11 Canadian films on Berlin festival slate
Eleven Canadian films, including works by Guy Maddin and Bruce McDonald, are official entrantsatthis year's Berlin International Film Festival, whichbegins on Thursday.
The festival opens with a French-British co-production, La Môme:La Vie En Rose, a tragic screen portrait of singer Edith Piaf directed by Olivier Dahan.
There are 26 films in competition for the Golden Bear, the festival's highest honour, including Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, Israeli production Beaufort and China's Lost in Beijing.
A Canada-U.S. co-production, When a Man Falls in the Forest(Quand un homme tombe dans la forêt),an ensemble drama directed by Ryan Eslinger about four characters trying to make sense of their lives, is also in the main competition.
Canadian director Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments, a look into the "fragmented emotional world" of a teenage girl, will open the festival's Panorama program on Thursday.
McDonald is known in Canada asthe director of films such asHard Core Logo, Highway 61, Dance Me Outside and Roadkill. His TV credits include directing Lexx and episodes of This is Wonderland and Queer as Folk.
The Panorama program, whichtypically highlights more art house-type films, also features the European premiere of Canadian Sarah Polley's Away From Her and the world premiere of Clement Virgo's Poor Boy's Game.
Away From Her, starring Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie, is based on an Alice Munro story about an elderly couple dealing with Alzheimer's disease.
Poor Boy's Game is about a man just released from prison who is drawn into a morass of revenge when he goes back to his old community.
There are another five feature films from Canada in the Forum program, which focuses on experimental and yet-to-be-discovered filmmakers:
- Brand Upon the Brain! by Guy Maddin, a family drama set on a lonely island.
- Dans les villes (In the Cities) by Catherine Martin, a film about the loneliness of city life set in Montreal.
- L'Esprit des lieux (The Spirit of Places) by Catherine Martin, which examines the work of photographer Gabor Szilasi in rural Quebec.
- Faro by Salif Traore, a France/Canada/Mali/Burkina Faso productionabout an illegimate boy trying to find a place for himself in village life.
- Stone Time Touch by Gariné Torossian, about a Canadian woman, played by Arsinée Khanjian, who travels back to her homeland in Armenia.
Maddin, director of25 films including The Saddest Music in the World,is to write a blog for CBC.ca while in Berlin.
Among the short films are John Price's gun/play and View of the Falls from the Canadian Side.
Thirteen recent Canadian features will be presented to international buyers in Telefilm's Perspective Canada showcase, part of the European Film Market,the festival'sbooming industry market.
The Berlin International Film Festival isone of Europe's top three festivals, with Venice and Cannes.
Many stars of Hollywood and Europe are expected to attend, including Oscar nominees Judi Dench, Cate Blanchettand Clint Eastwood.
Also expectedto be in Berlin are Sharon Stone, Lauren Bacall, Robert De Niro and Matt Damon.