The 8th edition of Reykjavík International Film Festival opens in nine days! The program includes new works by filmmakers Aleksandr Sokurov, Wim Wenders, Giorgios Lanthimos, Michael Radford, James Marsh, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Jonze, Liz Garbus, Kevin Smith, Béla Tarr, Lone Scherfig and Andrea Arnold. As always, however, the competition category is limited to new talent - filmmakers' first and second features admitted only.
Below is a list of the titles in competition at RIFF 2011.
New Visions - Competition
EL CAMPO by Hernán Belon (Argentine)
The newly purchased country home of young couple Santiago and Elisa, and their little child, soon turns into a disturbing place. The house, rural environment, surrounding emptiness and neighbors all make Elisa uneasy. Gradually, she worries more and more for the safety of her child.
IO SONO LI by Andrea Segre (Italy / France)
At Chioggia on the edge of a fishing lagoon, so far and so close to the Yellow River, the Venetian dialect is spoken whether you are a Dalmatian “poet” (Bepi) or a Chinese worker (Shun Li). These two characters have feelings, dreams and hopes just like in every corner of the world.
TWILIGHT PORTRAIT by Angelina Nikonova (Russia)
Sexual violence, the subtle game of revenge, feelings of uneasiness and the unpredictability of life in a tense and dramatic confrontation between a social worker and a militiaman, all played out against the backdrop of a Russia angered by and ridden with social conflict.
ATMEN by Karl Markovics (Austria)
Roman Kogler, 18, is serving time in a juvenile detention center. Once out, Roman finds a probation job at the municipal morgue in Vienna. One day, Roman is faced with a dead woman who bears his family name. For the first time, Roman wonders about his past and starts looking for his mother.
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE by Sean Durkin (USA)
Martha attempts to reclaim a normal life after fleeing from a cult. Seeking help from her estranged older sister, she is unable and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance. When her memories trigger a chilling paranoia, the line between Martha's reality and delusion begins to blur.
FOLGE MIR by Johannes Hammel (Austria)
Mrs. Blumenthal lives with her husband and both her sons in a bleak, dockside neighbourhood. She develops an intense social phobia, caused by her worries about the severe accident suffered by her oldest son, Roman. It becomes impossible for her to mix with people and she increasingly barricades herself and her family in their dark apartment, plagued by hallucinations, memories and agoraphobia.
HISTORIAS by Julia Murat (Brazil/Argentine/France)
Time stopped many years ago for Madalena and the remote village of Joutuomba where she lives alone with the memory of her dead husband. But when young photographer, Rita, arrives on scene, her life becomes more cheerful.
VOLCANO by Rúnar Rúnarsson (Iceland)
When Hannes retires from his job as a janitor the void that is the rest of his life begins. He is estranged from his family, hardly has any friends and the relationship to his wife has faded. Through drastic events, Hannes realises that he has to adjust his life in order to help someone he loves.
FEAR OF FALLING by Bartosz Konopka (Poland)
Tomek (30) left the province and decided to sort out his life in the big city. He has a career as a TV reporter and has just started a family when his father is admitted to a psychiatric hospital in his home town. Tomek decides to reach out to his father, although they haven’t seen each other for years.
OSLO, 31. AUGUST by Joachim Trier (Norway)
Anders will soon complete his drug rehabilitation. He is allowed to go into the city for a job interview. But he stays on, drifting around, meeting people from his past. Deeply haunted by all the opportunities he has wasted and the people he has let down, he ponders the possibility of a new future by morning.
HABIBI by Susan Youssef (Palestine)
In the first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years, two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town. Habibi is a modern re-telling of the famous ancient Sufi parable Majnun Layla.
ADALBERT'S DREAM by Gabriel Achim (Romania)
A work accident is re‐enacted, but the re‐enactment turns into a new accident: the worker playing the victim gets his hand cut off, as well. This latest triumph of the Romanian New Wave is set against the backdrop of Romania’s victory of Steaua Bucharest over Barcelona during the 1986 European Cup Final.