August 16, 2016

CTFF 2016 Official Selection: THE GATE (Les temps des Aveux)

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THE GATE (Les temps des Aveux).

DIRECTOR: RÉGIS WARGNIER

CAST: RAPHAËL PERSONNAZ, OLIVIER GOURMET, KOMPHEAK PHOEUNG, STEVE DRIESSEN, THANET THORN

The Oscar® winning director Régis Wargnier (Indochine) returns to South East Asia, this time within the former French colony of Cambodia. The Gate is set during the harrowing maelstrom that engulfed the country during the reign of Pol Pot in the early 1970s. A true story, it relates the capture of François Bizot (Raphaël Personnaz), a French ethnologist working on the ruins of Angkor, who is imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge and accused of being a CIA spy.François forms an unlikely bond with his interrogator and torturer, Duch (Kompheak Phoeung), a man with a pragmatic sense of morality. Assisted by Duch, François escapes Cambodia. Years later, the two men’s paths cross under very different circumstances.

Collaborating with Oscar® nominated Cambodian producer Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture), Wargnier shot The Gate entirely on location and has drawn incredibly moving performances from his non-professional actors. Once again the famed French director combines his superb eye for visual composition with a story that confronts the viewer with complex moral questions.

PLEASE NOTE: Film screened in French with English subtitles

Making its Long Beach, CA. PREMIERE!

* (1) Screening. Sunday, Sept 4th. @ 1PM.

Purchase Ticket online: ctff2016.whindo.com