SFFS Screen Presents: Eldorado July 3, 2009

Eldorado (Belgium/France 2008), Bouli Lanners’ idiosyncratic film about an unlikely encounter that leads to a journey fraught with humor, melancholy and sadness, will open on SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas Friday, July 3.

A pair of outsiders shares an absurdist journey through the surreal backwoods of Belgium in this eccentric, melancholy road movie. Yvan (writer/director Bouli Lanners) and Elie’s (Fabrice Adde) first meeting is inauspicious: The former returns to his ransacked house to find the latter hiding under a bed, too frightened to try to flee as Yvan waits him out with a pipe in his hands. But something about Elie, an entirely hapless junkie, elicits a kind of grudging empathy in Yvan, who scrapes together a living importing vintage cars from the U.S. Before long the two set off in the titular Eldorado through the back roads of Southern Belgium towards Elie’s parents’ house near the French border. As they make their way through trying circumstances and bizarre encounters – including brushes with a delusional nudist RV enthusiast and a collector of classic cars culled from fatal crashes – it becomes clear that something from his past is driving Yvan’s halting attempts to help his new friend. The weather-beaten faces of Lanners and Adde exude a world-weariness that contrasts sweetly with the film’s exquisitely dry humor. The deadpan laughs soften the pessimism of a wistful story of two lost souls unsure of how to make their way through a seemingly apathetic world.

Written by Bouli Lanners. Photographed by Jean-Paul de Zaetjd. With Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde. In French with English subtitles. 82 min. Distributed by Film Movement.

At the Sundance Kabuki all seats are reserved and an amenities fee is in effect for most shows. Tickets are available through the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas box office, at kiosks in the lobby and online at sundancecinemas.com/kabuki with print-at-home capability. San Francisco Film Society members receive discounted admission only to SFFS Screen programs and only at the box office, not online or at the lobby kiosks.

Coming soon to SFFS Screen
June 5: Fados This beautiful film is Carlos Saura’s tribute to the art of fado, a style of mournful singing which originated in Portugal in the 1820s.
June 12: Munyurangabo A Tutsi and a Hutu set off on a startling journey of reconciliation through the haunted countryside of modern Rwanda in Lee Isaac Chung’s debut feature.
June 19: Katyn Acclaimed Polish director Andrzej Wajda has created an epic and personal tale about one of WWII's notorious cover-ups.
June 26: Three Monkeys A man’s agreement to take the fall for his employer’s crime drives his family apart in this sensual, quietly heartbreaking film from Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
July 10: Julia Tilda Swinton gives a riveting performance as an alcoholic turned kidnapper in Erick Zonca’s film, a take on John Cassavetes’ Gloria.
July 17: The Window A bedridden, 80-year-old man takes one last stroll through the beautiful Patagonian landscape in this elegant, lyrical and humanistic film directed by Carlos Sorín.
July 24: Lake Tahoe A teenager in small town Mexico struggles to fix the family car in the aftermath of a minor accident and amid deeper emotional undercurrents in the latest film by Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke.
July 31: Lion’s Den A young pregnant woman tries to survive in an Argentinean prison in Pablo Trapero’s story of redemption.

For full, complete and up-to-date information on all SFFS Screen programming, including buying tickets, visit sffs.org. Information and tickets are also available at sundancecinemas.com.

Official Website: http://www.sffs.org