Catalogue International Film Festival Rotterdam 2013 by International Film Festival Rotterdam

Spectrum

Lore

Du zhan Drug War Johnnie To

Cate Shortland

Australia/Germany/UK, 2012 | colour, DCP, 109 min, German/English Prod: Vincent Sheehan, Liz Watts, Paul Welsh, Karsten Stöter, Benny Drechsel | Prod Comp: Porchlight Films, Edge City Films Ltd., Rohfilm | Sc: Cate Shortland, Robin Mukherjee, based on a novel by Rachel Seiffert | Cam: Adam Arkapaw | Ed: Veronika Jenet | Prod Des: Silke Fischer | Sound Des: Sam Petty | Music: Max Richter | With: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina Lardi, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Mika Seidel, André Frid | Sales: Memento Films International | Distr NL: ABC – Cinemien Public SCREENINGS Thu 24-1 11:30 CI1 Wed 30-1 16:15 LUX Fri 1-2 16:45 LV1 Sat 2-2 11:00 SGZ

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Press & Industry SCREENING Fri 25-1 21:15 DWBZ [e.s.]

After the sensitive coming-of-age drama Somersault (2004), Australian Cate Shortland turns to a theme much further from home: the physical and mental ruins of Germany in 1945, directly after the capitulation. Yet this film is also about growing up and making choices. Lore is a girl with a firm faith in the values of her upbringing. That faith is put under pressure when, shortly after Hitler’s suicide, both her SS father and her mother disappear – probably thrown into jail. Lore is alone and has to get her younger sister and three little brothers to safety. With sensitive, glowing camerawork and a secure soundtrack, Shortland captures Lore’s state of mind. By consistently choosing the point of view of the girl, the film avoids making any all too easy moral judgements. Lore, an intimate story about indoctrination and the collapse of a world view, won the Locarno Festival’s audience award.

Hong Kong, 2012 | colour, DCP, 107 min, Mandarin Prod: Johnnie To, Wai Ka-Fai | Prod Comp: Milkyway Image, Hairun Media | Sc: Wai Ka-fai, Yau Nai-hoi, Ryker Chan, Yu Xi | Cam: Cheng Siu-keung | Ed: David Richardson, Allen Leung | Prod Des: Horace Ma | Sound Des: Ricky Yip | Music: Xavier Jameux | With: Sun Honglei, Louis Koo, Huang Yi, Gao Yungxiang, Wallace Chung, Hao Ping, Gan Tingting | Print/ Sales: Media Asia Distribution Limited Public SCREENINGS Sat 26-1 16:15 LUX Thu 31-1 19:15 PA1 Fri 1-2 18:45 PA5 Sat 2-2 13:30 SGZ Press & Industry SCREENING Thu 31-1 14:45 CI5

Touch

WORLD PREMIERE

124

THE BIG SCREEN AWARD COMPETITION

The taciturn police commander Zhang leads an undercover drugs team and in his continuous battle against the ubiquitous drug barons, takes up arms against his arch enemy, Timmy Choi. When he gets hold of Choi, he makes a deal with him: in exchange for his life (in China you can get the death penalty for producing only 50 grams of drugs) the young criminal will help the police infiltrate a sizeable drug network. Zhang is helped by the young female detective Xiao Bei: undercover, they are the cheerful drug dealer Ha-ha and his vulgar wife. Johnnie To’s first action film on the Chinese mainland – again made in cooperation with scriptwriter Wai Ka-fai – is a grubby, realisticlooking glimpse of the work of the narcotics brigade. Accompanied by a driving score by Xavier Jamaux, the cinematogenic action scenes follow each other at high speed with pursuits, shoot-outs and explosions. Nominated for The Big Screen Award.

Torres & cometas

Shelly Silver

Towers & Comets Gonçalo Tocha

A man returns, after fifty years, to Chinatown to care for his dying mother. He is a librarian, a cataloguer and recorder, a gay man, a watcher, an impersonator. He passes his time collecting images – his witnesses and collaborators. Sitting in the dark, we look at them and share his cloak of invisibility, both a benefit and a curse. Touch is an essay narrated from one man’s point of view. But it is also fiction, for this man is a made-up person, an amalgam of research, interviews, off-the-record comments, secrets, improbabilities, and free-floating desires. This man, who never tells us his name, returns as both insider and outsider to a neighbourhood from which he escaped, as a teenager, as fast as he could. Silver: ‘I want to focus on the act – particular, yet open-ended – that entrances my protagonist: an act that we, the audience, share with him. This is the act of watching. Looking. Seeing. What does it mean to look, to watch, to photograph, to film?’

Guimarães, founded in the ninth century A.D., is in northern Portugal. From this town, Afonso Henriques fought against the Spanish ruler and declared independence in 1128. Guimarães – now a world heritage site – was the first capital of the new kingdom. Last year, the town was European Cultural Capital, along with Maribor in Slovenia. In this context, several films were made, including Centro histórico by Aki Kaurismäki, Pedro Costa, Victor Erice and Manoel de Oliveira. Towers & Comets also fits in this list. Together with sound man Didio Pestana, Gonçalo Tocha circles the mediaeval town like a comet. Against the background of the city walls with their imposing battlements, in which the text ‘Portugal was born here’ is hewn, he dives into a lively past filled with saints, historical key figures and above all music – a lot of music – from string orchestras to party bands with accordions.

42ND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Portugal, 2012 | colour, DCP, 61 min, Portuguese Prod: Gonçalo Tocha | Prod Comp: Fundação Cidade Guimarães | Sc: Gonçalo Tocha | Cam: Gonçalo Tocha | Ed: Gonçalo Tocha, Rui Ribeiro | Sound Des: Didio Pestana, Andre Neto | Music: Minhotos Marotos | With: Jerónimo Silva, José Paul, Júlio Castro, Roriz Mendes, José Novais | Print: Gonçalo Robalo | Sales: Gonçalo Tocha Public SCREENINGS Wed 30-1 17:152 CI4 Fri 1-2 16:452 LV6 Sat 2-2 11:002 CI4 Press & Industry SCREENING Tue 29-1 09:00 CI5

42ND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

125