A Prophet arrives in France, Germany is Laughing Out Loud

UK

Kathryn Bigelow’s war film The Hurt Locker reaches the UK on Friday (August 28). Starring Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes, the film will go out across 140 cinemas through Optimum Releasing. It took an $11.5m in the US including a $145,000 opening weekend in June.

Pedro Almodovar’s latest outing Broken Embraces will also open in the UK on August 28. The film, which was in competition at Cannes, tells the tragic tales of an aging film-maker (Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar) who lost both his sight and beautiful actress wife Lena (Penelope Cruz) in a car accident. Confined to his Madrid apartment, the story is told through flashbacks to the mid-1990s. Pathé Films are releasing it on 91 Screens.

Bollywood feature Kisaan, which was filmed in India in Hindi, also debuts this week. The melodrama about a widowed farmer and his two sons, one who stays to work with him and another who moves to the city as a lawyer, will be shown on eight UK screens by Tiptop Entertainment.

Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1, the second part of the French gangster’s story, is out on limited release through Momemtum Picutres. Vincent Cassell stars in Jean-Francois Richet’s French thriller about notorious criminal Jacques Mesrine’s life, including his audacious jailbreaks. Mesrine: Killer Instinct was released earlier this month.

France

Jacques Audiard’s critically-acclaimed Cannes entry A Prophet was released in France on Wednesday by UGC. The prison drama tells story of a young man’s rise to power through the ranks of the Corsican mafia and the creation of his own network. It stars revelation Tahar Rahim along with Niels Arestrup and Adel Bencherif. The film was the winner in its first showing in Paris on Wednesday on 27 screens beating other titles like Final Destination 4 3D, Land Of The Lost and The Ugly Truth.

Pyramide’s Ordinary People, directed by Vladimir Perisic stars Relja Popovic and Boris Isakovic in the tense story of a group of Serbian soldiers trapped on a bus and faced with enemy soldiers. The film was released on a total of 19 screens, four in Paris. Its first showing in the capital on Wednesday put it in fifth place. The film ran in Critics Week in Cannes earlier this year.

Wild Bunch Distribution’s 3D odyssey Voyage Sous Les Mers 3D also went out Wednesday. The Jean-Jacques and Francois Mantello-directed picture follows a sea turtle on a journey through the deep. Jean-Michel Cousteau acted as godfather on the film which was released on 73 screens across the country. In its first showing in Paris, it placed sixth.

Germany

Berlin-based distributor Delphi opens Lisa Azuelos’ romantic comedy Lol - Laughing Out Loud, starring Sophie Marceau, Christa Theret and Jeremy Kapone, in 45 towns across this country this weekend.

Memelland, by veteran documentary maker Volker Koepp, is released through Salzgeber on screens in Berlin, Hanover and Heidelberg. Working with is regular cameraman, Thomas Plenert, he travels to a region known as “Little Lithuania”, an area along the banks of the river Nemunas (Memel in German), telling the story of a historic community of German and Lithuanians.

Czech director Bohdan Slama’s The Country Teacheris being released on 35 prints across Germany. The winner of the Audience Award at last year’s Filmfestival Cottbus and two Czech Lions, the film was given an avant-premiere last Sunday at the open-air cinema in Friedrichshain’s Volkspark in Berlin with the director and actor Pavel Liska in attendance.

Spain

Alta Films will release leading Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo on 169 screens this weekend. A Cannes competition title, produced by major Spanish outfit Media Pro, it tells the story of a young woman (Rinko Kikuchi), who leads a double life working nights at a Tokyo fish market and days as a ruthless assassin. Shot in Japanese and English, the film also stars Spanish actor Sergi Lopez.

Ashton Kutcher’s latest romantic drama Spread will be released by Aurum on 200 prints in Spain this weekend, having already made $2m in France last month. Directed by English film-maker David Mackenzie, Kutcher plays a serial womanizer who gets caught up in a game of one-upmanship with a gorgeous waitress, as they try to sleep their way into a privileged lifestyle.

Forum Films will be providing a limited release of the documentary The Last Script: Remembering Luis Buñuel. Directed by Gaizka Urresti and Javier Espada, the film involves conversations with the famous Spanish director’s son Juan Luis Buñuel and his long time collaborator Jean Claude Carriere.