Saturday, August 23, 2008

65th Venice Film Festival News


Next Wednesday is the opening ceremony of this fest and for those that are interested in watching the show and have access to RAI International I suggest checking for the time of the broadcast. I checked several countries and the special called Festa del Cinema di Venezia will start at 11:00 local time of most countries.

Recently they announced one of the two surprise films in the Orizzonti section and here it is.

Khastegi (Tedium), Bahman Montamedian, Iran, 2008

The film has the following description:

Khastegi (Tedium) is set in Tehran and tells the story about seven Iranian transsexuals who live pieces of their own lives on the screen. Boys who like to be girls and a girl with a boy’s spirit and energy. Their spirits are not at one with their bodies, and this is a problem more forceful and burdensome in Iranian society with its traditional precepts and tradition of patriarchy. One can sense the depth of their loneliness and tedium when one sees that they are accepted not even by their own families. These young people are estranged from their own bodies and spirits, and exhausted by this estrangement from themselves and a society that accords no rights whatsoever to them.

Other interesting news

*Ksenia Rappoport will host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, some of you may remember her outstanding performance in La Sconosciuta (The Unknown) by Giuseppe Tornatore.

*The 65th Venice International Film Festival is dedicated to Youssef Chahine. In remembrance of the great film maker, his masterpiece Bab el hadid (Cairo Station, 1958) –which stars Chahine himself– will be shown at midnight in the Sala Grande on Sunday August 31st.

*I really do not know what to think about the following news: Natalarie Portman’s directorial debut opens Corto Cortissimo (the shorts section). The name of her out-of-competition short is Eve.

Last, for those that enjoy statistics check the following for the 65th Venice Film Festival

Films screening in the three main sections of the Festival
49 feature films as world premieres
3 short films as world premieres
5 feature films as international premieres

Venezia 65 – In Competition: 21 feature films
Out of Competition: 7 feature films + 4 retrospective screenings
Orizzonti: 18 feature films + 2 surprise films
Out of Competition Events: 4 medium-length and feature films + 2 feature films
Orizzonti Events: 7 feature and medium-length films

Films examined for selection (from 72 countries), 3,689 of which 2,429 are feature films.

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