features

Stephen Kane

Ireland | 2004 | 80mins | Beta | Colour

Ella and Jack are a young hip couple in modern Dublin. Ella is a waitress in a fash-ionable café. Jack is a recently unemployed software engineer. Stanley is one of Ella's regular customers in the café. He frequently sits alone in front of the fish tank, writing his science-fiction novels. His subject is the starfish in the tank. As he writes his novel, we see it played out by the main character, Janet, in a black and white B-movie style.

As Jack and Ella's relationship becomes strained, they begin to go in separate directions. She develops a religious vocation, followed by a compulsion for shoplifting, while Jack retreats further into himself and his search for a career. Stanley isn't having the best of times either. His novel doesn't meet a warm reception at the publishers. One night Ella decides to steal the starfish from the café fish tank. All three misfits head off to Cork, starfish in hand, with the goal of releasing them into a non-nuclear sea.

World Premiere

Icíar Bollaín

Spain | 2003 | 106mins | 35mm | Colour | Subtitled

In her third feature, Icíar Bollaín emerges as one of Spain's most gifted social-realist directors. Pilar is leaving her husband Antonio, citing his violence against her. He begs her to return. Finally, against the advice of her sister, she does ... but can he be trusted? Antonio, a control freak with heartbreakingly low self-esteem, begins to attend therapy, but will he ever be able to get rid of his nasty habits, and can he accept Pilar for who she is and what she wants to be?

Bollaín delves incisively through the rich psychology of the couple, revealing the perverse interdependence between Antonio and his beloved Pilar, and the intricate ways both are trapped in a private hell.

A tale of domestic abuse with the stomach-tightening tension of a thriller. With a finely-wrought script and pitch-perfect performances from the two leads, it is no surprise that Bollain's film has earned over 26 prizes at festivals around the world, swept clean Spain's national film awards and garnered acclaim from critics everywhere.

Alan Gilsenan

Ireland | 2004 | 94mins | 35mm | Colour

A stylish edgy fast-paced road movie with a twist, directed by award-winning Irish director, Alan Gilsenan.

When Isobel's brother, a monk, is kidnapped by Algerian rebels, she reunites with her precocious transvestite friend, Deccy, and together they embark on a dark journey of discovery across the Sahara. They are catapulted into an alien landscape whose rituals and superstitions provide an eyeopening experience. The hostile environment they invade bristles with violence and they have to do some nimble negotiations to escape life-threatening encounters.

Gilsenan is one of the most distinctive and adventurous talents in contemporary Irish culture, a writer and director who moves comfortably between the disciplines of film, television and theatre. -Michael Dwyer