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MIRAGES (Talal Selhami/France-Morocco)A Talal Selhami filmScreenplay : Christophe MordelletCast : Karim Saïdi, Omar Lotfi, Meryem Raoui, Mostafa El Houari, Aissam Bouali, Eric Savin, Laila Fadili, Mohamed Choubi, MohamedAouragh, Chaouki El OfirRunning time : 107 min.Five individuals with contrasting profiles compete for a position within Matsuika, amultinational corporation recently set up in Morocco. Following an interview with theCEO, they are advised to undertake a mysterious test in a secret location todetermine who will hold the position. All five applicants accept and are led into adistressing bus with no windows. After endless driving, an accident occurs, leavingthe candidates trapped in the wreck. Through a joint effort, they manage to evacuatethe bus only to find themselves lost in the desert with their driver nowhere to befound. They start to wander, questioning the nature of the accident. Is it part of thetest? Despite their will to survive and an urge to find clues, mirages of their mostintimate fears start to haunt them...A diehard fan of the genre, Talal Selhami was rocked as a kid by the Tales from theCrypt. With that kind of background, it was obvious that he would end up doing a supernatural thriller such asMirages. After the success of his short film Sinistra, Selhami was approached by director and producer NabilAyouch about directing this first long feature. Won over by the script, he has jumped at the opportunity andbrought five talented performers into the middle of Ouarzazates desert for a hell of a ride!ONE DAY (Chi-Jan Hou/Taiwan)A Chi-Jan Hou filmScreenplay: Chi-Jan HouCast: Bryan Shu-Hao Chang, Nikki Hsin-Ying Hsieh, Gwen YaoRunning time: 93 min."All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” No, this is not one ofLeo Di Caprio’s lines from “Inception”. It’s Edgar Allan Poe who came up withthis quote and director Hou Chi-jan has applied it to his film.“One Day” is none other than a shorter version of “One day, my Prince willcome”, but with a lot less sugar on top. Young Singing works on a ferry thatshuttles between a Taiwanese city and the isles. One night, though the ship issupposed to be as crowded as the London tube at rush hour, Singing findsherself alone on board. Well, almost. A very angry Hindu seems to chase herthrough the deserted corridors and Singing ends up locked in a closet withTsung, a young soldier.Tsung has some amazing news for Singing. First, she’sin the middle of a nightmare. Second, he claims to be her future lover…New blood for Taiwanese cinema! One Day is the first full-length feature andthe first screenplay for Hou Chi-jan, whose experimental shorts have alreadywon him lots of prizes throughout the globe. His debut, produced by movieveteran Hou Hsiao-Hsien, is a genuine love poem in which he transcendsloneliness with imaginary bridges between dream and reality. He neatly fits his mystical puzzle together in away that reminds you of a certain David Lynch.36