Claude Gagnon’s Karakara to screen in competition in Montreal

August 8, 2012 by Etan Vlessing

Claude Gagnon’s Karakara, about a retired professor travelling round Okinawa with a runaway wife, will screen in competition at the Montreal World Film Festival.

The Canada-Japan co-production from the director of Kamataki will be one of 17 international titles to compete in the World Competition in Montreal, and the only Canadian entry.

Other Canadian titles competing in Montreal include Babek Aliassa’s Boucherie Halal screening in the First Films World Competition, and Hefang Wei’s The Banquet of the Concubine, a Canada-France co-production, entered in the World Competition Short Films sidebar.

As in Toronto, the MWFF has decided against opening with a Canadian film.

Instead, the popular Chinese film Million Dollar Crocodile, by Lisheng Lin, will open the Montreal festival on August 23.

Lin and his cast will in Montreal to support the opening, while the French film Un Bonheur n’arrive jamais seul, by director James Huth and starring Sophie Marceau, will close the festival on Sept. 3.

With most major Quebec movie releases bowing in Toronto, Serge Losique’s MWFF in recent years has focused on international cinema.

Montreal did book Baharak Saeid Monir’s Ambrosia, Tom Strand’s The Trail and Rob Heydon’s Ecstasy into its Focus on World Cinema sidebar, along with Ian Robertson’s Unlucky, Margarita, by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert, and Robert Cuffley’s Ferocious.

Fest programmers also snagged for the Documentaries of the World program Canadian titles like Beauty And The Breast, by Liliana Komorowska; Jean Guénette’s Seaborn;  Megan Durnford’s Une Brique À La Fois; and Change Your Name Ousama!, by Fuad Chowdhury.

A complete list of titles for the 36th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival is available at http://www.ffm-montreal.org.

Tags: Beauty and the Breast, Change Your Name Ousama!, Claude Gagnon, Dominique Cardona, Ferocious, Fuad Chowdhury, Ian Robertson, James Huth, Jean Guenette, Karakara, Laurie Colbert, Liliana Komorowska, Lisheng Lin, Margarita, Megan Durnford, Million Dollar Crocodile, Montreal World Film Festival, Robert Cuffley, Seaborn, Serge Losique, Un Bonheur n'arrive jamais seul, Une Brique A La Fois, Unlucky