Films/Programs
Emerging Masters
Each year the Seattle International Film Festival selects four directors from around the globe who have, in just a few short years, marked themselves as cinematic masters, visionaries whose films speak with an original voice and display a grasp of the craft that makes them stand out from their contemporaries. These directors are just hitting their stride, fulfilling their early promise, artists of the highest order who will break into the mainstream of American filmgoers’ consciousness in the near future—if not tomorrow. Past honorees have included Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Miike Takashi (Audition), Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo), François Ozon (8 Women), Ferzan Ozpetek (Facing Window), Wang Xiao-shuai (Shanghai Dreams), Susanne Bier (Brothers), Cédric Klapisch (L’Auberge Espagnole) and Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Last Life in the Universe). This year’s quartet spans cultures, styles, and filmic sensibility: the intimate portraits of women from French director Olivier Dahan (La Vie Promise, La Vie en Rose); the elegant dramas of Iranian Rafi Pitts (Season Five, It's Winter); the powerful storytelling of Abderrahmane Sissako (Bamko, Waiting for Happiness), and the queer sensibility of Israeli director Eytan Fox (The Bubble, Yossi & Jagger).
Sponsored By:
Comcast
-
Mali, 2006, 115 min.
In the courtyard of the house Melé and Chaka share with other families, a trial court has been set up to weigh the influence of Western powers over the lives of ordinary Africans, in this passionate and deeply personal statement on Africa’s need for self-determination.
…
-
Israel, 2006, 117 min.
Three roommates treat their hip Tel Aviv neighborhood like their own chic paradise, relatively sheltered from Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. But when an Israeli boy meets an Palestinian boy at a border checkpoint, this artificial bubble bursts illustrating that even love can't always bridge irreconc
…
-
Iran, 2006, 86 min.
After her husband abandons her, a seamstress toils on in an impoverished, snow-covered town. She soon catches the eye of a newly arrived mechanic, but their very surroundings may be against them. Structured with the beautiful, fearsome circularity of a ballad, this is an elegant tribute to the Irani
…
-
France, 2006, 140 min.
A riveting musical biopic of Edith Piaf, the iconic songstress whose personal traumas fueled her art in such world-weary yet triumphant standards as “Je ne regrette rien” and “La vie en rose.” Marion Cotillard’s blazing performance as Piaf stunningly conveys the songbird’s unique alchemy of eternal
…
-
France, 2003, 94 min.
Isabelle Huppert stars as Sylvia, a prostitute working the streets of Nice. When her estranged daughter commits a crime in self-defense, the pair is forced to flee to the north together. They come to rely on the kindness of a stranger who clearly has his own secrets in this beautiful story.
…
-
Iran, 1997, 80 min.
The Jamalvandis and the Kamalvandis have been feuding for as long as anyone can remember. Hopes for reconciliation are shattered when a proposed marriage goes wrong, and the putative bride and groom set up rival bus services. An acerbically funny Farsi take on Romeo and Juliet.
…
-
France, 2002, 96 min.
In this 2002 film, Emerging Master Aberrahmane Sissako creates a film tapestry in which a wonderful array of personal tales play out before the eyes of 17-year old Abdallah in his last visit to his mother's small seaside town before leaving for Europe.
…
-
Israel, 2002, 65 min.
This moving, fact-based gay love story, set in a remote Israeli military outpost on the Lebanese border, introduces us to two soldiers who find themselves drawn to one another amid the life they live on a tedious tour of duty punctuated by nightly ambushes and unexpected violence.
…
