NEWS FROM THE 49TH THESSALONIKI
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THE WRESTLER / OPENING FILM
Daren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, winner of this year’s Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, will open the 49th TIFF on Friday, November 14th. An evocative drama that has justifiably been hailed as Mickey Rourke’s triumphant (and somewhat autobiographical) comeback to the big screen, The Wrestler will be presented in Thessaloniki by Evan Rachel Wood. The young actress, who has been an art house sensation since her first role in the film Thirteen, holds the role of Rourke’s daughter. Director Aronofsky has been a Thessaloniki Festival staple since 1998, when his first film, π, won the FIPRESCI Award in the International Competition section.
FROST / NIXON - CLOSING FILM
Frost / Nixon by Academy Award winner Ron Howard will be the closing film during the awards gala on Sunday, November 23rd. Written by Peter Morgan, screenwriter of The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, and adapted from his own hit theatre play, the film is based on the historic 1977 TV interview by British TV personality Frost with disgraced former US president Richard Nixon. Starring Frank Langella as Nixon, Michael Sheen as Frost and Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan, this is a veritable cinematic battle of wits, that ends in one of the most famous public apologies in modern history.
THE DUST OF TIME – AVANT PREMIERE
The Dust of Time, the new film by Theo Angelopoulos will be screened as an avant premiere - special screening in the Greek Panorama section; star Willem Dafoe will accompany the director and will also conduct a Masterclass on acting. Only one screening of the film will take place, on Saturday the 22nd at 23.00 at the Olympion Theatre. The Dust of Time is the second instalment in the trilogy that began with The Weeping Meadow. Through allusions to the Thebaid cycle, the three films that compose the trilogy follow the modern history of Greece through the relationship of a man and a woman who first meet in 1919, during the flight of the Greeks from Odessa.
