THE world premiere of a political thriller, A Further Gesture, starring Stephen Rea, will be featured, on the opening night of the ACCBank 12th Dublin Film Festival on March 4th.
Stephen Rea plays an IRA man who escapes from the Maze Prison and goes to New York, where he becomes involved with Guatemalan activists. The screenplay is by Irish writer Ronan Bennett and the film is directed by Austrian Robert Dornhelm.
The festival programme, which was announced at a reception in Dublin last night, will showcase the work of Irish director Pat O'Connor, who will attend the festival and participate in a public interview. All seven of his feature films will be shown, including Cal band A Month in the Country, as well as his award winning television film, The Ballroom of Romance. The festival will close on March 13th with the world premiere of Mr O'Connor's new American film, Inventing the Abbotts, starring Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix.
"Hosting screenings of more than 200 films from around the world we trust there will be something for everyone among the selection", the festival's programme director, Mr Martin Mahon, said at the reception.
The high profile films in the festival include The English Patient, which received 12 Oscar nominations last week; the Milos Forman film The People Vs. Larry Flynt, which got two Oscar nominations; the new Woody Allen film, the comedy musical Everyone Says I Love You; Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep in the film of the play Marvin's Room; and David Cronenberg's controversial Canadian film, Crash.
The many new Irish feature films scheduled for the festival include Elizabeth Gill's Gold in the Streets, produced by Noel Pearson and featuring Ian Hart and Jared Harris; Drinking Crude, the first feature from Tralee director Owen McPolin, starring Andrew Scott; Gillies MacKinnon's film of Billy Roche's screenplay, Trojan Eddie, with Stephen Rea and Richard Harris; the John T. Davis documentary, The Uncle Jack; the Cork Film Festival hit, November Afternoon; the Irish Italian co production, Spaghetti Slow; and the prisoners of war tale, The Brylcreem Boys, set in Ireland but shot in the Isle of Man and featuring Gabriel Byrne and Riverdance dancer Jean Butler.