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Sundance Film Festival · 2006

Sundance Film Festival 2006

World Cinema Competition: Dramatic

Featuring 16 of the best from across the globe. The World Jury Prize went to 13 (Tzameti). The Audience Award was scooped by No.2. Eve And The Fire Horse received a Special Jury Prize, while won the Alfred P Sloan gong.

Programme

16 films · 9 reviews

Jump to a film

13 (Tzameti, 13 (Tzameti), 13 Tzameti)

Review preview for 13

An impressively noirish moral fable.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
Man becomes sucked into a potentially fatal gambling ring.

(Country: France/Georgia; Year: 2005; Director: Gela Babluani; Writer: Gela Babluani; Stars: George Babluani, Aurelien Recoing, Philippe Passon, Pascal Bongard, Vania Villers, Fred Ulysse, Augustin Legrand, Joe Prestia, Christophe Vandevelde)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 9

North American Premiere

Allegro

Review preview for Allegro

Truly defies classification.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Genre-bending love story sees a concert pianist confront his past.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2005; Director: Christoffer Boe; Writer: Christoffer Boe, Mikeael Wulff; Stars: Ulrich Thomsen, Helena Christensen, Henning Moritzen)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 7

North American Premiere

The Aura (El Aura)

Review preview for The Aura

Tense and twisty, this is what thrillers should be about.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
An epileptic taxidermist finds himself caught up in a heist.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2005; Director: Fabian Bielinsky; Writer: Fabian Bielinsky; Stars: Ricardo Darin, Dolores Fonzi, Pablo Cedron, Alejandro Awada, Jorge D'Elia, Rafael Castejon, Manuel Rodal)

Full review

North American Premiere

The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros)

Review preview for The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros

A tender, temperately dramatic look at a young person exploring his burgeoning feelings and adolescent sexuality.

Paul Griffiths · 3.5 out of 5
Low budget, endearing look at a young boy’s first crush.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 2005; Director: Auraeus Solito; Writer: Michiko Yamamoto; Stars: Nathan Lopez, Soliman Cruz, Ping Medina, Bodjie Pascua, Neil Ryan Sese, Pepe Smith, Peter Anthony Tombasa, J.R. Valentin)

Full review See: London Film Festival 2006: Director talks about Blossoming of Maximo Oliveras

US Premiere

Eve And The Fire Horse

Eve is a precocious nine-year-old growing up in a Vancouver Chinese immigrant family where Confucian doctrines, superstitious obsessions and divine visions abound. When Buddhism and Catholicism are thrown into the mix, life for Eve and her prim authoritative sister, Karena, escalates into a fantasia of catastrophe, sainthood and cultural confusion.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2005; Director: Julia Kwan; Writer: Julia Kwan; Stars: Vivian Wu, Lester Chit-Man Chan, Hollie Lo, Phoebe Kut, Jessica Amlee, Herb Beaverstone, Jan Bos, Diane Buermans, Tanya Champoux, Jennifer Cheon, Alexus Dumont)

US Premiere

Grbavica

A chilling story of a woman and her daughter as they fight to survive in the painful aftermath of the recent Balkan war.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2006; Director: Jasmila Zbanic; Writer: Jasmila Zbanic; Stars: Mirjana Karanovic, Luna Mijovic, Leon Lucev, Kenan Catic, Jasna Beri, Dejan Acimovic, Bogdan Diklic, Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Ermin Bravo, Semka Sokolovic-Bertok, Maike Höhne)

World Premiere

Kiss Me Not On The Eyes (Dunia)

An educated young Egyptian woman defends her artistic integrity as a dancer and her social independence in the midst of modern Cairo’s culture wars.

(Country: Egypt, Lebanon; Year: 2005; Director: Jocelyn Saab; Writer: Jocelyn Saab; Stars: Hanan Turk, Mohamed Mounir, Fathy Abdel Wahab, Sawsan Badr, Khaled El Sawi, Youssef Ismail, Aida Riad)

US Premiere

Little Red Flowers (Kan shang qu hen mei)

Review preview for Little Red Flowers

Emphasises knickers, bare bums, baby penises, nakedness and bodily functions to a disturbing degree.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
A rebellious three-year-old causes havoc in a state-run kindergarten in post-revolutionary China.

(Country: China/Italy; Year: 2006; Director: Yuan Zhang; Writer: Dai Ning, Yuan Zhang, based on the novel Could Be Beautiful by Shuo Wang; Stars: Ning Yuanyuan, Zhao Rui, Li Xiaofeng, Dong Bowen, Chen Manyuan)

Full review

World Premiere

Madeinusa

Review preview for Madeinusa

A coming of age drama with a novel twist.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The festival of the Little Virgins in a Peruvian village offers one teenager an escape route.

(Country: Peru/Spain; Year: 2005; Director: Claudia Llosa; Writer: Claudia Llosa; Stars: Magaly Solier, Carlos Juan de la Torre, Yiliana Chong, Juan Ubaldo Huaman)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 3

World Premiere

No.2

Nanna Maria’s family has forgotten how to party. She’s going to change all that, make them come alive with the heat and passion of the South Pacific.

(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2006; Director: Toa Fraser; Writer: Toa Fraser)

World Premiere

One Last Dance

Review preview for One Last Dance

One Last Dance tries to be too clever for its own good, attempting to explore a mixture of themes that don’t blend together well.

Darren Amner · 2 out of 5
An assassin hunts a child-kidnapper.

(Country: Singapore; Year: 2005; Director: Max Makowski; Writer: Max Makowski; Stars: Francis NG, TI Lung and Harvey Keitel, Vivian Hsu, Joseph Quek)

Full review

World Premiere

Only God Knows (Sólo Dios Sabe)

On a lark in Tijuana, a young Brazilian art student crosses paths with a roguish Mexican journalist, sparking a cascade of events across both Mexico and Brazil.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2006; Director: Carlos Bolado; Writer: Carlos Bolado, Diane Weipert; Stars: Diego Luna, Alice Braga, Damián Alcázar, Maria Alves, Mateo Evaristo Shapiro Bolado, Laurie Bushman, Sara Castro, Ângela Correa, Leigh Crow, Ana Csernik, Daniele Luz de Almeida)

World Premiere

Peter Pan Formula (Piteopaeneui gongshik)

Review preview for Peter Pan Formula

The plot elements also have a habit of fizzling out, as the film zips off on a different tack, which is both confusing and annoying in equal measure.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The teenage coming-of-age angst of a prospective swimming champion.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2005; Director: Cho Chang-Ho; Writer: Cho Chang-Ho; Stars: Wan On-ju. Kim Ho-jeong, Kim Ho-jeing, Oh Ji-yeong, Ok Ji-young, Park Min-ji)

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 2

North American Premiere

Princesas

The story of two women who form an unbreakable friendship despite their differences as they fight to make ends meet in the big city.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2005; Director: Fernando León de Aranoa; Writer: Fernando León de Aranoa; Stars: Candela Peña, Micaela Nevárez, Mariana Cordero, Llum Barrera, Violeta Pérez, Mònica Van Campen, Flora Álvarez, María Ballesteros, Alejandra Llorente, Luis Callejo, Antonio Durán 'Morris')

US Premiere

Son Of Man

A gripping journey of love, deception and betrayal, Son Of Man translates Jesus' life to modern-day South Africa, where a new politics of compassion incites revolution during a military dictatorship.

(Country: South Africa; Year: 2006; Director: Mark Dornford-May; Writer: Mark Dornford-May, Andiswa Kedama, Pauline Malefane)

World Premiere