EUROPE CALLING
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The Netherlands
The Conductor
Preview Based on the true story of the Dutch-born Antonia Brico, who in the late 1920’s was the world’s first woman to successfully conduct a large symphony orchestra. Another opportunity to see this film which opened the 2018 CIFF as a UK premiere, but still unreleased here. United States 1926: The Dutch, 24-year-old Antonia Brico (Christanne de Bruijn) was a child when she and her parents (Annet Malherbe and Raymond Thiry) emigrated to the United States. She dreams of becoming a conductor, but nobody takes her ambition seriously. Her piano teacher advises her against taking the entrance exam for the conservatory. With little to lose, she returns to her motherland, where she begs the famous conductor Mengelberg (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) to give her lessons. Mengelberg is not comfortable with the idea and sends her to Berlin where perhaps she can fulfil her promise. The film contains superb pieces of classical music especially performed for ‘The Conductor’. This is a thought-provoking and inspirational tale. Netherlands 2019 Maria Peters 137m Fri 20 Aug 10:30 (Auditorium)
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Romania
Unidentified
Wed 18 Aug 20:45 (Auditorium) Sat 21 Aug 14:45 (Auditorium)
18
chichesterfilmfestival.co.uk
Neidentificat Premiere An unsolved case. An unknown criminal. An obsessed cop. His investigation plunges him into a world of darkness and violence, pulling everyone around him into a mire of destruction and revenge. ‘Unidentified’ is the story of Florin, a hotheaded cop (Bogdan Farcas) who grows fixated on cracking open a mysterious case of arson that left two women dead. Determined to pin the blame on a young Romani man (Dragos Dumitru), he begins to lose control, driven less by the evidence than by racism and his cold-blooded pursuit of revenge. As we then learn, Florin (and the film’s narrative structure) has been concealing further unflattering information about his professional and personal life. He is in enormous debt, with the local bank threatening to repossess his car, and his school music teacher wife has left him. A film torn between competing tones of satire and character-based realism. A dark, propulsive thriller about corruption and racism in Romania’s police force. (Subtitles) Romania/Latvia/Czech Republic 2020 Bogdan George Apetri 123m 0ur thanks to Wide for this film.