Spain has Dead Birds, Birdwatchers in the UK

France:

District 9 bolted out of the gate on Wednesday (September 16) with 114,122 admissions on 446 screens. Metropolitan released the Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi thriller which stars Sharlto Copley – soon to be seen in the big screen A-Team adaptation – as a government official who helps manage a segregated colony of alien life forms in South Africa.

Robert Guediguian’s L’Armee Du Crime, which debuted in Cannes, also opened September 16.  The tale, set during the occupation of Paris in the Second World War was released by StuidoCanal released to 37,191 admissions on 250 screens on its first day.

Another Cannes film, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank went out on Wednesday but failed to score in the top nine films on its first day. This is especially surprising given the film’s accolades at Cannes and that the director had previously picked up the Jury Prize for Red Road in 2006 – a feat she repeated this year with this film.

UK:

Against a crowded release slate in the UK this week, arthouse indie distributor Artificial Eye are giving Italian-Brazilian co-production Birdwatchers a limited release from September 18. The film follows a tribe of Guarani Indians attempting to re-inhabit their ancestral land, which brings them into conflict with a wealthy landowner.

UK documentary Three Miles North Of Molkom is released through Metrodome Distribution. The film, from directors Robert Cannan and Corinna McFarlane, follows individuals taking part in ‘sharing groups’ at the annual No Mind festival of eco-spiritualism in Angsbacka, Sweden.

Germany:

Veteran Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s Second World War drama Katyn is being launched by Pandastorm Pictures on 14 screens throughout Germany, including five cinemas in Berlin and screens in Dresden, Munich and Stuttgart.

Tübingen-based distributor Arsenal opens the Spanish tragic-comedy La Torre de Suso in eight towns, with German subtitled versions showing at Berlin, Cologne, Munich and Nuremberg.

Serbian filmmaker Stefan Arsenijevic’s feature debut Love And Other Crimes, which premiered at the Berlinale and went on to a successful international festival career in 2008, has finally reached German cinemas thanks to Alpha Medienkontor. The Serbian-German-Slovenian co-production is being released on four screens in Berlin, Münster, Düsseldorf and Seefeld.

Spain:

Spanish director David Carreras’ slick spy thriller Flores Negras, starring leading international actors, will hit cinemas nationwide this weekend through local outfit Filmax. Tobias Moretti plays an ex-RFA spy who decides to disappear to Barcelona after the fall of the Berlin wall with Elena (Marta Etura), the daughter of a Russian spy, but the past soon catches up with him.

British documentary director Franny Armstrong follows up McLibel with The Age Of Stupid, set in a destroyed future looking back on the current impact of climate change. The film will be shown in a select few cinemas across Spain on September 22 as part of a global premiere organized by Arts Alliance Media.

Premium will release Spanish directors Guillermo and Jorge Sempere’s debut feature Dead Birds, which proved popular at last year’s Malaga Festival.  The film focuses on what appears to be an idyllic neighbourhood but proves to be anything but when the local birds suddenly start dying.