Features in competition at Tribeca Festival
May 1 - 9, 2004

1/2 Price [HALFP] France 62 min preceded by Paper Route
A rare attempt to portray children's activities utterly without sentimentality, this debut by a 21-year-old actress follows a trio of kids aged 7, 8, and 9 as they fend for themselves in a world nearly free of adults. The film drew considerable attention in Paris after Chris Marker likened it to Breathless in its depiction of something we've never before seen on screen. ( more...)

Blind Flight [FLIGH] U.K. 92 min
In this drama based on actual events, an Irish nationalist (Ian Hart) and an English journalist (Linus Roache) forge an unlikely bond during four-and-a-half years of captivity together in Beirut. Eschewing political judgments, the film remains tightly focused on the interplay between the cellmates, giving this character study an uncompromising and compelling rawness. ( more...)

Freeze Frame [FREEZ] Ireland, U.K. 98 min
In this stunning, stylized thriller, acquitted murder suspect Sean Veil videotapes himself around the clock to provide an alibi in case he's ever accused of another crime. When the police do come calling, however, the one tape that could prove his innocence has mysteriously disappeared. ( more...)


The Green Hat [GREEN] China 120 min
A startling break with the historical and political concerns of recent Chinese cinema, Liu's film is noteworthy not only for its unprecedented sexual candor but because it announces the arrival of a major new talent. The green hat is the Chinese equivalent of the cuckold's horns, and two different stories explore how people today are struggling to transcend traditional definitions of love. ( more...)

A Hole in One [HOLEI] U.S.A. 97 min
Anna (Michelle Williams) is obsessed with mental health, coveting its latest fashion—transorbital lobotomy. Caught between a gangster (Meat Loaf Aday) and a Korean War vet (Tim Guinee), Anna yearns for clarity and calm as madness rages around her. Williams gives a stunning performance in an evocative, stranger-than-fiction tale of small town life in the 1950's. ( more...)

The Last Train [TRAIN] Russia 82 min
Lost in the snows of Russia during the final bitter winter of World War II, a German Army surgeon trudges from one surreal encounter to another. Oleg Lukichev's stark black-and-white cinematography captures all the misery and brutality of Eastern Front combat in this remarkably assured prizewinning debut from German, son of the legendary St. Petersburg director. ( more...)


Narrative Feature Award Winner [JNARR] 99 min
Rather than reading about the winners on Monday morning and wishing you'd caught them, be amongst the select few to see one of the films awarded a jury prize at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. It's a golden opportunity for adventurous moviegoers to attend a surprise screening and still lay claim to seeing one of the best at the Fest.

Navel [NAVEL] Iran 83 min preceded by Ashes
This experimental reality drama depicts a few seemingly idle days in the lives of four men and a woman who share an apartment. Frank sexual dialogue, non-linear structure, and the use of symbolic images distinguish Navel from much recent Iranian cinema, while Shirvani's jittery DV camera provides a rare intimate glimpse inside contemporary Tehran society from the point of view of an Iranian-American woman.


The Other Side of the Street [OTHER] Brazil, France 98 min
Regina is a 65-year-old woman who passes her time working as a volunteer informant for the Copacabana police. One night she spies a man apparently murdering his wife through lethal injection. When the police decline to investigate, Regina takes up the case herself, and soon becomes romantically entangled with her prime suspect. Featuring a tour de force performance by Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station). ( more...)

Poster Boy [POSTE] U.S.A. 100 min
In this new model coming-of-age story, a right-wing U.S. senator enlists his son Henry, against his will, as the poster boy for his tightly contested re-election campaign. But Henry has been away at college, living happily out of his father's shadow—and out of the closet. As the election nears, secrets unfold, altering family bonds and lives. ( more...)


The Spectator [SPECT] Italy 98 min
Valeria is a passive onlooker to her own life in Turin, and she grows so obsessed with the activities of her neighbor Massimo that when he moves to Rome she decides to follow him. There she meets and unexpectedly befriends Massimo's companion Flavia, and becomes enmeshed in both of their lives.

A Touch of Spice [TOUCH] Greece 108 min
A box office smash in Greece, this mouth-watering crowd pleaser is divided into appetizers, main courses and desserts. Fanis, a Greek lad, lives in multi-cultural Istanbul and develops a life-long passion for cooking in his grandfather's fragrant spice shop. But political tensions drive his family back to Greece. He returns to Turkey, his dying grandfather, and his childhood love only many years later.

Whore [WHORE] Spain 100 min
Luna takes an original approach to the world's oldest profession, eliciting comments from a wide range of its practitioners, both men and women, in many different countries. Skillfully interwoven with the apparently documentary material is a fictional tale involving familiar faces like Daryl Hannah, Denise Richards and Joaquin de Almeida. Based on a novel by Isabel Pisano, a top bestseller in Spain and Italy.

Zaman, the Man from the Reeds [ZAMAN] France, Iraq 77 min
A peasant from the marshlands of southern Iraq journeys in a tiny boat up the Tigris to Baghdad, seeking medicine for his sick wife. The first feature shot in Iraq in more than a decade effectively mixes lyricism with documentary-style realism, capturing the final days of life under Saddam Hussein, whose regime confiscated five reels of this film that are now lost forever.