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There have been a lot of lists about the best films of the 21st century. IndieWire has been digging through the last two decades one genre at a time; meanwhile, the New York Times’ top movie critics provided their own takes. J. Hoberman, the longtime Village Voice film critic who now works as a freelancer, decided to join the fray. Here’s his take, also available at his site, and republished here with permission.

People have been asking me, so I thought I might as well join (or crash) the party initiated by the New York Times and put in my two cents regarding the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century (so far). I don’t see “everything” anymore and I haven’t been to Cannes since 2011.

There is some overlap but this is not the same as the proposed 21-film syllabus of 21st Century cinema included in my book “Film After Film.” Those were all in their way pedagogical choices. Begging the question of what “best” means, these are all movies that I really like, that I’m happy to see multiple times, that are strongly of their moment and that I think will stand the test of time.

My single “best” film-object is followed by a list of 11 filmmakers and one academic production company (in order of “best-ness”) responsible for two or more “best films,” these followed by another eight individual movies (again in order) and finally four more tentatively advanced films (these alphabetical). I’m sure I’m forgetting some but that’s the nature of the beast.

Christian Marclay: “The Clock”

Lars von Trier: “Dogville” & “Melancholia” (and none of his others)

Hou Hsiao Hsien: “The Assassin” & “Flight of the Red Balloon”

Jean-Luc Godard: “In Praise of Love” & “Goodbye to Language”

David Cronenberg: “Spider,” “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” & “A Dangerous Method”

David Lynch: “Mulholland Drive” & “Inland Empire”

Ken Jacobs: “Seeking the Monkey King,” “The Guests” (and more)

Cristi Puiu: “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” & “Aurora”

Chantal Akerman: “No Home Movie” & “La Captive” (assuming that 2000 is part of the 21st Century)

Paul Thomas Anderson: “The Master” & “There Will Be Blood”

Kathryn Bigelow: “The Hurt Locker” & “Zero Dark Thirty”

Alfonso Cuarón: “Gravity” & “Children of Men”

Sensory Ethnology Lab: “Leviathan,” “Manakamana,” & “People’s Park”

“The Strange Case of Angelica” — Manoel de Oliviera

“Corpus Callosum” — Michael Snow

“West of the Tracks” — Wang Bing

“Carlos” — Olivier Assayas

“Che” — Steven Soderbergh

“Ten” — Abbas Kariostami

“Russian Ark” — Aleksandr Sokurov

“The World” — Jia Zhangke

“Citizenfour” — Laura Poitras

“Day Night Day Night” — Julia Loktev

“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” — Nuri Bilge Ceylan

“Wall-e” — Andrew Stanton

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by Bill Curran

Laying in regal and rotting repose, the glorious tendrils of a white M-shaped wig framing his ashen face, King Louis Xiv of France, in the year 1717, spends his final days dying atop luxurious satins and attended to by hand-wringing bureaucrats and a largely silent wife in Albert Serra’s (you guessed it) The Death of Louis Xiv.

As far as “death trip” movies go, Louis Xiv is a quintessential ordeal. Like moths around the flame, the films in this still-thriving trend announce the demise (or prolonged distress) of their subjects up front, with imminence and duration the focus, often with a titular clue to the narrative framework: The Passion of the Christ, Last Days, 12 Years a Slave, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, 127 Hours, Day Night Day Night, Hunger, Two Days, One Night, and Son of Saul, to name but a few...

Fierce, committed and above all, tough — these are the words that collaborators use to describe producer Robin O’Hara, a longtime fixture of the New York independent film scene, who died suddenly last week after complications from cancer treatment.

When O’Hara’s business and life partner Scott Macaulay of Forensic Films posted the sad news on Facebook last Wednesday, hundreds of prominent filmmakers, former crewmembers, and friends from across the independent film world offered an outpouring of condolences, remembrances, and testimonies about O’Hara’s importance in nurturing their art and their careers.

As “Saving Face” director Alice Wu wrote, “She was brilliant and mercurial and hilarious and terrifying. She gave no fucks — unless she did give a fuck — and then she gave everything. Anyone who has been lucky enough to be in her orbit never lets go. She pushed us all … and we became better people.”

Echoing Wu,...

“Seoul Searching” follows a group of Korean teenagers in 1986 who travel to South Korea to participate in a government-sponsored program to help reconnect them with their roots. They’ve come from all over the world, from the United States to Hamburg, to party hardy in their homeland, flirting and drinking the nights away. However, the teens also learn a little bit about their ancestors’ struggles, and slowly come to terms with their own issues at home and abroad as well. Watch an exclusive clip from the film featuring Sid (Justin Chon) and Grace (Jessika Van) share a sweet moment in front of a Buddha statue.

Read More: Meet the 2015 Sundance Filmmakers #69: ‘Seoul Searching’ is the Angsty ’80s Korean Teen Dramedy You Never Realized You Wanted

“Seoul Searching” is written and directed by Benson Lee based on his own experiences as a teenager. His previous credits include “Planet B-Boy,” a documentary about the history of breakdancing and its global resurgence, and “Battle of the Year,” a 3D dance film based on “Planet B-Boy” starring Josh Holloway (“Lost”), Chris Brown (“Think Like a Man”), and Josh Peck (“Mean Creek”). The film is also executive produced by Ken Jeong, best known for his role on Dan Harmon’s sitcom “Community” as well as his appearances in “The Hangover” movies. “Seoul Searching” stars Justin Chon (“21 and Over”), Jessika Van (“The Gambler”), In-Pyo Cha (“Crossing”), Teo Yoo (“Day Night Day Night”), and more.

“Seoul Searching” premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. It opens in New York City on June 17th and in Los Angeles on June 24th.

Read More: The Biggest Challenges the 2015 Sundance Filmmakers Faced

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This week on DVD/Blu-ray: Indiewire's top film of 2012; one of the most harrowing documentaries of last year; Julia Loktev's haunting follow-up to "Day Night Day Night"; Paul Thomas Anderson's most ambitious film to date; and the live action debut the filmmakers behind "Persepolis." #1. "Holy Motors" "Holy Motors," the film that topped Indiewire's 2012 year-end critics' poll, marks Leos Carax's first feature in 13 years. Beloved at Cannes, where many pundits thought it had a shot at the Palme d’Or (Michael Haneke’s "Amour" won out), "Holy Motors" proves that the French auteur has lost none of his verve or ingenuity, but maybe some of his mind. In the odyssey that is "Holy Motors," Carax's longtime collaborator Denis Lavant plays a rich man named Oscar who, with the help of his trusty female chauffeur, inhabits 11 different characters over the course of one...

Few were prepared for Julia Loktev's astounding "Day Night Day Night," a harrowing bare-bones drama about a young, innocuous woman preparing to become a suicide bomber. Though it was only her second film (and her first narrative), the project exhuded the confidence and prowess of a more seasoned filmmaker -- contemporary American indies just don't come like this, especially from someone with little experience under their belt. It was something special, and those it touched made sure that Loktev was on their radar. And it took a couple of years, but thankfully the director has returned with "The Loneliest Planet," another spare, observant slice of minimalism that she had done so well a few years prior. This time Loktev explores the complexities of love (among other things) through one couple (Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg) and their dedicated Georgian tour guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), centering on one cringing moment during.

In Theaters The Loneliest Planet Where: Limited release; available on VOD on Tuesday, October 30. What: A young couple hires a guide for a camping trip in the wilderness, with unexpected results. Why Go: Director Julia Loktev previously made the quietly intense, terrorist-themed drama Day Night Day Night, and her newest film has received similar critical praise. From the sound of it, it’s best to know as little as possible going into the movie, but it certainly sounds like it will be an unsettling trip. Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg star as the engaged couple, with Bidzine Gujabidze as the local guide. Pusher Where: In select theaters nationwide. What: A drug dealer has a very bad week. Why Go: This is an English-language remake of the critically...

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Why She's On Our Radar: Hani Furstenberg has already made great strides as an actress in the Israeli theater with occasional, and equally successful, forays into film. She has already worked with two giants of contemporary Israeli cinema: Eytan Fox, who cast her in the gay soldier drama "Yossi and Jagger," as well as Joseph Cedar, whose "Campfire" brought the actress an Israeli Oscar. Only now, however, has Furtenberg made her way into an English language movie, and it's a fairly humble start: In "The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and opens this Friday in limited release, she holds her own opposite Gael Garcia Bernal as one half of a couple journeying through the mountains of the Georgian peninsula and unsure about the future of their relationship. Directed by Julia Loktev ("Day Night Day Night"), the movie relies on pregnant pauses and other quiet details that provides a real showcase for.

It’s true that “The Loneliest Planet,” directed by Julia Loktev (“Day Night Day Night”), is the kind of film that works best if you know little to absolutely nothing about it going in. But then again, couldn’t that be said for just about every film? So before we write this review, let’s get the basics out there: a young couple (played wonderfully by Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg), engaged to be married, is backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. They hire a guide to lead them on a hike filled with stunning vistas, and…something happens that changes things, irrevocably. Sure, it’s a simple enough plot, but where this assured sophomore fiction effort from Loktev becomes quite interesting is in its complex character moments and subtle nuances. This is the kind of film that many will decry for being boring; they will almost undoubtedly...

Two lovers hiking — Oh damn did that just happen? — We’ll call it ‘Event’

In 1960, Psycho invented the phenomenon of ‘hyped secrecy,’ which drove the masses to cinematheques worldwide so they could know what all those coy bastards were alluding to in their cryptic post-screening cinegasms. Few films have been able to achieve such a level of intrigue after its release (although The Sixth Sense comes close). Usually, it’s the result of a clever twist that changes our perception of a character’s motives, or sometimes it’s a (rare) satisfactory resolution to a nagging question (what the hell does “Rosebud” mean!), and they’ll almost always be found in either the horror, thriller, or crime genres. Julia Loktev’s third film The Loneliest Planet – a mellow drama cum melodrama – is structured solely and entirely around an ‘event’ at its halfway point that entirely reconfigures how we read the film.

Following up on her tense, distressingly visceral narrative feature Day Night Day Night, which anatomized the final hours of a female suicide bomber preparing for an operation in Times Square, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Julia Loktev leaves the cramped urban space of contemporary Manhattan for the majestic wilds of the Caucasus Mountains in The Loneliest Planet, where a Western couple, Nica (Hani Furstenberg) and her fiancée Alex (Gael García Bernal), have embarked on a hiking holiday in post-Soviet Georgia. Navigating their way through the emerald landscape with the help of a guide, Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze), whose war-scarred personal history seems to hang around his fatigued eyes like soot, Nica and Alex are game participants in their less-than-luxurious travel adventure, delighting in their ability to “rough it.” (The film opens with a jolting shot of Nica bouncing in a tub naked, in a kind of ecstatic discomfort, while Alex ferries over buckets of...

It's been six years since we heard from Julia Loktev after her minimalist, downright Bressonian suicide bomber film, Day Night Day Night. Her new film The Loneliest Planet, shot in the Caucasus mountains in Georgia, is just as enigmatic and elliptical as her first one, if not more. In person, Loktev appears to be fiercely intelligent and thoughtful. But just like her films, I had a very hard time pinning her down on what the film is all about. Twitch: It's been a while since your last film Day Night Day Night, why the gap? Julia Loktev: What a rude question to ask a filmmaker?! (laughs) Oh I didn't mean to be rude... I was just talking to someone about how we were supposed to...

Julia Loktev's 2006 movie Day Night Day Night followed a young woman on her journey to become a suicide bomber, a riveting film released at just the right time to really shake up anyone who saw it. Her follow-up The Loneliest Planet may seem mundane by comparison, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a young engaged couple who are traveling through the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia with a local guide, played by one of the country's premiere mountaineers, Bidzina Gujabidze. Things are going well and they're enjoying the idyllic holiday until a sudden incident drives a wedge between the couple and they have to finish the journey while what happened hangs over their head. It's a simple and fairly subdued, often dialogue-less story, that uses the grand landscape...

Julia Loktev's first feature Day Night Day Night, an intimate portrait of a young terrorist trying to detonate a bomb in Times Square, was one of the most intense, well-crafted and thoughtful low-budget debuts of the last decade, and now we finally have an official trailer for Loktev's new wilderness thriller, The Loneliest Planet, inspired by Tom Bissell's short story "Expensive Trips Nowhere." She's working on a bigger scale this time with more experienced actors like Gael García Bernal, but based on the trailer, it looks like we can expect another deft mix of the mundane with the harrowing. Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they are backpacking in...

Each year at the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center culls together an incredible and diverse selection of cinema that guarantees passionate responses and heated debates. Last September, the Festival featured films that.even then.seemed destined for Oscar night acclaim, including Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist, and Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, as well as cinema so shocking it should come with safety belts, like Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, Steve McQueen's Shame and Pedro Almodovàr's The Skin I Live In. But amid all these titles that fought for focus there was one low-budget thriller by a lesser-known filmmaker that kept emerging into conversation. Based on a short story by Tom Bissell, The Loneliest Planet is writer-director Julia Loktev's follow-up to her critically heralded debut feature Day Night Day Night. Starring Gael García Bernal (The Science of Sleep...

Coming across as something of a visceral journey, The Loneliest Planet features Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a couple on a backpacking trip that seemingly goes awry.  Directed by Julia Loktev (Day Night Day Night), the film has a very Tree Of Life vibe going for it with a somewhat minimalist style.  Just with less dinosaurs. Grab your walking stick: The film has an eerie feel to it; the kind of film that has you on edge from start to finish, because at any...

The trailer for Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet is now online, courtesy of iTunes Movie Trailers . Check it out in the player below! In the August 24 release, Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they set off on a backpacking trip in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. In the first section of Julia Loktev.s ("Day Night Day Night") tense, impeccably acted new feature, the filmmaker examines the couple.s relationship with startling intimacy, chronicling the way they support and depend upon each other while making the arduous journey along with their enigmatic Georgian guide (Bidzina Gujabidze). As the two marvel over the jaw-dropping beauty of the mountains, things seem...

A review from the 35th Portland International Film Festival. It’s true that “The Loneliest Planet,” directed by Julia Loktev (“Day Night Day Night”), is the kind of film that works best if you know little to absolutely nothing about it going in. But then again, couldn’t that be said for just about every film? So before we write this review, let’s get the basics out there: a young couple (played wonderfully by Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg), engaged to be married, is backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. They hire a guide to lead them on a hike filled with stunning vistas, and…something happens that changes things, irrevocably. Sure, it’s a simple enough plot, but where this assured sophomore fiction effort from Loktev becomes quite interesting is in its complex character moments and subtle nuances. This is the kind of film that many...

The Loneliest Planet Click here to read the review! "Loktev's third film The Loneliest Planet - a mellow drama cum melodrama - is structured solely and entirely around an 'event' at its halfway point that entirely reconfigures how we read the film. It's such a boldly sly move that, along with her masterfully spare sophomore film Day Night Day Night, Loktev has effectively situated herself as the twenty-first century's (M)inimalist heir to Hitchcock."...

by Vadim Rizov

The second act of Julia Loktev's first narrative feature—2006's Day Night Day Night—is a real time urban nightmare: an unnamed woman (Luisa Williams) wanders through Times Square with a bomb strapped to her chest, internally/inscrutably debating whether to detonate. When she decides, the movie inevitably gets less tense, but that first hour makes the film as a whole one of the most terrifying things I've seen: the lives at stake get to you less than the sense of a fragile, cringing person tensed up and ready to destroy themselves. Likewise, The Loneliest Planet offers up the continual possibility of something horrible happening for nearly a solid hour of walking, spikes with an unexpected crisis moment requiring a snap decision, then slowly loses excitement as, again, the first hour's more than enough to justify the whole film.

Considering he has less screen time than his two co-stars,...

Let's start with New York's Logan Hill, who reminds us that "Brooklyn director Julia Loktev's Day Night Day Night was a taut, paranoiac Rorschach thriller about a mysterious woman with mysterious motivations who straps a suicide vest to her chest and takes the subway to Times Square. Her latest film is even more willfully abstruse but just as unsettling. Gael García Bernal and newcomer Hani Furstenberg play fiancées [Alex and Nica] on vacation in the harsh landscape of Georgia…. They're living the backpacker's dream, dancing in club's with strangers, grinning dumbly in response to foreign tongues. Then they meet up with a haggard tour guide of grizzled features and morbid humor (the magnetic and bizarre Bidzina Gujabidze), who takes them off into the mountains on an isolated hike."

"And then something shocking happens — it's not fair to say what this game-changing event is, but, then again, Loktev never makes it clear what it signifies,...

With The Loneliest Planet, the follow-up to her acclaimed feature Day Night Day Night, writer/director Julia Loktev builds a piercing drama around the contrast between a beautiful wide-open landscape and the ugliness of a momentary, possibly reflexive, moment of human behavior. In the film, an adventuring couple (Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg) trek through the Georgian mountains with a for-hire guide (Bidzina Gujabidze). A violent encounter changes everything. But in Loktev’s world, the hurt comes not from gunplay or kidnappings but from something more subtle. We asked Loktev about the relationship of landscape to story, about silence, and about the progression of her filmmaking.

Filmmaker: The Loneliest Planet deals with the dynamics within one couple’s relationship. Are these dynamics a product of the extreme situation they find themselves in, or are they fissures you think exist, perhaps unseen, within couples in everyday situations?

Loktev: The central...

#15. The Loneliest Planet Director: Julia Loktev Cast: Gael García Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, Bidzina Gujabidze Distributor: Rights Available Buzz: Perhaps this year's contempo version of Meek's Cutoff because of the navigation of male-female rapport in the tricky surroundings of the vast wilderness, if it weren't for Gael García Bernal signing up for the lead, perhaps Julia Loktev would still be trying to finance the film --- this says a lot about the quality of the project and perhaps the observational approach to the film with much of the minimalism we found in her debut effort - Day Night Day Night. Recently premiered in Locarno with a glowing review from both Variety and IndieWIRE, I'm decidedly hopeful about the prospects. The Gist: I'm looking forward to the portion of the film where Pandora's Box is flung right open -- this observes a young couple is backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia...

The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their main slate which takes place September 30th thru October 16th at Lincoln Center. The closing night selection is Alexander Payne’s The Descendants which joins the gala screenings of opening night’s Roman Polanski’s Carnage, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, and the Almodóvar/Banderas reunion The Skin I Live In. Check out the lineup below along with a synopsis of each film:

Opening Night Gala Selection

Carnage

Director: Roman Polanski

Country: France/Germany/Poland

Centerpiece Gala Selection

My Week With Marilyn

Director: Simon Curtis

Country: UK

Special Gala Presentations

A Dangerous Method

Director: David Cronenberg

Country: UK/Canada/Germany

The Skin I Live In

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Country: Spain

Closing Night Gala Selection

The Descendants

Director: Alexander Payne

Country: USA

Main Slate Selection

4:44: Last Day On Earth

Director: Abel Ferrara

Country: USA

The Artist

Director: Michel Hazanavicius...

Press Release:

New York, August 17, 2011 -The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Alexander Payne.s The Descendants will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). Nyff.s main slate of 27 feature films was also announced as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.

The 2011 edition of Nyff will also feature a unique blend of programming to complement the main-slate of films, including: the Masterworks programs, additional titles added to the previously announced Ben-hur, Nicholas Ray.s We Can.T Go Home Again and Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial, as well as Views from the Avant-Garde, and several special event screenings, all of which will be announced in more detail shortly.

.In many of the films in this year.s Festival,...

The New York Film Festival have officially announced their main slate, including the closing night film. The latter will be Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants starring George Clooney, which will also bow at Toronto. Their line-up includes a lot of Cannes holdovers including new films from the Dardenne brothers, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Joseph Cedar, as well as buzzed-about hits like The Artist, Le Havre, Once Upon a Time in Antatolia and Miss Bala. Out of the new films, we’ll be getting Martin Scorsese‘s George Harrison doc, Steve McQueen‘s Hunger follow-up Shame, as well as Abel Ferrara and Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky films. I was also glad to see Sean Durkin‘s utterly excellent Martha Marcy May Marlene as part of the slate. Check out the full line-up below.

4:44: Last Day On Earth

Abel Ferrara, 2011, USA, 82min

How...

Three years after Julia Loktev's minimalist suicide bomber story "Day Night Day Night" hit theaters, the director has returned with a new film that contains a similarly restrained style but deals with entirely separate issues. "The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a young engaged couple traveling the Georgian mountainside with an enigmatic guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), facing ...

Three years after Julia Loktev's minimalist suicide bomber story "Day Night Day Night" hit theaters, the director has returned with a new film that contains a similarly restrained style but deals with entirely separate issues. "The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Hanni Furstenberg as a young engaged couple traveling the Georgian mountainside with an enigmatic guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), facing ...

Three years after Julia Loktev's minimalist suicide bomber story "Day Night Day Night" hit theaters, the director has returned with a new film that contains a similarly restrained style but deals with entirely separate issues. "The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Hanni Furstenberg as a young engaged couple traveling the Georgian mountainside with an enigmatic guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), facing ...

Three years after Julia Loktev's minimalist suicide bomber story "Day Night Day Night" hit theaters, the director has returned with a new film that contains a similarly restrained style but deals with entirely separate issues. "The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Hanni Furstenberg as a young engaged couple traveling the Georgian mountainside with an enigmatic guide (Bidzina Gujabidze), facing ...

In "Day Night Day Night," Julia Loktev told the quietly experimental tale of a young would-be suicide bomber nervously wandering through the crowd of Times Square, impressing some critics if not much of an audience beyond that. Her long-awaited follow-up, "The Loneliest Planet," deals with noticeably broader terrain and even includes a mid-size star (Gael Garcia Bernal). Both of those factors yield something closer to a conventional viewing experience than ...

Essential Killing

Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski

2010, Poland/Norway/Ireland/Hungary

Polish cinema has long been defined as a cinema of moral concern, with films like Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds (1958) and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours Trilogy (1993-1994) at its centre. Jerzy Skolimowski’s latest film, Essential Killing, starring the eternally polarizing Vincent Gallo, is a searingly relentless examination of man’s irrepressible quest for survival in the face of war. Skolimowski interweaves spiraling aerial shots of Middle Eastern desert and wintry Eastern European forests with the story of a wordless Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighter named Mohammed (Gallo) as he makes his way through a hostile landscape, following his capture and subsequent escape from imprisonment by U.S. troops. With panic-stricken eyes and unclear motivations, Mohammed encounters a series of adversaries in both human and animal form, which he eviscerates in the name of survival.

Gallo, winner of the...

Kaboom

Opens: 2011

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Juno Temple, Kelly Lynch, James Duval

Director: Gregg Araki

Summary: Smith's everyday life in the dorm - hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor - all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night.

Analysis: A year after "Thelma and Louise" came "The Living End", an independent film which had a similar premise but made the protagonists two gay HIV+ men. It was raw, intense and signalled the arrival of a new talent in the form of filmmaker Gregg Araki. In the subsequent two decades, he's delivered several trippy films involving young, good-looking omnisexual people having lots of graphic sex and dealing with some wacky cobbled together plot shenanigans.

The tone has ranged the light-hearted "Splendor" and "Nowhere" to the darker "Mysterious Skin...

Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien," "Amores Perros") has joined the independently financed thriller "The Loneliest Planet" for Parts and Labor, Flying Moon and Wild Invention says Deadline.

Based on a short story by Tom Bissell, the film will follow a young backpacking couple's trek through the Caucasus mountains.

When they hire a local guide to make through the isolated wilderness, their relationship is tested in unanticipated ways.

Julia Loktev ("Day Night Day Night") directs from her own script. Shooting kicks off July 26th in the Georgian republic.

Deadline are reporting that Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) has recently signed on to star in The Loneliest Planet, an indie drama-thriller. Julia Loktev (Day Night Day Night) will direct from a script she wrote herself.

The Loneliest Planet will centre on a young couple backpacking through the Caucasus Mountains in the Republic of Georgia. When they hire a local guide to make through the isolated wilderness, their relationship is tested in ways they never anticipated.

Production is expected to start at the end of this month in the Republic of Georgia. The Loneliest Planet is a co-production between Parts and Labor, Flying Moon and Wild Invention.

Gael García Bernal is setting a course to The Loneliest Planet. Deadline reports that the actor has signed on to star in the indie thriller written and directed by Julia Loktev. Per Deadline, “A young couple backpacks through the Caucasus Mountains in the Republic of Georgia. When they hire a local guide to make through the isolated wilderness, their relationship is tested in ways they never anticipated.” Wait…the couple’s relationship with the guide or the couple’s relationship with each other? I don’t suppose it really matters until cannibalism comes into play. I’m not saying there’s cannibalism in the movie, but that’s how all relationships in the isolated wilderness are tested.

Bernal will next be seen starring with Kate Hudson and Kathy Bates in the comedy Earthbound. Loktev’s most recent film was the 2006 award-winning thriller Day Night Day Night.

Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet will be lensed far from the streets of New York, filming takes place in what I imagine will be the difficult Caucasus Mountains of Georgia - with thesps Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenber (Yossi & Jagger) onboard playing a couple who by the synopsis below, are on the brinks of their relationship in both an emotional and physical location sense. - I forgot to add a much anticipated project to this month's "Tracking Shot" (films going into production this month that are worth keeping an eye out for). Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet will be lensed far from the streets of New York, filming takes place in what I imagine will be the difficult Caucasus Mountains of Georgia - with thesps Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenber (Yossi & Jagger) onboard playing a couple who by the synopsis below,...

I forgot to add a much anticipated project to this month's "Tracking Shot" (films going into production this month that are worth keeping an eye out for). Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet will be lensed far from the streets of New York, filming takes place in what I imagine will be the difficult Caucasus Mountains of Georgia - with thesps Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenber (Yossi & Jagger) onboard playing a couple who by the synopsis below, are on the brinks of their relationship in both an emotional and physical location sense. Production is expected to begin this month. Here's our interview with Loktev back for Day Night Day Night.  Sales unit Match Factory describes this as a chamber-piece set in a landscape that is both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed. A young couple is backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia a year after tensions with Russia erupted...

In the wake of a failed car bombing attempt in New York City last week, the Sundance Channel has yanked from its programming schedule Julia Loktev's critically acclaimed film "Day Night Day Night," about a young female suicide bomber who plans to detonate herself in Times Square. The Sundance Channel would not explain its rationale beyond a prepared statement that said, "Given the events of the past week, Sundance Channel has ...

• The 17th Gotham Awards nominations have been announced - and the emphasis goes to back to smaller-budget indie fair with Craig Zobel's Great World of Sound picking up a trio of noms (best director, breakthrough actor and best film) and going up against perhaps a larger scale film in Sean Penn's Into the Wild which picked up noms for feature and actor (Emile Hirsch). Margot at the Wedding have got two reasons for showing up next month and also picking up a pair of noms is a film that claimed international attention with a presence at last year's Cannes - Day Night Day Night received a best director and breakthrough acting.   While winners will be announced on November 27th, the Gotham Awards have chosen to honor six industry folk -: actor Javier Bardem, critic Roger Ebert, production designer Mark Friedberg, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, director Mira Nair and Jonathan Sehring,

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• Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, immigrating to the Us with her family at age nine, Julia Loktev made her first feature, a graduate thesis film from Nyu film school. Moment of Impact, a documentary which she shot and edited without a crew, won numerous awards, including The Directing Audience Award at Sundance, The Grand Prizes at Cinema du Reel and the Munich International Documentary Festival, as well as Best First Feature Nominee and Someone to Watch, the Independent Spirits Awards, Telluride Film Festival, 2006. Loktev also makes multiple-screen video installations in a museum/gallery context and has shown work at Tate Modern in London, P.S.1 in New York, Haus der Kunst in Munich, Bienal de Valencia, Mito Art Tower in Japan. She lives in New York. Day Night Day Night is her first narrative feature. Writer/director Julia Koktev’s experimental and controversial film is set in present day New York City,

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The tone of the 36th edition of New Directors/New Films (March 21-April 1) might be encapsulated in the words of a character from The Great World of Sound, a first feature by Craig Zobel: "Fuck 'fair.' Life ain't fair." In fact, if the miserabilist flavor of the festival is any indication, the world (hedge fund managers excepted) is not a happy place. Many of the 26 films in the fest (a joint venture of the film department at the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center), featured the proverbial little guy ground down by poverty, war, incarceration, or just old age. This parade of misfortune threatened to become a downer. But a couple of standouts — Day Night Day Night [pictured above] by Julia Loktev and Red Road by...

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IFC Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to the drama Day Night Day Night for its IFC First Take program. Writer-director Julia Loktev's film centers on a young, unstable woman on a trip to New York with terrorism on her mind.

Night was nominated this year for two Independent Spirit Awards, including best first feature and a Someone to Watch honor for Loktev. IFC is planning a May 9 release in theaters and on video-on-demand.

MEXICO CITY -- Todd Field's Oscar-nominated Little Children will open the 4th annual Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival, one of Mexico's top movie showcases.

A total of 219 films from 47 nations will unspool during the 10-day festival, which runs from Feb. 21-March 4 here in the nation's capital.

The FICCO, as the event is called, will have 16 features and 17 documentaries in competition, organizers said at a Thursday news conference.

The fiction section features two Mexican productions: Ruben Imaz's Familia Tortuga (Turtle Family) and the world premiere of Ivan Avila's La Sangre Iluminada (Enlightened Blood).

The only American feature in competition is Julia Loktev's Day Night Day Night. The majority of fictional titles in competition are first works, including the award-winning 12:08 East of Bucharest, the first feature-length offering from Romania's Corneliu Porumboiu.

Notable foreign pictures screening out of competition include the Spike Lee documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, David Lynch's Inland Empire, Lars Von Trier's The Boss of It All and Canada's foreign-language Oscar-nominee, Water.

Among the international jury members are Jim Jarmusch, producer Jim Stark, actress Geraldine Chaplin and producer Mary Sweeney.

• It comes as no surprise that leading this year’s pack of nominees are Little Miss Sunshine and Half Nelson, but this year’s mix of contenders are a mixed breed coming from films that were showcased a little everywhere – including this year’s Sundance. And the 2007 Independent Spirit nominees are...Feature (Award given to the Producer)"American Gun," Ted Kroeber, producer"The Dead Girl," Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, producers"Half Nelson," Jamie Patricof, Alex Orlovsky, Lynette Howell, Anna Boden, Rosanne Korenberg, producers"Little Miss Sunshine," Marc Turtletaub, David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, producers"Pan's Labyrinth," Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuaron, Frida Torresblanco, Alvaro Augustin, Guillermo Del Toro, producersFIRST Feature (Award given to the director and producer)"Day Night Day Night," Julia Loktev, director; Julia Loktev, Melanie Judd, Jessica Levin, producers"Man Push Cart," Ramin Bahrani, director; Ramin Bahrani,

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Day Night Day Night starts as a young woman, listed only as She, gets off a bus in the Port Authority Terminal in New York. The film gives no details about her, just the immediate sight. She carries a tennis racquet and a cell phone, which rings frequently. Someone apparently gives the girl instructions about where to go outside. A car drives up; She slides the tennis racquet in a window, and gets in.

What you figure out shortly is that She's taking orders from terrorists. They send her to a hotel; She takes a long bath with heightened, squishy sounds of her scrubbing her skin, and later the little snips as she trims her nails. Several men wearing hoods come to the room. Even in these bizarre circumstances, She is soft-spoken and polite. What She is there to do is carry a bomb in a backpack, which She will detonate in Times Square, killing as many people as possible as well as herself.

Day Night Day Night shows tremendous control and discipline, especially for a young filmmaker on her first feature. Director Julia Loktev might be working on a profoundly low budget, but her camera work and lighting are precise and imaginative. The film tells the audience nothing by way of background or context. There is no way to know who this woman is, or who are her handlers. Her purpose, the reason behind the coming attack is a mystery.

As the great B-movie director Joseph Lewis (Gun Crazy, The Big Combo) used to say, "There's nothing I can put onscreen that's half as interesting as what you have in your head." That certainly is the case in Day Night. You spend the film wondering and speculating, looking for clues, and watching carefully.

The film's great sequence takes place at Times Square at night. She, looking terribly small and burdened by the bomb-loaded backpack, walks the streets. Loktev had no permissions to shoot; she hasn't the money -- or the interest -- in clearing the streets of their normal traffic or hiring extras she might direct. Some people look at the camera, but that only heightens the tension. Each person who comes by forces the question: Will he or she die in the next moment? The possibilities of living or dying seem utterly random.

You wonder if life will be determined by wealth or race, as various people stand next to She, only to move on and cross the street.

Day Night shows off a fine use of digital video. Loktev could work on the street with only one or two others, and do long, patient takes, so the film is immediate, completely in the present. It is grubby, taut and without apparent artifice. Loktev works entirely within her means, and she has made a small film that constantly grows and suggests far beyond its enigmatic story and characters, into a piece that brings up important questions of our time.

DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT

FaceFilm

Credits:

Director: Julia Loktev

Screenwriter: Julia Loktev

Producers: Julia Loktev, Melanie Judd, Jessica Levin

Director of photography: Benoit Debie

Production designer: Kelly McGehee

Costume designer: Rabiah Troncelliti

Editors: Michael Taylor, Julia Loktev

Cast:

She: Luisa Williams

Commander: Josh P. Weinstein

Organizer: Gareth Saxe

Organizer: Nyambi Nyambi

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 94 minutes...