The EIFF programme says: "The brave, the bold, the new - the very best debuts and second films from the newest talents to surface all over the globe."
The Ordeal and Los Muertos
Bitter Dream (Khab-e Talkh)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2004; Director: Mohsen Amiryoussefi; Writer: Mohsen Amiryoussefi; Stars: Yadollah Anvari, Abbas Esfandiari, Delbar Ghasri, Mohsen Rahimi, Safar-Ali Safari, , , , , , )
A man who prepares bodies for burial is forced to consider his own mortality.
UK Premiere
Buena Vida Delivery
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2003; Director: Leonardo Di Cesare; Writer: Leonardo Di Cesare, Hans
Garrino, Asteban Perincioli; Stars: Ignacio Toselli, Moro Anghileri,
Oscar Nunez, Alicia Palmes, Sofia
da Silva, Ariel Staltari, Oscar
Alegre)
A guy moves in with a girl, only to
find she comes with a family -
and business - attached.
UK Premiere
Control (Kontroll)
(Country: Hungary; Year: 2003; Director: Nimród Antal; Writer: Jim Adler, Nimród Antal; Stars: Sándor Csányi, Csaba Pindroch, Zsolt Nagy, Gyözö Szabó, Eszter Balla, Lajos Kovács)
A bizarre fictional insight into the idiosyncratic lives of Budapest’s underground train inspectors.
UK Premiere
Dear Pillow
(Country: US; Year: 2004; Director: Bryan Poyser; Writer: Bryan Poyser; Stars: Rusty Kelley, Gary Chason, Viviane Vives, Cory Criswell, John Erler, Isabel Martin, Brian McGuire, Karen Skloss, Alex Holdridge, Elle Klein)
The adventures of a sex starved 17-year-old porn mag abuser.
International Premiere
Demi-Tarif (1/2 Price)
(Country: France; Year: 2003; Director: Isild Le Besco; Writer: Isild Le Besco; Stars: Kolia Litscher, Cindy David, Lila Salet)
Abandoned kids scam a life of shoplifting, scamming restaurants and eating junk.
UK Premiere
The Last Train and Control
Duck Season (Temporada De Patos)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2004; Director: Fernando Eimbcke; Writer: Fernando Eimbcke, Paula Markovitch; Stars: Carolina Politi, Daniel Miranda, Diego Cataño, Danny Perea, Enrique Arreola, Antonio Zúñiga, Alfredo Escobar, Sara Castro, , , )
Life is not as peachy as it first appears for two teenage rich-kids.
UK Premiere
The Gift (Il Dono)
(Country: Italy; Year: 2003; Director: Michelangelo Frammartino; Writer: Michelangelo Frammartino; Stars: Michelangelo Frammartino, Gabriella Maiolo, Valentino Audino, Pasquale Umbaca, Romilda Macri, Cesare Calipari, Maria Vozzo, Vincenzo Sangregorio, Francesco Fammartino, Angelina Alvino)
The old man, the prostitute and the dog that dies.
UK Premiere
The Green Hat (Lu Mao Tze,
Lu Mao Zi)
(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 2003; Director: Liu Fendou; Writer: Liu Fendou; Stars: Fan Liao, Haibin Li, Lifan Dong,
Congxi Li, Mei Li)
A hard-edged drama about
dysfunctional relationships and
man’s need for acceptance and
love.
European Premiere
Incident At Loch Ness
(Country: UK; Year: 2004; Director: Zak Penn; Writer: Werner Herzog, Zak Penn; Stars: Werner Herzog, Kitana Baker, Gabriel Beristain, Russell Williams II, David A Davidson, Michael Karnow, Robert O'Meara, Zak Penn, Steven Gardner, John Bailey, Matthew Nicolay)
Mockumentary about a search for Nessie.
UK Premiere
The Last Train (Posledniy Poezd)
(Country: Russia; Year: 2003; Director: Alexey A German; Writer: Alexey A German; Stars: Pavel Romanov, Peter Merkuriev,
Alexey Devotchenko, Irina
Rakshina, Alexander Tyurin,
Marina Radzhiyeva, Natalya
Lvova)
All quiet on the Eastern Front.
UK Premiere
Passages and Primer
Little Men (Malenkie lyudi)
(Country: Kazakhstan, France; Year: 2003; Director: Nariman Turebayev; Writer: Nariman Turebayev; Stars: Erjan Bekmuratov, Oleg Kerimov, Mira Abdulina, Lyazat Dautova, Anna Kolesnikova, Anna Krasnova, Sevik Nurebokov, Ilias Turmanov, , , )
Comedy about two male flatmates who have an unspoken rivalry about everything life has to offer.
Scottish Premiere
Los Muertos (The Dead)
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2004; Director: Lisandro Alonso; Writer: Lisandro Alonso; Stars: Argentino Vargas)
An ex-convict's journey up river in deepest Argentina.
UK Premiere
Mamay
(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2003; Director: Oles Sanin; Writer: Oles Sanin; Stars: Viktoriya Spesivtseva, Andrij Bilous, Sergei Romanyuk, Nazl Seytablayeva, Oles Sanin)
A mysterious pastiche of Ukrainian mythology and folklore mixed with a Romeo and Juliet style love story.
UK Premiere
The Ordeal (Calvaire)
(Country: France/Belgium/Luxembourg; Year: 2004; Director: Fabrice Du Welz; Writer: Fabrice Du Welz, Romain Protat; Stars: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon, Jean-Luc Couchard, Brigitte Lahaie, Gigi Coursigni, Philippe Grand'henry, Jo Prestia, Marc Lefebvre, Alfred David)
A passing crooner is kidnapped by a loony in the woods.
International Premiere
Passages (Lu Cheng)
(Country: China; Year: 2004; Director: Yang Chao; Writer: Yang Chao; Stars: Geng Le, Chang Jieping)
A young couple, disillusioned with student life, take off on a search for special mushrooms that could land them a fortune.
UK Premiere
The Green Hat and Rewind
Pearls And Pigs (Helmiä ja sikoja)
(Country: Finland; Year: 2003; Director: Perttu Leppä; Writer: Perttu Leppä; Stars: Mikko Leppilampi, Laura Birn, Amanda Pilke, Timo Lavikainen, Konsta Hiekkanen, Unto Helo)
Comedy featuring four heavy-drinking misfit brothers who find a new meaning in their lives when their half sister moves in with them and discovers a lucrative, hidden talent.
UK Premiere
Primer
(Country: US; Year: 2004; Director: Shane Carruth; Writer: Shane Carruth; Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford, Jay Butler, John Carruth)
Two garage engineers, working with super conductors, stumble across a side-effect that opens infinite opportunities for time travel.
International Premiere
Rewind (Videoreul boneun namja, Man Watching Video)
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2003; Director: Kim Hak-soon; Writer: Kim Hak-soon, Lim Young-tae; Stars: Chang Hyun-sung, Pang Eun-jin, Oh Youn-hong, Sa Hyun-jin, Chung Eun-mi, Kim Young-im, Hong Seung-ki, Kim So-hyung, Chung Young-mi, Chung Da-som)
Nameless Korean video store manager leads an uneventful life, pursued by women.
European Premiere
Somersault
(Country: Australia; Year: 2004; Director: Cate Shortland; Writer: Cate Shortland; Stars: Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran, Nathaniel Dean, Olivia Pigeot, Damien De Montemas)
Sexually awakened 15-year-old escapes to an Australian ski resort and lives off her wits.
UK Premiere
Taipei 21 (Taipei Er Yi)
(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2004; Director: Alex Yang; Writer: Alex Yang; Stars: Lin Meng-chin, Tsai Hsin-hung, Wang Shui-chuan, Toshimoto Fujii, David Mao, Lang Tsu-yun, Feng Yi-kang, Yao Chi-tong, Hsieh Menh-chu, Hsu Hui-ni)
A twenty- something couple struggle with their relationship in modern Taiwan.
European Premiere
United and The Gift
United
(Country: Norway; Year: 2003; Director: Magnus Martens; Writer: Magnus Martens; Stars: Håvard Lilleheie, Berte Rommetveit, Vegar Hoel, Monika Bjerke, Severin Eskeland, Henrik Mestad, Arne Scheie, Sondre Sørheim)
Light-hearted comedy, where one man’s obsession with playing for Manchester United threatens to tear up his relationship.
Scottish Premiere
Zelary
(Country: Czech Republic/Austria/Slovak Republic; Year: 2003; Director: Ondrej Tojan; Writer: Petr Jarchovsky; Stars: Ana Geislerova, Gyorgy Cserhalmi, Jaroslava Adamova, Miroslav Donutil, Jaroslav Disek, Iva Bittova, Ivan Trojan, Jan Hrusinky, Ondrej Koval, Juraj Hrcka)
A nurse, working for the Resistance in Prague, 1943, escapes to the Moravian mountains.
UK Premiere