The program of the 21st edition of the Montreal World Film Festival/Festival des films du monde is a resounding reaffirmation of wff’s role as the premiere North American showcase for international cinema. wff is first and foremost a work of passion for cofounders Serge Losique and Daniele Cauchard. The achievement is indeed remarkable, and as Losique points out, the festival is maintained year in, year out without the direct support of the major Hollywood studios.

With this year’s edition, wff begins its third decade arguably a better venue for filmmakers and producers from countries around the world than ever before.

Highlights on this year’s program include Manuel de Oliveira’s Journey to the Beginning of the World starring the great actor Marcello Mastroianni in his last role; Liv Ullmann’s Private Confessions, based on a script by Ingmar Bergman; Shohei Imamura’s exploration of obsessive relationships The Eel, winner of the ’97 Palme d’Or; Nick Cassavetes’ She’s So Lovely, based on a script by his father John Cassavetes and starring Sean Penn and John Travolta; Hong Kong-based director Wong Kar-Wei’s Happy Together; festival regular Raul Ruiz’s Genealogies of a Crime starring Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli; and two Canadian films in competition, Michel Poulette’s La Conciergerie and Olivier Asselin’s Le Siege de l’ame.

French director Yves Angelo presents the world premiere of Un air si pur (Compagnie France Film), the festival’s opening night film. Un air tells the delightful story of masquerading vacationers and patients who mingle in a wwi rest home.

The program for WFF ’97 is simply staggering, a total of 413 films from more than 50 countries screened in 11 categories over 12 days, Aug. 22 to Sept. 2.

This year’s national spotlight is on Iranian cinema, with nine features on the program including Majid Majidi’s The Children of Heaven.

Fourteen features will be screened in the permanent Latin American cinema showcase including Alberto Arvelo’s One Life and Two Trials, while close to a dozen films from Japan are also on the program. Of the well over 200 feature-length films in this year’s festival, 56 will be world premieres.

In a deeply felt communique, Losique announced a Sept. 1 screening of the Quebec masterpiece Leolo in memory of the film’s director Jean-Claude Lauzon, who died in a plane crash earlier this month.

Grand Prix des Ameriques

Twenty-one feature films are vying for this year’s Grand Prix des Ameriques including two Canadian films: Asselin’s philosophical romance Le Siege de l’ame (Malofilm Distribution) (see p. 20) and Poulette’s film noir thriller La Conciergerie (CFP Distribution) (see p. 21).

Popular Spanish director Carlos Saura returns to Montreal with Pajarico (Prima Film), a coming-of-age tale about a young boy sent away to a Mediterranean town while his parents sort out their differences.

In Oscar winner Jose Juis Garci’s A Wound of Light (Enrique Cerezo, Spain) a doctor contemplates murder when his wife refuses a divorce while u.k. director John Duigan’s Lawn Dogs (Carleton Film Distribution) chronicles a strange tale of kids from different sides of the track. The world premiere of Mike Barker’s The James Gang (HandMade Films) dramatizes the determination of an impoverished woman who fights for custody of her children.

Japan is represented by three films in competition: Kei Kumai’s To Love (Nikkatsu Corp.), Yoshimitsu Morita’s Lost Paradise (T’ei Co.), a drama about an adulterous couple swept away by fatalistic love, which was a box office success in Japan drawing close to three million admissions, and Juni Ichikawa’s Tokyo Lullaby (Shochiku).

From Australia, Bill Bennett’s Kiss or Kill (Malofilm/ Beyond Films) is about a woman who lures men into hotel rooms and proceeds to rob and drug them.

From Iran, Majidi’s The Children of Heaven (Farabi Cinema Foundation, Tehran) is a touching tale of childhood, while Fabio Carpi’s Italian/French/Swiss coproduction Homer­Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man (Sacis, Italy) chronicles the existential vagrancy of an old blind writer and his strangely beautiful companion.

From China comes one of the festival’s most anticipated films ­ Xie Jin’s The Opium War (The Opium War Film and Television Co., Hong Kong), a big-budget historical saga of the mid-19th century struggle against foreign opium traffickers.

Macedonian director Stole Popov’s Gypsy Magic (Vardar Film, Skopje) tells both a sad and an amusing story about a family of Gypsies, while Czech director Juraj Jakubisko’s An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World (J&J Jakubisko Film) opens with a marriage ceremony made memorable by an attack by a wolf pack.

Acclaimed Yugoslav documentary filmmaker Petar Lalovic’s Some Birds Can’t Fly (Centar Film) makes its world premiere at wff.

Selected u.s. films in competition include James F. Robinson’s feature film debut Still Breathing (Lakeshore International), a tale of love’s confusion, and actor Bernie Casey’s directorial debut The Dinner (The Wm. Morris Agency), about three old friends who occasionally get together, share a meal and chat. When one of the friends is murdered after one such meal, the other two are suspect.

From Venezuela, director Alberto Arvelo’s One Life and Two Trials (Alex Montilla Films) follows one man’s journey into his past and the small mountain village of his youth. This year’s festival marks the return of Swedish director Daniel Bergman who will present his latest film Expectations (Svensk Filmindustri AB), a bittersweet human chronicle adapted from a collection of short stories by Reidar Jonsson, author of My Life as a Dog.

WFF Jury

Born in England, French/ Scottish actress Jacqueline Bisset is the president of this year’s wff Grand Prize jury.

Also on this year’s jury are Montreal writer/director Claude Fournier (Ces Enfants d’ailleurs), director of the box office hit Deux femmes en or; Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Wilmington, and Spanish director/producer Gerardo Herrero, whose film Comanche Territory is being presented in this year’s Hors Concours section.

Rounding out the jury are Russian-born director/writer Sergei Bodrov, who directed Freedom is Paradise, Grand Prize winner at WFF ’89; Indian director Shyam Benegal, whose latest film Sardari Begum will be screened in the Cinema of Today section; Italian filmmaker Giovanna Gagliardo, who has served as a member of the Film Commission for Italy’s Minister of Culture and has directed several films; and Brazilian director Luiz Carlos Barreto, a former journalist and movie director and now one of the leading producers of Brazil’s Cinema Novo.

Canadian cinema at WFF ’97

Canadian productions and coproductions are again very well represented at wff, with 134 productions on the program including 24 features.

Selected highlights include Richard Kwietniowski’s Love and Death on Long Island (Alliance Releasing), a Canada/ u.k. coproduction starring John Hurt as an aging British writer who falls for an American teen idol, Alain Zaloum’s latest suspense thriller Suspicious Minds (cfp), and the Tahani Rached feature documentary on intolerance, Quatre femmes d’Egypte (National Film Board).

Five Canadian productions will have their world premieres in the Films for Television category: Lara Fitzgerald’s Moire, Mireille Dansereau’s Duet for One/Duo pour une soliste (Pixcom) starring Louise Marleau and Benoit Girard in a story of a great female violinist tragically struck down by illness, Bernard Emond’s L’Epreuve du feu (Cinema Libre), Donigan Cumming’s After Brenda, and the world premiere of Sturla Gunnarsson’s Gerrie & Louise (Films Transit), the story of a very unusual couple, a South African counter-insurgency expert and his wife, chief investigator for the Truth Commission.

In the Panorama Canada section, Philippe Falardeau’s Pate Chinois (nfb) chronicles a rich Hong Kong businessman’s plans to obtain a Canadian visa, while German Gutierrez’s Societes sous influence (nfb) is a eye-opening damnation of the so-called war on drugs.

Founding Studio d member Margaret Wescott presents Stolen Moments, a contemporary exploration of lesbian life (nfb). Near the opposite end of the spectrum is Peter Svatek’s feature adaptation of the classic Jack London wilderness story The Call of the Wild (Fries Schultz), shot in Quebec by Montreal’s Kingsborough Greenlight Pictures.

Highlights include Ryerson grad John Bradshaw’s The Undertaker’s Wedding (S Entertainment, Toronto), a story about a man with a tradition to uphold, a nagging mother and a problem with the mob; Nick Curcin’s Script Doctor (Cinema Esperanca), a feature story about a woman whose movie script and personal life mirror each other; and Silence (Raincoast Releasing), the latest drama from veteran Vancouver director Jack Darcus starring August Schellenberg, Alan Scarfe and Annick Obonsawin.

Producers Network Associates cofounder G. Philip Jackson presents the world premiere of the sci-fi drama 2103 ­ The Deadly Wake (Cineplex Odeon Films), while the highly independent Gagne brothers, Jean and Serge, make a return with Mon pere est un bum (Cinema Libre), a portrait of Quebec p’et Denis Vanier.

Also on the program are veteran director Charles Jarrott’s The Secret Life of Algernon (Victor Film, London, Eng.), based on the Russell Greenan novel, Guy Maddin’s hallucinatory tale of unrequited passion Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (Alliance) and Richard Martin’s Rocky Mountain suspense drama Wounded (Malofilm/ Republic Pictures).

Toronto writer/director Michael McGowan presents his feature debut My Dog Vincent (On the Porch Productions, Toronto), and festival g’ers will be able to catch Daniel Petrie’s The Assistant (cfp), a Paragon Entertainment feature about a drifter who works his way through the Great Depression starring Gill Bellows, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Joan Plowright.

Kari Skogland, one of Canada’s top commercial directors, presents the world premiere of her second feature Men With Guns (Norstar), a story of two small-time hustlers in way over their heads in violent crime.

Also on tap: the new David Winning drama Exception to the Rule (cfp), Alain Vezina’s vampire fantasy remake La Morte Amoureuse (Logimage), 20 new Canadian short films as well as 13 short films created by students of Quebec’s advanced film studies school, Institut national de l’image et du son ­ inis.

In all, 27 new Canadian feature-length films will vie for the second annual $25,000 Telefilm Canada Award.

World cinema survey

Buyers from Canada, the u.s., Europe and the Far East will be on the lookout for appealing films entered in this year’s festival, many of which, of course, do not have North American distribution.

Some of the intriguing ’97 entries include Al Massir/ Destiny (F.P.I. Paris), a France/Egyptian coproduction set in 12th century France at the time of the Great Inquisition, and Rossini (Bavarian Film International), a movie about singles who frequent an Italian restaurant that asks the ever fatal question, ‘Who slept with whom?’

Also on the program are the award-winning Indian film Goutam Ghose’s Guida/Doll (Plus Films), opening film for Un Certain Regard at Cannes ’97; Brigands, Chapter vii (Pierce Grise Distribution), a political comedy coproduced by France, Russia and Italy; Spanish director Ventura Pons’ Actresses (Cinema Esperanca/K-Films), a feature about a drama student who interviews three noted actresses; and from Ireland, Johnny Gogan’s The Last Bus Home (Bandit Films, u.s.), a feature debut about two punks who form a successful rock band in Dublin in the late 1970s.

In the Bulgarian/Hungary coproduction Belated Full Moon an old man stumbles on a suitcase full of cash, while the adventures of two very real scoundrels is the focus of Balkanisateur (F For Film).

And from Israel, Ali Nassar’s The Milky Way (Cinephil) is a love story set in an Arab/Galilee village.

u.s. indie films on this year’s wff program include Dog Town (Showcase Entertainment), Neptune’s Rocking Horse (Forefront Films), a study of urban psychology, Colin Fitz (Baby Shark) and Public Housing (Zipporah Films), a look at the people and places of Chicago’s inner city.

u.s. indie feature film world premieres include The North End (mavek), Bad Manners (Davis Enter.), Once Were Strangers (Backpain Productions), Self Storage (Tonik Pictures) and The Scottish Tales (Polhemus Pictures), a whimsical remake of the famous play featuring Mac, a somewhat dithering, aspiring p’et.

Student fest

The 28th edition of the Canadian Student Film and Video Festival runs Aug. 23-27 with 60 out of a total of 114 submissions entered in competition. On Aug. 27, the Viacom Canada Ltd. Award will be given to the festival’s best student director while the nfb will again present the Norman McLaren Award to the best film.

Air Canada is the official partner of the Montreal World Film Festival. The Air Canada Award is presented to the festival’s most popular film as voted by the public.

Rothmans Film Du Monde returns for the fourth year as the wff’s principal collaborator.