Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Katie Lyons, Shaun Evans, Jeremy Swift, Anthony Lewis
Eric Wilson leaves the juvenile detention centre where he has spent the last fourteen years and tries to start a new life under a new name in a quiet town near Manchester. He is helped in this by a social worker named Terry who finds him work. The naive, sensitive and unreserved youth, full of ideals, attempts to find his bearings after long years in isolation in an environment that is entirely alien to him: he finds a friend, Chris, and a girlfriend, Michelle, and plunges into his new life with hope and a willingness to meet everyone’s expectations. Will he be able to navigate the pitfalls of the adult world – and defy the shadows of his past? A paragon of the British tradition of cinematic sobriety, this adaptation of Jonathan Trigell’s acclaimed novel confronts the protagonist’s tragic past with a present that seems unbridled and full of promise. At the same time the film poses urgent questions about the way in which society approaches the issue of a “second chance”. Andrew Garfield’s performance won him a BAFTA Award and the film received the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlin IFF.
John Crowley (b. 1969, Cork, United Kingdom) studied philosophy at University College Cork and established himself as a theatre director in his native Ireland. He also showed his directorial acumen on the stage of London’s Royal National Theatre. In 2000 he made a short film based on Samuel Beckett’s Come and Go for television, and collaborated with playwright and scriptwriter Mark O’Rowe in 2003 on the crime tragicomedy Intermission, starring Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy, which brought Crowley a British Independent Film Award for Best Debut. In 2005 he worked with Danny Boyle on the project 25 Words or Less: Director’s Cut for the British Film Council. He also made a TV film based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter, Celebration (2006). Following the drama Boy A, Crowley is preparing the cinema release of his third film Is There Anybody There? (2008) with Michael Caine in the lead role.
 
The 44th Karlovy Vary IFF will be held from July 3 – 11, 2009.
The application deadline for the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF is April 17, 2009 ...
Stars and filmmakers (film directors, actors) are again coming to Karlovy Vary to introduce their films personally ...
Up-to-date information about the issued accreditations and festival passes and issued and sold tickets is available here ...
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