THE GREAT MATCH

Thursday, June 12-------This year, Festroia has devoted a special screening section to films that explore the difficulties and opportunities of multiculturalism. Dubbed "Migrations And Multiculturality", the series highlights 3 feature films and a program of shorts.

In Spanish director Gerardo Olivares´THE GREAT MATCH, the director focuses on a family of Mongolian nomads and a group of Indians in the Amazon, bought of which live far outside the technological saturation of the West. With no television, no internet or telephone and only traditional methods of communication, these groups have maintained their traditions well into this century.

NEXT STATION from Spanish director Estela Ilarraz focuses on the three million Ecuadoreans who have migrated to Spain over the past 50 years and the community that they maintain. Some are in Spain to stay, others work there and eventually plan to return to their native land.

In the Morrocan film GOODBYE MOTHERS, director Mohamed Ismail looks at the Jewish community in the years of the early 1960s. Although Jews have lived in Morocco for century, the tensions of the Middle East and the establishment of Israel has made their lives untenable. The pressures of one particular family are a symbol for the tension faced by a community that must decide whether to stay or emigrate to the Holy Land.

Short films in the program hail from Slovenia, France, New Zealand and Romania. With Portugal itself a land of many immigrants (mainly from Brazil, Angola and the Cape Verde Islands), the discussion of the immigrant world expressed in these films is a universal discussion that is being played out throughout Europe and the West.

Sandy Mandelberger, Festroia Dailies Editor