ons stival . - California Film Institute

86
MVFF T u r n i n g 3 0
world cinema
children’s filmfest
world cinema
world cinema
Blame It on Fidel (La faute à Fidel) FRANce 2006 110 MINS
Sunday, October 7 7:45 pm BLAM07S Sequoia
Thursday, October 11 6:00 pm BLAM11R Rafael
Director/Screenwriter Julie Gavras Producer Sylvie Pialat Cinematographer Nathalie Durand Editor Pauline Dairou Cast Nina
Kervel-Bey, Stefano Accorsi, Julie Depardieu, Benjamin Feuillet Print Source Koch Lorber Films
In French with English subtitles • This accomplished first feature depicts the shifting familial landscape of an
intelligent, precocious girl, Anna (the remarkable Nina Kervel-Bey). Anna’s Spanish father (Stefano Accorsi) and
French mother (Julie Depardieu) begin to question their politics and bourgeois lifestyle when Anna’s uncle is
murdered under Franco’s regime. After a trip to Chile during Salvador Allende’s election, they move the family to
more modest housing and open their home for leftist meetings, arousing the curiosity and resentment of young
Anna and her more sanguine brother, François (Benjamin Feuillet). Director Julie Gavras (daughter of Costa Gavras)
explores her young central character’s growing political awareness, as the children puzzle out the meaning of “group
solidarity,” engage in games of “putsch” around the house and try to accommodate their bearded revolutionary
visitors. With the camera often at Anna’s level, Gavras lets us see up close as Anna finds her way to her own first
epiphanies. —Rod Armstrong
Bunnies and Butterflies TOTAL PROGRAM 74 MINS
Sunday, October 7 10:30 am BUNN07R Rafael
Sunday, October 14 2:15 pm BUNN14R Rafael
In various languages with English subtitles • An international sampling of little-person-friendly short films featuring:
a snowman and rabbit competing for the same thing in Carrot! (Partell Tall, Estonia 7 mins); fantasies from a kid’s
view in We’ve All Fallen from Mars (SAF Cakovech workshop, Croatia 2 mins); dancing like butterflies in Flutterby
(Cynthia Pepper, US 5 mins); animated madness in Garlic Boy (John R. Dilworth, US 7 mins); a lunar cat in Puss
and the Moon (Suzanne Tuyman, Netherlands 5 mins); a nervous mother giraffe in Jungle Beat—Born to Be Wild
(Brent Dawes, Zimbabwe 5 mins); mean people in Hard-Boiled Chicken (Arjan Wilschut, Netherlands 5 mins) and
Meany (Sarah Klein, US 3 mins); Tomi Ungerer’s transcendent fairy tale Moonman (Fritz Böhm, Germany 30 mins);
and finally, the crescendo, with Come Blow Your Kazoo! (John R. Dilworth, US 3 mins). All ages. —John Morrison
• • •The October 14 screening will be followed by a kazoo parade and free ice cream. See page 30.
Butterfly (Bolboreta, Mariposa, Papallona) SPAIN 2006 87 MINS
Sunday, October 7 8:00 pm BUTT07R Rafael
Saturday, October 13 1:00 pm BUTT13S Sequoia
Director/Screenwriter/Editor Pablo García Producers Yolanda Olmos, Luis Miñarro, Pablo García Cinematographer Beth
Rourich Cast Fele Martínez, Tzeitel Rodríguez, David Bendito Print Source Doble Banda
In Spanish, Catalan and Galician with English subtitles • A delicate interplay of stylized documentary and fiction,
Pablo García’s captivating debut considers filmmaking from both sides of the camera. Director Victor (Fele Martínez)
has discovered during the editing of his feature film that he hadn’t captured the specific atmosphere of his film’s
location. With his assistant Laura (Tzeitel Rodríguez) he travels back to the region of Galicia (in northwest Spain) to
photograph the rustic streets of a small village and interview the inhabitants. Fiction and reality intersect as Victor
encounters an actual group of local, precocious young cinema workshop students and charges them with finishing
the film. García and cinematographer Beth Rourich gracefully juxtapose the village’s easy rhythms with the gruff
visage of Victor and the wise ruminations of the children as they operate handmade cameras and create storyboard
collages to trace the film’s emotional arcs, in this rich and subtle study of the everyday imaginary. North American
Premiere —Margaret Daniel
California Dreamin’ (Endless) (Nesfârsit) ROMANIA 155 MINS
Tuesday, October 9 9:00 pm CAL09S Sequoia
Sunday, October 14 4:15 pm CAL14R Rafael
Director Cristian Nemescu Producer Andrei Boncea Screenwriters Tudor Voican, Cristian Nemescu, Catherine Linstrum
Cinematographer Liviu Marghidan Editor Catalin Cristutiu Cast Armand Assante, Razvan Vasilescu, Jamie Elman, Maria Dinulescu,
Ion Sapdaru, Alex Margineanu Print Source MediaPro Distribution
FOCUS: ROMANIA • In Romanian with English subtitles • A promising auteur’s legacy is captured here. Writerdirector
Cristian Nemescu died in a car crash while this film was in postproduction. Onscreen, his keen political
vision is alive and well in a story inspired by a true event: During the war in Kosovo in1999, a NATO train on a
classified mission is literally stopped in its tracks by a Romanian station master with his own agenda. As the US
lieutenant (Armand Assante, Gotti) faces off against the station agent (Razvan Vasilescu), the rest of the village goes
mad, NATO soldiers eye eager local girls and the casualties of war reveal themselves to be, as always, too close to
home. Awarded the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. US Premiere —Deanna Quinones
• • • Presented in association with the Romanian Cultural Institute New York
2007 MVFF TICKETS | 877.874.MVFF (6833)