Palme d'Or-winner Kore-eda Hirokazu's "La verite" (The Truth), starring French acting icons Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Hollywood star Ethan Hawke, will kick off the 76th Venice International Film Festival.
"La verite" is the first time the director has shot a film out of native Japan.
The film will have its world premiere screening in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Venice Lido on August 28. The film will screen in Competition at the festival, which runs from August 28 to September 7.
The director, whose "Shoplifters" won Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018 and is currently screening in select theatres in India, said it was an honour that his new film will open the Official Competition of the Venice Film Festival.
"I am extremely honoured... We shot the movie in ten weeks last fall in Paris. As officially announced, the cast is prestigious but the film itself recounts a small family story that takes place primarily inside a house. I have tried to make my characters live within this small universe, with their lies, pride, regrets, sadness, joy, and reconciliation. I truly hope you will like this film," Hirokazu said in a statement.
Festival director Alberto Barbera said in his very first film outside Japan, the director had brought together two of the biggest stars of France.
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"The encounter between the universe of Japan's most important filmmaker today and two beloved actresses like Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, brought to life a poetic reflection on the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and the complex profession of acting," Barbera added.
Fabienne (Deneuve) is a star of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir (Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her husband (Hawke) and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed, according to the official synopsis of the film.
Kore-eda's debut film "Maborosi" won the 52nd Venice International Film Festival's Golden Osella in 1995 but it was "After Life" in 1998 that brought him international acclaim.
His other movies are "Distance", "Nobody Knows", "Hanna", autobiographical "Still Walking", "Air Doll", "I Wish", "Like Father, Like Son", "Our Little Sister", "After the Storm" and "The Third Murder".
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