The Russian drama Elena recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Composer Philip Glass wrote an original score for the movie. The film is directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev who is best known for helming the 2003 drama The Return, which received a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign language film. Elena centers on an elderly woman who has lived with her rich husband in a large, comfortable home and tries to rescue her alcoholic son from poverty and give his family the opportunity for a better life that she alone could not provide. The film has won the Un Certain Regard special jury prize in Cannes and has received mostly positive reviews, which makes an international and domestic release likely.
Glass has also scored the documentary Rebirth, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The movie takes a look a the physical and emotional healing process involved in the aftermath of the attack on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The documentary follows the transformation of five people, over the course of 10 years, whose lives were forever altered by the tragedy. The film is directed by James Whitaker, who is best known as an executive producer on such films as American Gangster and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Oscilloscope Laboratories and Showtime Networks have recently acquired rights to the film. Oscilloscope is planning a theatrical release of Rebirth in August and Showtime will broadcast the film on the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11.
