Stockholm Fest rolls out women-driven lineup

PanARMENIAN.Net - Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Mustang”, Lucile Hadžihalilovic’s “Evolution” and Alice Winocour’s “Maryland” are among the many women-directed films set to compete at the 26th Stockholm film festival, Variety reports.

France’s Oscar candidate, “Mustang”marks Turkish helmer Gamze Ergüven’s debut. It premiered at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and won the Europa Cinema label. “Mustang” is a contempo drama depicting the childhood of five sisters in a conservative household in rural Turkey.

“Evolution,” which premiered at Toronto’s newly-launched Platform section, is a philosophical horror drama turns on a 10-year old boy living on a lonely island with his mother and a woman who performs rituals.

A thriller with Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger, “Maryland” centers around an ex-soldier-turned- bodyguard who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has to protect the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businessman. Wincer’s follow-up to “Augustine,” “Maryland” opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Marielle Heller’s Sundance hit “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” which depicts a young woman’s emotional and sexual journey, will rep the U.S. along with Jake Mahaffy’s “Free in Deed,” winner of Venice Horizons award. Staring Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård, “Diary” played at Berlin where it won the Grand Prize of the Generation 14plus jury.

Other high-profile competition entries include Laszlo Nemes’ Cannes’ Grand-Prize winning “Son of Saul,” Avishai Sivan’s black-and-white Israeli drama “Tikkun,” which won Jerusalem’s and Locarno’s top kudos.

Nemes’ feature debut, “Son of Saul” is a singular Holocaust drama following the journey of an Auschwitz prisoner participating in the extermination and disposal of fellow Jews. Set in Jerusalem, “Tikkun” turns on an ultra-Orthodox religious scholar who struggles with his faith after suffering a serious accident.

This year, Stockholm is also launching the competitive Impact section that is dedicated to “headstrong visionaries who reflect our contemporary world,” stated the fest. All the films playing in the Impact section are European premieres, apart from Lisa Aschan’s sic-fi drama “White People” with Pernilla August, and “Tomorrow,” eco-themed docu directed by Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent, which are world premieres.

U.S. entries dominate the competitive documentary lineup, notably Kirby Dick’s Sundance-preeming “The Hunting Ground,” Stanley Nelson’s “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” Amy Berg’s “An Open Secret,” Matthew Heineman’s “Cartel Land,” Crystal Moselle’s “The Wolfpack” and “Welcome to Leith” directed by Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker.

The Swedish doc “In Pursuit of a Better Life” will world-premiere in the Spotlight Migration section while “Gentlemen Gangsters” and “Hingsten” are set to roll out in the Special Presentations section.

Fest will welcome Chinese artist Ai Weiwei for the first time, according to Git Scheynius, Stockholm festival’s director.

Launched in 1990, Stockholm International Film Festival will present more than 200 films from more than 60 countries. The festival is set to run Nov. 11-22.