'Deaf' seen at L.A. Freedom Fest

ACF-sponsored fest spotlighting East Euro, Latin pix

By LEONARD KLADY

Freedom Film Festival 1999 kicked off Thursday with Valery Todorovsky's "Land of the Deaf" from Russia. The freewheeling tale set in Moscow's crime underworld received the international jury prize in Seattle.

This year's event, sponsored by the American Cinema Foundation, highlights new cinema from East Europe, Latin America and a tribute to German-based producer Regina Ziegler.

Established as a showcase for quality films of social conscience, the Freedom Fest has screened annually in both Los Angeles and Berlin. At the recently completed Berlin Fest, it announced a $10,000 cash award to be presented at the event to an emerging filmmaker from Central or Eastern Europe beginning next year.

"The festival dovetails nicely into both Berlin and the American Film Market," said ACF exec director Gary McVey. "We try to choose films that both embody the art of cinema and are accessible to a wide audience. In that way, we can assist films from smaller countries that don't have industries that can support their movies the way France or Germany, for instance, can at the AFM."

Among the new films being screened from Eastern Europe are "The Buttoners," a black comedy of intersecting lives from the Czech Republic; the Macedonian "The Powder Keg" -- winner of the European Critics Award at the recent Felix presentations -- in which a traffic accident sets off a series of events that brings a group of strangers to a greater understanding of themselves and their nation; and the Slovakian parable "Rivers of Babylon," a rags-to-riches tale of ambition, deceit and power.

Latin American screenings include Sonia Braga in the Brazilian "Tieta do Agreste," the saga of a now-wealthy woman returning to the village that spurned her 26 years earlier for some deserved and belated revenge; Argentina's futuristic allegory "La Sonambula," in which an epidemic causes mass amnesia; and the youth drama "La Prima Noche," Mexico's top-grossing local production of 1998.

Running through March 4, the Freedom Fest unspools at the Laemmle Monica and the Goethe Institute. Further information and complete program details are available by contacting the American Cinema Foundation at [phone].