Lucky me – I get to go to the Venice Film Festival this year and the list of selections for the International Film Critic’s Week is “Eurocentric”, as Variety.com puts it, with a heavy Latin American influence as well. All Critics’ Week entries are world premiers and will compete alongside titles in the Official Selection for the fest’s Golden Lion of the Future, worth $100,000.
Swedish bereavement drama “East Side Station” by Simon Kaijser da Silva (“The Hidden Half”) will be the opener, out-of-competion, in a year that sees “family feature prominently as a theme,” section topper Francesco Di Pace said.
Italy’s premiering a couple of thrillers ( I think it really is a trend! ) La-bas, by Guido Lombardi, set amid North-African immigrants in the mob-infested Campania region, and the closer Missione di Pace, by Francesco Lagi, an anti-military comedy with a father-and-son conflict as a sub-plot, and an all-star cast, including Silvio Orlando, Alba Rohrwacher and Filippo Timi, premiering out-of-competition. Please, please, please American Express help me get tickets to this one!
For whatever reason there are no American or Asian selections.
Here’s the full list of the seven films in competition:
El campo (In the Open) by Hernán Belón – Argentina, 2011 – World Premiere
El lenguaje de los machetes (Machete Language) by Kyzza Terrazas – Mexico, 2011 – World Premiere
Là-bas (Down There) by Guido Lombardi – Italy, 2011 – World Premiere
La terre outragée (Land of Oblivion) by Michale Boganim – France-Ukraine, 2011 – World Premiere
Louise Wimmer by Cyril Mennegun – France, 2011 – World Premiere
Marécages (Wetlands) by Guy Édoin – Canada, 2011 – World Premiere
Totem by Jessica Krummacher – Germany, 2011 – World Premiere
Opening Film – Out of Competition
Stockholm Östra (Stockholm East) by Simon Kaijser da Silva – Sweden, 2011 – World Premiere
Closing Film – Out of Competition
Missione di pace (Mission of Peace) by Francesco Lagi – Italy, 2011 – World Premiere
The Venice Film Festival runs Aug. 31-Sept. 10.
I Love Italian Everything 