Cinemondo world cinema series continues on Link TV

PETER SCARLET TO HOST FOURTH SEASON OF CINEMONDO WORLD CINEMA SERIES ON LINK TV

Independent channel Link TV presents U.S. television premieres of four award-winning independent films from around the world and one newly restored classic

Series starts Saturday, April 11 at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT Films will be streamed in their entirety for one week at LinkTV.org/Cinemondo

Link TV announced today the line-up for the fourth season of Cinemondo, the nationally broadcast world cinema series hosted and co-curated by renowned festival programmer Peter Scarlet, who was recently appointed to the post of Executive Director of the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), in Abu Dhabi.

The new season features U.S. television premieres of an outstanding international line-up of independent films from Israel, Mexico, Russia and Turkey, and the first U.S. broadcast of a newly restored print of Youssef Chahine’s classic masterpiece from Egypt, Cairo Station.

Cinemondo will premiere on Link TV on April 11th, debuting one film per week through May 13th. Four of the five films presented on the channel will also be streamed for free, in their entirety, for one week on the Link TV website at LinkTV.org/Cinemondo.

Interviews with some of the directors will follow broadcasts, and will also be viewable on Link’s website.The following films will receive their U.S. television and online premiere on Link TV as part of Cinemondo:

• Alexandra, Russia, directed by Alexander Sokurov

• Cairo Station* (Bab el hadid), Egypt, directed by Youssef Chahine *not a U.S. premiere, will not stream

• The Violin (El Violin), Mexico, directed by Francisco Vargas

• My Father My Lord, (Hofshat Kaits), Israel, directed by David Volach

• My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek), Turkey, directed by Hüseyin Karabey

“This quintet of knockout films represents Cinemondo’s strongest season yet, and are probably five of the strongest films you’ll find anywhere this year,” remarked Peter Scarlet. “With the continued dumbing down of mainstream American film production, and with the increasing difficulty and expense of getting unusual films opened in movie theaters in any but the largest U.S. cities, Cinemondo continues to be one of the only places on TV where American film lovers can connect meaningfully to the rest of the world.”

Cinemondo was conceived and developed by Steven Lawrence, Link TV’s Vice President of Music and Cultural Programming, who co-curates the series with Scarlet.

Lawrence states, “Cinemondo continues to offer American television viewers the broadcast equivalent of a top-notch international film festival, complete with the kind of introductions and director interviews that have made Peter Scarlet one of the most respected film programmers and presenters in the world. In this season we’re introducing the idea of ‘Cinemondo Classics’ with the restored print of Cairo Station, which has not been broadcast before in the U.S.”

Cinemondo is co-curated by Peter Scarlet and Steven Lawrence, and was developed with the support of Link TV’s film advisory board whose members are Michael Apted, Film Director and President of the Directors Guild of America; Bahman Ghobadi, Film Director; Danny Glover, Actor, Producer and Activist; Heddy Honigmann, Film Director; Tom Luddy, Film Producer and Co-Director of the Telluride Film Festival; Peter Saraf, Film Producer and Co-Founder of Big Beach Films; and Diane Weyermann, Executive Vice President for Documentaries of Participant Productions.

Previous seasons of Cinemondo, launched in 2006, have featured the U.S. television premieres of such critically-acclaimed films as:

Season I: Almost Brothers (Brazil) directed by Lúcia Murat; Border Café (Iran) directed by Kambuzia Partovi; Beautiful City (Iran) directed by Asghar Farhadi; Fuse (Bosnia) directed by Pjer Zalica; Hostage (Greece) directed by Constantine Giannaris; May 6th (Holland) directed by Theo van Gogh; The President’s Last Bang (South Korea) directed by Im Sang-soo; Rana’s Wedding (Palestine) directed by Hany Abu-Assad; Stolen Life (China) directed by Li Shaohong; Waiting for Happiness (Mauritania) written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako; and Wrong Side Up (Czech Republic) directed by Petr Zelenka.

Season II: Aaltra (Belgium) directed by Benoît Delépine & Gustave Kervern; Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (Brazil) directed by Marcelo Gomes; Distant Lights (Germany) directed by Hans-Christian Schmid; Making Of (Tunisia) directed by Nouri Bouzid; The Night of Truth (Burkina Faso) directed by Fanta Régina Nacro; Raja (France/Morocco) directed by Jacques Doillon; and Singapore Dreaming (Singapore) directed by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo.

Season III: Blind Shaft (China) directed by Yang Li; Daratt (Chad) directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun; Takva (Turkey) directed by Özer Kiziltan; and Vanaja (India) directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli.


Schedule and Film Descriptions
CinemondoWorld Cinema on Link TV
Hosted by Peter Scarlet

Link TV is available on DIRECTV channel 375 and Dish Network channel 9410

Visit our website at www.LinkTV.org/Cinemondo

The Violin (El Violin), directed by Francisco Vargas
Mexico, 2006, 98 minutes
Winner — Un Certain Regard, Best Actor, Ángel Tavira, Cannes Film Festival
Airs: Saturday, April 11, 11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT
Wednesday, April 15, 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT

Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and his grandson Lucio live a double life: on one hand they are musicians and humble farmers, on the other they support the campesina peasant guerilla movement’s armed efforts against the oppressive government. When the military seizes the village, the rebels flee to the Sierra hills, forced to leave behind their stock of ammunition.

While the guerillas organize a counter-attack, old Plutarco executes his own plan. He plays up his appearance as a harmless violin player, in order to get into the village and recover the ammunition hidden in his corn field. His violin playing charms an army captain, who orders Plutarco to come back daily. Arms and music play a tenuous game of cat-and-mouse, which ultimately results in painful betrayal.

“A movie of undeniable gravitas and monumentality” — J. Hoberman, Village Voice→

Both broadcasts followed by Peter Scarlet’s interview with director Francisco Vargas.

Alexandra directed by Alexander Sokurov
Russia, 2007, 95 minutes
Official Selection — New York Film Festival
Airs: Saturday, April 18, 11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT
Wednesday April 22, 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT

In a desolate, sun-scorched corner of the world (Chechnya), an elderly woman has come to see her beloved grandson, a young officer stationed at a remote military outpost. With the enemy just beyond the compound, she wanders the barracks, observing the routines of military life, before making a sudden trip into the outlying countryside and marketplace. There she is befriended by a local woman merchant, also a grandmother.

Featuring a mesmerizing performance by Russian opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya, Alexandra is a viscerally powerful new film from the great Alexander Sokurov.

“Alexandra [is] a beautiful, eerie work of art about life and death and the love a grandson expresses when he plaits his grandmother’s hair. It has revealed some of its mysteries, and I’m sure it will reveal more when I return to it again.” — Manohla Dargis, New York Times

My Father My Lord (Hofshat Kaits) directed by David Volach
Israel, 2007, 75 minutes
Winner — Best Narrative Feature, Tribeca Film Festival
Airs: Saturday, April 25, 11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT
Wednesday, April 29, 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT

A respected Orhtodox Rabbi (Assi Dayan, Israel’s leading actor/director) dotes on his only son, but his religious strictures leave an emotional gap between the curious child and the stern father. When the father’s all consuming obsession with observing religious ritual leads to tragedy, his previously subservient wife rages against both her husband and God.

My Father My Lord is a dramatic re-telling of the story of Abraham and Isaac, with a devastating twist.

“Heartbreakingly tender…The acting of Mr. Dayan (a son of Moshe Dayan) and Ms. Bar has an emotional transparency rarely glimpsed on screen…“My Father My Lord” has the glowing simplicity and force of a biblical parable.” — Stephen Holden, New York Times

Cairo Station (Bab el hadid) directed by Youssef Chahine
Egypt, 1958, 76 minutes
Airs: Saturday, May 2, 11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT
Wednesday, May 6, 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT

In this beautiful, classic film from legendary director Youssef Chahine, Cairo’s main railroad station is used to represent all of Egyptian society. We see a community comprised of luggage carriers and soft-drink vendors living in abandoned train cars. A crippled newspaper dealer, Kinawi (played by Chahine himself), falls in love with the beautiful but indifferent Hanuma (Hind Rostom), a lemonade seller who only has eyes for the handsome Abu Sri’. Swept away by his obsessive desire, Kinawi kidnaps the object of his passion, with terrible consequences.

Chahine received international recognition when this masterpiece of sexuality, repression, madness and violence among society’s marginalized played at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Golden Bear in 1958.

“At first glance, the upfront sexuality startles in a film from an Arab country in 1958, but the bigger picture captures a society experiencing rapid change. Chahine fans out from a sweaty, realist base towards social observation, florid melodrama and dark suspense. It’s a strikingly controlled, confident, bitingly effective display, which leaves you wondering where this film has been all our lives.” — Time Out Film Guide

My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek) directed by Hüseyin Karabey
Turkey, 2008, 93 minutes
Winner — Best New Narrative Filmmaker, Tribeca Film Festival
Airs: Saturday, May 9, 11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT
Wednesday, May 13, 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT

Ayça is a Turkish actress who lives in Istanbul. On a film set in the west of Turkey, she meets Hama Ali, a Kurdish actor, and falls in love with him. After the shoot, Ayça returns to Istanbul and Hama has to go back to his home, Suleymaniye, in northern Iraq. But Ayça can no longer bear the distance between them and decides she must join Hama. Unfortunately the U.S. invasion of Iraq has just begun, and getting into a country at war turns out to be just as difficult as getting out.

“A moving statement on war and the confining artificiality of borders” — Jay Weissberg, Variety→

Both broadcasts followed by an interview with director Hüseyin Karabey.