Withless than six weeks to go before the launch of his first Locarno as artistic director onAugust 2, Frederic Maire has spoken toScreenDaily.com about the preparations for the 59th edition of the festival ashis programme shapes up.

"Thematically,there are large number of films with teenagers and children at the centre andthey are the most interesting figures," Mairesaid. "The adult world seems to be falling apart, and hope comes from theyounger generation.In addition, we have come across many films addressingthe psychological situation of people living in big cities, whether it is Tehran, Hong Kong, Paris or London."

Whilethe complete festival programme will not be officially announced until July 12,Maire revealed that young Argentine filmmaker VeronicaChen's Aguas Argentinaswill be shown in this year's Official Competition. It had been presented as aproject looking for production partners at the ArgentinosJuniors showcase in Locarno in 2003 along with tenother films including Rodrigo Moreno's ElCustodio, Luis Ortega's Monobloc and Santiago Loza's 4 Women, Barefoot, who all foundpartners and have since been completed.

Itis also understood that Ivan Passer and Talgat Temenov's Nomad,which was shot in Kazakhstan last year and is beinghandled internationally by Rezo Films, will also haveits world premiere in Locarno, although Maire declined to confirm this at this stage

Regardingthe open-air screenings on Locarno's Piazza Grande, Maire explained that he is "trying this year to giveeach night a different 'colour'. So, for example, we will have a world premiereof a new Swiss film on the night of the Swiss Day, there will be a shortsnight, and a retrospective night when we show a film by Aki Kaurismaki,the subject of this year's Retrospective. Ideally, on the Monday evening[August 7], we would like to have a night dedicated to Open Doors when we wouldshow a world or international premiere from this region and present all of theSoutheast Asian directors from the workshop on stage to make the connectionbetween the industry and public side of the festival."
"We will have a large number of world, international or European premiereson the Piazza, but hardly any films from Cannes or reprises of old films,"Maire stressed.