2011 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FILMS IN COMPETITION PAGE FOUR - U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION: PAGE #1 - PAGE #2 - - U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION - - WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION: PAGE #1 - PAGE #2 - - WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION -
- FILMS IN COMPETITION - - PAGE #1 - PAGE #2 - PAGE #3 - PAGE #4 - PAGE #5 - PAGE #6 -
TICKET TO PARADISE (World Cinema Dramatic) directed by Gerardo Chijona. WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION This year’s 14 films were selected from 1,073 international narrative feature submissions. Abraxas / Japan (Director: Naoki Kato; Screenwriters: Dai Sako and Naoki Kato) — After botching a speech on career guidance at a local high school, a depressed Zen monk with a heavy metal past realizes that only music can revive his spirit. Cast: Suneohair, Rie Tomosaka, Manami Honjou, Ryouta Murai, Kaoru Kobayashi. International Premiere All Your Dead Ones (Todos Tus Muertos ) / Colombia (Director Carlos Moreno; Screenwriters: Alonso Torres and Carlos Moreno) — One morning, a peasant wakes to find a pile of bodies in the middle of his crops. When he goes to the authorities, he quickly realizes that the dead ones are a problem nobody wants to deal with. Cast: Alvaro Rodríguez, Jorge Herrera, Martha Marquez, Harold Devasten, John Alex Castillo. World Premiere The Cinema Hold Up (Asalto Al Cine) / Mexico (Director: Iría Gómez Concheiro; Screenwriters: Iria Gómez Concheiro and Juan Pablo Gómez) — Four childhood friends in Mexico’s Guerrero colony toy morewith the idea of robbing a cinema. Each hopes that the heist will hurtle them past life’s obstacles, only to realize that the caper risks the only thing they have: their friendship. Cast: Gabino Rodríguez, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Ángel Sosa, Paulina Avalos. World Premiere A Few Days of Respite (Quelque Jours de Repit) / Algeria, France (Director and screenwriter: Amor Hakkar) — A pair of gay men who have escaped from Iran seek safe harbor in a small French village, where a lonely middle-aged woman offers aid. Cast: Marina Vlady, Samir Guesmi, Amor Hakkar. World Premiere THE GUARD / Ireland (Director and screenwriter: John Michael McDonagh) — A small-town cop in Ireland has a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a fondness for prostitutes and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought a straight-laced FBI agent to his door. However, a surreal chain of events pulls him into the action. Cast: Don Cheadle, Brendan Gleeson, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, Dominique McElligot. World Premiere Described by writer-director John Michael McDonagh as “a big film about a big man with big laughs and a big heart”, THE GUARD is a comedy thriller starring Brendan Gleeson as an unorthodox Irish policeman who joins forces with a straitlaced FBI agent, played by Don Cheadle, to take on an international drug-smuggling gang. HAPPY, HAPPY (Sykt Lykkelig) / Norway (Director: Anne Sewitsky; Screenwriter: Ragnhild Tronvoll) — A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door. Cast: Agnes Kittelsen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Maibritt Saerens, Joachim Rafaelsen. International Premiere KINYARWANDA / Rwanda, USA (Director and screenwriter: Alrick Brown) — Based on accounts from survivors, Kinyarwanda tells the story of Rwandans who crossed the lines of hatred during the 1994 genocide, turning mosques into places of refuge for Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis. Cast: Edouard Bamporiki, Cassandra Freeman, Cleophas Kabasiita, Hadidja Zaninka, Kennedy Mazimpaka, Hassan Kabera. World Premiere Lost Kisses (I Baci Mai Dati) / Italy (Director: Roberta Torre; Screenwriters: Roberta Torre and Laura Nuccilli) — A 13-year-old girl in the deprived outskirts of a sprawling Sicilian city becomes a local celebrity to her needy community when word spreads that she just might be able to perform miracles. Cast: Donatella Finocchiaro, Pino Micol, Giuseppe Fiorello, Carla Marchese, Martina Galletta, Tony Palazzo. International Premiere Mad Bastards / Australia (Director: Brendan Fletcher; Screenwriters: Brendan Fletcher in collaboration with Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait and John Watson) — In a frontier town of northern Australia’s Kimberley Region, an urban street warrior meets his match in a local cop. Performances and stories from real people in Kimberley are woven through the music of legendary Broome musicians, The Pigram Brothers. Cast: Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait, John Watson, Ngaire Pigram, Lucas Yeeda. International Premiere Restoration (2011) (Boker Tov Adon Fidelman) / Israel (Director: Yossi Madmoni; Screenwriter: Erez Kav-El) — Aided by a young and mysterious apprentice, an antique furniture restorer struggles to keep his workshop alive, while his relationship with his own estranged son, who is trying to close down the shop, begins to disintegrate. Cast: Sasson Gabay, Henry David, Nevo Kimchi, Sarah Adler. World Premiere The Salesman (Le Vendeur) / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Sébastien Pilote) — Car salesman Marcel Lévesque operates by the rules of a bygone era, turning on the charm to make his quota. But the increasing decline of his fading industrial town threatens to plummet this peddler of dreams into an unfriendly reality. Cast: Gilbert Sicotte, Nathalie Cavezzali. World Premiere