In the framework of the 24^th Panorama, the following tributes will take place:

Akira Kurosawa: 100 + 1 years after his birth, the Panorama selects three masterpieces and great directorial risks that are indicative of the breadth of his work. “Seven Samurai” constitutes his most recognisable film, a saga that made him famous in the West. His ultimate humanistic film, “Red Beard”, recounts the initiation to real life of a young doctor next to the idealist Niide (Toshiro Mifune), at the latter’s last collaboration with Kurosawa. “Dodes’ka-den” is his first film in colour, documenting in a dreamlike quality the life of a group of Tokyo slum-dwellers. The commercial failure of the film sent Kurosawa in deep depression and forced him to look for funding outside his homeland.

SEVEN SAMURAI

Samuel Fuller: The 24^th Panorama concludes the tribute to Samuel Fuller that began last year with great success. Celebrating 100 years from his birth in 2012, the tribute will conclude the introspection into the influential work of the great director. With “Run of the Arrow”, Fuller signed one of his most complex films and offered us a western that dares to look straight into the History of America. With the absolutely choreographed cinemascope and the tough dialogues, “House of Bamboo” is a daring film noir, as far as the depiction of violence and the controversial eroticism are concerned, while “Shock Corridor” goes deep into the mouth of madness with no purpose of coming back, by adopting the insanity of the inmates in a lunatic asylum and by directing a symbolic masterpiece –a point of reference in the history of American cinema. “Naked Kiss” represents Fuller’s nihilistic take on human society and, despite the interventions made by the studio, it remains his most extreme film. The tribute concludes with two film noir classics, “Pickup on South Street” (with the famous New York subway struggle scene) and “Crimson Kimono” that constitutes an audacious approach to interracial love.

SHOCK CORRIDOR

Greek Cinema of the 90s: Concluding the practice inaugurated by the directors of the New Greek Cinema of the 70s and 80s, the Greek Cinema of the 90s gradually abandons its introvert nature and experiments with new forms, thanks to filmmakers who turn to specific genres and to private producers who increasingly dominate the field. In the films that we have selected for the Panorama, we are first and foremost interested in the continuation with the past, expressed by the representatives of the previous generation, as for instance Nikos Panayotopoulos, who follows his personal lonely road through his own ambitious narrative in the film “I Dream of my Friends”, where he documents the course of a whole generation who reached adulthood in the 1960s. Male friendship is also a central element in the films by Stavros Tsiolis who inaugurates his road movie style with “Love under the Date Tree”, having as a common reference point the sharp and surreal sense of humour. Vasilis Vafeas and Dimitris Panayotatos respectively present a slapstick comedy, in this occasion focusing on a father-son relationship (“Every Saturday”) and a mixture of sci-fi cinema and eroticism (“Lovers Beyond Time”). Vasilis Mazomenos becomes one of the most pioneering animation creators with “The Triumph of Time”, while Dimos Avdeliodis returns in 1960s Chios with a lyrical film about a rural community (“Spring Gathering”). In “U-Turn”, Nikos Grammatikos makes a first attempt towards film noir and tries to adapt it to the Greek standards. With his first feature film “From the Snow”, Sotiris Goritsas focuses on Albanian immigration, while Antonis Kokkinos goes back into the past with a different take on the Junta years (“End of an Era”). “Donusa” (dir. Angeliki Antoniou) constitutes a post-feminist film that follows the consequences stemming from the arrival of a foreigner in the closed, male-dominated island society.

Further details on the Competition Section, the Screening of World Cinema Premieres, and the tribute to Katina Paxinou that conclude the Programme of the festival will be announced shortly.