On the Town: Again and again, under the low lights of the Market Bar on Dublin's Fade Street, talk turned to Timbuktu, the new Alan Gilsenan film which will open this year's Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
"It blew my mind," said Sligo man Rory Concannon, the festival's chief executive. "It's fantastic. It's a journey of discovery. It's one of the finest movies I've seen in a while."
"It's a kind of dark Irish road movie in north Africa," said Gilsenan himself. Emma Scott, Timbuktu producer, recalled the positive experience of shooting in the Sahara in Morocco while the Iraq war was raging. "They looked after us like kings," she said. "There were no problems. They are very used to international film productions."
The film will receive its world première on opening night, Thursday, February 12th. The festival, which was launched by actor Brendan Gleeson, will feature 97 films, running over 11 days.
That "is doubly important because of the way distribution has been coralled in the last while . . . it's difficult for any film to get seen any more. To have a festival of 97 feature films is a fantastic achievement," said Gleeson.
Tom Maguire, of Great Western Films, was looking forward to seeing It's All About Love, a futuristic love story with Joaquin Phoneix and Claire Danes, which was shot in Denmark and Sweden. He was production accountant on the film and has yet to see it, he says. James Flynn, a co-producer on The Count of Monte Cristo and producer with Morgan O'Sullivan of Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, which will be screened on Monday, February 16th, said he was particularly looking forward to seeing Blind Flight, the film about the captivity of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy, as well as Grand Theft Parsons, from Irish director David Caffrey.
Irish Times film critic Michael Dwyer, the festival's programme director, said his favourite film is the longest (383 minutes), which is the Italian epic, The Best of Youth. "I'm looking forward to being there at the end to see people walking on air coming out."
The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival runs from February 12th to February 22nd. Box office: Central Ticket Bureau, 33 Eden Quay (beside Liberty Hall). Telephone: 01-8721122.
www.dubliniff.com