This year’s Locarno Film Festival (Festival del film Locarno) has selected its opening and closing films. Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s “2 Guns” will have its international premiere as the opener to the festival. Previously known for “101 Reykjavik,” Kormákur returns with this American action comedy starring Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg and Paula Patton. The closing film following the Awards ceremony will be Pascal Plisson’s “On the Way to School” (“Sur le chemin de l’école”), a French documentary that follows four children in different parts of the world struggling to gain an education. The film is also having its international premiere.
Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian commented on the conscious choice behind these two films, saying, “The opening and closing films on the Piazza Grande, the Festival’s heart and showcase, ideally embrace the diversity of offering that enables the Locarno audience to experience the world and the cinema that represents it. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, a filmmaker discovered at Locarno in 2000, ‘2 Guns’ is a big American production, full of plot-twists that highlight the stellar performance of its cast. ‘On the Way to School,’ on the other hand, opts for the register of reality to recount the incredible stories of a number of school students. Beyond the powerful impact of what we are shown, Plisson’s documentary also highlights the right to education that is all too often taken for granted.”
The complete program for the 2013 Festival will be announced on Wednesday 17 July. The 66th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will take place August 7-17.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
