Friday March 29th, 2024
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Panorama of the European Film: Highlights

We give you the down-low on some of the most captivating films to look out for as the Panorama of the European film kicks off later this week!

Staff Writer

November is the month of films, films and films. As CIFF draws to a close, the Panorama of the European Film is about to kick off this week, and this year they're bringing us a great selection of films, with a particular focus on Dutch and Swiss films.

This year's panorama will include a retrospective on renowned German filmmaker and pioneer of the New German Cinema, Wim Wenders. The retrospective will feature such classics of his as Buena Vista Social Club and Paris, Texas - for which he received the esteemed Palme D'Or - as well as his latest feature, Salt of the Earth. The film tells the true story of photographer Sebastião Salgado, as he embarks on his latest photographic project which is a tribute to the beauty of nature, after a 40-year career that spanned some of the most discordant events of our recent history.

Aside from the Wim Wenders retrospective, some of the major films to look out for during this festival are Lenny Abrahamsson's Frank, starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy. The film follows an amateur musician who joins an avant-garde pop band, where he is confronted by the titular character, Frank, an enigmatic character who leads the band from the inside of a giant fake head.

Also on the roster is the Spanish Living is Easy With Eyes Closed, set in the Spanish town of Almería in 1966, about an English teacher named Paco who is determined to meet John Lennon while he is there shooting for a film. Another one to look out for is 71', in the Panorama's Emerging Directors, which tells the story of a British soldier abandoned in a violent Belfast riot in 1971.

In the Documentary Rendez-Vous, keep an eye our for The Do-Gooders, a documentary by Chloe Ruthven focusing on the role of foreign aid organisations in Palestine, and whether these organisations ultimately might do more harm than good. In the festival's latest section, Carte Blanche, acclaimed directors Yosry Nasrallah, Nadine Khan and Ahmad Abdallah selected three leading films, which are Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud, Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Bela Tarr's The Turin Horse.

These are just some of the many highly acclaimed and award-winning films that well be screened at the ten-day festival, as well as the section dedicated to some of the most compelling emerging directors on the international scene.

For more information and the schedule, visit the Panorama's website, or their Facebook page.