PRESS RELEASES – PAGE 4

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

As part of the Festival's 20th Anniversary, the Nonfiction Features of 2001 program is highlighted by a special event, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (De 10 Geboden). This documentary equivalent of Krzysztof Kieslowski's cinema milestone THE DECALOGUE is a profound series of films from the Netherlands. Ten prominent filmmakers re-examine the moral dilemmas that lie at the heart of our most ancient laws. As these powerful and provocative films make clear, the Decalogue's relevancy transcends its Judeo-Christian origins. A special pass priced at $30 will be available for patrons to attend screenings of all ten films, to be screened in sets of two over the Festival's entirety. This series is a North American Premiere. The films in the series are as follows:

1. LETTERS TO GOD (Vuk Janic)
The First Commandment - 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me" - is explored it in a contemporary ethos, where, often, thou have no gods at all. In three separate, gripping family tales, this moving film asks: is there a God, and, if so, does He control the birth and death of a child?

2. KINGDOM OF SHADOWS (Fiona Tam)
"Thou shalt not make graven images, nor bow before them and worship them." Filmmaker and visual artist Tam - an unabashed image-maker - offers a provocative and personal vision of the Second Commandment. Can we imagine a world without cinema, television and photography?

3. GOD IS MY CO-PILOT (Karin Junger)
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" examines the moral dilemmas facing US pilots aboard an aircraft carrier who attend daily church service, then transgress another commandment by dropping smart-bombs on Kosovo and Serbia "in the name of God."

4. A STATE OF BEING (Paul Cohen)
Inspired by the paradox that by making a film he is breaking the commandment about the day of rest, Cohen's analysis of the tensions between rest and restlessness in today's 24/7 world is clear-headed and convincing.
5. HONOUR YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR FATHER (Niek Hoppen)
This intriguing portrait of a 22-year-old man whose childhood was spent in foster homes raises some interesting questions: Must we honour the parents that abandoned us? And those that took us in? Is that honour unconditional or should our parents be required to earn our respect?

6. THE PROMISED LAND (John Appel)
In a probing and philosophical examination of the Sixth Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," prize-winning filmmaker Appel leads us on his quest to discover how and why a man that everyone seemed to like could die without anyone noticing. Is no one responsible?

7. SINNED AGAIN (Fatima Hjebli Ouazzani)
Given that about 70 percent of married Canadians have broken the Seventh Commandment, you would think that the taboo of infidelity would have lost some of its spark. But as this sizzling documentary makes clear, to love and to hold someone other than your spouse is still among our most socially dangerous desires.

8. P®IVE (Heddy Honigmann)
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Heddy Honigmann follows last year's favourite, Crazy, with a wide-ranging investigation of the Eighth Commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." From petty theft to violent street crime, Honigmann expertly navigates this vast subject, showing how everything can be stolen, from material possessions to our hearts and souls.

9. THE INVISIBLE TRUTH (Pieter Fluery)
"Though shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Fleury confronts the confusion he feels in his own role as a filmmaker by following a TV news team on assignment in Srebrenica, five years after the Bosnian War. What is truth in this edited and editorialized context?

10. NOR HIS DONKEY (Jos de Putter)
The Tenth and last Commandment tells us not to covet what is our neighbour's: not his house, not his wife, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to him. A donkey – the biblical animal par excellence – guides us through three thorny stories of covetous desire.

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