Bonjour cinema, annual Francophone Film Festival representing cinematic creations from French speaking countries France, Switzerland, Canada and Belgium will be held from March 19 to 23 at BCIS (Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies).
The fifth successful film festival will showcase a collection of 12 films representing the diversity and the creativity of the French speaking countries in the field of moviemaking for both children and adults.
Opening on March 18 at 6pm the film screenings will be at 2.30 pm for children and at 4.30 pm and 7 pm for adults.
The festival includes eight films ‘Roman de Gare’ (Crossed Track) by Claude Lelouch and ‘Le Premier venu’ (The first to come) by Jacques Doillon from France, ‘L’ age des tenebres’ (Days of Darkness) by Denys Arcand and ‘En compagnie d’etrangers’ (Strangers in Good Company) by Cynthia Scott from Canada, ‘La mecanique des anges’ (Mechanic Angels) by Alain Margot and ‘Pas les flics, pas les noirs, pas les balancs’ (Not the cops not the blacks, not the whites) by Ursula Meier from Switzerland and ‘La femme de Gilles’ (Gilles’ wife) by Frederic Fonteyne and ‘Folie privee’ (Private madness)by Joachim Lafosse from Belgium for an adult audience.
The festival also shows children’s films ‘Loulou et les autres loups’ (Loulou and other wolves) by Gregoire Solotraeff and Jean- Luc Fromental, ‘Le Papillion bleu’ (The Blue Butterfly), ‘Home’ by Ursula Meier and a special children’s programme from Belgium.
Most of the films scheduled for screening at the festival were produced in 21st century and they revolve around a variety of themes like love, human relationships and crime.
The first public show will be ‘La mecanique des anges’ (Mechanic Angels) at 2.30 pm on March 19. The film tells the story of Francois Junod, a maker of automations. He has achieved his childhood dream. Over the years he has gained a worldwide reputation, and orders for his works or invitations to exhibit them in many countries. He is a master who continues to gaze upon the world through the eyes of a child, full of dreams and desires. At 4.30 pm Canadian film ‘En compagnie d’etrangers’ (Strangers in Good Company) will be screened featuring 8 elderly women who find themselves stranded when their bus breaks down in the wilderness.
‘Folie privee’ (Private madness) a film about Pascale who is eager to be spending time with her young son Thomas and her new beau Didier in a remote country house will be shown at 7 pm on March 19 and at 4.30 pm on March 22. March 20 Saturday at 2.30 pm children film ‘Le Papillion bleu’ (The Blue Butterfly) will be screened. The true-life quest of a terminally-ill, ten-year-old boy who longs to capture the most beautiful butterfly on the planet comes to life on the screen in this touching drama.
‘Le Premier venu’ (The first to come) will be screened at 4.30 pm. In the film Camile desperately needs excitement and hopes to find it in Costa, a drifter and deadbeat father. But a local policeman’s interest in their relationship and Costa’s activities soon threatened their life together. At 7 pm ‘L’ age des tenebres’ (Days of Darkness), a film centering on an everyday John Doe, a government employee and family guy- unsuccessful in all fields, will be screened.
On March 21, the festival starts with children animation film ‘Loulou et les autres loups’ (Loulou and other wolves) at 2.30 pm It will be repeated at 2.30 pm on March 23. At 4.30 pm ‘La femme de Gilles’ (Gilles’ wife) a film set in the thirties in industrial Belgium that tells about a pregnant wife of a worker in a blast furnace. ‘Home’, Switzerland film screen at 7 pm portrays how a family’s peaceful existence is threatened when a busy highway is opened only metres away from their isolated house in the middle of nowhere.
A special children’s programme from Belgium will be screened at 2.30 pm on March 22 and at 7 pm ‘Roman de Gare’ (Crossed Track) a film made out of single stories of several people will be screened. The film will be repeated at 4.30 pm on March 23.
The film festival comes to an end with Switzerland film ‘Pas les flics, pas les noirs, pas les balancs’ (Not the cops not the blacks, not the whites) at 7 pm on March 23. It tells the amazing story of Alain Devegney, a sergeant in the Geneva gendarmerie. |
E-mail
