Bonjour Cinema for 11th time
Shelley Whiting, Canadian High commissioner to Sri Lanka, Kurt Meier, Deputy Head of Mission and Claude Alexandre, Director of Alliance Francaise de Kotte at the press conference to announce the Festival Bonjour Cinema
The 11th edition of the Bonjour Cinéma!, Film Festival from French Speaking Countries will be held from the March 17 to 20 in Colombo and from March 19 to 20 in Kandy.
The Festival will present a collection of diversified movies produced in member countries of the International Organisation of “La Francophonie” (OIF), reflecting the diversity of the francophone world.
Each year in March the « mois de la Francophonie » is celebrated all over the world. In Sri Lanka,the High Commission of Canada, the Embassies of France, Vietnam, Switzerland, Romania, the Consulate of Tunisia, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, represented by the Consulate of Belgium,and the Alliance Française de Kotte in association with the National Film Corporation and Agenda 14 have come together to present the Festival Bonjour Cinéma!
All the films will be presented with English subtitles, enabling the audience to experience different aspects of the Francophone world through cinema.
Aiming at bringing free cultural activities that entertain, educate and improve cross-cultural understanding, to both Sri Lanka and the international community, the festival will also present short films made by Sri Lankan filmmakers before each film.
This year’s festival takes place under the patronage of internationally-renowned film maker Vimukhti Jayasundara.
The festival includes films ‘Timbuktu’ by Abderrahmne Sissako, Swiss film ‘A Bell for Ursli’ by Xavier Koller (a film for the young public), Belgium film ‘Scouting for Zebras’ by Benoit Mariage, the Vietnamese film ‘The Floating Lives’.
Swiss drama film ‘Vanity’ by Lionel Baier, Canadian film Laurence Anyways by Xavier Dolan, Tunisian documentary fiction ‘Challat of Tunis’, Romanian comedy drama ‘I am an old Communist hag’ and the festival will end with Vimukthi Jayasundara’s Cannes awarded film ‘The Forsaken Land’.
The festival will also have a collection of short films including ‘On the way’ by Kamal Nethmini, ‘God must be deaf’ by Kaushalya Pathirana, ‘Let her fly’ by Fathima Nafia’, ‘A Dream’ by Suminda and ‘The Rope’ by Anthonipillai Nishanthan.
