Eye For Film >> Festivals >> EIFF >> 2009 >> Director's Showcase
This is the place to go if you want to check out films by directors with an existing track record, described in the programme as "classics of the future, from the established auteurs of our time".
View other Edinburgh International Film Festival Films by strand: Black Box, British Gala, Document, Film Festival Under The Stars, Gala, Night Moves, Retrospective: Roger Corman, Rosebud, Shorts, Special Screenings, Under The Radar
High Life and Paper Soldier
35 Shots Of Rhum (35 rhums, 35 Shots Of Rum)
(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Claire Denis; Writer: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau; Stars: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogue, Grégoire Colin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Djédjé Apali, Eriq Ebouaney, Ingrid Caven, Stéphane Pocrain, Julieth Mars Toussaint, Adèle Ado, Mary Pie, Cheikh Toure, David Saada, Mario Canonge)
The shifting relationship between a single dad and his teenage daughter.
UK Premiere
Adventureland
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Greg Mottola; Writer: Greg Mottola; Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Martin Starr, Margerita Levieva, Matt Bush, Kristen Wiig, Jack Gilpin), Official Site, Trailer
A recent graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers it's perfect preparation for the real world.
UK Premiere
All That She Wants (Elle Veut Le Chaos)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2008; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté; Stars: Eve Duranceau, Nicolas Canuel, Laurent Lucas, Rejean Lefrancois, Olivier Aubin)
A woman dreams of escape from her remote Canadian town.
UK Premiere
Fear Me Not (Den du frygter)
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Kristian Levring; Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen, Kristian Levring; Stars: Ulrich Thomsen, Lars Brygmann, Bjarne Henriksen, Emma Sehested Høeg, Paprika Steen, Stine Stengade, Bodil Udsen)
UK Premiere
A man finds his life spiralling out of control after he enlists in a drug trial.
The Girlfriend Experience
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Steven Soderbergh; Writer: Brian Koppelman, David Levien; Stars: Sasha Grey, Christopher Santos, Peter Zizzo, Jeff Grossman, Timothy J. Cox, Bridget Storm, Kimberly Magness, Ken Myers, Timothy Davis, Ted Jessup), Official Site
Pornography is made subject to philosophy in this speculative art film.
International Premiere
Humpday and 35 Shots Of Rhum
Gulabi Talkies
(Country: India; Year: 2008; Director: Girish Kasaravalli; Stars: Umashree, KG Krishnamurthy, MD Pallavi, Praveera, Poornima Mohan, Ashok Sandip)
A fiftysomething exile becomes the hub of her local community after coming into possession of a telly.
European Premiere
High Life
(Country: USA, Canada; Year: 2008; Director: Gary Yates; Writer: Lee MacDougall, Gary Yates; Stars: Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Rossif Sutherland, Joe Anderson, Mike Bell, Sarah Constible, Leigh Enns, Aaron Hughes, Susan Kelso, Tracy McMahon)
Drug-addicted petty criminals try to pull off a major heist.
UK Premiere
The Hurt Locker
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Kathryn Bigelow; Writer: Mark Boal; Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Evangeline Lilly, Christian Camargo, Suhail Aldabbach, Christopher Sayegh, Nabil Koni, Sam Spruell, Sam Redford, Feisal Sadoun, Barrie Rice), Official Site
An elite bomb disposal unit struggles to function in the heart of the Iraq war.
UK Premiere
Humpday
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Lynn Shelton; Writer: Lynn Shelton; Stars: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard), Official Site
Two old friends take male bonding a little too far.
UK Premiere
I'm Gonna Explode (Voy A Explotar, I'm Going To Explode)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2008; Director: Gerardo Naranjo; Writer: Gerardo Naranjo; Stars: Maria Deschamps, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Rebecca Jones, Martha Claudia Moreno), Official Site
A romance develops between two rebels without a cause.
UK Premiere
All That She Wants and Little Soldier
Jerichow
(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold; Stars: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André Hennicke, Claudia Geisler, Marie Gruber, Knut Berger)
Three misbegotten strangers stumble into a fateful encounter.
UK Premiere
Jermal
(Country: Indonesia; Year: 2008; Director: Ravi L Bharwani, Rayya Makarim, Utawa Tresno; Writer: Rayya Makarim, Orlow Seunke, Ravi L Bharwani; Stars: Iqbal S Manurung, Didi Petet, Yayu AW Unru, Chairil A Dalimunthe)
After his mother dies a young boy is forced to work for his estranged dad, facing bullying and rejection in the process.
UK Premiere
Little Soldier (Lille Soldat)
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Annette K. Olesen; Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson; Stars: Trine Dyrholm, Finn Nielsen, Lorna Brown, Rasmus Botoft, Jens Jørgen Spottag)
A psychologically damaged soldier returns from war and becomes a chauffeur for her father's prostitutes, finding frienship in an unlikely place.
UK Premiere
Milk (Süt)
(Country: Turkey, France, Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Semih Kaplanoglu; Writer: Semih Kaplanoglu; Stars: Basak Koklukaya, Melih Selcuk)
Coming-of-age drama about a young boy struggling to get by in a rural economy.
UK Premiere
The Missing Person
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Noah Buschel; Writer: Noah Buschel; Stars: Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan, Frank Wood, Linda Emond, Paul Sparks, Margaret Colin, John Ventimiglia, Yul Vazquez, Merritt Wever, Daniel Franzese)
Neonoir about a private eye charged with following a man presumed dead after 9/11.
International Premiere
The Girlfriend Experience and Jermal
Paper Soldier (Bumazhnyy Soldat)
(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Aleksei German Jnr; Writer: Aleksei German Jnr, Vladimir Arkusha; Stars: Merab Ninidze, Chulpan Khamatova, Anastasiya Sheveleva)
Russian cosmonauts train for the Sputnik launch in a frozen wilderness in Kazakhstan.
UK Premiere
Pardon My French (Un Chat Un Chat)
(Country: France; Year: 2009; Director: Sophie Fillières; Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Agathe Bonitzer, Malik Zidi, Dominique Valadié, Sophie Guillemin)
A black comedy about the relationship between a woman and a female stalker.
UK Premiere
Scratch (Rysa)
(Country: Poland; Year: 2008; Director: Michal Rosa; Writer: Michal Rosa; Stars: Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak, Krzysztof Stroinski, Ewa Telega, Miroslawa Marcheluk, Teresa Marczewska, Ryszard Filipski, Stanislaw Radwan, Jerzy Schejbal, Jerzy Nowak, Kinga Preis, Alicja Bienicewicz, Slawomir Pacek, Jakub Bohosiewicz, Damian Hryniewicz, Zdzislaw Bromek)
A revelation threatens to tear apart a 40-year-old marriage.
UK Premiere
Stella
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Sylvie Verheyde; Writer: Sylvie Verheyde; Stars: Léora Barbara, Melissa Rodriguez, Letitia Guerard, Karole Rocher, Benjamin Biolay, Guillaume Depardieu, Johan Libéreau, Jeannick Gravelines, Valerie Stroh, Thierry Neuvic, Anne Benoit, Christophe Bourseiller, Nicolas Janny, Christel Dewynter, Yolaine-Anne Gliott)
Snapshot of a year in the life of an 11-year-old.
UK Premiere
Surrogate
(Country: Israel; Year: 2008; Director: Tali Shalom-Ezer; Writer: Tali Shalom-Ezer; Stars: Amir Wolf, Lana Ettinger, Rosina Kambus, Yonatan Swirski, Liat Glick, Lascha Shimshoni)
The relationship between a troubled man and the woman who gives him sexual therapy.
International Premiere
Terribly Happy and Surrogate
Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig)
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Henrik Ruben Genz; Writer: Henrik Ruben Genz, Dunja Gry Jensen, Erling Jepsen; Stars: Jakob Cedergren, Lene Maria Christensen, Kim Bodnia, Lars Brygmann, Anders Hove, Henrik Lykkegaard)
When a town cop is reassigned to a provincial beat, he finds that rather than inflicting order on the locals, they have a disturbing affect on him.
UK Premiere
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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