BEST FILMS FROM
THE CRITICS' WEEK - CANNES 1997
PRESENTED AT THE 21ST MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL
August 22 - September 2, 1997

Montreal, August 5, 1997 - This year, the Montreal World Film Festival will showcase the best films from the Critics' Week - Cannes 1997. Five feature films from Norway, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands were selected by film critics.

Two films from Norway : INSOMNIA, a first feature by Erick Skjoldbjaerg, is the story of a police officer investigating the murder of a young woman. During an operation intended to catch the suspected criminal, he accidentally kills his colleague and friend, but does everything he can to cover up his error.

JUNK MAIL (Budbringeren), a first feature by Pal Sletaune, is a comedy about love, that tells the story of a mailman ruled by curiosity, with a mean streak and the ability to find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

BENT, by British director Sean Mathias and based on a play by Martin Sherman, is a melodramatic statement on homosexuality in Fascist Germany as well as a tribute to the indefatigable human spirit, as portrayed by three young men.

A first feature from Italy, THE GREY ZONE (Le Mani Forti), is directed by Franco Bernini. A young and successful psychotherapist is treating a patient whom she discovers to be a member of the "Grey Zone", a secret organization linked to the political world and responsible for a bomb explosion in Brescia in 1974.

Mike Van Diem, from the Netherlands, directs his first feature film, CHARACTER (KARAKTER). An important and ill-tempered bailiff is found stabbed to death in his office. His illegitimate son, arrested for the crime, tells his side of the story.

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