Apocalypto

From Academy Award winning filmmaker Mel Gibson ("The Passion of The Christ," "Braveheart"), comes "Apocalypto" -- a heart stopping mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization. And despite its subtitles, unknown cast, obscure subject matter and the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson, "Apocalypto" found an opening weekend audience and topped the box office with $14.2 million in receipts.

Shot on location in Catemaco -- in one of the last remaining tracts of rainforests left in Mexico -- and in Veracruz, with a cast made up entirely of indigenous peoples from the Americas, APOCALYPTO is directed by Mel Gibson, produced by Gibson and Bruce Davey and written by Gibson and Farhad Safinia, who co-produces.

When his idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, a man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life. The story unfolds on the screen like a timeless myth about one man's quest to save that which matters to him the most in a world on the brink of destruction. It certainly creates a magic and absorbs the audience in a time the mankind left behind long long back.

'Apocalyto' is already creating controversies for its questionable accuracy of history or its treatment of Mayan civilization, but overall it's a great cinematic experience that any cine-goer would like to enjoy. It's a grand creation from a great behind-the-scenes team who spent intense months shooting in the jungle and recreating a spectacular Mayan kingdom of soaring pyramids and mysterious temples. The team includes Academy Award-winning director of photography Dean Semler ("Dances With Wolves"), two-time Academy Award-nominated production designer Tom Sanders ("Saving Private Ryan," "Dracula," "Braveheart"), two-time Oscar-nominated film editor John Wright ("Speed," "The Hunt for Red October," "The Passion of the Christ") and Oscar-winning composer and multiple Academy Award nominee James Horner ("Titanic," "A Beautiful Mind," "House of Sand and Fog," and the forthcoming "The Good Shepherd").

Here is the official website of the movie: apocalypto.com. The movie is rated R for sequences of graphic violence and distrubing images. Also, read our posting in November, 2005 when Mel first announced his plan for 'Apocalypto'.

European Film Awards

The German film "The Lives of Others" won the best picture award Saturday at the 19th annual European Film Awards held at Warsaw, Poland. The film edged out competitors including "Volver" (read about it below) and this year's winner at Cannes, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," British director Ken Loach's saga set amid Ireland's struggle for independence in the early 1920s.

Directed and written by 33-year-old Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the story of 'The Lives of Others' ("Das Leben der Anderen") is set in East Berlin, November 1984 and explores the ruthlessness of East Germany's all-pervasive secret police, the Stasi, through the story of a party loyalist trying to advance his career by collecting evidence on a playwright. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance. Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, the celebrated theater actress Christa-Maria Sieland. What he didn't anticipate, however, was that submerging oneself into the world of the target also changes the surveillance agent. The immersion in the lives of others--in love, literature, free thinking and speech--makes Wiesler acutely aware of the meagerness of his own existence and opens to him a completely new way of life which he has ever more trouble resisting.

The film also picked up two more awards, with best actor award going to German actor Ulrich Muehe for his role as the Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler. The best screenwriter award went to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, also the director. 'The Lives of Others' will have a limited release in USA in February.

(photo: Roman Polanski)

In the best director category, Spaniard Pedro Almodovar won for "Volver," an oddball comic drama that explores the culture of death in La Mancha — Almodovar's hometown — through three generations of strong women surviving without men. Penelope Cruz won the best actress award for her role in 'Volver'.

Celebrated director Roman Polanski, now 73, was honored with a lifetime achievement award in the country of his childhood for creating what the academy said "were some of the most unforgettable moments in cinema" with works like "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), "Chinatown (1974), and "The Pianist" (2002).