JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

FRIDAY 14TH FEBRUARY
JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2014
THE BOOK THIEF
A stellar cast including Geoffrey Rush and Emily
Watson brings to life the tale of a young girl who
discovers that stories have extraordinary power to
sustain the human spirit. Based on Markus Zusak’s
best-selling novel, the film gives new talent Sophie
Nélisse (Monsieur Lazhar, JDIFF 2012) the opportunity
to shine in the lead role.
‘If there can be such a thing as a sweet, reflective fable about
death and the Holocaust, The Book Thief is it’ Rolling Stone
Fri 14 Feb / Cineworld 8 / 6.30pm / 125 minutes
Director: Brian Percival 2013 US
Writer: Michael Petroni
Cast: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson
In 1938, near Munich, Rosa and Hans Hubermann
take in nine-year-old Liesel. Kind Hans bonds with his
foster daughter through their shared love of words
as he teaches her to read her first book. Into this
sphere of warmth and safety, amid the turmoil of
Nazi Germany, comes Max, the Jewish son of Hans’
World War I comrade. Confined to the basement,
Max asks Liesel each day to describe the outside
world, encouraging her to make words her own as
she grows into a young woman and a storyteller.
This beautiful film is full of contrasts, balancing the
innocent joys of childhood against the horrendous
realities of a world at war.
Mill Valley Film Festival
Winner, Audience Favourite Award, Mill Valley Film Festival
THE MAJOR
MAYOR
Writer-director Yuri Bykov’s The Major is a tense,
handheld police thriller filled with scores of dirty cops,
scenes of abrupt violence and a relentless, overriding
sense of nastiness.
‘electric’ Variety
Fri 14 Feb / Light House 3 / 9pm / 99 minutes
Writer-director: Yuri Bykov 2013 Russia
Cast: Yuri Bykov, Denis Shvedov, Irina Nizina
Winner, Best Feature Film & Best Director, Shanghai International
Film Festival
Set within a single 24-hour period, the action kicks
off with commander Sergey Sobolev (Denis Shvedov)
racing his SUV across icy country roads to join his
wife, who’s giving birth at a clinic. Along the way, his
car skids into a 7-year-old boy, killing him instantly.
But rather than calling an ambulance, Sobolev takes
the kid’s wailing mother Irina (Irina Nizina) hostage
and phones a fellow officer, Pasha (Ilya Isaev), to clean
up the mess. What follows is one very long day of
unethical policing, as Sobolev and Pasha try to cover
up the accident in order to save the ‘integrity’ of their
department.
Filmed with lots of gritty, over-the-shoulder
camerawork, The Major is a well-paced and directed
affair. The performances are keyed up all the way
through, with Nizina particularly explosive as the
tormented mum and Isaev slick and scary as the
ruthless, ball-busting Pasha.
Jordan Mintzer
The Hollywood Reporter
24 BOOK ONLINE AT JDIFF.COM