 |  | | Detail View of Index of Films By Country | | | | | | Show for which Festival Series? | | | | | | | | | Country | Event Information | | | | | Argentina |  | Kamchatka ( Argentina, Spain, 2003, 104 min, Cinema of Our Time )
By telling the story of the 1976 Argentinean military coup through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy, the "disappearances" and horrors of the regime off-screen become all the more present and shocking in Marcelo Piñeyro's marvelously human and emotionally potent drama. | |  | Common Ground ( Argentina, 2003, 112 min, Cinema of Our Time )
For Fernando, a Buenos Aires professor in his 60s who feels he still has a lot to teach, enforced retirement comes as a shock. What makes matters worse is that the city is more broke than he is, so he and his wife (Mercedes Sampietro) head off to make a new life in the country. Federico Luppi stars and veteran Adolfo Aristaraín directs, just as they did in the sister film of this, A Place in the World, one of the most popular in VIFF history. | |  | I Don't Know What Your Eyes Have Done to Me ( Argentina, 2003, 64 min, Latin Music )
Unraveling the mystery of tango singer Ada Falcòn who retired in 1942 to live as a Franciscan and who refused to be photographed, give interviews or sing again, directors Sergio Wolf and Lorenzo Muñoz engage in an archeological reconstruction of her story and a compelling investigation of time. | |  | The Magic Gloves ( Argentina, France, Germany, 2003, 90 min, Cinema of Our Time )
Martín Rejtman's dark and droll social comedy unfolds in a degraded Buenos Aires where psychologically and/or economically depressed characters interact with an odd internal logic, and where changes from outside--porn actors from Canada or "magic gloves" from Hong Kong--provide the only glimmers of hope. | | | | | | | | | | Australia |  | Japanese Story ( Australia, 2003, 105 min, Cinema of Our Time )
In perhaps the best performance of her career, Toni Collette stars as an unfulfilled geologist who enters into an erotic relationship with a Japanese client in the Australian Outback. A powerful, finely observed drama from Sue Brooks (Road to Nhill, VIFF 97). | |  | Wildness ( Australia, 2003, 56 min, Nonfiction Features of 2003 )
Winner of the Audience Award for best documentary at the 2003 Sydney Film Festival, Scott Millwood's visually stunning film is an inspirational tribute to Tasmania's most recognized wilderness photographers, to the power of the image to catalyze public opinion and raise environmental consciousness, and a moving document about that wild land itself. | | | | | | | | | | Austria |  | Donau, Duna, Dunaj ( Austria, 2003, 90 min, Cinema of Our Time )
Goran Rebic's modern odyssey is a dramtic fairy-tale of a movie. Together with old captain Franz and his rusty boat, a diverse mix of people (including Wings of Desire's Otto Sandor) with various motives flees down the Danube towards the Black Sea. | |  | Struggle ( Austria, 2003, 74 min, Cinema of Our Time )
Reminiscent of Ulrich Seidl's Dog Days for its unsparing, gimlet-eyed view of humanity, Ruth Mader's debut follows the fate of a poor Polish worker (and mother) in Austria and contrasts it with that of a pudgy, middle-aged real estate agent unable to connect with his daughter. | |  | No Rest for the Brave ( Austria, France, 2003, 104 min, Spotlight on France )
The live-action, rural French answer to Waking Life, Alain Guiraudie's brightly coloured debut is the offbeat, neo-surrealist work of a maverick in the making. Convinced he will die the next time he falls asleep, young Basile (or is he Hector?) embarks on a series of absurd adventures, chased by Johnny Gott, amateur photographer and detective. | |  | Fuse ( Austria, Bosnia, France, Turkey, 2003, 105 min, Cinema of Our Time )
Can a democracy be built in seven days? In Pjer Zalica's tragic comedy on the bitter peace of Bosnia, the town of Tesanj goes crazy trying to rid itself of crime, ethnic intolerance and total corruption in preparation for a ceremonial visit by US President Bill Clinton to accept the honour of becoming the municipality's "godfather." | |  | Free Radicals ( Austria, 2003, 120 min, Cinema of Our Time )
In her second feature, wildly talented filmmaker Barbara Albert tackles an ambitious subject, chaos theory, and applies it to the daily lives of the interdependent inhabitants of a small Austrian town, forging a gripping, Fassbinderian film about life, death and the meaning of it all. | | | | | | | | | | Belgium |  | Resist ( Belgium, Germany, 2003, 90 min, Nonfiction Features of 2003 )
In a vibrant and relevant document of the work of the New York-based Living Theatre, Dirk Szuszies (The Last Mahadevi, VIFF 00) reveals revolutionary artists committed to theatre as a catalyst for social change, and pays tribute to company founders Julien Beck & Judith Malina. | |  | Any Way the Wind Blows ( Belgium, 2003, 127 min, Cinema of Our Time )
As a sweltering June Friday unfolds to a killer soundtrack, eight characters dream of alternative realities and pine for the weekend. Belgian musician Tom Barman's ambitious debut captures all the comedy and drama of life in Antwerp--family crises, house parties, alternative art, and let's not forget the Windman... | |  | The Decomposition of the Soul ( Belgium, 2003, 80 min, Nonfiction Features of 2003 )
In a chilling nonfiction feature debut, Nina Toussaint and Massimo Iannetta fill the now empty former Ministry for State Security central preventive prison for political prisoners in Berlin's Hohenschoenhausen district with the voices of three victims of legal terror. | | | | | | | | | | Brazil |  | Bus 174 ( Brazil, 2003, 133 min, Nonfiction Features of 2003 )
A true life Brazilian version of Dog Day Afternoon, José Padillha's gripping documentary examines the hijacking of a Rio de Janeiro bus in the summer of 2000. Expertly edited from multiple-angle television footage and interviews with the hijacker's acquaintances, Padillha, with the force of tragedy and the depth of first-rate investigative journalism, shows a Brazil teetering on the precipice of disintegration. | |  | Margarette's Feast ( Brazil, USA, 2002, 80 min, Cinema of Our Time )
Harking back to Chaplin's socially critical comedies, Renato Falcao's feature debut is a modern interpretation of silent film using pantomime and music to tell the tale of how a penniless husband manages to throw a birthday party for his wife. | |  | Samba ( Brazil, 2001, 54 min, Latin Music )
This lively and colourful investigation into samba by Thereza Jessouroum reveals the dance central to the culture of the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro and their esprit de carnival. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
