2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

For the films of 2011
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by OscarGuy »

France has got to be pissed. Declaration of War was the perfect Oscar bait film. It might have actually beaten A Separation, but I guess we'll never know.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by anonymous1980 »

9 Foreign Language Films Vie for Oscar

Beverly Hills, CA – Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 84th Academy Awards®. Sixty-three films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Belgium, “Bullhead,” Michael R. Roskam, director;
Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar,” Philippe Falardeau, director;
Denmark, “Superclásico,” Ole Christian Madsen, director;
Germany, “Pina,” Wim Wenders, director;
Iran, “A Separation,” Asghar Farhadi, director;
Israel, “Footnote,” Joseph Cedar, director;
Morocco, “Omar Killed Me,” Roschdy Zem, director;
Poland, “In Darkness,” Agnieszka Holland, director;
Taiwan, “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” Wei Te-sheng, director.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Sabin »

Sonic Youth wrote
OscarGuy wrote
The Artist isn't eligible for Foreign Language Film...at least not with the Academy.
Then Sabin was right. It IS a foregone conclusion.
...yeah, yeah...
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Big Magilla »

It's a matter of semantics. The late John Harkness once correctly chastized me on the old UAADB for referring to The Passion of Joan of Arc as a "foreign language film" when there was no language spoken. The Artist is a silent film. It may be a "foreign" film, but not a "foreign Language" film. It will be interesting to see how it fares in year-end balloting now that all the critics' groups have gone to the more politically correct "foreign language" designation. They could rename the category as "Best Film Not in the English Language" as the BAFTAs do, but that could open the door for any silent film to slip in, couldn't it?
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Sonic Youth »

OscarGuy wrote:The Artist isn't eligible for Foreign Language Film...at least not with the Academy.
Then Sabin was right. It IS a foregone conclusion. :P
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Sabin »

Wow. I overlooked that. The Artist has the Golden Globe in the bag. I think the Academy's picks will look something like this:

France: La guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War), Valérie Donzelli
Iran: جدایی نادر از سیمین Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader and Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi
Israel: הערת שוליים (Footnote), Joseph Cedar
Mexico: Miss Bala, Gerado Naranjo
Poland: W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by OscarGuy »

The Artist isn't eligible for Foreign Language Film...at least not with the Academy.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Sabin »

It seems like The Artist is becoming something of a foregone conclusion for Best Foreign-Language Film and possibly Best Picture, but if it wasn't in the running I would say Miss Bala would be this year's Golden Globe Winner for sure. Pretty much irrelevant now, but a definite Foreign-Language Film contender and a guaranteed huge art house hit.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Damien »

From the New York Times:

October 13, 2011, 7:33 pm
Academy Unveils Entrants for Best Foreign-Language Film
By LARRY ROHTER

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on Thursday announced the 63 films that will be in the running in February for the Oscar for best foreign-language film, so the speculation season is now officially under way. New Zealand, which submitted “The Orator,” by the Maori director Tusi Tamasese, will be competing in the category for the first time, but the list of nominees, down by two countries compared with last year, includes many familiar names.

China, for example, submitted “The Flowers of War,” starring Christian Bale and directed by Zhang Yimou, who has previously been nominated three times, without winning. Wim Wenders of Germany, Agnieszka Holland of Poland, Aki Kaurismaki of Finland and Nikita Mikhalkov of Russia are among the other prominent directors whose films were nominated by their home countries.

But Pedro Almodovar’s “The Skin I Live In,” which opens in New York this week with a story line that is over the top even by his fevered standards, was not chosen as the nominee from Spain, which will instead be represented by Agusti Villaronga’s “Black Bread.” Mr. Almodovar, who won for “All About My Mother” in 1999, has had a complicated and sometimes testy relationship in the past with the panel that chooses Spain’s submission, but fences have recently been mended, and there was much speculation in the Spanish press that he would get the nod this time.

Last year, the initial long list of 65 was winnowed to a short list of 9, announced in mid-January, and then, a week later, 5 finalists, from Algeria, Canada, Denmark, Greece and Mexico. The eventual winner was the Danish entry, Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World.”
As usual, certain films are already generating buzz, even before they have been released commercially in the United States. Many have been on the festival circuit for months, stirring interest or winning prizes at Cannes, Berlin or Toronto. Interestingly, that list includes several films that do not come from traditional cinema powers in Europe, but are from or about the Middle East, repeating a trend that was noticeable last year, when four of the five films that were finalists touched on subjects related to the Middle East or Islam.

Among that group is the Turkish submission “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” which was the co-winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes last spring. Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, it is both a detective film, about the search for a missing corpse, and a meditation on certain Big Ideas. The Iranian submission, Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation,” also has been getting attention because of its fascinating mixture of genres: again a detective film of sorts, but also one that examines religion and morality.

Then there is Israel’s submission, Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote,” which won the best screenplay prize at Cannes. It is about the intellectual competition between a father and son, both of them Talmudic scholars, and how that rivalry comes to threaten their relationship. The Polish submission, Ms. Holland’s “In Darkness,” also deals with a specifically Jewish story, based on real events: at the height of World War II, a group of ghetto residents flee to the sewers, where they are forced to rely on the protection of a petty thief who is a Roman Catholic with no fondness for Jews.

The deadline for countries to submit a film was Oct. 3. But the Academy had to vet the submissions to make sure they qualified under the Academy’s rules, which means that the bulk of a film’s dialogue must be spoken in a language other than English and that the creative elements are truly representative of the host country.

Those issues have come into play in at least two of the submissions. Mr. Zhang’s film, a period epic set in the 1930s, includes significant chunks of dialogue in English, but apparently not enough to disqualify it, though there is also talk of a campaign to get a separate Best Actor nomination for Mr. Bale. Albania’s initial submission, “The Forgiveness of Blood,” is directed and co-written by an American, Joshua Marston, who in 2004 had a film, “Maria Full of Grace,” that was chosen to represent Colombia but was eventually disqualified (though its female lead, Catalina Sandino Moreno, was nominated for best actress). After complaints by Albanian filmmakers, “The Forgiveness of Blood” was removed and substituted with Bujar Alimani’s “Amnesty.”

Mr. Marston’s film “is made by Albanians, in Albania, about Albania and in the Albanian language,” he told Variety magazine after the change was announced. “And yet a great film like Kaurismaki’s ‘Le Havre,’ which was shot in France with a French cast and a French story, qualifies as Finnish? And ‘As If I Am Not There,’ which was shot in the Balkans and is in Serbo-Croat with a cast from that region, qualifies as Irish? It’s absurd.” Stay tuned. The fun is just beginning.

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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Damien »

Via Movie On:

These are the sixty-three (63) films that will compete for the Best Foreign Language film in the 84th Academy Awards.

Albania: Amnistia (Amnesty), Bujar Alimani
Argentina: Aballay, el hombre sin miedo (Aballay), Fernando Spiner
Austria: Atmen (Breathing), Karl Markovics
Belgium: Rundskop (Bullhead), Michaël R. Roskam
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Belvedere, Ahmed Imamović
Brazil: Tropa de Elite 2 (Elite Squad: The Enemy Within), José Padilha
Bulgaria: Тилт Tilt, Viktor Chuchkov Jr.
Canada: Monsieur Lazhar, Philippe Falardeau
Chile: Violeta Se Fue a los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Andrés Wood
China: 金陵十三釵 (The Flowers of War), Zhang Yimou
Colombia: Los Colores de la Montaña (The Colors of the Mountain), Carlos César Arbeláez
Croatia: Sedamdeset i dva dana (72 days), Danilo Serbedzija
Cuba: Habanastation, Ian Padrón
Czech Republic: Alois Nebel, Tomás Lunák (animated film)
Denmark: SuperClásico, Ole Christian Madsen
Dominican Republic: La Hija Natural (Love Child), Leticia Tonos
Egypt: الشوق El-Shouq (Lust), Khaled El-Hagar
Estonia: Kirjad Inglile (Letters to Angel), Sulev Keedus
Finland: Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki
France: La guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War), Valérie Donzelli
Georgia: Chantrapras, Otar Iosseliani
Germany: Pina, Wim Wenders (is a documentary - NO, this is no doc even when documents dance, it's really BEAUTIFUL to watch plus you'll feel lots of emotions! Fantastic film.)
Greece: Attenberg, Athina Rachel Tsangari (A strange movie/story yet was fascinating for me.)
Hong Kong: 桃姐 Tao jie (A Simple Life), Ann Hui
Hungary: A Torinói ló (The Turin House), Béla Tarr
Iceland: Eldfjall (Volcano), Rúnar Rúnarsson
India: ആദാമിന്റെ മകൻ അബു Adaminte Makan Abu (Abu, Son of Adam), Salim Ahamed
Indonesia: Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah (Under the Protection of Ka'Bah), Hanny R Saputra
Iran: جدایی نادر از سیمین Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader and Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi
Ireland: As If I Am Not There, Juanita Wilson (Very HARD-to-watch story in a good movie with good performances which makes film harder to watch.)
Israel: הערת שוליים (Footnote), Joseph Cedar
Italy: Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese
Japan: 一枚のハガキ Ich-mai no Hagaki (Postcard), Kaneto Shindō
Kazakhstan: Возвращение в "А" (Return to "A"), Egor Konchalovsky
Lebanon: وهلّأ لوين؟ Wo Hallah La Wen? (Where Do We Go Now?), Nadine Labaki
Lithuania: Kai Apkabinsiu Tave (Back in Your Arms), Kristijonas Vildžiūnas
Macedonia: Панкот не е мртов Pankot ne e mrtov (Punk's Not Dead), Vladimir Blazevski
Mexico: Miss Bala, Gerado Naranjo
Morocco: Omar m'a tuer (Omar Killed Me), Roschdy Zem
Netherlands: Sonny Boy, Maria Peters
New Zealand: O Le Tulafale (The Orator), Tusi Tamasese
Norway: Sykt lykkelig (Happy, Happy), Anne Sewitsky
Peru: Octubre (October), Diego and Daniel Vega
Philippines: Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank), Marlon Rivera
Poland: W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland
Portugal: José e Pilar (Jose and Pilar), Miguel Goncalves Mendes (documentary)
Romania: Morgen, Marian Crisan
Russia: Утомлённые солнцем 2: Цитадель Utomlyonnye Solntsem 2 (Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel), Nikita Mikhalkov
Serbia: Montevideo, bog te video (Montevideo: Taste of a Dream), Dragan Bjelogrlić
Singapore: Tatsumi, Erick Khoo
Slovakia: Cigán (Gypsy), Martin Šulík
South Africa: Shookheid (Beauty), Oliver Hermanus
South Korea: 고지전 Go-ji-jeon (The Front Line), Jang Hun
Spain: Pa Negre (Black Bread), Agustí Villaronga (An okay movie with an okay story, nothing special)
Sweden: Svinalängorna (Beyond), Pernilla August
Switzerland: Giochi d'estate (Summer Games), Rolando Colla
Taiwan: 賽德克.巴萊 Saideke Balai (Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale), Wei Te-Sheng
Thailand: คนโขน Kon Khon, Sarunyu Wongkrachang
Turkey: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
United Kingdom: Patagonia, Marc Evans
Uruguay: La Casa Muda (The Silent House), Gustavo Hernández
Venezuela: El Rumor de las Piedras (The Rumble of the Stones), Alejandro Bellame
Vietnam: Khát vọng Thăng Long (The Prince and the Pagoda Boy), Lưu Trọng Ninh
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by anonymous1980 »

Our submission is pretty good but I don't know if it's gonna land with Academy voters. The Woman in the Septic Tank is a very funny satire on the indie film movement and has already won awards at a local festival. It's also a box-office hit. It's about a group of filmmakers aiming to make a great Filipino indie film that will reap awards internationally (yes, the Oscars were referenced!) and they wanna get popular comedic actress Eugene Domingo to star (she plays an exaggerated version of herself and of course the character she plays in the film).

I liked several films better than this. Baby Factory is a well-made drama about a maternity hospital catering to the urban poor (directed by a friend of mine; so there's bias!) but it's not buzz-y enough. Amok is also a great piece of filmmaking but it may also be deemed a bit gimmick-y and not "important" enough. Amigo wasn't even in the shortlist of contenders because despite the fact that 85% of this film's production is Filipino, the writer-director-editor is American filmmaker John Sayles so I guess our commitee didn't wanna risk disqualification. Zombadings is probably one of the best Filipino comedies of recent years, certainly my favorite Filipino film of the year but its humor relies heavily on knowledge and awareness of Filipino LGBT culture so a large part of what makes it so great would be lost in translation.

I do hope Woman in the Septic Tank gets screened for the Globes. I guarantee if they did, Eugene Domingo would have a decent shot at a Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy nomination. No joke!
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Cinemanolis »

Greece submitted "Attenberg" by Athina Rachel Tsangari. It stars Ariene Labed (who won the Best Actress prize in the 2010 Venice Film Festival for this role) and Giorgos Lanthimos, the director of "Dogtooth" and "Alps". Lanthimos is also a producer in "Attenberg", while Tsangari was the producer of "Dogtooth" and "Alps". Oh, the lead actress Ariane Labed is Lanthimos' girlfriend. A family affair.

It competed in last years Venice Film Festival and in many more festivals (Toronto, Sydney, Sundance, Reykjavik,Rotterdam, Hong Kong,Karlovy Vary, San Fransisco, Buenos Aires, Thessaloniki and New York. It is also nominated for the LUX Film Prize awarded by the European Parliament. It is distributed by Artificial Eye in the UK and by Strand Releasing in the US.

Here is a kind of a synopsis from various sites.

It tells the story of Marina. Finding the human species strange and repellent, she keeps her distance. She observes it through songs of suicide, mammal documentaries and the sex education lessons she receives from her only friend, Bella. A stranger comes to town and challenges her to a table football duel. Meanwhile, her father ritualistically prepares for his exit from the 20th century. Caught between the two men and Bella, Marina investigates the wondrous mystery of human fauna.

The film opens with the two girls’ intertwined tongues, it continues amid spit and animal cries, in an alienating atmosphere. The backdrop is the almost-metaphysical landscape of an industrial town by the sea, a symbol of “bourgeois pride”– explains the father to his daughter, while they look from above at the not particularly stunning landscape.

But, beyond the memorable lines, the film’s main obsession is sex: there are dreams of penises hanging like prickly pears from the branches of “dick-trees”, the smell of stallions in heat is described, and so on. Meanwhile, Marina meets a man, and for the first time in her life she feels attracted to someone of her own species.

With the two protagonists’ strange strolls, music by Suicide and Françoise Hardy’s “legendary” “Tous les garçons et les filles de mon âge” serving as a counterpoint, the film explores the double theme of initiation with life and death, amid recurring scenes and an auteur-style intellectualism redeemed only at intervals by the original directing. “The 20th century is overrated”, one of the characters says at one point.

Normally this wouldn't stand a chance of a nomination. But since Dogtooth made it last year, nobody could stop hoping.

And an early prediction. Next year's submission from Greece will be... Alps.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by mlrg »

Portugal's submission "José e Pilar" is a documentary about the last days of portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, the nobel prize winner for literuture in 1998, and his relationship with his wife Pilar del Rio.

It will probably beat Portugal's own record of the country with most submissions without ever being nominated.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Reza »

I wonder if Pakistan is going to submit Bol / Speak Up (Shoaib Mansoor, 2011)? The film has been a major critical and box office hit in the country.


Reviews of Bol:

By Taran Adarsh, August 29, 2011 - 17:16 IST


Shoaib Mansoor is one of the brightest names to come out of Pakistan. A few years ago, his film KHUDA KAY LIYE, which tackled the theme of terrorism, won wide acclaim and praise. The supremely talented storyteller is back with another bold and hard-hitting effort called BOL, which unmasks the dual standards prevalent in the society. In fact, we make tall claims about the rights of women and how they are equal to men, but if one looks around, especially in the under-developed countries, the disparity and inequality is for all to see.

Shoaib is indeed a courageous storyteller and this film must have sparked off a debate when it released in Pakistan several weeks ago. Like KHUDA KAY LIYE, BOL addresses the religious extremism in the neighboring country. It's about a daughter who stands up against her father, but most importantly, she dares to defy the age-old societal norms that treat women as lesser beings. The fact that a Pakistani film-maker has had the courage to tackle this theme makes it all the more commendable and praiseworthy.

BOL makes you peep into the lives of a family living in Pakistan, making us aware of the predicament, the anguish, their determination to survive against all odds. The family decides to solve their problems, but get into deeper troubles gradually. The struggle for life and death is what catches your eye.



Shaikh Ayaz feels Shoaib Mansoor's new film, Bol, tears open the dichotomies and contradictions that make Pakistan what it is.

Speak up- that was the theme of Faiz's revolutionary poem advocating the timeless need to stand up and speak the truth. He said that, not only for the Pakistani maashra (society) overlaid with its dichotomies and contradictions that more or less make most societies today but also for the rest of the world, in any place where injustice and exploitation thrives. Shoaib Mansoor's new film, Bol, has its roots in the much-cherished Faizian tradition of fearlessness in speaking up (though at one point, Mansoor gets his elderly character to quote a Ghalib instead) not one's sentiments but views that are larger than oneself, something that can transcend the realm of personal to social. It is in this journey of personal circumstances that lay the film's utmost convictions.

Above all else, Bol must be viewed within an Islamic context because although Mansoor deals with the pressing issues of his time, particularly of his own society which he deems his fundamental right to tear open for scrutiny, the film's foremost motif is Pakistan itself and Pakistan can never be spoken of without its background as a Muslim state. Mansoor takes head-on all major controversial topics and when you watch the film, the question that plays on your mind is - is Mansoor speaking on behalf of his country or is this, an entirely personal vision enlisting his private opinions and interpretations of the Islamic framework within which this film is set?

The first few moments of Bol predominantly point to one constant accusation against Muslims - the demographic aggression, which is inverted here in the sense the Hakim (Manzar Sehbai) has been "cursed" with daughters and his desire for a male child only adds to the numbers. When his eldest daughter Zainab (Humaima Malik) questions him on why he didn't exercise birth control, why have so many mouths to feed and what religious purpose does it serve to have babies, "chaahe woh gadhe hi kyun na ho" to ensure Prophet's ummah (community) overpowers all else, the Hakim reminds her that his father had eleven kids and they survived. It is the ease with which Muslims use the word 'survive' that Mansoor trains his critical eye on. The fact is, it is the poor who have to 'survive' – families like the Hakim's with meagre income – not the rich. I have a friend at Agripada whose father has eleven kids, all studied in the same school and I don't know of a single instance when that man had missed their school fee. He runs a prosperous scraps business and probably can afford to produce more babies if he wishes but the larger point is that for the poor, more kids mean more responsibilities but for the rich, it's a matter of how much less will you pocket from the inheritance when split up eleven ways.

Measured against Khuda Kay Liye, Bol is an equally superlative piece of work but finds itself susceptible to didacticism at some places. Scenes like the one in which the Hakim and his wife literally wash the notes earned from what they think is forbidden means takes away from the emotional prowess that Mansoor invests otherwise. The best moments occur between the Hakim and his courtesan wife, Meena (Pakistan's allusion to Bollywood was kind of expected) with whom he has entered into a bizarre, albeit surreptitious, marriage that serves as a crevice through which Mansoor takes us into a society threatening to burst out.

Well-meaning as it, Bol complements its radical audacity with an optimistic ending, after having compressed in its narrative themes of women's emancipation, poverty, homosexuality, music (especially as means to connect people), conflict between sects and somewhere an unspoken hope for laicism.

To fully appreciate Bol is to firstly be familiar with somewhat basic understanding of Islam, Urdu and Pakistan's history but to understand its larger message you don't need to know any of the above.


Review: Bol
(Social/Drama)
Saibal Chatterjee
Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Cast: Atif Aslam, Iman Ali, Mahira Khan and Humaima Malick
Director: Shoaib Mansoor

High drama is clearly Pakistani television veteran Shoaib Mansoor’s preferred mode. In his sophomore big screen outing, he carries on pretty much from where the widely lauded Khuda Kay Liye had ended.

That was all of four years ago and matters have only got worse. So the writer-director is still seething at what the loony fringe appears to be doing to his nation. In Bol, he pours his indignation out in no uncertain terms.

It is strident, melodramatic and unmistakably out for the jugular. But in the end, it drives home its point in a manner that is compelling enough for all the effort not to be dismissed as much ado about nothing.

Mansoor sets the tone and tenor at the very outset. A young Lahore woman, having defiantly refrained from defending herself in court, is sentenced to death. The President of Pakistan summarily rejects her mercy plea. The convict is, however, granted a last wish: she is allowed to tell her side of the story to the media before she is led to the gallows.

The camera crews and pen-pushers take up their positions and the stern jailor sets a firm 4 am deadline. The hangman won’t wait a minute more, he thunders. The girl breaks her silence and takes us back into her benighted life in a conservative household that is more prison than home. And thus begins Bol.

As far as style and substance go, this indictment of religious orthodoxy and patriarchal tyranny speaks the same language as Khuda Kay Liye, the film with which Mansoor burst upon the Pakistani cinema scene in 2007, triggering hopes of a revival of a moribund movie industry.

But the impact of Bol isn’t quite as dramatic. It seems, at least in parts, to unduly overreach itself, meandering desultorily through a maze of narrative contrivances before it gets down to delivering its predictable climactic you-have-nothing-to-lose-but-your-shackles exhortation to women scorned.

Be that as it may, Bol has much going for it. It is an undoubtedly gutsy film that touches upon sensitive social issues with exemplary courage.

The principal narrative focuses on the sorry plight of those that exist on the margins of a male-dominated society while laying bare the gender inequities that are perpetuated by religiously imposed values.

Aided by a clutch of strong performances, Bol manages to say enough to be heard above the din.

A middle-aged, morally upright traditional medicine man (Manzar Sehbai), who is prone to frequent fits of rage as he grapples with a dwindling practice and grinding poverty, treats his wife and daughters like a load of garbage.

While the family unquestioningly submits to his unreasonable ways, his eldest daughter, Zainab (TV star Humaima Malik in her first film role), stands up to the oppressive patriarch and does much to repeatedly get his goat.

Zainab’s only male sibling, Saifullah (Amr Kashmiri), is really a girl trapped in a boy’s body. Hidden from the public eye, his sexual orientation makes him fair game for ridicule and exploitation in a society that looks askance at anyone who does not conform to dominant socio-religious norms.

An empathetic neighbour, Mustafa (singer-turned-actor Atif Aslam), a guitar-strumming musician who is studying to be a doctor and is in love with Ayesha, another of the Hakim Saab’s many daughters, finds the boy a job as a banner painter, but with terribly tragic consequences.

With every ill-advised move that the father makes, he digs a deeper hole for himself and his brood. And one of these holes has no bottom and it culminates in a disastrous a secret covenant with a Heera Mandi courtesan Safina (Iman Ali, light years away from the westernised Maryam in Khuda Kay Liye), who calls herself Meena after the legendary leading lady of Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah.

The roots of Bol lie firmly in Pakistan’s contemporary reality, but its heart seems to be more in consonance with the traditions of commercial Mumbai movies than with the cinema of protest that it aspires to be. But that isn’t necessarily undesirable especially because the message that the film delivers is urgent, heartfelt and of considerable import.
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Re: 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Candidates

Post by Reza »

Updated List of Foreign Language Academy Award Submissions
by Peter Knegt (Updated 14 hours, 40 minutes ago)
Updated List of Foreign Language Academy Award Submissions
Iranian Oscar submission "A Separation."

The submission list for the 84th Annual Academy Awards’ foreign-language category has been been coming together, with nearly 50 countries having now announced their selections. The selection includes high profile entries on this year’s festival circuit, including Wim Wenders’s “Pina” (Germany), Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre” (Finland), Béla Tarr’s “The Turin Horse” (Hungary), Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote” (Israel), Joshua Marston’s “The Forgiveness of Blood” (Albania), Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation” (Iran) and recent Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award winner “Where Do We Go Now?,” directed by Nadine Labaki.

Labaki is part of a notable trend in the submissions so far, with a significant amount of countries submitting female-directed films, including France (Valérie Donzelli’s “Declaration of War”), Hong Kong (Ann Hui’s “A Simple Life”), Norway (Anne Sewitsky’s “Happy Happy”), Poland (Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness”), The Netherlands (Maria Peters’s “Sonny Boy”) and multiple others.

Last year, the category ended up being won by Denmark (in another female-directed example, Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World”). This year that country has yet to submit. The complete list of announced submissions is below. The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. The deadline for all countries to send in their submissions is October 1, 2011. The submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011. indieWIRE will update this list as more films are announced.

Albania - The Forgiveness of Blood, directed by Joshua Marston

Austria - Breathing, directed by Karl Markovics

Belgium - Bullhead, directed by Michaël R. Roskam

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Belvedere, directed by Ahmed Imamović

Brazil - Tropa de Elite 2, directed by José Padilha

Bulgaria - Tilt, directed by Viktor Chouchkov

Canada - Monsieur Lazhar, directed by Philippe Falardeau

Chile - Violeta, directed by Andres Wood

China - Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou

Colombia - The Colors of the Mountain, directed by Carlos César Arbeláez

Cuba - Habanastation, directed by Ian Padrón

Czech Republic - Alois Nebel, directed by Tomás Lunák

Denmark - SuperClásico, directed by Ole Christian Madsen

Finland - Le Havre, directed by Aki Kaurismaki

France - Declaration of War, directed by Valérie Donzelli

Germany - Pina, directed by Wim Wenders

Greece - Attenberg, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari

Hong Kong - A Simple Life, directed by Ann Hui

Hungary - The Turin Horse, directed by Bela Tarr

Iceland - Volcano, directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson

India - Adaminte Makan Abu, directed by Salim Ahamed

Iran - A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi

Ireland - As If I Am Not There, directed by Juanita Wilson

Israel - Footnote, directed by Joseph Cedar

Italy - Terraferma, directed by Emanuele Crialese

Japan - Postcard, directed by Kaneto Shindō

Lebanon - Where Do We Go Now?, directed by Nadine Labaki

Lithuania - Back to Your Arms, directed by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas

Mexico - Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo

Morocco - Omar Killed Me, directed by Roschdy Zem

Netherlands - Sonny Boy, directed by Maria Peters

Norway - Happy, Happy, directed by Anne Sewitsky

Peru - October, directed by Daniel Vega Vidal

Phillippines - The Woman in the Septic Tank, directed by Marlon Rivera

Poland - In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland

Portugal - Jose and Pilar, directed by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes

Romania - Morgen, directed by Marian Crisan

Russia - Burnt By The Sun 2: Citadel, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

Serbia - Montevideo, God Bless You!, directed by Dragan Bjelogrlić

Slovakia - Gypsy, directed by Martin Sulik

South Africa - Beauty, directed by Oliver Hermanus

South Korea - The Front Line, directed by Jang Hun

Spain - Black Bread, directed by Agustí Villaronga

Sweden - Beyond, directed by Pernilla August

Switzerland - Summer Games, directed by Rolando Colla

Taiwan - Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, directed by Wei Te-Sheng

Uruguay - The Silent House, directed by Gustavo Hernández

Venezuela - The Rumble of the Stones, directed by Alejandro Bellame Palacios

Vietnam - Thang Long Aspiration, directed by Lưu Trọng Ninh
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