Che Guevara film early favorite for Cannes

A four-hour movie on famed revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is among the early favorites to win top honors at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film- directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benecio del Toro- was one of twenty movies selected in the main competition at Cannes.

Aside from the Guevara flick, other Latin Americans have made their presence known at the world-famous film fest:

The Latin American theme is strongly borne out in the rest of the main competition, in which there are two Argentinean films and a Brazilian one. The Brazilian director is Walter Salles, whose Motorcycle Diaries - about Che's youthful journey round Latin America by motorbike - was a contender in 2004. This year's offering is called Linha de Passe, about the lives of four brothers from a tough background in Sao Paulo who struggle to overcome their circumstances.

Films by Argentineans Pablo Trapero and Lucretia Martel complete the South American contingent; while Mexican Alfonso Cuarón (director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) will sit on the competition jury.

The 61^st edition of the Cannes Film Festival runs next month. If you’re a film buff in New York City this week, then try attending either the Tribeca Film Festival or “100% Venezuela” at NYU.

Image- BBC News (“The poster for this year's festival is adapted from a David Lynch photo.”)

Sources- Guardian UK. AFP, New York Times, The Latin Americanist