47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival

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The 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival -TIFF- kicks off Friday November 17th in Thessaloniki,Macedonia,Greece.

A record number of three hundred plus films will compose this year’s festival programme.Nearly one thousand guests are expected to be present,including the creative teams from the films presented in the various sections of the event,as well as 80 foreign film critics and journalists plus their local counterparts.

Among other famous guests Costas Gavras and Wim Wenders are expected at the 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

The TIFF on Sunday will be honoured by the presence of the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Karolos Papoulias who will attend the projection of the film "Mon Colonel (The Colonel)",by Laurent Herbiet.

The Venice prize winner "The Queen",directed by Stephen Frears and starring the Venice award winner Helen Mirren,will be the opening film.Another Venice winner,Alain Resnai’s "Private Fears in Public Places",will be the closing film during the awards gala,Sunday November 26.


http://www.filmfestival.gr/index_uk.htm

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The organisers of this year's 47th Thessaloniki Film Festival, due to begin on Friday night at the "Olympion" cinema, are adopting a phrase by French historian and film critic Andre Bazin (founder and publisher of the "Cahiers du Cinema") who considers cinema as "an open window to the world" as its "slogan."

The Festival will be inaugurated at 9.30 p.m. by culture ministry secretary general Christos Zahopoulos, while addresses will be made by Minister of Macedonia and Thrace George Kalantzis, Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos and the Festival's director Despina Mouzaki.

Angelos Frantzis will be responsible for directing the opening ceremony, while actors Athina Maximou and George Pyrpasopoulos will be the presenters.

The latest film by Stephen Frears "The Queen". The film, having a duration of 97 minutes, refers to the death of Princess Diana and the reactions of Queen Elizabeth II. Frear's film amazed the public in Venice, where it received the FIPRESCI award for Frear's directorship, the Golden Osella award for the best scenario by Peter Morgan, as well as the award for the best performance by a woman for Elen Miret, will be screened after the opening ceremony.

Culture Minister George Voulgarakis is expected to arrive in Thessaloniki on Sunday afternoon to welcome President Karolos Papoulias at the Festival.

Apart from the series of screenings (for the competition part, the Greek part and a series of dedications), the Festival's events include visual art exhibitions, lectures by film directors and people of the cinema, concerts, etc.

The leading official guest will be German film director Wim Wenders, who is expected in Thessaloniki on November 20.

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President Papoulias at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Thessaloniki,Macedonia,Greece.

President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Sunday attended the premiere of the motion picture "Mon Colonel" (The Colonel), co-written and produced by Costas Gavras and directed by Laurent Herbiet, which was screened in the context of the 47th Thessaloiniki Film Festival.

Papoulias was greeted at the Olympion cinema by culture minister George Voulgarakis, the Festival leadership, and Gavras himself.

The film is placed in 1956, during the war for Algerian independence, and reveals the psychological and legal procedures that turned a young officer into a torturer.

As Gavras said in his introduction at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, this film is less about history than a metaphor for the present

The film brings to the surface the war crimes commited in the past, with the silent approval of the state authorities, in the name of a "war against terrorism".

Speaking before the premiere, for Greece, of his film earlier on Sunday, Gavras said the film was a commentary on the contradictory way in which terrorism is faced.

Critics have noted the frightening parallels to the recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

After the screening, Papoulias was to be presented with an honourary plaque by the Festival administration.

The President was due to return to Athens late Sunday night.


President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Karolos Papoulias,culture minister George Voulgarakis and Costas Gavras.


47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival

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