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Fernando Coimbra: 'I'm really crazy about Shakespeare, and I read a lot of writers like Harold Bloom and other guys who write about his plays, and they all say that Macbeth specifically has this nightmarish feeling' Fernando Coimbra’s Carnival Is Over (Os Enforcados) offers a Shakespearean take on a crime thriller. It stars Irandhir Santos and Leandra Leal, as husband and wife Valerio and Regina, who upon inheriting a slice of their families dodgy gambling empire, start to plot to be king and queen not realising that the head that wears the crown is likely to be a lot more than uneasy. Framed in ways that emphasise elements of the carnival at its most subversive, Coimbra draws on Shakespearean plays, including Macbeth, while crafting something altogether twisty of his own. We caught up with the director after the film’s premiere at Toronto Film Festival, to talk about playing hard with the Bard,...

São Paulo production shingle Gullane, which is behind upcoming Netflix series “Senna,” has moved into development on a sequel to the animated feature “Noah’s Ark.”

Produced by Gullane and Walter Salles’ Videofilmes, “Noah’s Ark” has been sold to 45 countries by Edward Noeltner’s Cmg Management. It has grossed $4.25 million in territories in which it’s been released.

Imagem Filmes will bow “Noah’s Ark” in Brazil on more than 1,000 screens, a huge spreading a country of 3,300 screens. Rodrigo Santoro, Alice Braga and Julio Andrade feature among a Brazilian star-studded voice cast. It looks like the biggest release ever of a Brazilian movie in Brazil, Fabiano Gullane told Variety from Toronto, where the company is world premiering Fernando Coimbra’s “Carnival Is Over.”

“Noah’s Ark” was inspired by classic children’s songs by Bossa Nova pioneer Vinicius de Moraes. The 3D animated feature focuses on two male mice, Vini and Tito, who steal onto Noah’s ark,...

Italian indie producer Vivo Film has boarded André Ristum’s action drama “Tecnicamente Dolce” (“Technically Sweet”), based on a screenplay by Italian legend Michelangelo Antonioni, teaming with Gullane Filmes, Brazil’s biggest independent film production house.

The news comes as “Carnival Is Over,” the awaited thriller drama by “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra, whose “A Wolf at the Door” was one of the standout Brazilian feature debuts of the last decade, has now entered post-production, shaping up as one of the big arthouse titles to hit festivals from Brazil next year.

Featuring Leandra Leal (“A Wolf at the Door”), Pêpê Rapazote (“Narcos”) and Irandhir Santos (“Tropa de Elite 2”), “Carnival” is a Brazilian-Portuguese co-production that teams Gullane with Fado Filmes, Videodrome, Globo Filmes and Telecine, in association with Tc Filmes. France’s Playtime has started to pre-sell the film.

“This movie is our main title for next year. This is the...

Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”

“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.

“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...

It’s a classic plot: throw some morally questionable people into a dire situation and see who goes carnal first. When approached poorly, these stories can be among the ugliest and dullest in cinema. But when explored from angles of character and raw desire and desperation, there are wealths of dark truths to unleash. Recently shown at the Fantasia International Film Festival, Gabriela Amaral Almeida’s debut feature film, Friendly Beast (aka O Animal Cordial) fiercely proves the latter point.

The cruelties are petty at first, as they usually are. Coldly charming Inácio, owner of a high-end but unpopular restaurant, forces his cook Djair and spineless waitress Sara to stay late for two new customers. Anyone who has ever worked in food service will recognize their behavior—the proud tearing down of the wait staff, nitpicking at each other until any number of people are ready to snap. When two...

Title: Aquarius Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho Starring: Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrão and Soraide Coleto The movie acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival, ‘Aquarius,’ discusses an incredibly timely topic: the way real estate investments will stop at nothing to speculate. The Brazilian drama, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, has a majestically intense Sonia Braga bringing to life the story of Clara, the last resident of Aquarius building who refuses to sell her apartment to a construction company that intends to replace it with a new edifice. She is a strong, dignified, self-sufficient woman who has contrasted cancer all her life. She is a fighter and does not [ Read More ]

The post Aquarius Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Sônia Braga with her Aquarius director Kleber Mendonça Filho Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Aquarius stars a magnificent Sônia Braga with Thaia Perez, Maeve Jinkings (Gabriel Mascaro's Neon Bull), Humberto Carrão, Irandhir Santos (Neighboring Sounds with Jinkings), Zoraide Coleto, Paula De Renor, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira, and Barbara Colen.

Kleber Mendonça Filho talks to me about Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick in Alexander Payne's Election, John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann links, the madeleines, colours, creating the perfect tactile version of a childhood memory, and Diego as the international evil.

Sônia Braga as Clara

Aquarius begins with a get-together in 1980. A large family celebrates the birthday of Aunt Lucía (Thaia Perez), an elegant woman in a pink suit who has led a full active life and smiles benevolently at the children's attempt to honour her by containing her in a nutshell. We get a...

Sonia Braga as Clara in Aquarius. Photo credit: Victor Jucá / CinemaScópio © 2016

Sonia Braga is marvelous as Clara, an iron-willed 65-year-old retired music critic who refuses to be forced out of her seaside condo by a developer planning to replace her aging building with a luxury high-rise, in the Brazilian drama Aquarius.

Aquarius is the name of the apartment building in Recife, Brazil, where Clara lives, as well as director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s drama. The developer plans to demolish the iconic mid-century Aquarius and replace it with a high-priced luxury condo building, as has been done other older buildings in this prime beachfront location. The company has bought all the other units in the building and only Clara now remains.

Braga looks, by turns, weathered, strong, vulnerable and still sexy, as this fierce, complicated woman. Director Filho gives Braga the space to round out this multilayered character, creating a moving,...

Aquarius Vitagraph Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B- Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho Written by: Kleber Mendonça Filho Cast: Sônia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Bárbara Colen, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrão, Zoraide Coleto Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/26/16 Opens: October 14, 2016 If you did not know that “Aquarius” was made before Donald Trump’s campaign heated up, you might swear that the film is a thinly veiled satire aimed at the Republican nominee. In 1986, after a five-year struggle to avoid eviction, tenants of a 15-story building on New York’s Central Park South owned by Trump won the right to stay in their rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments. The tenants are [ Read More ]

The post Aquarius Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Aquarius producer Emilie Lesclaux and director Kleber Mendonça Filho with Anne-Katrin Titze in the Museum of Modern Art sculpture garden for Neighboring Sounds Photo: Jytte Jensen

Kleber Mendonça Filho's volatile ode to the private and the public, stars Sônia Braga with Thaia Perez, Maeve Jinkings, Humberto Carrão, Irandhir Santos, Zoraide Coleto, Paula De Renor, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira, and Barbara Colen.

Before the Us premiere at the New York Film Festival, the director/writer and I spoke about Brazilian society, outside/inside, Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick in Alexander Payne's Election, shooting wide, sense of place, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann associations and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy, the ever present madeleines, creating the perfect tactile version of a childhood memory, and Diego as the international evil in Aquarius.

Sônia Braga as Clara: "That's where she lives, that's where she has lived and that's what she is trying to keep.

Aquarius

Director: Kleber Mendonca Filho

Writer: Kleber Mendoca Filho

We’ve been patiently awaiting for the sophomore effort from Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho ever since his excellent 2012 debut, Neighboring Sounds, which premiered at Rotterdam and went on to sweep up a number of awards and nominations during its festival run. He’s been developing two projects at the same time, both with elements of science fiction. While Bacurau will film next, Filho is finally in post-production on Aquarius, which concerns the 65-year-old Clara (Sonia Braga), a retired music writer and critic, widowed and alone in the apartment building Aquarius after her three grown children have moved away. Oh, and she’s mastered the gift of time travel.

Cast: Sonia Braga, Jeff Rosick, Irandhir Santos, Maeve Jinkings

Production Co.: CinemaScopio Producoes, Sbs Productions

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic). Tbd (international).

Release Date: Reportedly, Filho has hundreds of...

The Friendly Animal

Director: Gabriela Amaral Almeida

Writer: Gabriela Amaral Almeida

In a continuing surge of up-and-coming Brazilian filmmakers is writer Gabriela Amaral Almeida. After directing several of her own short films and writing several screenplays (including Marco Dutra’s When I Was Alive), she’s completed her first feature, The Friendly Animal, which has been described by the producer as brutal and violent, focusing on a restaurant owner who turns the tables on an attacker, and with the help of his staff, ends up holding everyone inside hostage. Descriptions of the film promised “primitive instincts will be aroused.”

Cast: Murilo Benicio, Luciana Paes, Irandhir Santos

Production Co./Producer(s): Rt Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira

U.S. Distributor: Rights available. Tbd (domestic/international)

ReleaseDate: Almeida’s debut has been announced as being ready in time for Cannes, and from the sounds of it, we expect Almeida to be a hot topic,...

Exclusive: Us-based FiGa Films has lined up a Cannes slate that includes Paz Fabrega’s Tribeca 2015 selection Viaje and Berlin entry The Fire from Juan Schnitman.

Kattia Gonzalez and Fernando Bolanos star in Viaje, which marks the Costa Rican Fabrega’s second film and centres on a casual encounter.

The Fire (El Incendio) stars Pilar Gambo and Juan Barberini and tells of a couple whose love is tested during a tense attempt to buy a home.

FiGa, which as of June 1 will relocate from Los Angeles and Florida, will also tout Berlin selection and rites-of-passage drama Seashore (Beira Mar) from Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon and stars Mateus Almada and Mauricio Jose Barcellos.

Gregoria Graziosi’s Brazilian drama Obra (pictured) premiered in Toronto last year and stars Irandhir Santos, Lola Peploe and Julio Andrade.

Thriller I Swear I’ll Leave This Town (Prometo Um Dia Deixar Essa Cidade) from Daniel Aragao launched at the Rio de Janeiro...

Name and focus changes for every section, which are now all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

The ninth Rome Film Festival (Oct 16-25) has revealed a diverse line-up including the Italian premieres for potential awards contenders including David Fincher’s Gone Girl. the world premiere of Takashi Miike’s As the Gods Will and Burhan Qurbani’s We are Young, We are Strong and European premiere of Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind, Toronto hit Still Alice and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.

This year for the first time the award-winners in each section of the programme will be decided by the audience on the basis of votes cast after the screenings.

Each section has changed name and focus for 2014 and are all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

Italian comedies Soap Opera and Andiamo a Quel Paese bookend the line-up.

Full line-up

Cinema D’Oggi

World premiere

• Angely...

'The Way He Looks' movie: Gay teen love story is Brazil's entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (photo: Fábio Audi and Ghilherme Lobo in 'The Way He Looks') In mid-September, The Way He Looks / Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho was selected as Brazil's entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Written and directed by 32-year-old São Paulo native Daniel Ribeiro, The Way He Looks (the Portuguese-language title literally means "Today I Want to Go Back Alone") won two awards at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival: the International Film Critics' Fipresci Prize for Best Film in the Panorama sidebar and the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender characters. Based on Ribeiro's 2010 short I Don't Want to Go Back Alone / Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho, The Way He Looks tells the story of Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo), a blind 15-year-old struggling to become...

The lineups for the Mavericks, Discovery, and Tiff Kids parts of the Toronto Film Festival were announced, wrapping up a series of lineup announcements for the Toronto International Film Festival.

With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.

The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...

Bill Murray is coming to Toronto folks. Actually, the film he stars in (Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent) is having its official World Premiere launch at the jaw-dropping 285 feature film 2014 Tiff line-up. In the final batch of items we finally get the confirmation that 2014′s Palme d’Or Winner Winter Sleep (which gets added along with a trio of others to the Masters Programme) will show, and Tomm Moore’s highly anticipated Song of the Sea (among the four item line-up for Tiff Kids) also lands. Worth mentioning are the sprinkling of add-ons to the various other sections (Marjane Satrapi’s Sundance preemed The Voices, Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank and the world preem of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers) with a Studio Ghibli docu item being fitted into the Tiff Docs, but it is the Discovery Programme that finally takes shape.

The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...

In a couple weeks soccer fans will set their sights on the South American country. Just before the ball starts rolling, there is an opportunity to see a different form of Brazilian expression off the field. The 12th Brazilian Film Festival of New York will screen a varied selection of features and shorts, which provide a concise but powerful look at the state of the country’s cinema and the issues that intrigue its filmmakers. Being Brazil a country in constant transition, the films also bear the array of concerns and experiences that define the current Brazilian society. Revisiting the years of the dictatorship, touching on environmental problems, or simply focusing on the lives of regular citizens, this selection of films continues to present unique Brazilian visions that transcend their local contexts to offer engaging stories to international audiences. Presented Inffinito Festival Circuit the festival runs June 1 -7 at Tribeca Cinemas. These are some of the highlights

A Wolf at the Door

Dir. Fernando Coimbra

A marvelously calculated mystery ignited by a woman’s disenchanted with her unlawful romantic relationship. Passion that evolves into maniacal obsession is rarely compelling on its own, but in this slow-burning drama the subtle exposition hides a shocking conclusion. When a young girl is kidnapped from her school, the investigation to find her reveals the terrifying shades of evil that hide under benevolent actions. Astutely written to drag the viewer through the story several times until the gruesome truth is unveiled, this is one of the best Brazilian films to reach American shores in recent years. Leandra Leal’s performance as Rosa is chillingly nuanced, definitely a highlight of this extraordinary debut by writer/director Fernando Coimbra. If you only see one film at the festival, this is the one to choose. Full review coming soon.

Tattoo

Dir. Hilton Lacerda

Sexual liberation and political rebellion went hand in hand in Brazil during the late 70s. Opposing a repressive dictatorship that tried to further marginalize them, a group of Lgbt theater artists known as “Start-Spangled Floor” performs satirical and sexually explicit numbers that mock the government in a sophisticated fashion. At the center of the irreverent songs and extravagant costumes is the romance between the group’s leader Clécio (Irandhir Santos) and a young soldier, Fininho ( Jesuita Barbosa) who struggles with his sexuality. Interestingly arranged to serve both as a coming-of-age story and an experimental quest for justice, Tattoo is a visually inventive work that capitalizes on its vibrant ensemble cast. They give life to a group of misfits who advocate for love, pleasure, and the abolishment of ownership – even that of a monogamous relationship.

The invisible Collection

Dir. Bernard Attal

After serendipitously escaping an accident that kills all of his friends, Beto (Vladimir Brichta), a young womanizing DJ, is faced with an insufferable guilt that pushes him to change his life. Needing to make money by new means, he decides to go in a quest to find several rare art works sold by his father – an art dealer – to an eccentric collector in the countryside many years ago. Underneath the utterly familiar premise of a fish-out-of-water trying to rediscover himself, there are interesting ideas about class and environmental devastation. In his relentless mission to obtain these valuable items for his personal gain, Beto will be faced with an unexpected twist that will test his ability to feel compassion for others.

Meeting Sebastião Salgado

Dir. Betse De Paula

Part activist, part photographer, but 100% globe trekker, Brazilian economist turned artist Sebastiao Salgado revisits his adventurous career via the images he captured. In this extensive conversation, the lover of the light discusses subjects that range from the tyrannical government that ruled Brazil in the past, adapting to extreme weather around the world, and how the new digital technology has affected his creative process. More than a comprehensive documentary about his life, the film is simply crafted as a conversation with Salgado intercutting some of his most memorable photographs. Although not incredibly revelatory, the film does a great job at showcasing his work and highlighting his unique journey.

Rio of Faith

Dir. Carlos Diegues

This docu-diary encapsulates the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. The event brought thousands of Catholic teens from every corner of the planet eager to receive a message of hope from Pope Francis. Following the pilgrimage of these devoted young men and women, one learns of the diverse motivations and perspectives all of which connect in one place. A crucial element is the fact that the filmmaker includes the voice of the Lgbt and atheist community in the conversation. Their conflicted relationship with a religious institution that has often exclude them is important to understand the place of Catholicism in today's world. Surprisingly, the film is less about the Pope as an omnipotent figure, and more about the youth that still considers religion as the best path to navigate their complex modern lives.

Neighboring Sounds, Brazil's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : The Cinema Guild. International Sales Agent: FiGa Films

Sound is a noble entity. It disregards the immense efforts people carry out to create separation. Walls, doors, windows, and all other material boundaries set in place to protect privacy or dictate who or what is allowed to enter a certain space. They are however absolutely no match, and are bypassed by the sneaky intangible, but very present, waves of sound. Staying loyal to its self-explanatory title, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds is a sensorial exploration of the mundane. It pretends to be a story about the rational and circumstantial interactions of a group living in an affluent community in Recife, Brazil, yet, its underlying story about the consequences of the past is pristine and solidly delivered by the ensemble cast.

Intending to depict varied experiences within the same context, the filmmaker has carefully chosen an array of subjects from different walks of life which coexist in this exclusive realm of which they form a part. Enjoying the stability that old money provides, João (Gustavo Jahn) is the grandson of prominent millionaire Mr. Francisco (W.J. Solha) who claims ownership to several of the apartment complexes in the area. Unlike the arrogant patriarch, João shows a friendly and grateful demeanor towards those below him, including his maid Maria whom he treats like family. In the same prosperous manner, Bia (Maeve Jinkings) is a mother of two whose biggest banal concern is how to stop the neighbor’s dog from barking. For all its seeming insignificance, it becomes her sole purpose in life. Lastly, the other group in focus are the recently assimilated security guards for hire, spearheaded by Clodoaldo (Irandhir Santos) who have come to this tightly knit micro-society to protect the tenants from petty theft. Despite the seemingly unperturbed ambiance in which everyone lives, dark motives and vendettas are disguised by the noisy nights and hypocritical repentance.

Voyeuristic in its approach, the camera hides behind the divisive surfaces and observes meticulously all the trivial occurrences that compose this urban intersection of dramas. Piercingly moody, the sound design emphasizes the layers of suspenseful atmosphere and acquires esoteric qualities which direct the narrative away from the simple exposition of situations and into the territory of experimental artistry. The film additionally uses the organic inclusion of dream sequences which rather than disconnecting the viewer from the factual setting that this concrete urban ecosystem embodies, serve to grant a different understanding of the fears and remorse the characters hide internally.

Inside the walls of these opulent living spaces, there is an unspoken discrepancy between those with enough acquisitive power to pay servitude and those forced to be servants as only source of income. Classist as most societies in developing countries, grudges and revenge plots have been brewing for a very long time between those at both ends of the spectrum. In this cinematic creation by a superb new Brazilian voice, those callings for payback might finally receive justice. Whether or not Mr. Francisco can fully comprehend the antagonistic behavior Clodoaldo and his minions exhibit or the obscure, almost intrusive, way in which they became part of the neighborhood, the past will catch up with him sooner rather than later. On his own terms, João vividly experiences the residual guilt passed down through generations literally soaked in the blood of the family’s invisible victims. Clever and bold, everything that happens on the screen is there not precisely to advance the plot into a defined direction, but to create a nerve-racking tension based on how ordinary it all looks.

Genuinely interested in telling stories far from the commonplace favela-dwelling tragedies, Mendonça Filho creates a fascinating study of the Brazilian upper-middle class, embellishing it with an abstract mix of surrealist nightmares and the more than noticeable auditory palette, Neighboring Sounds, the visionary director’s first feature, is one of the most audacious debuts in a long time, and surely one of the most original works of the year. All the restless barking, pounding drums, and the loud vibrations from a sexualized washing machine, tend to, ironically, convey more visual commentary than straightforward imagery could ever do.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

One of the year's best so far, Brazilian film critic-turned-director Kleber Mendonça Filho's festival favourite Neighbouring Sounds (O Som ao Redor, 2012) arrives on DVD this Monday (24 June) following a limited theatrical release back in March. Starring Irandhir Santos and Gustavo Jahn, and set within a closed-off residential community in the northern coastal city of Recife, Neighbouring Sounds' offers up a complex narrative as lives intertwine and old feuds resurface. To celebrate, we have Three DVD copies of the film to give away. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.

Life in a middle-class neighbourhood in present day Recife, Brazil, takes an unexpected turn after the arrival of an independent private security firm. The presence of these men brings a sense of safety and a good...

People Talking Without Speaking: Mendonca Filho’s Ensemble a Pleasant Din

There’s something extremely engrossing about Kleber Mendonca Filho’s episodic feature debut, Neighboring Sounds, a film that uses the lives of a group of people from one neighborhood in Recife, Brazil as a microcosm reflecting class disparities, that, in turn, echo a greater societal rift about how and what they’re keeping themselves safe from. Certainly, there are a lot of stories to tell, and while Filho, also a critic and writer, has limited his intersecting slices, there still may be a touch too much going on, with time unwisely spent on tangents that could have been spent on his more visceral angles.

During a rash of car burglaries in an upscale neighborhood of Recife, we meet several of the citizens, all currently enmeshed in their own lives and annoyed more than afraid at the current state of...

More from the Latino scene from our woman in L.A., free lance festival programmer extraordinaire, Christine Davila, from her blog Chicana from Chicago:

Looking at yesterday’s announcement of Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival reveals a healthy Latino presence among the 62 features and 48 short films in the program. Here’s how I break down the Latino/ Ibero/ U.S. Latino component of the program.

Chile continues to give Argentina a run for its cache of exciting and growing cinematic output from South America with the inclusion of Thursday Til Sunday (Isa & Distributor: FiGa) written and directed by Dominga Sotomayor ♀, in Narrative Competition.

Although the traveling Mexican film festival Ambulante is no longer a program spotlight, Mexican films continue to be a mainstay of the festival. There are four feature-length films and three short films from/about Mexico. In Narrative Competition, The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man (Isa: Kafilms, Argentina) written and directed by Arturo Pons [about a young Mexican aiming for Chicago], and in Documentary Competition, Drought by Everado González (recently awarded Best Documentary at FICG27) . Out of competition is the gorgeously shot documentary, Canícula, and although the funding is mainly stateside, Bernardo Ruiz paints a fascinating portrait of the risky journalistic practice and history of the seminal Tijuana weekly, Zeta in Reportero.

Also of note in the program is that four short films list Cuba as a co-production/origin of country.

But what of the U.S. Latino filmmakers and stories? Last year Los Angeles Film Festival was a great launchpad for Mamitas (Distributor: ScreenMedia, Producer rep: Traction Media), an authentic Chicano portrayal of young love set in Echo Parque written and directed by Nicolas Ozeki (a non-Latino), co-starring fast rising hot talents Veronica Diaz-Carranzo (Blaze You Out) and E.J. Bonilla. The film is currently in theaters now. (Big recommend,theater listings here-go support it!)

The closest we have to representing U.S. Latino in the features section is Four, the feature debut of Joshua Sanchez who hails from Houston, Texas. Based on a Christopher Shinn play, the July 4th-eve-set story is a snapshot of two disparate relationships tensely intertwined and their at-odd dynamics of desire. Coincidentally, E.J. Bonilla also stars (this guy is blowing up!). I would also include as U.S. Latino, Searching for Sugar Man, the documentary by Malik Bendjelloul about singer songwriter Sixto Rodriguez’s fascinating rise and fall into obscurity as a Uj.S. Latino story. As a matter of fact, the film seems to suggest that perhaps Sixto’s Mexican-American identity might have been a reason he was not embraced by the 60s and 70s mainstream. [Per Sydney: The film was snatched up at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics and by Isa Protagonist who is screening it twice in Cannes.]

As for U.S. Latino shorts, Fireworks written and directed by Victor Hugo Duran, which is also incidentally centered around 4th of July, is an L.A. set story about boys trying to rap on girls.

My favorite Miami based hooligans, Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva, keep representing with their fresh and experimental short film, Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke. They are part of a collective of go-there filmmakers, Borscht Corp who had four crazy shorts screen at SXSW (and they were a riot to bootie shake dance with at SXSW Film’s Closing Night Party). You must carve out an hour and look at their work on the site (Nsfw!)

And lastly, in front of camera there’s some America Ferrera in Todd Berger’s It’s a Disaster (Isa: Maya), and rising boriqua actress April Hernandez Castillo, of hit webseries East Willy B, Dexter and other TV, is in The History of Future Folk [Per Sydney: one of 7 horror films in the festival, another being It's A Disaster per Dread Central, so take note Latino distributors like Lionsgate because horror films are a favorite of a certain Latino demographic!] by J. Anderson Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker, described as a “sweet sci-fi musical comedy”. Below is the rest of the Latino and Ibero-American (includes Spain and Portugal). Descriptions provided by L.A. Film Festival, and bold cap commentary by me.

Narrative Competition:

o All Is Well – Portugal (Director Pocas Pascoal ♀, Producer Luis Correia Cast Cheila Lima, Ciomara Morais) – Strangers in a strange land, two beautiful Angolan sisters fleeing a civil war in their homeland struggle to survive in Lisbon. Pocas Pascoal’s deeply personal saga shows us the face of exile with quietly stunning power. North American Premiere

o The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man – Mexico (Director/Writer Arturo Pons Producer Ozcar Ramírez González Cast Gael Sanchez Valle, Pedro Gamez, Ana Ofelia Murguía, Eligio Melendez, Luis Bayardo, Marco Perez) – A young man and a dead man journey north through a subtly surreal desert landscape, picking up a wagonful of odd characters as they go in this darkly humorous satire of contemporary Mexico. North American Premiere

o Four – (Director/Writer Joshua Sanchez Producer Christine Giorgio Cast Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, E.J. Bonilla) – Over the course of a steamy 4th of July night, a father and daughter, each trapped in loneliness, reach out for sexual connection — he with a self-hating teenage boy, she with a smooth-talking wannabe homeboy — in this psychologically complex, beautifully acted drama. World Premiere

o Thursday till Sunday – Chile (Director/Writer Dominga Sotomayor ♀ Producers Gregorio González, Benjamin Domenech Cast Santi Ahumada, Emiliano Freifeld, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paola Giannini) – With uncommon beauty and style, this Chilean road movie finds a family at a crossroads, as the daughter slowly realizes the divide between the adults in the front seat and the kids in back. North American Premiere

Documentary Competition:

o Drought – Mexico (Director Everado González Producer Martha Orozco) – Contrasting the lives of a cattle-ranching community with the arid northeastern Mexican landscape that surrounds them, this cinema vertité documentary paints a poetic portrait of a community on the verge of extinction. Us Premiere

o Sun Kissed – (Directors Maya Stark ♀, Adi Lavy ♀ Producers Jocelyn Glatzer, Maya Stark, Adi Lavy) – With remarkable strength of spirit, a husband and wife examine their lives and why their children and others have been struck with a rare genetic disorder in this powerful portrait of a small Navajo community. World Premiere ~ Okay Not Latino But It'S Native American So I’M Giving It A Shout Since There Are Not Enough Native American Stories.

International Showcase:

o Canícula – Mexico (Director José Álvarez Writers Sebastián Hoffman, José Álvarez Producer Mauricio Fabre Cast Hermelinda Santes, Esteban González, Mario García) – This is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of the rituals and crafts of contemporary Indians in remote Veracruz, who teach their boys to fly. ~ See My Interview With Jose Here.

o The Last Elvis – Argentina (Director Armando Bo Writers Armando Bo, Nicolás Giacobone Producers Steve Golin, Hugo Sigman, Patricio Alvarez Casado, Victor Bo, Armando Bo Cast John McInerny, Griselda Siciliani, Margarita Lopez) – John McInerny gives a staggering performance in this poignant tale of a Buenos Aires Elvis impersonator who only comes alive when he dons the King’s clothes to perform. How can he reconcile his dreams of glory with his dead end factory job and an estranged wife and daughter who can’t live inside his fantasies?

o Neighboring Sounds – Brazil (Director/Writer Kleber Mendonça Filho Producer Emilie Lesclaux Cast Irandhir Santos, Gustavo Jahn, Maeve Jinkings, W.J. Solha) – Kleber Mendonca Filho’s astonishing, suspenseful debut film focuses on one upscale street in the seaside town of Recife, where a private security team is enlisted to protect the residents from crime. By its startling conclusion, you feel you’ve seen all of Brazilian society exposed.

o The Strawberry Tree – Canada/Cuba/Italy (Director/Producer Simone Rapisarda Casanova) – Filmed in a small Cuban fishing village mere weeks before a hurricane decimated the entire region, this stunning documentary unknowingly captures the town’s final days even as it reframes the usual filmmaker-film subject relationship.

Summer Showcase:

o La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus – USA/Guatemala (Director Mark Kendall Producers Mark Kendall, Rafael González, Bernardo Ruiz) – The journey and transformation of a yellow American school bus into a vibrant Central American camionetasensitively reveals both the beauty and violence of everyday life in Guatemala.

o Reportero – (Director Bernardo Ruiz Producers Bernardo Ruiz, Patricia Benabe, Anne Hubbell Featuring Sergio Haro Cordero, Adela Navarro Bello) – A look at the incredible danger facing journalists in Mexico through the eyes of investigative reporter Sergio Haro and other staff at Zeta, the defiant Tijuana-based newsweekly.~ See My Interview With Bernardo Here

o Searching for Sugar Man – (Director/Writer Malik Bendjelloul Producers Simon Chinn, Nicole Stott, George Chignell) – Years after fading into obscurity at home, the music of ’70s U.S. singer/songwriter Rodriguez became an underground sensation in South Africa. Decades after his disappearance, two fans uncover the startling truth behind the legend.

Beyond:

o Juan of the Dead – Cuba (Director/Writer Alejandro Brugués Producers Gervasio Iglesias, Inti Herrera Cast Alexis Días de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Andrea Duro, Andros Perugorría, Jazz Vila, Eliecer Ramírez) – The streets of Havana are alive with the undead in Cuba’s first zombie comedy, a wild and bloody romp that sinks its sharp satirical teeth into the Cuban body politic. Castro may not be amused, but you will be.

Short Film Competition:

Against the Sea (Contra el mar) – Mexico, USA (Director) Richard Parkin

Black Doll (Prita Noire) – Mexico (Director) Sofia Carrillo

Kendo Monogatari – Cuba, Guatemala (Director) Fabián Suárez

Scanning (Ecografía) – Cuba (Director) Aleksandra Maciuszek Mukoid

Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke – (Directors) Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva ~Crazy Talented! Miami Represent!

Fireworks – (Director) Victor Hugo Duran -

Kendo Monogatari – Cuba, Guatemala (Director) Fabián Suárez

Paraíso – (Director) Nadav Kurtz ~Doc Subject Is About 3 Mexicans

Scanning (Ecografía) – Cuba (Director) Aleksandra Maciuszek Mukoid

Voice Over – Spain (Director) Martín Rosete

For full lineup and more info go to L.A. Film Festival...

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within Directed by: Jose Padilha Written by: Braulio Mantovani, Jose Padilha, Rodrigo Pimentel Starring: Wagner Moura, Andre Ramiro, Sandro Rocha, Irandhir Santos, Milhem Cortaz, Maria Ribeiro, Taina Muller, Seu Jorge Years before Incredible Hulk and Fast Five reduced Rio to nothing more than a cool backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters, Fernando Meirelles' groundbreaking film City of God introduced many of us to life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Five years later, City of God screenwriter Braulio Mantovani teamed up with documentary filmmaker Jose Padilha for another intense film that took took things to a new level of grittiness: Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite). Although the movie didn't attract as much attention internationally, it was a massive hit within Brazil, creating massive demand for a sequel. Rather than churn out a quick and easy cash grab, however, Mantovani and Padilha crafted a follow-up that is...

Title: Elite Squad: The Enemy Within Director: José Padilha Cast: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro and Seu Jorge Running Time: 115 minutes, Rated R, Also available on Blu-ray, Digital and Video On-Demand It’s been a really long time since America has made a great crime drama. It really seems like most great crime genre films I see are foreign. There are movies like Miss Bala (Mexico), Bullhead (Belgium) and Snowtown (Australia) that take more of a deeper look of their characters while at the same time delivering mind-blowing action and excitement. But taking this approach isn’t the only way to do the crime genre correctly. There are movies like...

"Elite Squad: The Enemy Within", the 2010 sequel to the 2007 Brazilian action feature "The Elite Squad", produced and directed by José Padilha, will be available from Vvs Films, on Blu-ray and DVD, February 14, 2012.

The sequel is a continuation of the semi-fictional account of the 'Bope' (Portuguese: 'Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais'), aka the 'Special Police Operations Battalion' of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police, with a focus on the relationship between law enforcement and politics :

"...set thirteen years after the events of the first film, 'The Enemy Within' focuses on former captain and now 'Lt. Col. Roberto Nascimento', who, after a disastrous 'Bope' operation during a prison riot, gets caught in a bloody political dispute that involves not only the 'Public Safety Department', the State governor and State Military Police, but also paramilitary groups known as 'milícias'.

"Nascimento also has family issues, with his now adolescent son...

Title: Elite Squad: The Enemy Within Director: Jose Padilha Starring: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, Andre Ramiro, Pedro Van Held, Maria Ribiero, Sandro Rocha, Milhem Cortaz, Andre Mattos, Seu Jorge A sprawling tale of power, sleaze and ambition in the vein of “City of God,” ”The Departed,” “Infernal Affairs” and “The Wire,” writer-director Jose Padilha’s “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within” is a howling, labyrinthine lament against the brawn and fraudulent self-protection of entrenched institutions that could and perhaps should well find a welcome audience amongst #OccupyWallStreet cineastes. Brazil’s official Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film submission, the movie — which is set in Rio de Janeiro and unfolds at the intersection of drugs, crime and high-level governmental corruption —...

Title: Elite Squad 2 Variance Films Grade: B- Directed By: José Padilla Written By: José Padilla Cast: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz, Seu Jorge Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 11/1/11 Opens: November 11, 2011 Sidney Lumet’s “Serpico” was the most exciting American police drama to come out of the 1970s. The title character is a cop who, unlike all of his colleagues, refuses a share of the drug money that the coups routinely extort from local criminals. Nobody wants to work with Serpico. His problem escalates when he testifies at a Grand Jury hearing about the corruption. The police lead him into a trap: he’s shot in...

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is directed by José Padilha and stars Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Maria Ribero, and Seu Jorge. Story: The sprawling favelas that surround Rio de Janeiro are some of the most dangerous places in the world… and it’s Captain Nascimento’s job to take down the gangs that run them. Although his methods are violent, he’s very good at his job. When he’s promoted to a powerful government position, he thinks he’ll finally be able to finish the job- but instead finds out that he’s only made things easier for the dirty cops and corrupt politicians that are truly running the show. From the director of Bus 174 and the Oscar-nominated writer of City Of God, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within will not only thrill you in the theater, but have you thinking after you leave. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within...

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within Trailer. José Padilha‘s Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010) movie trailer stars Wagner Moura, Seu Jorge, Tainá Müller, Irandhir Santos, and André Ramiro. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within‘s plot synopsis: “The sprawling favelas that surround Rio de Janeiro are some of the most dangerous places in the world… and it’s Captain Nascimento’s job to take down the gangs that run them. Although his methods are violent, he’s very good at his job. When he’s promoted to a powerful government position, he thinks he’ll finally be able to finish the job- but instead finds out that he’s only made things easier for the dirty cops and corrupt politicians that are truly running the show.

Nascimento faces a new enemy: the militias. To hit upon the system that dominates the Rio de Janeiro, he discovers that the problem is much bigger than he thought.

In the second of our global cinema series, Phil Hoad looks at how Brazilian films such as José Padilha's Elite Squad series sold gritty social commentary to Hollywood

When Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), José Padilha's film about Rio de Janeiro's infamous military-police unit, Bope, was released in 2007 the director found himself under siege. Many critics found its full-frontal assault on the issue of favela violence – baldly narrated by the trigger-happy Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) – too much to take. Variety dubbed it "a one-note celebration of violence-for-good", while Brazilian film critic Marcelo Janot said: "It's really dangerous when a film suggests that the fascist Bope methods are the only solution to 'clean' a city."

They'd probably take the dim view of Padilha's decision to make a sequel, with Nascimento, the Brazilian Dirty Harry, picking up where he left off: crouched behind a car under a storm of gunfire.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (12A)

(Rupert Wyatt, 2011, Us) James Franco, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis. 105 mins

Like X-Men: First Class, this expensive but empty effects vehicle is a lot of story-so-far bluster, never quite deciding whether it's leading up to the events of the 1968 original or the dire 2001 "reimagining". It's better than the latter, but sadly the story is as pasty as Franco's performance, playing a boffin who develops an antidote to Alzheimer's that works brilliantly on apes but has dire consequences for humanity. The effects are memorable; not much else is.

Project Nim (12A)

(James Marsh, 2011, UK) 99 mins

From the director of Man On Wire, this sad, disturbing documentary about an ineptly-run 70s science experiment to raise a chimpanzee as a human being works much better as a dystopian sci-fi fable than the big-budget Rise …

The Devil's Double (18)

(Lee Tamahori, 2011, Belg) Dominic Cooper,...

Calling all discerning cinema goers! We’ve got 5 pairs of tickets to a very exclusive London preview of Brazil’s greatest filmic export, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, next Thursday 11th August – the day before release.

Celebrated as ‘Breathless, brutal and thrilling, it’s a gut punch of an action movie’ by Empire, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is the sequal to the 2008 film, which depicted a graphic account of the corruption and brutality experienced by South America’s poorest communities. The movie comes from our friends at Revolver and is helmed by José Padilha with a cast including Wagner Moura​, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz, Maria Ribeiro and Seu Jorge​.

Wagner Moura is Captain Nascimento, commander-in-chief of Rio de Janeiro’s Bope (Special Police Operations Battalion), later promoted to sub-Secretary of Security for the State.

After a disastrous operation on a prison riot, Nascimento gets caught...

I’ve not heard of this movie before but with all the official selections and different mentions that appear on the trailer, it looks like it may be worth a watch. It comes from Revolver and is called Elite Squad: The Enemy Within and is helmed by José Padilha and stars Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz, Maria Ribeiro and Seu Jorge.

Wagner Moura is Captain Nascimento, commander-in-chief of Rio de Janeiro’s Bope (Special Police Operations Battalion), later promoted to sub-Secretary of Security for the State. After a disastrous operation on a prison riot, Nascimento gets caught in a bloody political dispute that involves not only government officials, but also deadly paramilitary groups known as the militias. Nascimento quickly emerges as victim of his own success – in tackling Rio’s drug gangs, he creates a vacuum filled by protection rackets supported by corrupt police.

Dismantling the...

Writers: José Padilha (screenplay and story), Bráulio Mantovani (screenplay and story), Rodrigo Pimentel (story)

Director: José Padilha

Cast: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz, Seu Jorge, Sandro Rocha, Maria Ribeiro

Jose Padilha’s Elite Squad films verge on national obsession in Brazil – Elite Squad 2 is the country’s highest-grossing film ever, Wagner Moura’s character of Roberto Nascimento is one of the most popular in existence (and, rightfully so, Moura is magnetic in the role), and some of the questions raised by the films have even started national discourse about the place of the police and the government within the country. Padilha has followed up 2007’s Elite Squad with Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within, a film that shows some of the unexpected (and bloody) changes to the Special Police Operations Battalion (Bope), ten years after audiences first met them. Having a working knowledge of its predecessor is...

Easily one of the best action films in recent years, Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within sets new standards in the action genre with a perfect mix of compelling drama and explosive violence. While it works well as a standalone thriller, it is best appreciated if viewed after seeing the original, Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear winner, Elite Squad. Set in Rio de Janeiro, it's been over a decade since the events in the first film. When Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura) orders an attack on the high-security Bangu 1 Prison, it becomes bloody and he gets accused of cold-blooded execution of prisoners by human rights advocate Diogo Fraga (Irandhir Santos). Through a series of events that are mostly out of their control, the lives...