Foreign films come into their own

Since the Sundance Film Festival added two World Cinema divisions — feature films and documentaries — to its yearly lineup and competition, the festival has not only become infinitely broader and more varied, but this year in particular promises to be especially rich, boasting the most foreign films ever.

Premieres

— "Away From Her" is from Canada — which is almost "next door" rather than "foreign" in the way that films from Asia, Africa or the Middle East might be — it will also be this year's opening night film in Salt Lake City, and it is one I recommend with great enthusiasm.

Young but highly respected Canadian actress Sarah Polley has now directed her first film, and it is a very assured and major work that ranks right up there with the best of them. With three screenings in Park City and one in Ogden, "Away From Her" is a film you ought to try your best to get into.

Based on a short story by Alice Munro (titled "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"), which Polley expertly adapted for the screen herself, the film deals with a woman, beautifully played by British actress Julie Christie (of "Darling" and "Dr. Zhivago" fame), who has early Alzheimer's. The role of her husband, who finds himself broken-hearted at his wife's new illness, is equally brilliantly played by Gordon Pinsent. It's a wonderful film — definitely one of the best of the year — and it simply shouldn't be missed.

— "Longford" is from Britain, with the great Jim Broadbent in the title role of a religious man who makes a routine visit to a young woman who is imprisoned as an accomplice to the horrific "children's murders" that had rocked England, and finds his life changed forever.

— "Son of Rambow" is also from Britain, set in the 1980s, when technology suddenly gave young people the possibility to see their own dreams and imaginations come to life on film.

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

— "The Legacy 'L'Heritage)" is a highly anticipated film — at least by anyone who, like me, was dazzled by the highly artistic "13 Tzameti," created by young but very talented debut-director Gela Babluani, who comes from Georgia in the former Soviet Union but now makes his home in Paris.

His new film is co-directed with his father, Temur, himself a well-known Georgian filmmaker, and promises to be a fresh, off-beat and original look at not only contrasting cultures but also clashing moral prerogatives