Due south

The venerable Cork Film Festival opens for business on Sunday week with the Irish premiere of the Coen Brothers' new film. Michael Dwyerpreviews the international offerings, including one distinctly edgy documentary

ONE of the world's longest established film festivals, Cork has a new title sponsor (Corona) for its week-long 52nd edition, which begins October 14th. The attractive programme includes prize winners from this year's Cannes and Venice festivals, a diverse documentary strand, and a wealth of Irish and international short films. Principal venues are Cork Opera House, Triskel Arts Centre and Kino.

OPENING PRESENTATION

No Country for Old MenEyebrows were raised all over Cannes when the jury failed to honour Joel and Ethan Coen's gripping, drolly humorous modern western, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel. The setting is west Texas in 1980, as a ruthless killer (Javier Bardem) doggedly pursues a Vietnam veteran (Josh Brolin) with a briefcase full of dollars.

CLOSING PRESENTATION

Lust, CautionWinner of the Golden Lion at Venice, Ang Lee's film opens in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1942. Extended flashbacks follow a young student (Tang Wei) assigned to seduce a Japanese collaborator (Tony Leung) and set him up for assassination. The vigorous sex scenes have attracted attention, but there is much more to this tense drama of passion and betrayal.

GALA SCREENINGS

Boy ACollaborating again with Intermission writer Mark O'Rowe, Cork native John Crowley directs a riveting drama that inevitably recalls the Jamie Bulger case. Gifted newcomer Andrew Garfield plays a child killer in his early 20s, who is released from prison and given a new identity.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 DaysWinner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Cristian Mungui's challenging, creepily powerful drama is set in 1980s Romania, as one student helps another to get an illegal abortion. Mungiu dares us not to avert our eyes during the eerily primitive operation.

We Own the NightBack together with The Yards director James Gray, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers on opposite sides of the law in late 1980s Brooklyn.

The SavagesTamara Jenkins directs a drama of estranged siblings (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) reunited to care for their ailing father.

NEW INTERNATIONAL FEATURES

The Diving Bell and the ButterflyJulian Schnabel's life-affirming yet unsentimental film features Mathieu Amalric as Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who, paralysed after a stroke, could communicate only by blinking his left eye.

Seach'd - The Inaccessible PinncaleSimon Miller's feature film, thought to be the first ever in Scots Gaelic, is set on Skye and blends folklore with contemporary drama.

Don't Touch the AxeJacques Rivette's Balzac adaptation features Guillaume Depardieu and Jeanne Balibar as lovers in 19th-century Paris.

Les Chansons d'Amour/Love SongsChristophe Honoré's modern musical charts the complicated sex lives of self-absorbed young bourgeois Parisians, led by Louis Garrel as a possibly bisexual magazine subeditor.

The Killing of John LennonAndrew Piddington's film explores the psyche of Mark Chapman (Jonas Ball) who murdered the ex-Beatle in December 1980.

Out of the BlueRobert Sarkies directs a taut, factually based film about an edgy recluse on a shooting spree that took 13 lives in a New Zealand township in 1990.

Tonight Is CancelledBrendan Grant's drama features Garage screenwriter Mark O'Halloran as a film-maker following the fate of a young man kidnapped in Kosovo.

BotchedSet in Moscow (and shot in Dublin and at Ardmore Studios), Kit Ryan's horror-thriller stars Stephen Dorff as a thief sent to Russia to steal a priceless antique.

DOCUMENTARIES

ZooCertain to be Cork's most controversial film, Robinson Devor's troubling dramatised documentary deals frankly with men who filmed their sexual activities with horses at a Seattle farm, where one man bled to death after a stallion perforated his colon.

The 11th HourLeonardo DiCaprio follows Al Gore by co-producing and narrating an impassioned plea on global warming.

The War on DemocracyJohn Pilger examines the role of the US in Latin American politics over the past 50 years.

In the Shadow of the MoonThis history of the Apollo moon landings features most of the surviving astronauts.

Grandpa, Speak to Me in RussianLouis Lentin reflects on his grandfather, who arrived in Ireland from Lithuania when 14 and never again saw his parents.

The DocksDirector Pat Collins follows the life and times of Patsy Quilligan, who has worked at the Cork docks for 40 years.

The Adventures of FlanneryDirector Johnny Gogan profiles Cork singer-songwriter Cathal Coughlan (ex-Microdisney and Fatima Mansions) and films him in concert.

Lagerfeld ConfidentialFashion designer Karl Lagerfeld tells all.

FESTIVAL TRIBUTE

John DahlThe director of Red Rock West, The Last Seduction and Road Kill will give a masterclass and the festival will screen his new thriller, You Kill Me, starring Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson and Bill Pullman.

SPECIAL EVENTS

My GrandmotherThe 1929 Russian silent feature, banned on home turf for 40 years, will be screened with the score performed live by the Beth Custer Ensemble.

PoitinThe archive gala is the remastered version of Bob Quinn's exuberant 1977 drama set in Connemara.

Peter RaymontThe Canadian director, whose films include the new Rwanda-set Shake Hands with the Devil, will give the documentary masterclass.

Also:There will be a 10-film season of Algerian cinema with several directors in attendance, and a 21st- birthday tribute to Filmbase. And on a guided tour of Cork by night, short films will be shown on walls across the city.

The Corona Cork Film Festival runs from October 14th to 21st. Bookings open tomorrow at 56 Patrick Street, Cork and online at www.corkfilmfest.org