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/ 4 September 2007

Iraq war films among favourites at Venice festival

Two very different movies about the Iraq war are among the favourites for awards at this year’s Venice film festival as it passes the halfway stage, and an unusually high number of male leads have stood out. For pure shock value, Brian De Palma’s Redacted wins hands down, stunning audiences with an uncompromising reconstruction of the real-life rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl.

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/ 31 August 2006

Femme fatale Johansson thrills festival

Brian de Palma’s noir movie The Black Dahlia premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival to critical acclaim on Wednesday as its 21-year-old star, Scarlett Johansson, paraded down the red carpet. The actor plays a femme fatale in the murder mystery set in 1940s Hollywood and film reviewers emerged from a preview screening acclaiming her on-screen sex appeal.

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/ 6 May 2006

How Morales won his people back

The lady behind the reception desk at the Palmasola refinery smiled sweetly. ”We’re just carrying on here as normal,” she said. ”There’s nothing to report.” Horses ambled by on the dusty road outside. A few oil tankers stood idly, their drivers asleep. Only the presence of half-a-dozen soldiers, guns at their sides, revealed there was, indeed, something to report

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/ 17 November 2003

The cat that walks alone

Luis Palma will never forget the first time he saw a lynx. It was 1978, he was a young biology student and had been living in the mountains in northern Portugal for two years, trying to track down these elusive cats. Now he has to face the fact that the beautiful animal with which he fell in love 25 years ago may soon disappear from the world.