17 films were competing in the main section of the Moscow festival.
Including a few premieres such as Olga's Summer, Nina Grosse's German entry or Different Loyalty US film starring Sharon Stone and Rupert Everett who attended the festival to defend the film (a lenghty political thriller full of classic cliches on russian KGB and MI6 spies)...
In official competition were:
ANGULIMALA ( Thailand, 2003, 105 min.)
director: Sutape Tunnirut
screenplay: Sutape Tunnirut
cast: Jayanama Nopachai, Stella Malucchi, John Rattanaveroj, Caterina Grosse
More than 2,500 years ago Ahimsaka was born of Brahmin parents. Despite his noble birth, Ahimsaka was predestined to become a murderous bandit. Following his predestination, Ahimsaka was sent to be a disciple of Sati, the head of the Dhisapamoka Academy in Taxila.
BEN'S BIOGRAPHY
HABIOGRAPHIA SHEL BEN ( Israel, 2003, 105 min.)
director: Dan Wolman
screenplay: Dan Wolman
cast: Gal Zaid, Alexander Shron, Avigail Arieli, Gani Tamir
Ben is strange: he walks around with gloves and is always carrying shopping bags in both hands. Ben doesn't want anyone to pity him. His way of dealing with his pain is through his imagination, zany humor and laughter.
DETAILS
DETALJER ( Sweden, 2003, 115 min.)
director: Kristian Petri
screenplay: Jonas Frykberg
cast: Pernilla August, Michael Nyqvist, Jonas Karlsson, Rebecka Hemse
The meeting of Emma and Erik marks the beginning of a love affair which will lead Erik to leave his wife. But Emma recently began a relationship with Stefan. One day Stefan is brought to the emergency ward where Erik's wife Ann works as a doctor. It’s the start of the story about how four people's lives are crossed during ten years.
DIFFERENT LOYALTY, A
DIFFERENT LOYALTY, A ( USA / / UK, 2004, 103 min.)
director: Marek Kanievska
screenplay: Jim Piddock
cast: Sharon Stone, Rupert Everett, Mark Rendall
In battle torn Beirut, spirited American war correspondent Eleanor is swept off her feet by British journalist Kim and starts a new life with him. But when Kim disappears, Eleanor's fairy tale romance collapses with the discovery that the man of her dreams is a KGB spy.
EARTH'S SKIN, THE
PIEL DE LA TIERRA, LA ( Spain, 2004, 97 min.)
director: Manuel Fernandez
screenplay: Manuel Fernandez
cast: Sergio Peris Mencheta, Pilar Barrera, Carmen del Valle, Manuel Galiana
A young deserter promises to restore a bell. An old legend says that a specific note from this bronze bell would move away storms. To clear the sky of clouds will give God a view of the war.
GODDESS OF MERCY, THE
YA GUANYIN ( China, 2003, 110 min.)
director: Ann Hui
screenplay: Ivy Ho
cast: Wei Zhao, Nicholas Tse, Chen Jian-bin, Liu Yun-long
Set against the backdrop of the dangerous lifestyle and heroism of the drug enforcement police, this is the story of a woman police officer and the three men in her life.
HARVEST TIME, THE
VREMIA ZHATVY ( Russia, 2004, 67 min.)
director: Marina Razbezhkina
screenplay: Marina Razbezhkina
cast: Luydmila Motornaya, Vyacheslav Batrakov, , Dima Ermakov
Harvest Time is an absurd tale based on a Russian reality. The events in the film take place in a post-war Chuvash village.
HAZARDOUS AND UNHEALTHY
VAREA ANTHIGINA ( Greece, 2003, 93 min.)
director: Antonis Papadoupoulos
screenplay: Alexander Kakavas, Antonis Papadoupoulos, Dimitris Spirou, Grigoris Papadogiannis
cast: Paschalis Tsarouchas, Nena Mendi, Antonis Antoniou, Regina Pantelidi
In 1944 Balis, a guerilla, saves 70 hostages from a German firing squad in a daring feat. Balis is wounded and falls into the Great Ravine. The inhabitants erect his statue in the village square. Thirty years later Balis happens to visit this particular village and discovers his memorial.
KISS ME FIRST
PRIMA DAMMI UN BACIO ( Italy, 2003, 93 min.)
director: Ambrogio Lo Guidice
screenplay: Ambrogio Lo Guidice
cast: Stefania Rocca, Marco Cocci, Luca Zingaretti
Adele and Marcello were born on the 16th of April 1927. Before a scanty group of friends they celebrate, still children, their unlikely marriage. They swear eternal love and exchange two rubber rings. They lose sight of each other not long afterwards, separated by the events of the Second World War, but their dream, fed with hope and memories, will continue.
NATIONAL BOMB
NATSIONALNAYA BOMBA ( Azerbaijan / Russia, 2004, 104 min.)
director: Vagif Mustafayev
screenplay: Vagif Mustafayev
cast: Aftandil Maharadze, Yashar Nuri, Saida Kulieva, Nuriya Ahmedova
A chain of tragicomic, sometimes farcical situations, tinted with national colouring. A film is being shot in modern Azerbaijan. The money for the film ends.
OLGA'S SUMMER
OLGAS SOMMER ( Germany, 2003, 105 min.)
director: Nina Grosse
screenplay: Nina Grosse, Harald Gцckeritz
cast: Clйmence Poйsy, Bruno Todeschini, Katja Flint, Sebastian Blomberg
Olga is 16 and ready. For life, love, adventure. So when she finds an unconscious man in a wrecked car one day, it all just clicks. He, burned-out comic-book author Daniel, is the man who's come to take her away from Smallsville. So what that he says he killed his wife in a fit of rage? Olga gets her way – and off they go on a journey that will lead them to the sea…
PAPA
PAPA ( Russia, 2004, 94 min.)
director: Vladimir Mashkov, Ilya Rubinstein
screenplay: Vladimir Mashkov
cast: Vladimir Mashkov, Egor Beroev, Andrey Rozendent, Sergey Dreyden
The only thing that Abraham Swartz lives for is his talented son. When he grows up to become the top pupil in the Conservatory, the only thing Abraham wants to do is watch his boy in his moment of fame. But the son is ashamed of his father. Based on Alexander Galich’s play Sailor’s Silence.
PORTUGAL INС
PORTUGAL S.A. ( Portugal, 2004, 95 min.)
director: Rui Guerra
screenplay: Alberto Fernandes
cast: Diogo Infante, Cristina Cвmara, Henrique Viana, Ana Bustorff
Jacinto Pereira Lopes is a company director at one of Portugal’s largest financial-economic groups that was recently privatised and purchased by its former owner.
At university, Jacinto belonged to a group of student friends, one of whom is now a government minister and another a leading member of the opposition. His friends seek information about his boss’s intentions while negotiating a major business deal with the Spanish, which may have a significant impact on their careers…
REVOLUTION OF PIGS
SIGADER REVOLUTSIOON ( Estonia, 2004, 100 min.)
director: Jaak Kilmi, Rene Reinumagi
screenplay: Jaak Kilmi, Rene Reinumagi
cast: Jass Seljamaa, Enelin Kuusk, Lilian Alto, Uku Uusberg
In the summer of 1986, hundreds of young people have gathered into Estonian student summer camp - adventures, falling in love and partying. But living in a totalitarian system, the energy of youth is pressed into rigid frames of proper behaviour. It leads to a revolt against the system.
SO CUTE
GUI WEO WO ( Korea, 2004, 116 min.)
director: Kim Soo-Hyun
screenplay: Kim Soo-Hyun
cast: Kim Soo-Hyun, Ye Ji-won, Jung Jae-hyung, Jang Sun-woo
A shaman named Jang Su-ro has three sons, all by different mothers and all of same age. One day, Gaeko picks up a girl named Soony and presents her to his father. Jang Su-ro and all his sons fall in love with her. The race to win her heart is on.
TALKING WITH MOM
CONVERSACIONES CON MAMA ( Argentina / Spain, 2003, 90 min.)
director: Santiago Carlos Oves
screenplay: Santiago Carlos Oves
cast: China Zorilla, Eduardo Blanco, Ulises , Silvina Bosco
Mom is eighty-two and Jaime, her son, is fifty. One day Jaime gets fired and his world got down. When Jaime goes to the apartment to talk with mom about sailing it, something happens and all his expectations fall down; mom has a boyfriend and is planning to live with him.
US
SVOI ( Russia, 2004, 100 min.)
director: Dmitry Meskhiyev
screenplay: Valentin Chernyh
cast: Bogdan Stupka, Konstantin Habenskiy, Sergey Garmash, Michail Evlanov
August 1941. The front-line moves east. A group of three captives manage to escape. All around are enemies; the woods are full of hazards; the marshes simply delay. And the old man in the village. Who is he? One of ours? Or one of theirs?