Sweden 's Göthenberg International Film Festival will bookend its 32nd edition with two local documentaries: Nahid Persson Sarvestani's The Queen And I and Jesper Ganslandt-Martin Degrell's The Film I Am No Longer Talking About.

Göthenberg International Film Festival is the Nordic countries' largest film festival, screening around 450 films to audiences of 125,000. It is also Sweden's most comprehensive showcase for documentaries.

The Queen And I is a portrait of the Shah of Iran's widow, Farah Diba.

'The film is not only about her, but also about the lives of myself and many other Iranians, both exiled or suppressed at home,' Persson Sarvestani explained.

The Film I Am No Longer Talking About follows a group of young filmmaker who - backed by an experienced entrepreneur with IT millions - set out to make 'the world's best film.'

When the IT bubble burst and funding dried up, the production was cancelled. The Film I Am No Longer Talking shows the filmmakers journey and how they feel about the project today, with scenes from the unfinished movie.

The 2008 programme will be preceded by a selection of 10 films from recent years' catalogues.

The festival will also honour its newly-appointed honorary president Swedish director Roy Andersson, who replaces the late Ingmar Bergman, with a collection of his shorts which will also be released on DVD.

In addition, eight local shorts will compete for the festival's $100,000 start package for newcomers, with cash and services to be used for the winner's next film.

Among the contenders are Jonas Odell's Lies which was was picked for Venice and will shortly screen in Sundance.

The local premiere of US director Gus Van Sant's Milk, starring Sean Penn, is included in a wide ranging gay sidebar that includes documentaries about the fight for homosexual rights in Turkey to love stories in Victorian prisons or on Italian beaches.

A further sidebar focusing on Turkey will comprise 10 Turkish new features and documentaries, and a retrospective devoted to Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a first-time presentation in Sweden.

Göthenberg International Film Festival runs between January 23-February 2.

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