A sneak preview of some of the films and documentaries premiering on Rialto Channel in the next few months

The Class

Directed by Laurent Cantent

François (François Bégaudeau) and his fellow teachers prepare for a new year at a high school in a tough Paris neighbourhood. Armed with the best intentions, they brace themselves to not let discouragement stop them from trying to give the best education to their students. Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom, a microcosm of contemporary France. As amusing and inspiring as the teenaged students can be, their difficult behaviour can still jeopardise any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job. François insists on an atmosphere of respect and diligence. Neither stuffy nor severe, his classroom ethics are nevertheless put to the test.

Country:	France
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2008
Rating:	ML

Fugitive Pieces

Starring Stephen Dillane

Nine year old Jakob Beer (Robbie Kay) is devastated when sees his parents murdered by Nazi soldiers in Poland and his sister Bella abducted. He is found by Greek archaeologist Athos Rousson (Rade Sherbedgia) working at a Polish dig, who smuggles him out of Poland and hides him on the Greek island of Zakynthos. After the war, Athos and Jakob (Stephen Dillane) emigrate to Canada, where Jakob falls in love with Alex (Rosamund Pike). But he is still traumatized by the past and when he meets Michaela (Ayelet Zurer), he starts to live again.

Country:	Canada
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2007
Rating:	MVS

Spirit of the Marathon

Directed by Jon Dunham

Spirit of the Marathon is the first ever non-fiction feature film to capture the drama and essence of the famed 26.2 mile running event. Filmed on four continents, this first ever non-fiction movie about the famous 26.2 mile running event known as the Marathon, brings together a diverse cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries. It follows each of six runners as they prepare for and ultimately face the challenge of the Chicago Marathon.

Country:	US
Genre:	Documentary
Released:	2007
Rating:	G

The Escapist

Starring Brian Cox and Damian Lewis

Brian Cox is Frank, a lifer who gets by inside by keeping his head down and playing by the rules - both those of the guards and of the prison's real boss Rizza (Damian Lewis). But when Frank receives news that a family member may be about to die, he decides that he needs out. Enlisting the help of a typical motley crew including the tough guy (Joseph Fiennes), the prison drugs provider (Seu Jorge) and Frank's raw new cellmate (Dominic Cooper), Frank sets about his task. With the authorities barely getting a look-in, it's the petty feuds and the camaraderie that makes prison life run and it is all extremely well portrayed by the ensemble cast.

Country:	UK
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2008
Rating:	16V

Revanche

Directed by Gotz Spielmann

Robert (Andreas Lust) and Susanne (Ursula Strauss) live an ordinary country life in the quiet woods near Vienna. Away from the big city, where only money rules, as Alex and Tamara (Johannes Krisch and Irina Potapenko) know only too well. Tamara is a prostitute, originally from Ukraine; Alex is her boss' errand boy. They are lovers, but they have to keep it a secret. To escape from their situation, Alex devises a plan to rob a bank in a village near his grandfather's (Johannes Thanheiser) farm. But Robert, the local cop, arrives and shoots at their getaway car, hitting Tamara. Overcome with despair, Alex leaves her body behind in a forest clearing and hides at his grandfather's farm. When Susanne visits to keep the old man company, she strikes up a friendship with Alex that leads to a chain of events which changes all their lives in unexpected ways.

Country:	Austria
Genre:	Crime
Released:	2008
Rating:	18VS

In Search of Beethoven

Directed by Phil Grabsky

Leading performers and experts on Beethoven reveal new insights into this legendary composer. The romantic myth of the heroic, tormented figure struck down by deafness and who searched for his 'immortal beloved' but remained unmarried is also addressed, delving beyond the image of the tortured, cantankerous, unhinged personality, to reveal someone quite different and far more interesting. Line up of performers and interviewees includes Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi, Frans Brüggen, Ronald Brautigam, Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Lars Vogt, and Emanuel Ax.

Country:	UK
Genre:	Documentary
Released:	2009
Rating:	PG

I've Loved You So Long

Starring Kristen Scott Thomas

After fifteen years in prison, Juliette Fontaine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is coming home. Her younger sister, Lea (Elsa Zylberstein), has invited her to live with her family, despite the misgivings of Lea's husband, Luc (Serge Hazanavicius). Luc, who has never met Juliette, has good reason to be uncertain. He and Lea have two young daughters, and Juliette's prison sentence was for killing her own six-year old son. But why did she do it? Why did she remain silent during the trial and offer no defense? Lea, who was a teenager when those events occurred, does not know. The Juliette who emerges from behind bars is a very different woman from the one Lea knew growing up, but she is determined to make their relationship work. Juliette, clearly haunted by ghosts, is slow to thaw and finds it difficult to exist in a society where her life is defined by a crime whose motivations are unknown and viewed by some as irrelevant.

Country:	France
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2008
Rating:	M

The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall

Starring Stephen Dillane

The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall focuses on the family's search for justice for photography student Tom, shot by an Israeli Defence sniper in April 2003 as he ran to help three Palestinian children. Hurndall was shot on a visit to Rafah in the Gaza Strip with the International Solidarity Movement. After Hurndall's death, his lawyer father wrote his own report into his son's death in an attempt to get the Israeli army to accept accountability.

Country:	UK
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2008
Rating:	MV

Hunger

Directed by Steve McQueen

Inside Belfast's Maze prison in the early eighties, IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) faces the brutality of the system and clashes with the Catholic priest (Liam Cunningham) as he determines to keep fasting in an effort to trigger change in the classification of IRA prisoners not as criminals but as Prisoners of War.

Country:	UK
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2008
Rating:	16C

Blame it on Fidel

Directed by Julie Gavras

Nine-year-old Anna de la Mesa (Nina Kervel-Bey) enjoys the perks of growing up in a well-off, bourgeois household. She attends a private Catholic school, always has a bath before dinner, and delights in meticulously instructing others in the proper ways of dissecting one's fruit. Her little brother, François, is mostly an annoyance, but she has a good relationship with her parents, mother Marie (Julie Depardieu) and her father, Fernando (Stefano Accorsi). Her comfortably consistent life is severely altered when her parents take in Fernando's sister, Marga (Mar Sodupe), and her young daughter, Pilar (Raphaëlle Molinier). Refugees from fascist Spain, they awaken a desire for social change in Anna's parents, who set off for Chile to aid with the Socialist reforms. When they return, her parents sport an impassioned spirit for political activism, which she is not in agreeance with.

Country:	France
Genre:	Drama
Released:	2006
Rating:	ML