The West Australian Premiere of Tenderness (La Tendresse) will be the French Selection to open the CinèfestOZ Film Festival (August 21 – 25) at Orana Cinemas, Busselton, Western Australia, on August 21, says festival director Malinda Nixon.

“Directed by accomplished Belgian born director Marion Hansel this film is destined to delight the CinèfestOZ audience, and we are thrilled to be able to have this as part of our French Programme,” she adds. The film stars Marilyne Canto, Olivier Gourmet, Margaux Chatellier, and tells a simple story about a long divorced couple who are pulled together when their ski instructor son has an accident and is hospitalised. The parents take a joint road trip to visit him. Awkward and touching in turns, full of quiet truths, the film has been acclaimed as a little gem.

“The French film will star alongside our Australian selection, the WA Premiere of The Rocket and director and writer of the festival acclaimed film, Kim Mordaunt will walk the red carpet on opening night.

Mordaunt’s film is set in Laos. Ten year old Laotian boy, Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe) is believed to bring bad luck and is blamed for a string of disasters. When his family loses their home and is forced to move, Ahlo meets the spirited nine year old orphan Kia (Loungnam Kaosainam) and her eccentric uncle Purple (Thep Phongam), an ex-soldier with a purple suit, a rice-wine habit and a fetish for James Brown. Struggling to hang on to his father’s (Sumrit Warin) trust, Ahlo leads his family, Purple and Kia through a land scarred by war in search of a new home. In a last plea to try and prove he’s not cursed, Ahlo builds a giant explosive rocket to enter the most lucrative but dangerous competition of the year: the Rocket Festival.

This unique French & Australian film festival is a nod to the south-west’s early French exploration but also that country’s strong film making culture. Against this cultural backdrop Busselton comes alive for a celebration of engaging film, filmmaker forums, premiere and gala events.

Headquartered in Busselton, CinéfestOZ extends to Margaret River and Bunbury for extension premieres, additional screenings and a unique Schools Program.

The French program also includes celebrated master Olivier Assayas’ After May, a loosely autobiographical and incisive drama about a young French artist caught up in a whirlwind of politics, art and sex in the wake of the electrifying events of May 1968. The film stars Lola Créton, Clément Métayer, Félix Armand, Carole Combes, Hugo Conzelmann.

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, and Switzerland’s official submission for the 2013 Academy Awards, writer/director Ursula Meier’s SISTER is a deeply affecting humanist drama of two siblings struggling to find a place in the world, and their determination to maintain self-sufficiency, no matter the cost. The intriguing cast is led by Lea Seydoux, Kacey Mottett Klein, Gillian Anderson, Martin Compston.

Andrew L. Urban

Editor & Publisher, Urban Cinefile

www.urbancinefile.com.au