Francophonie 2019: 14th Film Festival

The French Institute of Cyprus and the Association Friends of Cinema, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus and the Embassies of Switzerland, Lebanon, Austria, Ireland and Romania present the 14th Film Festival.

All films start at 9:00 pm, except on Sunday: 8:00 pm. Venue: Cine studio, University of Nicosia

The Friends of Cinema Society is a cinema club. According to the terms and conditions for its operation and screening of films, NO admission is allowed to anyone under the age of 18.

 Please click on the picture of the film to watch the trailer  

 Rosemarie

 Friday 1st March 2019. Opening of the festival with the Cypriot film Rosemarie proposed by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus. Free entrance. A cocktail will be offered by the Minister before the projection, attended by the director of the film, Adonis Florides.

 Director: Adonis Florides (Cyprus, 2017, 112’, o.v. Greek with French subtitles) 

 Actors: Yiannis Kokkinos, Niovi Charalambous, Emmanouelle Charalambous

 Synopsis: A burned out soap opera writer turns his gaze upon his dysfunctional neighbours, but gets more than the inspiration he bargained for.

 Knock

 Sunday 3rd and Friday 8th March 2019. 

 Director: Lorraine Levy (France, 2017, 113’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

Actors: Omar Sy, Alex Lutz, Ana Girardot

Synopsis: Doctor Knock is a former thug who has become a doctor and arrives in the small village of Saint-Maurice to make his fortune according to a particular method. It will make the villagers believe that they are not as healthy as they might think. It is thus that he will find in each one an imaginary symptom, or not, and thus will be able to exercise his profession lucratively. Under his seductive looks and after gaining the confidence of the village, Knock is on the verge of achieving his ends. But his past catches up with him and an old acquaintance disrupts the doctor's plans.

 Amour

 Monday 4th March 2019. This film is proposed by the Embassy of Austria. Free entrance. The Ambassador will host a cocktail prior to the screening at 20h

 Director: Michael Haneke (Austria, 2012, 127’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert

Synopsis: Retired music teachers Georges and Anne have spent their lives devoted to their careers and to one another. Their relationship faces its greatest challenge when Anne has a debilitating stroke. Though Georges himself suffers from the aches and infirmities of old age, he bravely ignores his own discomfort to take care of his wife and is determined to keep his promise to her that she will never go back to the hospital.

Prize Winner of Palme d'Or and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards.

 Tramontane (Rabi'h‎) 

 Wednesday 6th March 2019. This film is proposed y the Embassy of Lebanon. Free entrance

 Director: Vatche Boulghourjian (Lebanon, 2016, 105’, o.v. Arabic with English subtitles) 

 Actors: Barakat Jabbour, Julia Kassar, Toufic Barakat

Synopsis: Rabih, a blind musician, travels across rural Lebanon in search of a record of his own birth. He meets people on the far fringes of society who tell their own stories and open further questions about his origins. Descending into a void at the heart of his existence, Rabih encounters a nation incapable of telling his or its own narrative.

 The Happy Prince

 Wednesday 13th March 2019. This film is proposed by the Embassy of Ireland. Free entrance

Director: Rupert Everett (Ireland, 2018, 105’, o.v. English with Greek subtitles) 

Actors: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Emily Watson

Synopsis: In a cheap Parisian hotel, Oscar Wilde lies on his deathbed and recalls his past with wit and irony. Was he once the most famous man in London? He reviews the failed attempt to reconcile with his long-suffering wife, the ensuing reprisal of his love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and the devotion of Robbie Ross, who tried and failed to save him from himself. From Dieppe to Naples to Paris, Oscar is a penniless vagabond, shunned by his old acquaintances, but still revered by a strange group of outlaws to whom he tells the old stories - his incomparable talent still sharp.

 Two days with my father (Deux jours avec mon père) 

 Friday 15th March 2019. This film is proposed y the Embassy of Switzerland, in collaboration with The Friends of Cinema Society. Free entrance. The Ambassador   of Switzerland will host a cocktail after the screening.

 Director: Anne Gonthier (Suisse, 2014, 80’, o.v. French with English subtitles) 

 Actors: Jean-Pierre Gos, Stefan A. Kollmuss, Baptiste Gilliéron

Synopsis: Michel is a stressed 40-year-old engineer, who dashes from meeting to meeting, consumed by a life that he has forgotten to savour. When his father Robert, refusing to die in hospital, escapes from the balcony and runs off into the mountains, Michel is forced to run after him. This escape and pursuit trigger a tale of discovery and wonder between father and son, which unravels way up in the solitude of a lunar landscape of limestone, water and sky. Michel, suddenly released from the rat race, rediscovers in a dramatic slow-down, the joy of seeing, listening, feeling, dreaming… of quite simply being…of still being alive. He also learns to love – in extremis.

 Promise at Dawn (La Promesse de l'aube)

 Sunday 17th and Friday 22nd March 2019. 

 Director: Eric Barbier (France, 2017, 130’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

 Actors: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Pierre Niney, Didier Bourdon

Synopsis: From his childhood in Poland to his adolescence in Nice to his years as a student in Paris and his tough training as a pilot during World War II, this tragi-comedy tells the romantic story of Romain Gary, one of the most famous French novelists and sole writer to have won the Goncourt Prize for French literature two times.

 Black tide (Fleuve Noir)

 Monday 18th and Monday 25th March 2019. 

 Director: Eric Zonca (France, 2018, 113’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

 Actors: Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, Sandrine Kiberlain

Synopsis: The disappearance of a boy sends an alcoholic cop on the track of a suspicious teacher while falling for the grieving mother.

 Return of the hero (Le Retour du Heros)

 Wednesday 20th and Sunday 24th March 2019. 

 Director: Laurent Tirard (France, 2018, 90’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

 Actors: Jean Dujardin, Mélanie Laurent, Noémie Merlant

 Synopsis: 1809, France. Captain Neuville is called to the front, leaving his future bride heartbroken. Her sister decides to write letters on his behalf to cheer her up. But it all goes   south when Neuville reappears.

 Beside me

 Wednesday 27th March 2019. This film is proposed by the Embassy of Romania. Free entrance

 Director: Tedy Necula (Romania, 2017, 84’, o.v. Romanian with English subtitles) 

Actors: Emillian Oprea, Constantin Cotimanis, Adrian Paduraru

Synopsis: A subway is blocked between stations on the morning after the fire tragedy at Collective Club in Bucharest. Forced together people begin to interact. We're strangers until something brings us together. At the end of the journey, at the next station, each one comes out changed.

 Gauguin: Voyage de Tahiti

 Friday 29th March and Monday 1st April 2019. 

 Director: Edouard Deluc (France, 2017, 102’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

Actors: Vincent Cassel, Tuheï Adams, Malik Zidi

Synopsis: 1891. Gauguin has exiled himself to Tahiti. He wants to rediscover his painting, as a free, wild man, far from the moral, political, and aesthetic codes of civilized Europe. He goes ever deeping into the jungle, coping with solitude, poverty, and sickness. Here he'll encounter Tehura, who will become his wife, and the subject of his greatest paintings.

 The sower (Le Semeur)

 Sunday 31st March and Wednesday 3rd April 2019. 

 Director: Marine Francen (France, 2017, 98’, o.v. French with Greek subtitles) 

Actors: Pauline Burlet, Alban Lenoir, Géraldine Pailhas

Synopsis: 1852. Violette is old enough to get married when her village in the Lower Alps is cruelly deprived of all its men by the repression that followed the republican uprising of December 1851. For the next two years, the village is completely cut off. The women swear an oath that if a man should come, he will become their shared husband, so that life may continue to flourish in each of their wombs.

Films screened in Larnaka

 Rosemarie

 Friday 11th March 2019 - 8:30pm. This film is proposed by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus, in collaboration with the Larnaka-Famagusta Cinema Society. Free entrance. 

 Director: Adonis Florides (Cyprus, 2017, 112’, o.v. Greek with French subtitles) 

 Actors: Yiannis Kokkinos, Niovi Charalambous, Emmanouelle Charalambous

 Synopsis: A burned out soap opera writer turns his gaze upon his dysfunctional neighbours, but gets more than the inspiration he bargained for.

 Two days with my father (Deux jours avec mon père) 

 Monday 18th March 2019 - 8.30pm - Theatro Skala, 15 Kyriakou Matsi, 6015 Larnaca. This film is proposed by the Embassy of Switzerland. In coopération with the Larnaka-Famagusta Cinema Society. Free entrance. 

 Director:  Anne Gonthier (Suisse, 2014, 80’, o.v. French with English subtitles) 

 Actors: Jean-Pierre Gos, Stefan A. Kollmuss, Baptiste Gilliéron

Synopsis: Michel is a stressed 40-year-old engineer, who dashes from meeting to meeting, consumed by a life that he has forgotten to savour. When his father Robert, refusing to die in hospital, escapes from the balcony and runs off into the mountains, Michel is forced to run after him. This escape and pursuit trigger a tale of discovery and wonder between father and son, which unravels way up in the solitude of a lunar landscape of limestone, water and sky. Michel, suddenly released from the rat race, rediscovers in a dramatic slow-down, the joy of seeing, listening, feeling, dreaming… of quite simply being…of still being alive. He also learns to love – in extremis.

Film screened in Limassol

 Rosemarie

 Monday 18th March 2019 - 20h15 - Rio Cinema, salle 3, 125 Ellados Street, Limassol. This film is proposed by the Alliance Française of Limassol in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus and the Cinema Club of Limassol. Εntrée : €5.  

 Director: Adonis Florides (Cyprus, 2017, 112’, o.v. Greek with French subtitles) 

 Actors: Yiannis Kokkinos, Niovi Charalambous, Emmanouelle Charalambous

 Synopsis: A burned out soap opera writer turns his gaze upon his dysfunctional neighbours, but gets more than the inspiration he bargained for.