Sundance Channel today announced that it will celebrate the prestigious Sundance Film Festival by showcasing an acclaimed line-up of 10 movies from 17-26 January. The 10 Days of Sundance promotion will feature festival favourites from Park City, Utah each night at 10pm.
The annual gathering is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States showcasing new work from American and international filmmakers. Established by Robert Redford, Sundance Channel offers audiences a diverse and engaging selection of award-winning independent films, documentaries and original programs. Many movies from the Sundance Film Festival are seen exclusively and for the first time on Sundance Channel.
The must-watch featured premiere titles to be shown during the 10 Days of Sundance promotion are:
Tuesday, 21 January Abel / Director: Diego Luna –Reality and fantasy are blurred in the mind of an inscrutable young boy with consequences for his whole family. Abel is a nine year-old, the only male patient in a psychiatric ward for women in provincial Aguascalientes, Mexico. Experiencing violent episodes and refusing to speak, his doctors are unable to diagnose or treat his apparent mental illness.
Hospital rules are about to force Abel’s transferral to a children’s facility in Mexico City for permanent residency but his mother, Cecilia, convinces the hospital director to let her son stay with her for a fortnight. If he behaves and Cecilia can manage his care, he will be allowed to remain with his family. If not, he must go to the children’s hospital in distant Mexico City.
However, Abel is uncomfortable in his own home and his brother and sister are equally wary of his presence, creating tension throughout the household. One morning, out of the blue, Abel begins to speak. His mother is initially delighted but, rather than behaving like a nine year-old boy, Abel starts to act like the man of the house – a husband to his mother and a father to his siblings.
As the family attempts to adjust to their strange new lifestyle, Anselmo, the children’s real father returns from working in the United States and is disturbed by what he finds. His attempts to address the balance of power in his family and return to a level of normality almost result in tragedy, forcing Cecilia to make the most difficult of decisions. The film won two trophies at the Ariel Awards in Mexico, including Best New Actor and Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Cast: Christopher Ruiz-Esparza, Karina Gidi, José María Yazpik
Wednesday, 22 January Metro Manila / Director: Sean Ellis – Seeking a brighter future in the megacity of Manila, Oscar seemingly has a lucky break when he’s offered steady work for an armored truck company. However, the reality of his work’s mortality rate soon forces Oscar to confront the perils he faces in his new job and in his new urban life.
Cast: Jake Macapagal, John Arcilla, Althea Vega
Saturday, 25 January Soldate Jeannette / Director: Daniel Hoesl – Even though the walls are crumbling around Fanni’s opulent lifestyle, one would never tell. Fanni is possessed of an unflappable sense of etiquette and a stern poker face. No longer moved by the beautiful objects that her money can buy, and on the verge of being discovered for her conniving ways, Fanni decides to shed her bourgeois identity, buy a tent and trek her way through the alpine mountains.
When she reaches a remote farm she meets Anna, a young woman shackled by circumstances of her own. Just as Fanni has had enough of money, Anna has had enough of pigs. Although they are from very different worlds, the two women realise they are kindred spirits, both searching for a sense of liberty in life in their own ways.
Juxtaposing man-made wealth with the beauty of nature and the rigid hierarchies of both urban and rural life with the indomitable human spirit, Soldate Jeannette explores what it means to be an idealist in the modern world. Exquisitely
shot in Austria on a very modest budget, the movie was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Cast: Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg, Christina Reichsthaler, Josef Kleindienst, Aurelia Burckhardt, Julia Schranz, Ines Rössl
Sunday, 26 January The Meteor / Director: François Delisle – Forty-something Pierre is serving a 14-year prison sentence. His mother, who is approaching 80, visits him every week. Suzanne, his wife, has moved on since he was sent away. Their destinies are entwined by crime, guilt and loneliness, and all of them are trying to keep their heads above water in the only ways they know how.
Cast: Noémie Godin-Vigneau, François Delisle, Laurent Lucas, Brigitte Pogonat, François Papineau, Andrée
Lachapelle