Quotes of the Day

Nothing's more satisfying than spotting a star before it's started rising. Did you attend the premiere of What's Eating Gilbert Grape and think, "That Leonardo DiCaprio kid's gonna go far"? Did you walk out of an early screening of Pulp Fiction certain that, in ten years, everyone would still be quoting that line about Big Macs in France?

You could have, if you were at the Raindance Film Festival in the early '90s. The U.K.'s largest independent film confab may not have been solely responsible for launching DiCaprio and Tarantino, but it certainly gives audiences a chance to know a good thing when they see it. Now in its 11th year, Raindance (Oct. 24-Nov. 7) returns with over 100 features and 200 shorts from a record-breaking 42 different countries.

It's like a cinematic United Nations. "We live in really troubled times," says festival director Elliot Grove. "And what makes Raindance so important culturally is that, through seeing cinema from around the world, you get to see how people fight, love, work, play, and how they take adventures in all these different countries. I really believe that helps break down barriers of misunderstanding."

While we're waiting for two weeks of cinema to bring about world peace, there are enough talented first-timers in this year's line-up to give a talent-spotter heart palpitations. Richard Jobson, former front-man for Scottish punk band The Skids, makes his directorial debut with the adaptation of his own book, 16 Years of Alcohol, a bleak drama about the cycles of love and violence. Gory Gory Hallelujah, a first from co-conspirators Sue Corcoran and Angie Louise, follows four actors competing for the role of Jesus in a play. Sprinkled with prostitutes, paganism and a horny goat, this cult classic in the making is, according to Grove, "teetering on sacrilege."

Less in-your-face but potentially more controversial is Clément, the feature debut from Emmanuelle Bercot. The film focuses on the love affair between a free-spirited 30-year-old woman (the gamine Bercot herself) and a 13-year-old boy, played by Olivier Guéritée with unnerving erotic intensity. Bercot's light touch turns the unthinkable into the surprisingly understandable. And then there's Nate Dogg, written, directed, shot and edited by Thomas Farone. Using mostly non-actors he found in a trailer-park (in the lead, Nathan Hale is fantastic), Farone tells the story of a troubled teen trying to do the right thing. Half character study/half Cops episode — with other-worldly visuals (green snow, red sky, Nate's sketches of zombies and superheros) that pull it out of student film terrain — Nate Dogg is a sensitive look at the workings of a conflicted mind.

For those unwilling to take a gamble, the festival also includes indies that have already gotten a thumbs-up in one way or another. Hong Kong cop thriller Infernal Affairs was a sensation on its home ground and has just been snapped up by Miramax to take to the States. Alex de la Iglesia, director of the spaghetti-Western-style 800 Bullets works under the wing of Spain's movie master Pedro Almodóvar. And satirical comedy Fuse, from Bosnia/Herzegovina, has been picked to contend for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. Set two years after the war, the film is about a small Bosnian village preparing for a visit from President Clinton. In the same way that Danis Tanovic used humor to illuminate the human cost of war in No Man's Land, director Pjer Zalica does cynicism with a smile: While a group of Bosnian schoolkids practice greeting the President with a rendition of The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun," the mayor worriedly asks their teacher, "It's not anti-capitalist, is it?"

True to the spirit of independent film, the Raindance festival is more daring than most. Alongside the dramas, comedies and documentaries, there's porn, horror and 15-second short films. For several films, this could be the only public screening they ever get. And who knows? One of them could turn out to be the next Pulp Fiction.

Click here for a Q&A with Raindance director in residence Ken Russell.

• JUMANA FAROUKY
• Raindance proves there's plenty of life left in the shadow of the Hollywood hills