Eye For Film >> Festivals >> NLFF >> 2008 >> Features
A selection of feature-length films from around the world, showcasing up and coming talent.
Patti Smith: Dream Of Life and Captain Abu Raed
Año Uña (Year Of The Nail)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2007; Director: Jonás Cuarón; Writer: Jonás Cuarón; Stars: Eireann Harper, Diego Cataño, Michele Alban, Cristina Orozco, Mariana Elizondo, Pia Elizondo, Emilia Garcia)
Personal photograph album becomes the basis for an unconventionally told romance.
Better Things
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Duane Hopkins; Writer: Duane Hopkins; Stars: Liam McIlfatrick, Che Corr, Tara Ballard, Megan Palmer, Kurt Taylor, Rachel McIntyre, Patricia Loveland)
Award-winning short filmmaker makes his feature debut with a story of fractured relationships.
Blood Car
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Alex Orr; Writer: Hugh Braselton, Alex Orr, Adam Pinney; Stars: Mike Brune, Anna Chlumsky, Katie Rowlett, Matt Hutchinson, Marla Malcolm, Mr. Malt, Matthew Stanton, Bill Szymanski, Hawmi Guillebeaux, Vince Canlas, Roudie Augustin), Official Site
Troma-esque weirdness as a vegan invents a vehicle more reminiscent of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Minus the crap Broadway songs, of course.
Captain Abu Raed
(Country: Jordan; Year: 2007; Director: Amin Matalq; Writer: Amin Matalq; Stars: Nadim Sawalha, Hussein Al-Sous, Rana Sultan, Uday Al-Qiddissi, Ghandi Saber)
Uplifting tale about an airport janitor who spins stories for street kids after being mistaken by them for a pilot.
Cochochi
(Country: Mexico, UK, Canada; Year: 2007; Director: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Writer: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Stars: Antonio Lerma Batista, Evaristo Lerma Batista)
Mexican brothers go on errand to deliver medicine but find the journey is more difficult than they anticipated.
Better Things and Blood Car
Comeback
(Country: Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Max Plettau; Writer: Max Plettau; Stars: Jürgen Hartenstein)
Roland, a theatre director, returns home to Copenhagen after many years of living in The film illustrates the attempt to bridge the communication gap between generations, through Roland’s efforts, as he seeks to reconcile with his somewhat indifferent grown-up son, Jacob.
Cook County
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: David Pomes; Writer: David Pomes; Stars: Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, Ryan Donowho, Polly Cole, Rutherford Cravens, Makenna Fitzsimmons, Brandon Smith, John McClain, Yankie Grant, J.D. Hawkins)
A hard-hitting fictional look at crystal meth addiction.
Deficit (Déficit)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2007; Director: Gael García Bernal; Writer: Kyzza Terrazas; Stars: Gael García Bernal, Tenoch Huerta, Luz Cipriota, Camila Sodi, Ana Serrdilla, Jorge Luis Moreno, Pamela Reiter), Official Site
After a spoiled, rich kid hosts a party, unexpected guests bring tensions to boiling point.
Go With Peace Jamil (Gå med fred Jamil - Ma salama Jamil)
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Omar Shargawi; Writer: Mogens Rukov, Omar Shargawi; Stars: Elias Samir Al-Sobehi, Khalid Alssubeihi, Salah El Koussa, Diab El Masri, Hassan El Sayed, Fouad Ghazali, Nehmedo Ibrahim, Amira Helene Larsen, Dar Salim, Munir Shargawi)
Action drama sees a Dane with an Arab background caught up in an ancient feud of religious hatred.
Helen
(Country: UK/Ireland; Year: 2008; Director: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor; Writer: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor; Stars: Annie Townsend, Sandie Malia, Dennis Jobling, Sonia Saville, Danny Groenland)
A missing girl's police reconstruction prompts her proxy to fill in the psychological gaps in herself.
Año Uña and sleep furiously
Mum And Dad (Mum & Dad)
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Sheil; Writer: Steven Sheil; Stars: Perry Benson, Dido Miles, Olga Fedori, Ainsley Howard, Toby Alexander, Toby Cooper), Official Site, Trailer
Brit horror, sees an airport worker face the perils of a close-knit family. In cinemas and on DVD this Boxing Day. Plus read our exclusive interview with Perry Benson.
Patti Smith: Dream Of Life
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Sebring; Writer: Steven Sebring; Stars: Patti Smith), Official Site
Intimate portrait of the icon.
Recycle (E'adat Khalq)
(Country: Jordan, Netherlands; Year: 2008; Director: Mahmoud Al Massad; Writer: Al Massad), Official Site
A Jordanian family man living in the hometown of Muslim leader Al-Zarqawi struggles to support his family and define his identity in a tense political climate.
Sita Sings The Blues
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Nina Paley; Writer: Nina Paley; Stars: Annette Hanshaw, Reena Shah, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya), Official Site
Using a variety of colorful animation techniques, writer-director Nina Paley wittily interweaves the story of Sita, the leading lady of the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, with the story of a modern American woman struggling to keep her marriage afloat.
sleep furiously
(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Gideon Koppel)
Rural Wales faces change from all sides as the population ages.
Deficit and Mum And Dad
Slingshot Hip Hop
(Director: Jackie Reem Salloum)
The voice of a new generation rocks and rhymes as Palestinian rappers form alternative voices of resistance within the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.
Tsietsi My Hero (Senzeni-Na)
(Country: South Africa; Year: 2006; Director: Portia Rankoane)
A celebration of and tribute to Tsietsi Mashinini, the leader of the Soweto student uprising, who became the apartheid regime's most wanted man in 1976 and was forced into exile, later dying in mysterious circumstances.
The Unforeseen
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Laura Dunn; Stars: Gary Bradley, Judah Folkman, William Greider, Willie Nelson, Robert Redford, Ann Richards, , , , ,)
When a west Texas farm boy develops pristine hill country into large-scale subdivisions, threatening a fragile limestone aquifer, an environmental movement rises up and fights back. This documentary takes a hard look at the American dream and asks, "what does it mean to grow?"
Welcome To Hebron
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2008; Director: Terje Carlssson)
Filmed during more than three years on location in Hebron, West Bank this documentary shows how the occupation affects everyday life in Palestine.
Were The World Mine
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Tom Gustafson; Writer: Tom Gustafson, Cory James Krueckeberg; Stars: Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Judy McLane, Nathaniel David Becker, Zelda Williams, Christian Stolte, Ricky Goldman, Jill Larson, David Darlow, Brad Bukauskas)
The organisers say: "If High School Musical indulged in flights of homoerotic fancy, it might look something like Tom Gustafson’s dazzling debut feature."
Helen and The Wrecking Crew
Where Are Their Stories?
(Country: Mexico, Canada; Director: Nicolas Pereda)
A young man tries to save his grandma's land from her greedy children, who arrive, like vultures, upon news of her illness.
The Wrecking Crew
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Denny Tedesco), Official Site
Examination of the influential group of LA-based session musicians who worked alongside many of the greats, including Elvis Presley and The Byrds.
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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