Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg will showcase 30 newcomers

The International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year, is internationally well regarded and sustains its position as being one of the top 100 film festivals worldwide and as being the festival which exclusively presents films by newcomers.
From out of thousands of newcomer films the festival selects only roundabout 30 and is thus driven by a very conscious programming process.
„We practically fall in love with each single film. The authors and producers understand this and they are enthused about the humane atmosphere and the sincerity with which we treat their films. As such we are a nice exception in the film business and have a unique position“, says Dr. Michael Koetz, Director of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg.
Programme 2010
On 11 November 2010, the 59th edition of the old-established International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg begins. The programme features 15 films in the „International Competition“ section and 10 films in „International Discoveries“, amazing films made by new film artists from all over the world. These films emerge from 23 countries in total.
Among the 25 films in the two main sections there is 1 world premiere, 3 European Premieres, 7 International Premieres and 12 German Premieres.
There are three sidebars:
The sidebar „Discoveries Trail“ is dedicated to young directors whose career kicked off in Mannheim-Heidelberg and who have made an international career since then. This year, the festival presents two films made by the 2003 Rainer-Werner-Fassbinder-Prize winner, Chilean director Matías Bize. His film SÁBADO from 2003, and the German premiere of his latest work LA VIDA DE LOS PECES will be screened.
„Pretty Real“ will showcase four new documentary and essay films inclusing three German premieres.
The sidebar „Life is Wonderful“ will present 8 cinema classics.
For young cinema goers the festival has selected 6 international childrens films.
Furthermore, the festival will present a selection of short films, among them early works by directors from this year’s International Competition programme.
In total the festival will present 45 feature films in 6 programme sections. Among them there are 1 World Premiere, 3 European Premieres, 7 International Premieres and 16 German Premieres.

Venues:
Mannheim, Kino im Stadhaus I & II
Heidelberg: Heidelberg Castle, Kino im Schlossgarten I & II

The 59th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg takes place from 11 to 21 November 2010.
For further information: Marija Capek Tel: +49-(0)621-1560153 :: Fax: +49-(0)621-291564 email: marija.capek@iffmh.de:: www.iffmh.de









OPENING FILM
(Out of Competition)

VIDA DE LOS PECES, LA / Life of Fish, The
Director: Matías Bize, Chile 2010, 84 min.
After 10 years, Andrés, a writer of travel guides, returns to Chile for his holidays. He meets old friends and his big love from back then, but life and his friends have become strangers to him.



INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION








2 FOIS UNE FEMME/ Twice a Woman
Director: François Delisle, Canada 2010, 94 min.
Catherine decides to leave her abusive husband eventually. However, it is not easy to overcome the remaining fear and she has to fight for a new life together with her 13 years old son. Only at the end of this film she is able to smile again.
European Premiere

10 ½
Director: Daniel Grou (Podz), Canada 2010, 116 min.
Nobody can take hold of Tommy nor tame him. Like a feral child he revolts against everything and everyone. At the boarding school „Le Tremplin“ he is given his very last chance. Can love and special attention heal his mysterious wounds?
International Premiere


ACT OF DISHONOUR
Director: Nelofer Pazira, Canada/Afghanistan 2010, 92 min.
A Canadian film crew in a village in Afghanistan. A young girl gets involved in the making of the film, but she has to pay a high price. The director is also the main character in this movie. She has become known starring in Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s films.
German Premiere

ATSISVEIKINIMAS/ Farewell
Director: Tomas Donela, Lithuania 2009, 95 min.
When Audrius comes off the ship at lithuanian port Klaipeda, his fellows whisper mysterious things. While on his shore leave the captain takes us on a journey to the secrets of his life.
International Premiere


CASA SULLE NUVOLE, LA/ House in the Clouds, The
Director: Claudio Giovannesi, Italy 2009, 99 min.
Two brothers from Italy, one is grumpy, the other one is curious. In the vibrant Morroccan metropolis of Marrakech they are looking for their rakish father. He has sold their house and so the two brothers are looking for a new home in more than one sense.
German Premiere


EVA Y LOLA
Director: Sabrina Farji, Argentina 2010, 96 min.
Eva and Lola are the stars of a glamorous cabaret show in Buenos Aires. The dark secret of their lives is however that they belonged to the children who were abducted during the military dictatorship and who were raised by their parents’ murderers.
European Premiere


HOLD OM MIG/ Hold Me Tight
Director: Kaspar Munk, Denmark 2010, 76 min.
Four teenagers looking for their identity. Suddenly there are culprits and victims. An intense study on violence in schools and anguish that has consequences.
German Premiere


JUST INÈS
Director: Marcel Grant, United Kingdom 2010, 93 min.
Tom’s life breaks apart. It’s his own fault however. After his prison stay he has to reinvent himself. The mysterious woman in the flat across the floor shows him the right direction.
World Premiere



KANDAHAR BREAK
Director: David Whitney, United Kingdom 2009, 94 min.
A team of British mine clearance engineers in south Afghanistan in 1999. They work for the ruling Taliban regime. However, they are not protected from the draconic laws of the Islamistic despotism, in particular, when love comes into play.
German Premiere

PÄEVA LOPUS/ When the Day is Done
Director: Maiju Ingman, Estonia 2009, 110 min.
Peteri is bankrupt and escapes to his home town in order to persuade his brother Jacobi to sell the family forest. Some doors to the past need to be opened and suppressed memories need to be confronted. The conflicts escalate in a dramatic manner.
International Premiere


PLANES PARA MAÑANA /Plans for Tomorrow
Director: Juana Macías, Spain 2010, 96 min.
Antonia meets the love of her life again, Marian cannot get rid of her violent husband, Mónica is about to fall in love for the first time, Inés has to adopt an attitude towards her pregnancy. Dramatic events make it difficult to make decisions.
German Premiere


SIYAH BEYAZ/ Black and White
Director: Ahmet Boyacioglu, Turkey 2010, 92 min.
Time passes. One man needs a calm life after his heart attack. Another one still does not want to settle down although he is 70 years old. A woman has made solitude her life style. A doctor has lost the love for his job. All these people are regular guests at the “Black and White“ in Ankara, a bar where they have found refuge for 25 years.

International Premiere


TILL DET SOM ÄR VACKERT / Pure
Director: Lisa Langseth, Sweden 2010, 98 min.
Everything changes for lower class-girl Katarina when one day she listens to Mozart’s Requiem. A wonderful new world, a world of music, opens up to her. So she simply walks into the philharmoncs of Göteborg and applies for the receptionist’s job. Like in a fairy tale she gets the job and has to face challenges that are entirely new to her.
German Premiere


WIN/WIN
Director: Jaap van Heusden, Netherlands 2010, 83 min.
For Ivan the stock exchange market is like a big game. He is a successful player and soon climbs up the ladder. But then the sleepless nights come. The world of big deals and gamblers becomes ever stranger to him. Soon he knows: he has to quit.
German Premiere

XUN HUAN ZUO LE/ High Life, The
Director: Zhao Dayong, China 2010, 96 min.
Poems in prison, recited by command during work, are supposed to have a reformatory influence on the inmates. Thus reckons a correctional officer. A con man sells hope for work. A young woman is still attached to her rich friend although she loves somebody else. Stories from everyday Guangzhou.
International Premiere


INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES











A L'ORIGINE D'UN CRI/ Crying out
Director: Robin Aubert, Canada 2010, 115 min.
A slightly deranged young man joins his grumpy grandfather on his search for the young man’s missing father. Three men in a crisis learn how to live with infelicity.
German Premiere

ACI ASK / Love, Bitter
Director: A. Taner Elhan, Turkey 2009, 98 min.
A comedy leading all Turkish soap operas and love songs ad absurdum. Lots of tearjerkers and Orhan, the literature professor, who actually manages to cheat on three women at the same time.
International Premiere

LETTERS FROM THE DESERT-EULOGY TO SLOWNESS
Director: Michela Occhipinti, Italy 2009, 88 min.
Hari has been travelling the Indian Thar desert for twenty years. He delivers love letters, wedding announcements and success stories to the remotest parts of the country. Sometimes he however suppresses bad news. But his days are numbered. The first cellular radio towers are being errected.
German Premiere


LING HUN DE LU CHENG/Everlasting Moments
Director: Wen-Pin Chen, Taiwan 2010, 71 min.
A relocation measure in Taiwan brings to light that the heritage of the Atayal-natives (“real man“) is long forgotten and lost. The film featuring some documentary elements tries to trace back to the poetry of harmony with nature and the values of age-old traditions as opposed to hectic modern life.
European Premiere

MARIEKE, MARIEKE
Director: Sophie Schoukens, Belgium 2009, 83 min.
In the arms of older men Marieke seeks for oblivion: she wants to forget the memories of her father who died very early. Between mourning work and romantic infatuation a multi-layered personality profile is being unfolded of a 20-year-old young woman who needs to find herself.


MOTEL NANA
Director: Predrag Velinovic, Serbia 2010, 92 min.
Ivan and Yasmina meet in a Bosnian provincial town where there’s a bus station and a hotel. The young teacher wants to prove his worth, the young woman hopes to find a future at her uncle’s hotel. Both dreams go up in smoke. However, happiness might be possible in this post-traumatic comedy where one gets to glimpse at the consequences of the civil wars in Yugoslavia.

German Premiere

MUZI V RIJI/ Men in Rut
Director: Robert Sedlácek, Czech Republic 2009, 109 min.
Great expectations in a small village somewhere in the Czech Republic. The European Bellowing Stag (in human form) Championship and the Prime Minster are being expected. The film ends with a riot of jokes and comic scenes and a happy ending.



NEKE DRUGE PRICE/ Some Other Stories
Director: Marija Dzidzeva, Ivona Juka, Ana Maria Rossi, Ines Tanovic, Hanna Antonina Wojcik-Slak, Serbia/Croatia 2010, 114 min.
Five countries, five women, five stories about everyday life in Serbia, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia. Five female directors describe the consequences of the civil war in former Yugoslavia: contradictions, doubts, hopes and anxieties.
German Premiere


RENE MIDIS HOLIVUDSHI/ Renee Goes to Hollywood
Director: Aleko Tsabadze, Georgia 2010, 103 min.
Renee is a professor at the film academy. However, he also has to deliver gas bottles in order to earn a living. He has ever more difficulties to distinguish between reality and fantasy. He is always followed by a camera that develops a surreal life of its own.
International Premiere


SANGLAAN/ The Pawnshop
Director: Milo Sogueco, Philippines 2009, 95 min.
There are roundabout 12 000 pawnshops on the Philippines. The film tells the stories of failure, dispair and anxiety which come to a sometimes unhappy, sometimes happy end in a pawnshop in Manila.
German Premiere


*******


DISCOVERIES TRAIL

VIDA DE LOS PECES, LA / Life of Fish, The Opening Film
Director: Matías Bize, Chile 2010, 84 min.
After 10 years, Andrés, a writer of travel guides, returns to Chile for his holidays. He meets old friends and his big love from back then, but life and his friends have become strangers to him.

German Premiere

SÁBADO
Director: Matías Bize, Chile 2003, 65 min.
Already dressed in her wedding gown Blanca finds out that her future husband has cheated on her. The wedding video that a friend is supposed to make turns into a funny and dynamic protocol of a personal vendetta - in only one take.


*******


PRETTY REAL
DOCUMENTARY and ESSAY FILMS

ARMADILLO
Director: Janus Metz Pedersen, Denmark 2010, 91 min.

German Premiere

LES FILMS RÊVÉS / Dreaming Films
Director: Eric Pauwels, Belgium 2009, 180 min.

German Premiere

DEUX DE LA VAGUE / Two in the Wave
Director: Emmanuel Laurent, France 2009, 91 min.



WEEMOED & WILDERNIS / Wistful Wilderness
Director: Digna Sinke, Netherlands 2010, 88 min.

German Premiere


*******



LIFE IS WONDERFUL


CHOCOLAT
Director: Lasse Hallström, United Kingdom/USA 2000, 121 Min.


CINEMA PARADISO
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy/France 1989, 124 Min.


ONE; TWO; THREE
Director: Billy Wilder, USA 1961, 115 Min.


LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMÉLIE POULAIN
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France 2001, 122 Min.


COEURS
Director: Alain Resnais, France/Italy 2006, 120 Min.


IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Director: Frank Capra, USA 1946, 130 Min.


SOME LIKE IT HOT
Director: Billy Wilder, USA 1959, 120 Min.


VICTOR/VICTORIA
Director: Blake Edwards, United Kingdom/USA 1982, 132 Min.





*******


CHILDRENS FILMS


KIKKERDRIL
Director: Simone van Dusseldorp, Netherlands 2009, 75 Min.


STORM
Director: Giacomo Campeotto, Denmark 2009 90 Min.


KLARA
Director: Alexander Moberg, Sweden 2010 80 Min.


MORITZ IN DER LITFAßÄULE
Director: Rolf Losanski, GDR 1983, 85 Min.


WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Director: Spike Jonze, USA 2009, 95 Min.


JOULUTARINA
Director: Juha Wuolijoki, Finland 2007, 75 Min.



*******

MIDNIGHT SPECIALS

A selection of short films, the programme is yet to be announced.