Exclusive: Luxury labels are “naturally evolving” toward producing and making their own indie feature films, says Charles Finch, founder and chief executive of Finch and Partners, the consulting firm that has been the prime mover in enabling “a synergy of content” between the entertainment sector and the crème de la crème of brands.
Related Story Breaking Baz: Ruth Wilson On “Huge Act Of Stamina” Needed To Perform For 24 Hours With 100 Men On London Stage; Mud, Glorious Mud For ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ Related Story NFL Playoffs Fuel Broadcast Viewing In January; Prime Video Sees Largest Jump In Streaming Usage Due To 'Jack Ryan,' Nielsen Says Related Story Ruby Stokes On What She Misses Most About 'Bridgerton' After Series Exit
For 25 years, Finch tells Deadline, “we have either represented studios in helping to promote their programming or we have brought enormous luxury deals to artists, and...
Related Story Breaking Baz: Ruth Wilson On “Huge Act Of Stamina” Needed To Perform For 24 Hours With 100 Men On London Stage; Mud, Glorious Mud For ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ Related Story NFL Playoffs Fuel Broadcast Viewing In January; Prime Video Sees Largest Jump In Streaming Usage Due To 'Jack Ryan,' Nielsen Says Related Story Ruby Stokes On What She Misses Most About 'Bridgerton' After Series Exit
For 25 years, Finch tells Deadline, “we have either represented studios in helping to promote their programming or we have brought enormous luxury deals to artists, and...
- 2/16/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: First look at Andrew Hulme’s follow up to Cannes 2014 entry Snow In Paradise.
UK sales outfit Protagonist, riding high off the success of Toronto hit Lady Macbeth, has boarded world sales on Andrew Hulme’s recently wrapped crime-horror The Devil Outside.
Writer-director Hulme’s BFI-backed follow up to his 2014 Cannes Official Selection debut Snow In Paradise charts the story of a young boy (Robert) brought up in a world of evangelical Christianity that has taught him to look for signs and to believe that evil is waiting just outside the front door.
Caught between his mother, who’s determined to bring Jesus’s love to a dead mining town, and his best friend who has introduced him to teenage rebellion, Robert becomes embroiled in a spiritual tug of war as he tries to escape his religious beliefs. It’s then that he discovers a dead body in the woods and realises that God has sent...
UK sales outfit Protagonist, riding high off the success of Toronto hit Lady Macbeth, has boarded world sales on Andrew Hulme’s recently wrapped crime-horror The Devil Outside.
Writer-director Hulme’s BFI-backed follow up to his 2014 Cannes Official Selection debut Snow In Paradise charts the story of a young boy (Robert) brought up in a world of evangelical Christianity that has taught him to look for signs and to believe that evil is waiting just outside the front door.
Caught between his mother, who’s determined to bring Jesus’s love to a dead mining town, and his best friend who has introduced him to teenage rebellion, Robert becomes embroiled in a spiritual tug of war as he tries to escape his religious beliefs. It’s then that he discovers a dead body in the woods and realises that God has sent...
- 9/22/2016
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The film-maker on the evergreen Leonard Cohen, teashop lithographs and wartime architecture
Nick Broomfield is an award-winning British film-maker best known for his offbeat and sometimes controversial documentaries on a wide range of subjects, including Margaret Thatcher, Eugene Terre'Blanche, Sarah Palin, Courtney Love, Tupac Shakur and Heidi Fleiss. His feature films, made in a style he describes as "direct cinema", include Ghosts (2006) and Battle for Haditha (2008). His latest film, Sex: My British Job, in which he teams up with undercover journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai to investigate the British sex trade, is on Channel 4 on 23 September.
Theatre: The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell
I thought this was fantastic. It dealt with a really complicated subject incredibly well, with a great deal of humour, as well as having very strong dialogue and characters. It was the first time I had seen buggery on stage, which was shocking – and I don't often have...
Nick Broomfield is an award-winning British film-maker best known for his offbeat and sometimes controversial documentaries on a wide range of subjects, including Margaret Thatcher, Eugene Terre'Blanche, Sarah Palin, Courtney Love, Tupac Shakur and Heidi Fleiss. His feature films, made in a style he describes as "direct cinema", include Ghosts (2006) and Battle for Haditha (2008). His latest film, Sex: My British Job, in which he teams up with undercover journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai to investigate the British sex trade, is on Channel 4 on 23 September.
Theatre: The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell
I thought this was fantastic. It dealt with a really complicated subject incredibly well, with a great deal of humour, as well as having very strong dialogue and characters. It was the first time I had seen buggery on stage, which was shocking – and I don't often have...
- 9/23/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Variety brings us one of the more oddball pieces of casting news in at least a day or so: British comedian Steve Coogan, Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere star Stephen Dorff, and Canadian rapper K’naan will be headlining documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield‘s adaptation of Ronan Bennett‘s novel, The Catastrophist.
What’s so weird about this? Well, the novel is described as “a love story set against the Belgian Congo’s decolonization in the 1960s.” Beyond that, Broomfield apparently wants to shoot this in the Tanzanian mining town of Mwanza. If they can pull this off, it will mark the first foreign production in that part of Africa since Howard Hawks directed John Wayne in the jungle adventure flick Hatari! in 1962. (Don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it — it’s not exactly The African Queen.)
Broomfield is famous for his controversial documentaries, most notably Kurt & Courtney,...
What’s so weird about this? Well, the novel is described as “a love story set against the Belgian Congo’s decolonization in the 1960s.” Beyond that, Broomfield apparently wants to shoot this in the Tanzanian mining town of Mwanza. If they can pull this off, it will mark the first foreign production in that part of Africa since Howard Hawks directed John Wayne in the jungle adventure flick Hatari! in 1962. (Don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it — it’s not exactly The African Queen.)
Broomfield is famous for his controversial documentaries, most notably Kurt & Courtney,...
- 9/5/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
The long Labor Day holiday weekend is upon us, and between that and the Venice and Telluride film festivals, it seems like a lot of Hollywood has shut down in anticipation of the last relaxing days of summer. But we've got a few new casting bits to throw your way regardless. After the break, Ed Helms will remake a French pimp comedy, Paul Dano is among the cast additions to Kelly Reichardt's new film Night Moves, The unlikely duo of Stephen Dorff and Steve Coogan are in an adaptation of the novel The Catastrophist, and found footage film Evidence gets new players. First up, Ed Helms is going to produce and star in a remake of the 2010 French film Le Mac, which "follows a mild-mannered banker forced to masquerade as a notorious gangster and pimp." Johnny Rosenthal is writing (he's also a writer on Bad Santa 2) and Media...
- 9/2/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Going on a quest for the "real" Sarah Palin sounds like setting out in pursuit of the Holy Grail—it's something that's guaranteed to be hard to find, if it exists at all. But Brit documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield tried to do just that in his drolly titled Sarah Palin: You Betcha!, which Content Film will release after its world premiere in September at the Toronto Film Festival. Content will have international rights for the film, while Cassian Elwes will release the film in the Us. Doc vet Broomfield, who directed the documentary Kurt and Courtney as well as the quasi-improvisational Battle for Haditha, set out across Alaska in search of Palin's family, high school buddies and Republican colleagues. You Betcha! comes on the heels of ...
- 8/3/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
'Critical' film to compete with authorised Palin documentary
He's tackled Kurt Cobain, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur and Heidi Fleiss. Now British documentary-maker Nick Broomfield has turned his attention to Sarah Palin, darling of the American right and potential candidate for a Us presidential run next year.
Broomfield's as-yet-untitled film reportedly offers a critical examination of the former Us Republican vice presidential candidate via interviews with her parents, friends and ex-colleagues from his subject's time as governor of Alaska. It is due to be screened in Los Angeles next week for potential buyers, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
A trailer for the film features interviews with former Alaska legislative director John Bitney and former state senate president Lyda Green, both of whom describe an "unengaged" Palin who made of a habit of texting on her mobile during important meetings and legislative sessions.
"I never felt that Sarah was ever connected to...
He's tackled Kurt Cobain, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur and Heidi Fleiss. Now British documentary-maker Nick Broomfield has turned his attention to Sarah Palin, darling of the American right and potential candidate for a Us presidential run next year.
Broomfield's as-yet-untitled film reportedly offers a critical examination of the former Us Republican vice presidential candidate via interviews with her parents, friends and ex-colleagues from his subject's time as governor of Alaska. It is due to be screened in Los Angeles next week for potential buyers, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
A trailer for the film features interviews with former Alaska legislative director John Bitney and former state senate president Lyda Green, both of whom describe an "unengaged" Palin who made of a habit of texting on her mobile during important meetings and legislative sessions.
"I never felt that Sarah was ever connected to...
- 6/29/2011
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
At 'the Cinema Paradiso of Zanzibar' old films are watched under open sky – director Nick Broomfield hopes to put the roof back on
Every Friday they gather there, seven or eight elderly men in a ramshackle auditorium of cobwebs and broken chairs. Sitting under an open sky (the roof fell in long ago) they watch the flickering images of old films projected on to the wall.
"It's the Cinema Paradiso of Zanzibar," said Martin Mhando, director of the annual Zanzibar International Film Festival (Ziff), which takes place on the Tanzanian island next month. "Cinema Paradiso was heavenly compared to what's there."
This is the Majestic, one of Africa's first cinemas, an art deco gem from the 1920s that lost its lustre. Mhando is leading a campaign to restore the ruin to its former glory – vital, he says, because where Tanzania and its islands once had 53 cinemas, now there are only two.
Every Friday they gather there, seven or eight elderly men in a ramshackle auditorium of cobwebs and broken chairs. Sitting under an open sky (the roof fell in long ago) they watch the flickering images of old films projected on to the wall.
"It's the Cinema Paradiso of Zanzibar," said Martin Mhando, director of the annual Zanzibar International Film Festival (Ziff), which takes place on the Tanzanian island next month. "Cinema Paradiso was heavenly compared to what's there."
This is the Majestic, one of Africa's first cinemas, an art deco gem from the 1920s that lost its lustre. Mhando is leading a campaign to restore the ruin to its former glory – vital, he says, because where Tanzania and its islands once had 53 cinemas, now there are only two.
- 6/3/2011
- by David Smith
- The Guardian - Film News
Planning logistics and hiring crew for film productions like The Hurt Locker is hard graft with little in the way of glitter, Donall McCusker tells Jill Insley
Most people have pictures of their children, pets and partners on their iPhone. Not Donall McCusker: his gallery includes soldiers hefting large guns, profile shots of Arabic-looking men and perfectly timed snaps of explosions – the kind of thing that would immediately lead to his detention if spotted by airport security staff.
It might take him some time to convince them of his innocence: he was brought up in Belfast and still has a distinct accent which, combined with the photos, might start alarm bells ringing.
But McCusker has the best reason in the world to be carrying these photos: he was co-producer on the war film The Hurt Locker, which picked up six Academy Awards this year, and his photos are all...
Most people have pictures of their children, pets and partners on their iPhone. Not Donall McCusker: his gallery includes soldiers hefting large guns, profile shots of Arabic-looking men and perfectly timed snaps of explosions – the kind of thing that would immediately lead to his detention if spotted by airport security staff.
It might take him some time to convince them of his innocence: he was brought up in Belfast and still has a distinct accent which, combined with the photos, might start alarm bells ringing.
But McCusker has the best reason in the world to be carrying these photos: he was co-producer on the war film The Hurt Locker, which picked up six Academy Awards this year, and his photos are all...
- 5/14/2010
- by Jill Insley
- The Guardian - Film News
At the cinema, 2008 was the year when it was hip to depart from the moral outrage any conscientious individual might feel about our countries’ on going illegal and immoral war 6,000 miles away. Light satire, be it of the buddy (Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay) or “five minutes in the future, things will be even more remarkably Fubar” variety (War Inc.) were fashionable. Stop-Loss, much like last year’s ill conceived Lions for Lambs, luke warm Rendition and sneakily powerful In the Valley of Elah, was too sincere for most audience members and a large swath of critics’ taste. On the other hand, did we really need Morgan Spurlock to go looking for Osama ...
- 1/9/2009
- by Brandon Harris
- Spout
At the cinema, 2008 was the year when it was hip to depart from the moral outrage any conscientious individual might feel about our countries’ on going illegal and immoral war 6,000 miles away. Light satire, be it of the buddy (Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay) or “five minutes in the future, things will be even more remarkably Fubar” variety (War Inc.) were fashionable. Stop-Loss, much like last year’s ill conceived Lions for Lambs, luke warm Rendition and sneakily powerful In the Valley of Elah, was too sincere for most audience members and a large swath of critics’ taste. On the other hand, did we really need Morgan Spurlock to go looking for Osama ...
- 1/9/2009
- by Brandon Harris
- Spout
MPAA ratings: Oct. 15, 2008The following feature-length motion pictures have been reviewed and rated by the Classification and Rating Administration pursuant to the Motion Picture Classification and Rating program. Each of the designated ratings is defined as follows under the Motion Picture Classification and Rating program.
G -- General Audiences. All ages admitted.
PG -- Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG -13 --Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
R -- Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Nc-17 -- No One 17 And Under Admitted
Film Distributor ReasonRating Battle For Haditha
Image Entertainment, Inc.
Rated for war violence, disturbing images, and for pervasive language.
R The Black Pimpernel
Distrimax, Inc.
Rated for a scene of violence.
R Doubt
Miramax Films
Rated for thematic material.
PG-13
The Good Student
Screen Media Ventures, LLC
Rated for sexual content and language.
R
I...
G -- General Audiences. All ages admitted.
PG -- Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG -13 --Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
R -- Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Nc-17 -- No One 17 And Under Admitted
Film Distributor ReasonRating Battle For Haditha
Image Entertainment, Inc.
Rated for war violence, disturbing images, and for pervasive language.
R The Black Pimpernel
Distrimax, Inc.
Rated for a scene of violence.
R Doubt
Miramax Films
Rated for thematic material.
PG-13
The Good Student
Screen Media Ventures, LLC
Rated for sexual content and language.
R
I...
- 10/15/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
London -- The European Film Academy unveiled the 44 movies on this year's long list for the upcoming European Film Awards, scheduled for Dec. 6 in Copenhagen.
The 44 titles come from 27 countries across the continent including four from the U.K.
Joe Wright's "Atonement," Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Steve McQueen's "Hunger" will all hope to make the nominations' list with titles such as Kornel Mundruczo's "Delta" from Hungary and Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" from Poland vying for a place.
In the 20 countries with the most Efa Members, members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.
To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa board members and invited experts have included 24 other titles.
Over the next few weeks, the 1,800 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories.
The nominations will then be announced Nov.
The 44 titles come from 27 countries across the continent including four from the U.K.
Joe Wright's "Atonement," Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Steve McQueen's "Hunger" will all hope to make the nominations' list with titles such as Kornel Mundruczo's "Delta" from Hungary and Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" from Poland vying for a place.
In the 20 countries with the most Efa Members, members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.
To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa board members and invited experts have included 24 other titles.
Over the next few weeks, the 1,800 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories.
The nominations will then be announced Nov.
- 9/4/2008
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha", a dramatic re-enactment of a real-life massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines, was the surprise winner of this year's Emden-Norderney film festival, taking the Bernhard Wicki prize for best film and the DGB Film prize for work that engages with social or political issues.
"Haditha" beat out Anand Tucker's family drama "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" for the top prize.
Kinowelt has acquired "Haditha" for German release.
"Haditha" beat out Anand Tucker's family drama "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" for the top prize.
Kinowelt has acquired "Haditha" for German release.
No one ever accused Nick Broomfield of being a particularly elegant filmmaker. A certain studied clumsiness is central to his whole aesthetic. In documentaries like Kurt & Courtney and Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer, Broomfield, the sly Columbo of non-fiction filmmakers, calculatingly plays the fool so that his sleazy subjects will let their guards down and let the ugliness and greed at the core of their being ooze out. With its occasionally stilted acting and clumsy dialogue, Broomfield's scrappy new docudrama Battle For Haditha sometimes feels like an amateur remake of Jarhead. Yet it ultimately derives much of its primal power from its bluntness and simplicity. Like Broomfield's documentary work, it stumbles purposefully onto harsh truths about the ugliness of human nature. Based on the Haditha killings and filmed documentary-style using former servicemen and a rough outline instead of a detailed script, Battle For Haditha...
- 5/8/2008
- by Nathan Rabin
- avclub.com
By Neil Pedley
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
"The Babysitters"
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes...
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
"The Babysitters"
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes...
- 5/5/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
NEW YORK -- Controversial documentary director Nick Broomfield, who unveiled his Iraq War narrative drama "Battle for Haditha" at the recent Toronto fest, has signed with ICM.
Broomfield gained notoriety with such investigative docus as "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie & Tupac" and two features on serial killer Aileen Wuornos that helped inspire the feature "Monster". His docus often take a personal approach, showing him tracking down his subjects and often coming to inflammatory conclusions.
"Haditha" re-creates the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians, allegedly at the hands of U.S. Marines. It won Broomfield best director honors at last month's San Sebastian International Film Festival. ICM is repping the FilmFour feature's North American distribution rights.
The Los Angeles and London-based Broomfield is repped by U.K.-based Charles Finch and attorney Shani Hinton.
Broomfield was repped by WMA.
Broomfield gained notoriety with such investigative docus as "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie & Tupac" and two features on serial killer Aileen Wuornos that helped inspire the feature "Monster". His docus often take a personal approach, showing him tracking down his subjects and often coming to inflammatory conclusions.
"Haditha" re-creates the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians, allegedly at the hands of U.S. Marines. It won Broomfield best director honors at last month's San Sebastian International Film Festival. ICM is repping the FilmFour feature's North American distribution rights.
The Los Angeles and London-based Broomfield is repped by U.K.-based Charles Finch and attorney Shani Hinton.
Broomfield was repped by WMA.
- 10/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian, Spain -- Wayne Wang's U.S. film A Thousand Years of Good Prayers won the Golden Shell at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival, official jury chair Paul Auster said Saturday.
Henry O. took the best actor honor for his portrayal in Prayers, which centers on a Chinese widower who visits his recently divorced only daughter in the U.S. Blanca Portillo picked up the actress prize for her role in Gracia Querejeta's 7 Billiards Tables, from Spain.
Nick Broomfield won best director for his U.K. docudrama The Battle for Haditha, about the war landscape in Iraq.
The 18-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf saw her directorial debut, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Iran-France) -- which centers on a 6-year-old girl's efforts to learn the alphabet in Afghanistan -- take the special jury prize. The jury said the "first feature by a extremely young director impressed the jury with its exquisite cinematography and the remarkable performance by the child actress Nikbakht Noruz."
The jury called Shame "a promising debut by a filmmaker whom we hope will go on to create important works in the future."
Makhmalbaf also won the newly created Other Look Award, sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola, which supports the film that best depicts the "female universe" by acquiring Spanish broadcast rights.
Henry O. took the best actor honor for his portrayal in Prayers, which centers on a Chinese widower who visits his recently divorced only daughter in the U.S. Blanca Portillo picked up the actress prize for her role in Gracia Querejeta's 7 Billiards Tables, from Spain.
Nick Broomfield won best director for his U.K. docudrama The Battle for Haditha, about the war landscape in Iraq.
The 18-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf saw her directorial debut, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Iran-France) -- which centers on a 6-year-old girl's efforts to learn the alphabet in Afghanistan -- take the special jury prize. The jury said the "first feature by a extremely young director impressed the jury with its exquisite cinematography and the remarkable performance by the child actress Nikbakht Noruz."
The jury called Shame "a promising debut by a filmmaker whom we hope will go on to create important works in the future."
Makhmalbaf also won the newly created Other Look Award, sponsored by Spanish pubcaster Television Espanola, which supports the film that best depicts the "female universe" by acquiring Spanish broadcast rights.
- 10/1/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
San Sebastian -- Richard Gere, Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen and Samuel L. Jackson are a few of the famous faces adding star power to the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday and runs through Sept. 29.
While locals appreciate the star power, it is the festival's focus on political and social issues and committment to its Latin flavor that make San Sebastian unique.
"We look to create a varied, balanced lineup that reflects the different kinds of cinema being made right now," festival director Mikel Olaciregui said. "There's a cross section of new and veteran directors, different genres from a variety of countries and languages."
A total of 16 films will vie for the festival's Golden Shell, awarded by a jury presided over by U.S. writer-director Paul Auster.
Politics is never far from the fore in San Sebastian and this year's festival is heavy with features focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Iraq conflict gets a high-profile billing with Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha in the official competition.
While locals appreciate the star power, it is the festival's focus on political and social issues and committment to its Latin flavor that make San Sebastian unique.
"We look to create a varied, balanced lineup that reflects the different kinds of cinema being made right now," festival director Mikel Olaciregui said. "There's a cross section of new and veteran directors, different genres from a variety of countries and languages."
A total of 16 films will vie for the festival's Golden Shell, awarded by a jury presided over by U.S. writer-director Paul Auster.
Politics is never far from the fore in San Sebastian and this year's festival is heavy with features focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Iraq conflict gets a high-profile billing with Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha in the official competition.
- 9/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- After directing documentaries for the past quarter-century, Nick Broomfield (Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney, Biggie and Tupac) has taken on his first dramatic narrative with Battle for Haditha.
Portraying the events leading to the Nov. 19, 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi noncombatants at the hands of U.S. Marines, the film retains many of the cinema verite qualities of Broomfield's previous works, lending it a powerful, devastating immediacy.
Part recreation, part speculation, formulated from hundreds of interviews, the docudrama has set out to put a personal face on the war in Iraq, and no matter the vantage point, that human cost on both sides is inexorably tragic.
One of the most affecting of the recent rash of similarly themed films, the British production should have no trouble courting North American distributors following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere.
Shot in Jordan, Battle for Haditha makes an effort to spend as much time with those young American soldiers (several of whom are played here by actual ex-Marines) as it does with the Iraqi families living in constant fear of terrorists, and a middle-aged man and another not much younger than those Marines, who would at first appear to be a father and son, but turn out to be insurgents.
After establishing the parallel day-to-day existence, Broomfield then ratchets up the tension as those insurgents patiently for a Marine convoy to pass over a roadside IED (Improvised Explosive Device).
When the moment arrives, one of the men activates the bomb with his cell phone, literally blowing one Marine apart and badly injuring two others.
Seeking vengeance and hopped up on a diet of caffeine and death metal, the surviving Marines retaliate by conducting a violent house-to-house search for the perpetrators.
By the time the smoke clears, two dozen Iraqis civilians, many of them women and children, are dead.
With its dialogue largely improvised by many who had seen extensive combat in Iraq, Battle for Haditha has a gripping authenticity lacking in other similarly themed dramas.
One of those individuals is Elliot Ruiz, a former U.S. Marine Corporal who had been told by doctors that he may never be able to walk unassisted again after badly damaging his leg during an insurgent attack in Tikrit.
Having since taking up acting, his performance, as the conflicted Cpl. Ramirez, lends the film a particular poignancy.
Back in the real world, the Haditha trials are about to get underway at Camp Pendleton, almost two full years after the incident.
BATTLE FOR HADITHA
Lafayette Film Ltd./Channel 4 UK
Credits:
Director: Nick Broomfield
Writers: Nick Broomfield, Marc Hoeferlin, Anna Telford
Producer: Nick Broomfield
Executive producers: Peter Dale, Charles Finch
Director of photography: Mark Wolf
Production designer: David Bryan
Music: Nick Laid-Clowes
Co-producer: Anna Telford
Editors: Ash Jenkins, Stuart Gazzard
Cast:
Cpl. Ramirez: Elliot Ruiz
Ahmad: Falah Flayeh
Hiba: Yasmine Hanani
Capt. Sampson: Andrew McClaren
Sgt. Ross: Eric Mehalacopoulos
Rashied: Duraid A Ghaieb
Jafar: Oliver Bytrus
Safa: Aya Abbas
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Portraying the events leading to the Nov. 19, 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi noncombatants at the hands of U.S. Marines, the film retains many of the cinema verite qualities of Broomfield's previous works, lending it a powerful, devastating immediacy.
Part recreation, part speculation, formulated from hundreds of interviews, the docudrama has set out to put a personal face on the war in Iraq, and no matter the vantage point, that human cost on both sides is inexorably tragic.
One of the most affecting of the recent rash of similarly themed films, the British production should have no trouble courting North American distributors following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere.
Shot in Jordan, Battle for Haditha makes an effort to spend as much time with those young American soldiers (several of whom are played here by actual ex-Marines) as it does with the Iraqi families living in constant fear of terrorists, and a middle-aged man and another not much younger than those Marines, who would at first appear to be a father and son, but turn out to be insurgents.
After establishing the parallel day-to-day existence, Broomfield then ratchets up the tension as those insurgents patiently for a Marine convoy to pass over a roadside IED (Improvised Explosive Device).
When the moment arrives, one of the men activates the bomb with his cell phone, literally blowing one Marine apart and badly injuring two others.
Seeking vengeance and hopped up on a diet of caffeine and death metal, the surviving Marines retaliate by conducting a violent house-to-house search for the perpetrators.
By the time the smoke clears, two dozen Iraqis civilians, many of them women and children, are dead.
With its dialogue largely improvised by many who had seen extensive combat in Iraq, Battle for Haditha has a gripping authenticity lacking in other similarly themed dramas.
One of those individuals is Elliot Ruiz, a former U.S. Marine Corporal who had been told by doctors that he may never be able to walk unassisted again after badly damaging his leg during an insurgent attack in Tikrit.
Having since taking up acting, his performance, as the conflicted Cpl. Ramirez, lends the film a particular poignancy.
Back in the real world, the Haditha trials are about to get underway at Camp Pendleton, almost two full years after the incident.
BATTLE FOR HADITHA
Lafayette Film Ltd./Channel 4 UK
Credits:
Director: Nick Broomfield
Writers: Nick Broomfield, Marc Hoeferlin, Anna Telford
Producer: Nick Broomfield
Executive producers: Peter Dale, Charles Finch
Director of photography: Mark Wolf
Production designer: David Bryan
Music: Nick Laid-Clowes
Co-producer: Anna Telford
Editors: Ash Jenkins, Stuart Gazzard
Cast:
Cpl. Ramirez: Elliot Ruiz
Ahmad: Falah Flayeh
Hiba: Yasmine Hanani
Capt. Sampson: Andrew McClaren
Sgt. Ross: Eric Mehalacopoulos
Rashied: Duraid A Ghaieb
Jafar: Oliver Bytrus
Safa: Aya Abbas
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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