." Vertical Ent. has unveiled an official trailer for spy drama Spider in the Web, the latest film from Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis. This "riveting new spy drama in the vein of John Le Carré" stars Sir Ben Kingsley as an aging Mossad agent struggling to maintain his relevance. His bond with a younger operative sent to monitor him while he's on a secret mission in the heart of a troubled Europe is a reflection on human relationships as well as "on the Europe of today – fragile, troubled, under constant threats from the outside and in turmoil on the inside." Also starring Monica Bellucci, Makram Khoury, Filip Peeters, and Itay Tiran. This looks like a solid, action-y spy thriller with some big twists, but it also looks rather derivative without anything new to offer.

Michael Sharfstein of Topia Communications also involved in new outfit; debut slate revealed.

Eran Riklis, the director whose credits include the upcoming Spider In The Web with Monica Bellucci and Ben Kingsley, has joined forces with Moshe Edery, founder of Israeli company United King Films, and producer Michael Sharfstein of Topia Communications to launch venture Utr Film Projects.

The outfit will develop and produce feature films and series and is officially being launched here in Cannes, where Rikilis, Edery and Sharfstein are taking meetings about their initial slate. The trio previously collaborated on Spider In The Web and are formalising...

Israeli actor Itay Tiran also stars in Eran Riklis’ latest film.

London-based Film Constellation has sold out its Ben Kingsley and Monica Bellucci spy drama Spider In The Web and struck a North American deal with Vertical Entertainment.

Eran Riklis’ latest film centres on a young agent dispatched to follow an older operative whose behaviour has come into question and is following a tip on a chemical weapons sale to a Middle Eastern dictatorship.

Israeli actor Itay Tiran (Lebanon) also stars. Film Constellation co-financed Spider In The Web and announced the project and previously licensed Germany (Concorde/Telemuenchen), Greece-Cyprus (Tanweer...

This year’s FilMart marks the international sales debut of Beijing-based distributor Times Vision, which brings to Hong Kong a slate led by crime thriller “Savage” and animated feature “Nezha.” The company will be presenting nine live action films, including one documentary, and seven animated titles.

Times Vision is led by CEO Nathan Hao, who co-founded Chinese indie distributor Lemon Tree and led its international division before joining the newly established Times Vision in 2017. Times Vision imports foreign titles – primarily arthouse films, but it also has begun delving into the remake rights market – and is now getting into production as well. It is currently at work with Chinese partners on pre-production for a remake of 2016 Japanese Oscar entry “Her Love Boils Water.”

“We are famous for being good buyers of festival titles,” Hao told Variety. “Tvod is a new thing for Chinese audiences for foreign films. Streaming is a better...

Fireman drama has drawn 1m spectators at the French box office since release late November release.

WTFilms is reporting strong buyer interest in French director Fréderic Tellier’s breakout hit Through The Fire (Sauver ou Périr), starring Pierre Niney as a hero fireman who is badly disfigured while rescuing colleagues from a burning building.

The film has sold to China (Lemon Tree), Canada (A-z Films), Latin America (California Filmes), Hong Kong (Edko), Taiwan (MovieCloud), Korea (EnterMode), Belgium (Athena Films) and Greece (Odeon). Encore has picked it up for airlines.

Paris-based sales company WTFilms is expecting to seal further deals at...

"I'm here to protect you..." Menemsha Films has debuted a new Us trailer for an Israeli psychological drama titled Shelter, from veteran Iranian filmmaker Eran Riklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree). Golshifteh Farahani (from Paterson) and Neta Riskin star in this "high-stakes game of deception", about a Mossad agent sent to protect their informant in Hamburg. "The intimacy of the relationship that develops between Mona and Naomi is exposed to the threat of terror that is engulfing the world today... Beliefs are questioned and choices are made that are not their own. And yet their fate takes a surprising turn in this suspense-laden, elegant neo-noir." The cast includes Lior Ashkenazi (from Foxtrot), Yehuda Almagor, Doraid Liddawi, and Haluk Bilginer. The bandages on the face are cool, a bit like Phoenix or The Skin I Live In. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Eran Riklis' Shelter, direct from YouTube:...

Lemon Tree acquires the coming-of-age tale set in 1941 Japan.

Japan’s Free Stone Production has sold Hanagatami – the last film in director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s “wartime trilogy” after Casting Blossoms To The Sky (2012) and Seven Weeks (2014) – to China (Lemon Tree).

Based on a script Obayashi wrote prior to his 1977 debut feature House, Hanagatami is set in spring 1941 when Toshihiko, played by Shunsuke Kubozuka, shows up at the home of his aunt (Takaki Tokiwa) in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. Entertaining a crush on his tubercular cousin Mina (Honoka Yahagi), while reveling in his “depraved” adolescence with other girls, he indulges in courage-testing...

The Tree of Life

Directed by: Terrence Malick

Cast: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Sean Penn

Running Time: 2 hrs 18 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: June 3, 2011 (Chicago)

Plot: The story of a midwestern family in the 1950′s, and a boy’s (McCracken) struggle to connect with his father (Pitt).

Who’S It For?: Fans of the Days of Heaven and Thin Red Line filmmaker shouldn’t need any persuasion to invest two and half-hours into the latest visual opus from Terrence Malick. Moviegoers unfamiliar with his work should wear their art house fan caps and be prepared for a spiritual experience. Religious audiences are a curious gamble, as the movie does have a lot of elements concerning god and creation, but the movie doesn’t aggressively associate itself with any particular religion or definite meaning.

Expectations: Malick movies are such a rare event that even if he had directed...

Miral

Directed by: Julian Schnabel

Cast: Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Alexander Siddig

Running Time: 1 hr 55 mins

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: April 15, 2011 (Chicago)

Plot: After discovering fifty-five orphans in the streets of a tumultuous East Jerusalem, a young woman named Hind opens up a facility to take care of many Palestinian children, while teaching them the ways of peace. Years later, a young girl named Miral (Pinto) is sent to the school by her father, Jamal (Siddig). Miral begins to question the political chaos surrounding her when she encounters violence in her work at refugee camps and during her daily life.

Who’S It For?: Fans of movies that cover hot topics in international politics, not so much those who gravitate towards biopics. The movie was purposely rated PG-13 to appeal to younger adults, but they’ll find this movie pretty boring.

Expectations: Some controversy about some possible bias...

Lemon Tree (Etz Limon)

Directed by: Eran Riklis

Cast: Hiam Abbass, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Ali Suliman

Running Time: 1 hr 45 mins

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: June 5, 2009

Plot: When the Israeli Defense Minister moves in next to a woman’s lemon grove, the Secret Service determines it must be cut down for national security, but Salma Zidane (Abbass) refuses to allow that to happen. She takes her neighbors to court in an effort to preserve her trees, which make up her livelihood as well as a connection to her past.

Who’s It For? You don’t have to be interested in Israeli/Palestinian politics to enjoy this film. It’s for anyone who likes a well thought out drama.

Expectations: I expected a slow melodrama about the inability of Israelis and Palestinians to get along.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Hiam Abbass as Salma Zidane: Abbass does an excellent job as a widow who...

A near perfect allegory of the deadlocked struggle for peace in the Middle East, this is rising star Hiam Abbass. best performance to date Emerging director Eran Riklis won the lottery when he signed up rising star Hiam Abbass for the lead in this great political drama. Abbass, winner of the Israeli Film Academy Best Actress award for her work in this film, is coming off her smashing supporting role with Richard Jenkins in .The Visitor. in 2008 (an Oscar nomination for him). In that film she plays the mother of a Syrian national who is flying under the radar as an illegal alien in the USA. In this film she plays Salma Zidane, the Palestinian owner of a...

Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy currently unites 1,850 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting Europe’s film culture. Their annual awards will be December 8 in Copenhagen. ACE (Ateliers de Cinema Europeanne) which operates out of France and is a network of producers in the process of developing scripts, which become the films everyone loves at festivals, has 12 producers in the network who have received European Film Awards Nominations. Congratulations to ACE producers for their nominations at the 2008 European Film Awards and… good luck! WALTZ WITH BASHIR by Ari Folman, produced by Roman Paul (ACE producer / Razor Film Produktion): Nominated for European Film, European Director, European Screenwriter & European Composer categories. THE CLASS by Laurent Cantet, produced by Carole Scotta (ACE producer / Haut & Court) & Caroline Benjo (Haut & Court): Nominated for European Film & European Director categories. LEMON TREE by Eran Riklis, produced by Bettina Brokemper (ACE producer / Heimatfilm GmbH): Nominated for European Actress & European Screenwriter categories. WOLKE 9 by Andreas Dresen, produced by Peter Rommel (ACE producer / Rommel Film e.K): Nominated for European Director & European Actress categories. MOSCOW, BELGIUM by Christophe Van Rompaey, produced by Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem (ACE producer / A Private view): Nominated for European Composer category. DELTA by Kornel Mundruzco, produced by Viktoria Petranyi (ACE producer / Evolution Films): Nominated for European Film Academy Prix d’Excellence 2008

Also 10 ACE producers’ films are among the 67 vying for the 2008 nominations for 2007 Best Foreign Language Oscar. ALGERIA: MASQUERADES by Lyes Salem, produced by Isabelle Madelaine (Dharamsala, FR) BELGIUM: ELDORADO by Bouli Lanners, produced by Jacques-Henri Bronckart (Versus Production, BE) and Jerôme Vidal (Noodles Production, FR) ESTONIA: I WAS HERE by René Vilbre, produced by Riina Sildos (Amrion Oü, EST) and Aleksi Bardy (Helsinki Filmi, FI) FRANCE: THE CLASS by Laurent Cantet, produced by Carole Scotta & Caroline Benjo (Haut & Court, FR) ISRAEL: WALTZ WITH BASHIR by Ari Folman, produced by Roman Paul (Razor Film Produktion, DE) KAZAKHSTAN: TULPAN by Sergey Dvortsevoy, co-produced by Thanassis Karathanos (Twenty Twenty Vision / Pallas Film, DE) LATVIA: DEFENDERS OF RIGA by Aigars Grauba, produced by Andrejs Ekis (Plat Forma Filma, LET) - Developed at the ACE Workshop! MACEDONIA: I’M FROM TITOV VELES by Teona Strugar Mitevska, co-produced by Diana Elbaum (Entre Chien et Loup, BE) THE NETHERLANDS: DUNYA & DESIE by Dana Nechushtan, co-produced by Joost de Vries (Lemming Film, NL) and Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem (A Private View, BE) SWEDEN: EVERLASTING MOMENTS by Jan Troell, co-produced by Christer Nilson (GötaFilm, SE), Sigve Endresen, (Motlys AS, NO) and Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pictures, FI)

3 ACE producers’ films have been nominated for France’s prestigious Louis Delluc Award. THE CLASS by Laurent Cantet, Palme d’Or 2008, produced by Carole Scotta & Caroline Benjo (Haut et Court, FR), SERAPHINE by Martin Provost, produced by Milena Poylo and Gille Sacuto (TS Productions, FR) and VERSAILLES by Pierre Schoeller, produced by Philippe Martin (Les Films Pelléas, FR) are nominated for the 2008 Louis Delluc Prize.

And finally The Class by Laurent Cantet has hit a record 1.5+ admissions in France.

Eleven ACE features (Ateliers du Cinema European) have been recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards to be announced December 6, 2008! 'Moscow, Belgium' by Christophe Van Rompaey, produced by Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem (A Private View), 'Eden' by Declan Recks, produced by Martina Niland (Samson Films), 'The Class' by Laurent Cantet, produced by Carole Scotta (Haut & Court), 'Giorni e nuevole' by Silvio Soldini, produced by Tiziana Soudani (Amka Films Productions), 'Home' by Ursula Meier, produced by Denis Delcampe (Need Productions) and Helena Tatti (Box Productions), 'I am from Titov Veles' by Teona Strugar Mitevska, produced by Diana Elbaum (Entre chien et loup), 'Lemon Tree' by Eran Riklis, produced by Bettina Brokemper (Heimatfilm), 'Love and Other Crimes' by Stefan Arsenijevic, produced by Herbert Schwering (Coin Film), 'Black Ice' by Petri Kotwica, produced by Steffen Reuter (Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv), 'Waltz with Bashir' by Ari Folman, produced by Roman Paul (Razor Film Produktion), 'Wolke 9' by Andreas Dresen, produced by Peter Rommel (Rommel Film).

Full list of recommended films: European Film Academy.

NEW YORK -- IFC Films has picked up all U.S. rights to Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree, an Israeli drama that won the Panorama section Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival last month.

Lemon is inspired by the true story of a Palestinian widow (Hiam Abbass) forced to stand up against the Israeli Defense Minister when he moves into his new house opposite her lemon grove and threatens to have it torn down.

Riklis is best known for his 2004 film The Syrian Bride (written with his Lemon co-writer Suha Arraf, ) which earned 18 international awards including best film at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Lemon will be released through the theatrical/VOD IFC In Theaters program.

IFC's Arianna Bocco negotiated the deal with Didar Domehri from Films Distribution, who represented Riklis.

BERLIN -- Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree has won the Audience Award for best film in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival.

Lemon Tree is the story of a Palestinian woman who inherits a lemon grove that borders on the land of the Israeli defense minister. More than 20,000 Berlin cinemagoers cast ballots for this year's Audience Award.

Second place went to Julian Shaw's documentary Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story about the famous South African satirist and AIDS activist Pieter-Dirk Uys. Another documentary, Samson Vicent's Erika Rabau -- Puck of Berlin, took third place. The film follows veteran Berlin Film Festival photographer Erika Rabau as she snaps her way through the 2007 event.

The Iranian-French co-production Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame by young Iranian director Hana Makmalbaf has won the Crystal Berlin Bear for best film running in Berlin's Generations sidebar. Set in Afghanistan, Buddha looks at the struggles of a young girl trying to raise the money to go to school. The Generations jury gave a special mention to the Norwegian film The Ten Lives of Titanic the Cat from Grethe Boe.

The Black Balloon from Australian director Elissa Down, a story of dealing with autism, took the best film prize in the Generations 14plus section. Nina Parley's animated feature Sita Sings the Blues, which is based on an Indian folk tale, received special mention from the jury.

The Grand Prize of children's charity association the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk, went to Oliver Jean-Marie's comic-book adaptation Go West! Lucky Luke Adventure. A special mention went to the coming-of-age story Mutum by Brazilian director Sandra Kogut.

COLOGNE, Germany -- Sex, politics and rock 'n' roll are the themes running through this year's Panorama, the Berlin International Film Festival's main sidebar.

Parvez Sharma's A Jihad For Love, which will open Panorama's documentary section, Dokumente, looks at the conflict between sexuality and religion by examining the lives of devout Muslims who are homosexual. The film was produced by Sandi Dubowski, who looked at similar issues among gay orthodox Jews in Trembling Before G-d. That film debuted in Panorama in 2001 and won Berlin's Teddy award for the best film with a homosexual theme.

Sexual politics are at the core of several Dokumente entries including Dondu Kilic's The Other Istanbul, Suddenly, Last Winter from Italian directors Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi, Jochen Hick's East/West and "Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians" by Berlin's own Rosa von Praunheim.

Middle East politics is the focus of Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree, the drama that opens the Panorama Special section. The film looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of a Palestinian woman who inherits a lemon grove bordering on Israeli territory.

Other high-profile Panorama Special screenings include Brad Anderson's Transsiberian, featuring Woody Harrelson, Thomas Kretschmann and Ben Kingsley, and the world premiere of Madonna's directorial debut, Filth & Wisdom starring Richard E. Grant.

Madonna won't be the only pop star featured on this year's Panorama. Legendary punk princess Patti Smith will give a concert in the German capital to support the Panorama debut of Steven Sebring's documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life. Ceri Levy's Bananaz follows Britpop regulars Damon Alban and Jamie Hewlett, creators of the virtual band Gorillaz.