The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival is delighted to announce two additions to the 2008 programme in advance of public booking opening this weekend.
The UK premiere of Spike Lee’s MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA will screen on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 October.
With a script adapted by James McBride from his own acclaimed novel, Spike Lee gives new voice to the conventions of the epic war movie by reclaiming the experiences of America’s black servicemen during World War II. Stationed in Tuscany in 1944, Staff Sergeant Stamps (Derek Luke), Sergeant Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), radio operator Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) and Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller) are members of the all-black 92nd Division Buffalo Soldiers who find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Balancing high action combat scenes with the human stories of the characters involved, Lee leavens his scrupulously authentic approach with magical realism, welcome humour and deeply felt emotion.
The UK premiere of Jesús Ponce’s LAZY DAYS (Dejate caer) will screen on Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 October.
Writer-director Jesús Ponce’s warm and witty story follows the lives of three slackers who spend their days sitting on a bench in a Seville suburb where they pass time drinking beer and commenting on the activities of the neighbourhood. Ponce’s droll Andalusian dialogue defies easy translation but together with the wacky posse of characters, it offers a rhythm and pacing to the action that lifts the film beyond the realms of realism to a comic absurdism that casts a discerning eye over masculine myths and mores.
