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It was when Alonso Ruizpalacios was in London working as a dishwasher at the (now-extinct) Rainforest Cafe that he came up with the idea for La Cocina.

“I was a drama student and I’d just read the [1957] play The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker and to make the work — which is tough, monotonous and very, very hard — bearable, I’d look at it through the creative lens of the play. If you see how a kitchen works, you realize it is much like the world, like [how] society works. Wesker says for Shakespeare all the world is a stage, whereas for him all the world is a kitchen.”

It was decades later, after success with Mexican films like Museo and A Cop Movie, that Ruizpalacios came back to the idea, taking The Kitchen as the jumping-off point for his English-language debut, transferring the action from late-’50s London to modern-day New York.

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios has had a winning record coming to the Berlin Film Festival since 2013, when his film Gueros took the Best First Feature prize. Five years later he was back with his second, the sensational museum-heist film Museo, and deservedly won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. His third, A Cop Movie, which plays with the traditional docu form by using actors, won Best Documentary at Mexico’s Golden Ariel Awards.

Ruizpalacios belongs in the same league as iconic current Mexican directors Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and particularly Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose cinematic style seems closest to what Ruizpalacios has been doing. His latest trip to Berlin, La Cocina, reinforces the thrilling talent of this singular filmmaker who for the first time has shot a film using both Spanish and English. It features American star Rooney Mara as well as a stunning, uninhibited, shoot-for-the-stars turn from Raul Briones,...

There’s a surging life force felt in every scene of Alonso Ruizpalacios’ superbly acted La Cocina — at times ebullient but more often on edge, if not careening dangerously toward disaster or violence. Think The Bear on cocaine with a Red Bull chaser and you get some idea of the sustained intensity and simmering pressure of this bruising tragicomedy about what the diners (mostly) don’t see during a working day in a busy Times Square restaurant.

The Mexican writer-director has style to burn, evident in the intoxicatingly textured black-and-white visuals, the livewire editing and the striking use of music, from solemn choral pieces to cacophonous jazz. Even if he takes too long wrapping up an overwrought climactic crescendo, this is a compelling vision of the immigrant experience as a hellish limbo in which even the seeming ballast of community, brotherhood and love can be illusory.

In his previous films Güeros,...

Six short films have received support from Screen Australia, it was announced today.

Through its Short Animation and Shorts Completion programs, a production investment of $446,000 has been made to support two animations and four shorts.

Screen Australia.s Head of Production, Sally Caplan, said, .Out of many applications, we are delighted to have been able to support these six projects. The filmmakers are all talented teams from diverse backgrounds, and the projects are an eclectic mix with distinctive stories. We are very much looking forward to seeing the finished works..

The Short Animation program is supporting two projects: My Little Sumo and Revolution.

My Little Sumo comes from South Australian animation directors Ana Maria Mendez Salgado and Carlos Manrique Clavijo, and writer Lee Sellers. Supported by writer/producer Marion Pilowsky, the film follows the plight of Daisy, a little girl with mighty dreams . to become a professional sumo wrestler.

The...

Producers of the new Broadway play A Time to Kill, based on John Grisham's best-selling novel of the same name, announced today that high-profile defense attorney Benjamin Brafman will lead a post-show conversation with members of the cast following the Tuesday, November 5th performance. The group will discuss the current state of the justice system as it relates to the narrative of A Time to Kill. The audience of that evening's performance will be invited to stay and participate in the dialogue, which is sure to generate a variety of reactions. A Time to Kill opened on Broadway on Sunday, October 20, 2013, at the John Golden Theatre 252 West 45th Street. This new Broadway play holds the distinction of being the first-ever John Grisham property to be adapted for the stage. Ethan McSweeny directs. Sebastian Arcelus, Chike Johnson, Patrick Page, Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, Emmy Award winner Tom Skerritt, Fred Dalton Thompson,...

A Time To Kill opens tonight, Oct. 20, on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre. The production, based upon John Grisham's best-selling novel, stars Sebastian Arcelus, Chike Johnson, Patrick Page, Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, Emmy Award winner Tom Skerritt, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Douglas Thompson, and Ashley Williams, plus Jeffrey M. Bender, Dashiell Eaves, J.R. Horne, John Procaccino, Tijuana Ricks, and Lee Sellars.

Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes' stage adaptation of A Time To Kill, based on John Grisham's best-selling novel, is currently in previews on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre 252 West 45th Street. This new Broadway play holds the distinction of being the first-ever John Grishamproperty to be adapted for the stage. Ethan McSweeny directs. Sebastian Arcelus, Chike Johnson,Patrick Page, Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, Emmy Award winner Tom Skerritt, Fred DaltonThompson, John Douglas Thompson, and Ashley Williams plus Jeffrey M. Bender, Dashiell Eaves,J.R. Horne, John Procaccino, Tijuana Ricks, and Lee Sellars will star. A Time To Kill is produced by Tony Award winner Daryl Roth and Eva Price. Opening night is set for Sunday, October 20, 2013.BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below...

Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes' stage adaptation of A Time to Kill, based on John Grisham's best-selling novel, begins previews on Broadway on Saturday, September 28, 2013, at the John Golden Theatre 252 West 45th Street. This new Broadway play holds the distinction of being the first-ever John Grisham property to be adapted for the stage. Ethan McSweeny directs. Sebastian Arcelus, Chike Johnson, Patrick Page, Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, Emmy Award winner Tom Skerritt, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Douglas Thompson, and Ashley Williams plus Jeffrey M. Bender, Dashiell Eaves, J.R. Horne, John Procaccino, Tijuana Ricks, and Lee Sellars will star. A Time to Kill is produced by Tony Award winner Daryl Roth and Eva Price. Opening night is set for Sunday, October 20, 2013. In anticipation of previews beginning tomorrow, the official art for the productions has been released - check it out below...

Screen Australia has committed almost $700,000 in development support across 23 feature projects.

Fifteen new projects have been added to Screen Australia.s development slate, while eight teams will receive continued support to develop their projects.

Two Australian filmmakers will also be supported to undertake overseas internships: producer Ma.ara Bobby Romia will work for six months with Screentime Group in New Zealand and director Ariel Martin-Merrells will work under the mentorship of director James Foley in Los Angeles for five months.

Screen Australia.s head of development Martha Coleman said in a statement: .Following a now well-established tradition, the development slate announced today includes a diverse range of compelling stories from both established and emerging filmmakers. The high calibre of screenplays coming through our door backs up positive feedback we are getting from the domestic and international marketplace and I.m looking forward to seeing the best of these projects make...

The story of Rupert Murdoch’s rise to become the world’s biggest media mogul looks set to become an Australian TV telemovie,

Screen Australia has provided funding development for the work which is being written by Bob Ellis and Stephen Ramsay.

The announcement comes days after Southern Star’s production of Howzat, the story of how Australian media mogul Kerry Packer took on the cricket establishment delivered the Nine Network with 2m+ ratings.

The series has the working title of The News of the World.

The British Sunday tabloid the telemovie is named after was closed by Murdoch last year in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

Bob Ellis wrote the Australian journalism drama Newsfront and most recently ABC’s Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley’s Battle for Coal while Stephen Ramsey wrote and directed The Baby Boomers Picture Show and Flashbacks.

Ellis told Mumbrella: “What we have...