17th Titanic film festival to focus on war, "Year of the Tiger"

More than 60 films have been selected for showing at the 17th International Titanic Film Festival to kick off at four Budapest venues in April, organisers told MTI on Monday.

This year's special categories will include a war theme and "the Year of the Tiger" category, the latter compiling the best of last year's Chinese and Taiwanese productions.

A film that fits both categories is "The City of Life and Death", which is a shocking account of the Nanking massacre of 1937 described by critics as a Chinese "Schindler's List".

In the animation section, a Kafkaesque Swedish sci-fi called "Metropia" will compete along with "Nine", a Tim Burton-produced post-apocalyptic tale of nine ragdolls fighting the machines to save civilization.

The music films programme will feature "No Distance Left To Run", the story of the band Blur with many concert recordings. Another highlight is a new picture by Shane Meadows, "Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee", which is a low-budget mockumentary of the friendship between the down-and-out rocker and the up-and-coming rapper.

Also in the offing is "Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats", an Iranian film which won the judges' prize at Cannes. The film's subject matter is "western" pop music, which faced serious Islamic censorship forcing the filmmakers to flee the country to escape prison. It will feature the band of Ashkan Khushanejad and Negar Shaghaghi, Take it Easy Hospital, which will play a gig for the Budapest audience during the Titanic festival.

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