In Contention

Tag: Ploning

  • Foreign film watch: ‘Correction,’ ‘Ploning’

    Two days to go until the deadline for Best Foreign Language Film submissions, and the latest nation to enter the fray is Greece. Seeking their first nomination since 1977 — that’s right, no Theo Angelopoulos film ever made the cut — the Greeks have selected Thanos Anastopoulos’ “Correction,” a racially charged drama about the country’s Albanian immigrant population.

    By all accounts a challenging, defiantly minimalist work, the film bowed at Berlin in February to middling reviews, with both Variety and Screen International predicting it would have a hard time crossing over.

    On another note, The Philippines is seeking their first ever nomination in this category for “Ploning.” This was announced some time ago, and I listed it in one of my updates last week. However, following an enthusiastic recommendation for the film from a reader (see, we do listen), I thought I’d mention it again.

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  • ‘O’ Horten’ among further Foreign Film entries

    Leading a quick roundup of some recent entries in the Best Foreign Language Film race, Norway has unsuprisingly selected Bent Hamer’s absurdist comedy “O’ Horten” as their pony. The film garnered a number of followers at Cannes and Telluride, with Variety declaring it a “warm and gently humorous divertissement.”

    I was a big fan of Hamer’s previous films “Kitchen Stories” and “Factotum,” the latter a sadly underexposed Charles Bukowski adaptation that featured a career-best performance from Matt Dillon. I’m looking forward to “O’ Horten”; I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the final shortlist, at least.

    Other titles joining the mix (that we haven’t already reported) include:

    “Taare Zameen Par,” from India, starring and directed by Aamir Khan, a 2001 nominee for “Lagaan”;

    “Last Stop 174,” from Brazil, a Toronto entry from Bruno Barreto, a 1997 nominee for the brilliant “Four Days in September”;

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