DIRECTOR ZIAD DOUEIRI’S
STORY OF SEXUAL AWAKENING MAKES
US PREMIERE
IN SUNDANCE WORLD DRAMATIC COMPETITION

LILA SAYS (Lila dit ca), France/Italy/UK, will make its US Premiere in the World Dramatic Competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

In a Marseilles ghetto, Lila, a gorgeous sixteen-year-old Catholic girl (Vahina Giocante), stops to talk to Chimo, a nineteen-year-old Arab boy (Mohammed Khouas). Lila asks Chimo to look up her skirt -- if he can handle it, and puts into motion a sequence of events that is shockingly raw, sensual, and devastating. Lila's angelic demeanor barely contains the vitality and powerful eroticism that she shares with him and with which she transports the shy and sensitive Chimo from the bleakness of his life.

LILA SAYS is based on a controversial first-person French novel from Chimo's journal of his encounters with Lila. Each time they meet, she tells him increasingly troubling tales of her supposed exploits and violations, inspiring in the uneducated Chimo a previously untapped poetry. With grace and a streetwise wit, he records her story. The film builds relentlessly, breathlessly, until it becomes clear that Lila is perilously close to the edge, where the brutality of the world they inhabit threatens to consume her.

A provocative film - featuring French cinema's most sexually charged bicycle ride since Jules et Jim - as much about tolerance as sexuality, LILA SAYS is a touching, wrenching tale of innocent love sprung from wanton degradation, convincing us that even in the bleakest, most bitter settings, beauty and romance are possible.

Lebanese-born Doueiri studied filmmaking in the United States, and worked as an assistant cameraman on several features directed by Quentin Tarantino. His first feature as a director, “West Beirut” (1998), shared the FIPRESCI International Critics Award at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival. LILA SAYS is his second feature. Ziad Doueiri is available for interviews, photo shoots, events….

Doueiri’s story of sexual awakening has been acquired for North American distribution by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Public Screenings:
Friday, January 21, 3:00pm – Egyptian Theatre
Saturday, January 22, 9:00am – Egyptian Theatre
Sunday, January 23, 12 Noon – Trolley Square Theatre A (SLC)
Sunday, January 23, 9:15pm – Holiday Village Cinema III