Explore the World Cinema Fest

Fly Me to the Moon is a charming exploration of finding love in all the wrong places, featuring a delightful performance from Diane Kruger (Inglorious Basterds) as a successful dental hygienist who runs a successful practice, lives in a beautiful apartment in Paris and enjoys the charms of a handsome boyfriend of 10 years, (Robert Plagnol). Bliss is not always perfect and, for her, there is the added problem that her family is plagued with every first marriage turning into a divorce.

The solution might seem simple, but turns into a hilarious journey that spirals into chaos when she decides to marry an unsuitable husband, and total stranger, who she can marry and divorce first. As with all random decisions, her spontaneous mendacity leads to an encounter with the equally amusing Danny Boon (Welcome to the Sticks) as a travel journalist who introduces her to a whole new world of trouble, which leads to bizarre encounters at a Masai marital ceremony and a series of hilarious (and touching) escapades. With Fly Me to the Moon writer-director Pascal Chaumeil reunites with his team behind Heartbreaker, delivering a perfect date movie.

Wacky off-beat comedy

From 14 June you can see Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's zany and totally wacky off-beat comedy I'm So Excited. A technical failure has endangered the lives of the people on board Peninsula Flight 2549.The pilots are striving, along with their colleagues in the control centre, to find a solution. The flight attendants and the chief steward are atypical, baroque characters who, in the face of danger, try to forget their own personal problems and devote themselves body and soul to the task of making the flight as enjoyable as possible for the passengers, while they wait for a solution. Life in the clouds is as complicated as it is at ground level, and for the same reasons, which could be summarised in two words: sex and death.

From 21 June you can surrender to To the Wonder, from the Tree of Life director Terrence Malick, a poignantly poetic exploration of love, demise of humanity, and spiritual and physical infidelity. In Malick's own words: " ... how love and its many phases and seasons: passion, sympathy, obligation, sorrow, indecision - can transform, destroy, and reinvent lives ... " The romantic drama focuses on a man who is torn between two loves: Marina, the European woman who came to United States to be with him, and Jane, the old flame he reconnects with from his home town, featuring some great performances from Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem.

It's back to the UK from 28 June when the British offering, Song for Marion, hits the big screen. Directed by Paul Andrew Williams, it tells the wonderfully, heart-warming story about the loving marriage between grumpy pensioner Arthur (Terence Stamp) and the ever-cheerful Marion (Vanessa Redgrave). Cantankerous but doting husband Arthur does not share his wife Marion's passion for performing. While she is happy to sing her heart out with the unconventional local choir, Arthur would prefer to hide himself away and complain about how embarrassing it all is. But when heartbreak strikes, Arthur is forced to rethink his outlook on life. With the steady perseverance of choir director Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton), Arthur begins to find a way to come out of his shell and, in the process, forms a touching relationship with Elizabeth as well as a desire to build bridges with his estranged son James (Christopher Eccleston).

A burnt-out workaholic detective

From 5 July the South African Die Laaste Tango features Louw Venter as a 34-year-old, burnt-out workaholic detective who is sent to the isolated town of Loxton in the middle of the Karoo where he meets Ella (Antoinette Louw), a passionate and beautiful woman who is dying of cancer. His only goal is to fight boredom until he's allowed to resume his detective duties. Ella's dying wish is to dance one last tango before her life is over. De Wet reluctantly agrees to help her fulfil her dream and, in so doing, realises his own need for healing and inner peace. While they fall in love, Basson awakes from his sedation and plots his revenge against De Wet. On the night of the last tango, the serial killer arrives in Loxton ...

From 19 July you can see the much-lauded and anticipated award-winning international production from Austria, Amour, which won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and tells of a couple in their 80s. They are both cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested.

The festival ends on 21 July with No!, a Chilean drama film directed by Pablo Larraín. The film is based on the unpublished play El Plebiscito, written by Antonio Skármeta. Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays René, an in-demand advertising man working in Chile in the late 1980s. The historical moment the film captures is when advertising tactics came to be widely used in political campaigns. The campaign in question was the historic 1988 plebiscite of the Chilean citizenry over whether General Augusto Pinochet should have another eight-year term as president.

Other titles in the World Cinema Fest that are currently screened are the not-to-be-missed Australian hit, The Sapphires, and Shadow Dancer.

For more information on the festival and these films, go to www.writingstudio.co.za/page1037.html

Bookings are at www.cinemanouveau.co.za.