Rome Film Festival opens with Last Night, tribute to Kurosawa

Oct 28, 2010, 8:10 GMT

Rome - The fifth edition of the Rome Film Festival was scheduled to open Thursday with a screening of romantic drama, Last Night, and a special tribute to late Japanese master, Akira Kurosawa.

The stars of the film, Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes, are expected to add a touch of glamour with a red-carpet appearance before the evening screening.

Earlier, festival organisers were set to unveil a restored version of Kurosawa's 1950 crime mystery Rashomon. The film which won an 1951 Academy Award for best foreign language film, is widely considered one of several masterpieces made by Kurosawa. The director died in 1998.

The Rome festival, which was set up in 2005 by then mayor of Rome and film enthusiast, Walter Veltroni, will run to November 5 and feature films from several countries including the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Denmark and Japan.

These include Kurdish Iranian director Fraiborz Kamkari's The Flowers of Kirkuk, and director Liu Binghian's French-Hong Kong production 'The Back'.

Six works will have their world premier, including Canadian director Kevin Munroe's horror film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night which is based on a popular Italian comic strip featuring a London-based 'paranormal' detective.

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