CinefestOZ previews

The red carpet has already been rolled out as CinefestOZ started in the region on Wednesday night.

The films have been rolling since then and will continue today, tomorrow and on Sunday.

This week the Times looks at a few of the final films to grace the screen.

Monsieur Lazhar PG 94mins Monsieur Lazhar is set in Montreal, where the beloved teacher of a Year 6 class has abruptly passed away. Having learned of the incident in the newspaper, Bachir Lazhar, a 55-yearold Algerian immigrant, makes his way to the school and offers his services as a substitute teacher.

This is a profoundly moving story about a group of young schoolchildren coming to terms with the adult world well before their time, and the inspirational educator who transforms their lives.

Le Chef M 85mins CHEF Alexandre Lagarde is in serious conflict with Stanislas Matter, the new CEO of the group that owns his restaurant.

Matter is plotting to have him lose one star in the next edition of the Guide, and therefore to replace him with a young modern chef who advocates a chemical, molecular cuisine which is more profitable for the food industry.

War of the Buttons PG 105 mins FROM the furtive imagination of writer/director Yann Samuell comes the smash-hit adaptation of Louis Pergaud’s classic 1912 novel - a book long on the French curriculum and reprinted more than 30 times.

The novel is about the rivalry between gangs of children from two villages.

The First Fagin 87 mins FROM New York to Hobart, and from the darkest jails and prison ships of England to the penal colony of Port Arthur, The First Fagin brings to life the passionate love and dramatic adventures of Ikey Solomon, family man, fencer, and Charles Dickens’ inspiration for the character of Fagin in Oliver Twist.