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Please visit our new DVD Press Page to download box art and photos. |
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“The most controversial film in the history of Cuba” ALICE IN WONDERTOWN Available on DVD beginning February 17, 2009
In this uproarious, iconoclastic film inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, Alice is a drama teacher who goes on a cultural mission to a small town where the most bizarre occurrences are commonplace. Mirrors become doors, circus animals walk the streets, and it seems anything can happen – and everyone except Alice seems resigned to the situation. She discovers before long that the town’s population is made up of officials and workers who have been fired for violating rules, minor or illusionary, and now cannot find their way out of this strange town. Daniel Díaz Torres began in the ICAIC (Cuba's film institute) as a film critic. In 1975 he made his first documentary, Libertad para Luis Corbalán. He has been a director and teacher at the International School of Film and Televisión in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, since the school was established. He was awarded with "Por la cultura Nacional" and "Sello de Laureado" in recognition of his contribution to Cuban arts and literature. “ASTOUNDINGLY UNIQUE! It somehow combines social realism with magic realism for a funny and bluntly horrifying satire of life in the Caribbean worker’s paradise. a banquet for lovers of satire and a feast for aficionados of the absurd.” -Christopoher Harris, The Globe and Mail (Canada) Directed by DANIEL DÍAZ TORRES DVD BONUS FEATURES: ALICE IN WONDERTOWN More Cuban Masterworks titles are available at www.firstrunfeatures.com |
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From the Acclaimed Director of THE MURDERERS ARE AMONG US Available on DVD beginning February 17, 2009
A young boy named Diedrich is afraid of everything. But as Diedrich grows older he learns that by groveling before his superiors and manipulating or stepping on everyone else, he is capable of advancing his position in life. As he progresses from a beer swilling cadet to a ruthless factory owner and finally to a lackey for the Kaiser, Diedrich’s ambition for power and prestige comes to fruition. “A masterpiece! Astonishing satire…surprisingly current.” - Ralf Schenk, Film Historian “A historical satire of biting sharpness…a film classic.”- Goethe Institute (Washington DC) A DEFA FILM Based on the novel by HEINRICH MANN Starring WERNER PETERS, ERICH NADLER, GERTRUD BERGMANN, SABINE THALBACH, RENATE FISCHER, PAUL ESSER Screenplay WOLFGANG STAUDTE, FRITZ STAUDTE Cinematography ROBERT BABERSKE Editor JOHANNA ROSINSKI Set design ERICH ZANDER, KARL SCHNEIDER Music HORST-HANNS SIEBER Director WOLFGANG STAUDTE DVD BONUS FEATURES THE KAISER'S LACKEY More DEFA titles are available at www.firstrunfeatures.com |
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Please visit our new DVD Press Page to download box art and photos. |
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Please send review links to kelly.hargraves@firstrunfeatures.com or mail tear sheets to: Attn: Ian Grody Make it easy for your readers to find First Run Features: |
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Banned in Cuba for satirizing the opportunism and indolence embedded in Cuban bureaucracy, Daniel Diaz Torres’ ALICE IN WONDERTOWN is both an absurdist comedy and an allegory with a dark political undercurrent – “the most controversial film in the history of Cuba” (Dennis West, Cineaste). Bursting at the seams with “Monty Python-esque hijinks and an unmistakable Caribbean wit” (Toronto Cinematheque), ALICE IN WONDERTOWN is finally available on DVD beginning February 17th.
Once banned throughout Germany, now hailed as “one of the best films of all time” (Cinematheque Royale, Brussels),The Kaiser’s Lackey is director Wolfgang Staudte’s biting satire of Germany’s penchant for ultra-nationalism and authoritarianism. Based on Heinrich Mann’s influential novel Der Untertan and boasting “Michael Powell-esque visual inventiveness,” Staudte’s 1951 “stylistically dazzling” (Tate Modern, London) comedy is finally available on DVD.