In 2008, we have expanded the "international" program to include 13 films. We invite our audience to experience current cinema from twelve countries on the screens of exground filmfest. Many distributors have their new releases go straight to DVD, which leaves festivals as the only chance to see a film on the big screen. The only film in this program that will be released in German cinemas is 35 RUM, the latest masterpiece by French cult director Claire Denis, to whom exground filmfest dedicated 2005’s retrospective.
Another highlight of this section – and 2007’s jury award winner in Cannes – is SILENT LIGHT by Carlos Reygadas (BATTLE IN HEAVEN), which takes place in a Mennoit society in the North of Mexico. The story is a love drama from another world, set in a breathtaking landscape.
A further five productions introduce many films from Latin America, all worth seeing, among them the celebrated festival hit from Brazil, ESTÔMAGO: A GASTRONOMIC STORY by Marcos Jorge. This wonderful film about power, cooking, and sex is a fairytale for grown-ups and tells the story of Raimundo, an exceptionally gifted cook. Brazil is also represented by BOG OF BEASTS by Cláudio Assis, a frightening social study from the province. The drama LA RABIA by Albertina Carri shows the brutal world of the grown-ups – somewhere in the widths of the Argentine pampas. One of the best genre movies of the last years from Colombia is the award winning thriller DOG EAT DOG. Here Carlos Moreno presents tough guys, tough manners, fucked-up hotel rooms, and skewed entanglements – in short: the Colombian underworld. BURN THE BRIDGES by Francisco Franco, another Mexican film, is an incest drama around the two siblings Helena and Sebastian, staged in quiet settings.
In his turbulent thriller NOTHING TO LOSE, Pieter Kuijpers from The Netherlands puts himself into the psyche of an insane killer who takes a 13-year old runaway girl hostage on his run from the police. TALE 52 by Alexis Alexiou from Greece is another psychological thriller, whose protagonist cannot remember how his girlfriend vanished from their shared apartment. French cartoon anthology FEAR(S) OF THE DARK is of the creepy kind: six renowned comic artists such as the legendary Charles Burns take the audience to a land of shadows and nightmares.
The Australian drama UNFINISHED SKY by Peter Duncan tells the story of a traumatized fugitive: Tahmeena has fled from Afghanistan and has been caught by slave traders. The Turkish-German production HIDDEN FACES by Handan Ipekçi covers the political and thrilling subject of honor killing, which has been discussed way too little in the past.
With the German premiere of PLAY ME A LOVE SONG by Goran Kulenović we present a captivating comedy and Croatia’s first rock-’n’-roll movie about rock musician Struja and his unsuccessful band "When Dirty Harry Met Dirty Sally".
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