TUK to screen best foreign Oscar winners

JAKARTA (JP): With all the hype for the Academy Awards, Teater Utan Kayu (TUK) has opted to stick with the Oscar theme this month. It will screen eight Best Foreign Language Film winners, from 1989 to 1996, this weekend.

The lineup is Cinema Paradiso (Italy, 1989), Journey Of Hope (Switzerland, 1990), Mediterraneo (Italy, 1991), Indochine (France, 1992), Belle Epoque (Spain, 1993), Burnt by the Sun (Russia, 1994), Antonia's Line (Netherlands, 1995), and Kolya (Czech Republic, 1996).

They will be shown at the TUK complex on Jl. Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, starting Friday.

"Initially, we were going to show old Best Picture winners. But because most films, once tainted by the Oscars, become extremely commercialized, we decided to shift gears," TUK film curator Rayya Makarim said.

The program will be launched with the screening of Cinema Paradiso (Friday, 5 p.m.), the story of Salvatore, a young boy in a small Italian village, where the only pastime is to visit the enchanted flickering images at the Cinema Paradiso. He befriends Alfredo, a projectionist who teaches him all the secrets of movie magic. As their friendship grows, so does Salvatore, learning about love, living and the dream of making movies.

Journey of Hope (Friday, 7:30 p.m.) is based on the true story of one man's dreams of a better life. Haydar and his wife Meryem are poor Kurdish villagers living with their seven children in Turkey, dreaming of a "paradise" of life in Switzerland. At the mercy of their smugglers, Haydar and Meryem realize that everything is more expensive than expected. With nothing but their dream to guide them, they go through a perilous adventure toward the promise of a new life.

Mediterraneo (Saturday, 2:30 p.m.) is a comedy about a group of misfit Italian sailors who invade a remote Greek island and become stranded, and then forgotten by the Italian navy. The men soon come to understand that they have invaded paradise, a magical island where enemies become friends, and life moves at the pace of a long summer day.

Indochine (Saturday, 5 p.m.) starring Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Perez, tells of passion in colonial Vietnam. Eliane Devries, a prosperous rubber plantation owner, tries to hide her torrid love affairs from her upper-class society. However, when her adopted Indochinese daughter innocently falls in love with Eliane's secret lover, the scandalous love triangle threatens to destroy the entire family.

Belle Epoque (Saturday, 8 p.m.) is the tale of Fernando, a handsome, young Spanish Civil war deserter who befriends an artist named Manolo. Fernando finds himself in a lover's dilemma when Manolo's four beautiful daughters return home for their summer vacation. Seduced by each of the daughters, Fernando faces a summer of pleasure and some confusion.

Burnt by the Sun (Sunday, 2:30 p.m.) is set in the final days of peace before World War II where Kotov and his wife Maroussia live happily with their daughter Nadia. But when a stranger arrives, he reveals a past long forgotten. The film is a parable about the approaching change in the Soviet Union, the treachery of friendship and the dangers of complacency.

Antonia's Line (Sunday, 5 p.m.) is about Antonia, who after World War II returns to her Dutch village to discover that nothing has changed and that life goes on. The movie shows a sensible, independent woman who endures 50 years of modern life, through trends and controversies, fads and fashions, always righting wrongs and encouraging sanity.

Finally, there is Kolya (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), a little boy who is left with his aunt after his mother enters into a phony marriage with Louka, a cellist who plays at funerals. As the mother leaves for West Germany to join her lover, the aunt dies, and Louka is forced to look after Kolya until his mother returns. This is an extreme burden to Louka, aged 55, unmarried, a womanizer, and with no experience with children. With the arrival of Kolya. Louka finds himself breaking out of the trap of his routine life.

Teater Utan Kayu regularly offers alternative films for theatergoers at no charge. Last month, it showed a series of Woody Allen movies. (sim)