Best Festival Films Aberdeen A beleaguered, hot headed, coke sniffing daughter, played by Lena Heady, gets word that her mother (Charlotte Rampling) is dying in a hospital so she takes her excessively drunk father (Stellan Skaarsgard) on a road trip to visit her as a last wish. The film, directed by Hans Petter Moland, is the ultimate in dysfunction as the two fight, reconcile, and deal with the past. Along the way they have various funny, poignant and near tragic misadventures as the daughter attempts to deal with the madness of her life and Dad attempts to sober up. The Big Animal A bittersweet fable about a man and a woman who befriend a camel. Written by Krystof Kieslowski in the early 1970's so it has an anti comminust feel. Beautifully shot in black and white and can leave a lump in your throat. The Clouds of May Turkish film has been compared to the work of Kiarostami. A friend writes that it, "depicts the battle of a contemporary small time filmmaker attempting to get his script onto the screen." The Isle Known on the festival cicuit as 'the fish-hook film" this Korean film pushes the envelop of not only what people do on screen but what the audience watching can take. Still, like the best of The Korean New Wave it has more than shok value. It's an off beat love story between a young woman who runs a fishing camp site business and the ex-cop (killer?) who comes to the camp site to hide out. Slowly paced but quite involving. Innocence This film, directed by Australian director Paul Cox, proves that old age is no barrier to sexual relationships and that being closer to death may, in fact, intensify the experience. The film features a warm-hearted easy-going performance by Charles Tingwell and a wise and wonderful performance by Julia Blake. Even though (or maybe because of) the film has a questionable ending it is a much admired film. Sleepy Time Gal Director Christopher Munch (who directed HOURS AND TIMES) is finally hitting on all cylinders with this effective and affecting portrait of an aging woman who is attempting to reconcile some of the failed relationships in her life before she dies. Jacqueline Bisset gives possibly her best performance as a sensible, dignified and beautiful woman who seemingly has everything in her life except real love. Written and directed with the kind of sensibilities that most have come to associate with foreign films. Also starring Seymour Cassel and Martha Plimpton, this beautifully shot film shouldn’t have too tough a time getting distribution. Songs From the Second Floor An art film if ever there was one. Set up like a painting tableux the film centers on a fictional dystopia after some ecomonic crash. Slow, absurd, tightly controled (64 scenes one camera movement) beautiful to look at and full of enough religious metaphors to fill a book or at least make you want to go to the coffeee shop afterwards and talk about what you've seen. The Wrestler This intriguing Indian film by Buddhadeb Dasgupta is slow going at first but then eventually takes on an interesting set of criss-crossing stories that are a potpourri of social realism, mythical metaphor and lugubrious nightmare. It takes place in one small section of India and revolves around a series of characters, the main ones being two men who work and live together. When not working — which is often — the two wrestle one another on a hill top for all to see. Amid this idyllic land three sinister thugs come to disrupt the peace and in a short matter of time this oddball Eden is thrown out of whack. Vengo Director Tony Gatlif (famous for Lotcho Drom) seems to be on a mission to show the world the various incantations of the Gyspy world; specifically through music and dance. This time he attempts to add a little plot to the mix and he succeeds quite well even if it seems at times to only be a distraction from the amazing music. Gatlif shows us that, no matter what pressing concern everyone is faced with, the music and the dancing are central to their lives. The film is sort of a cross between A Gypsy Kings concert and The Godfather.