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RELEASES Belgium

European melting pot

by 

This week’s mostly European releases are characterised by a pleasant combination of genres, people and places. The first is Ismail Merchant’s last production (see news), The White Countess, by the US director smitten with the UK, James Ivory. The film has a star cast that includes British actors Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson.

The Merchant of Venice [+see also:
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]
, a majority UK production with Luxembourg and Italy by Michael Radford, distributed by Lumière, stars another Fiennes (Joseph) and an American fan of Shakespeare, Al Pacino. Also hitting Belgian screens today is the offbeat Turkish/German comedy Kebab Connection by Germany’s Anno Saul, co-written by Fatih Akin (Head On [+see also:
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) and distributed by Abc Distribution.

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Completing the round-up of this week’s diverse releases is The Secret Life of Words [+see also:
film review
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interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile
]
by Spain’s Isabel Coixet (see Focus). The film features an international cast and is being distributed by Kinepolis Film Distribution.

Two very different French films open in Belgium today: Aurore [+see also:
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]
by Nils Tavernier and Hell by Bruno Chiche. While the former is a dreamlike tale starring Carole Bouquet and François Berléand about a king and his daughter who is passionate about dancing (distributed by Victory Films), Hell brings 2005 Shooting Star Sara Forestier (L'esquive [+see also:
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]
) to our screens, who grapples here with her life as a spoiled and disillusioned Parisian teenager (distributed by Les Films de L'Elysée).

Following last week’s releases of several European titles, such as Tiger Brigades [+see also:
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]
, with its European cast, Camping [+see also:
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, the beautiful Silent Hill [+see also:
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]
by France’s Christopher Gans, Italy’s Crime Novel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michele Placido
film profile
]
and Loco 33, a Spanish co-production, Belgian screens are this week awash with European talent, diversity, inventiveness and openness. Which is certainly enough to battle it out with US blockbuster Mission: Impossible III.

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(Translated from French)

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