What else?
AFP
Red Carpet: Arrivals: "Hunger"
The Un Certain Regard selection was inaugurated this evening with the opening feature, Hunger by UK director Steve McQueen. Thierry Frémaux introduced the jurors: president Fatih Akin, journalists Anupama Chopra (India) and Catherine Mtsitouridze (Russia), film critic Yasser Moheb (Egypt), and Spanish Cinematheque Director José Maria Prado.Hunger, which follows the life in Maze Prison, Northern Ireland and the highly emotive events surrounding the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike led by Bobby Sands, is a first film from director McQueen and is therefore in the running for the Camera d’Or. Thierry Frémaux also presented this very French jury to the packed audience: President Bruno Dumont and jurors Jean-Henri Roger (director), Willy Kurant (cinematographer), Isabelle Danel (critic), Monique Koudrine (Federation of Cinema Techniques), and Jean-Michel Frodon (critic).
But it was Steve McQueen who had the last word before the lights went out:
“Thank you very much for coming this evening. Cinema for me was all about when I was sitting in the audience as a child growing up. It was all about reflection, reflection not just in time, but in some ways what I wanted the screen to be, in a way - a huge mirror reflecting “us” in that screen. I always saw myself in the motion pictures made in Turkey, France, Japan or wherever. So I hope you enjoy it and thank you very much.”
