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First held 12 years ago at Bangkok's Sala Chalermkrung Theatre, the annual European Union Film Festival opens at 8 tonight with "Zozo", an emotional drama by director Joseph Fares about a boy who emigrates from war-torn Lebanon to Sweden.

This year's edition arrives at Bangkok's SF World Cinema after a 10-day run in Chiang Mai, where crowds packed the Vista theatres. In all there are 23 movies from 17 countries. Most are being screened in digital format, with only two - "Ben X" from Belgium and "Roman De Gare" ("Crossed Tracks") from France - taken from 35mm reels.

The movies from Germany, "La Paloma - Longing Worldwide"; the Netherlands, "Hannah Hannah" and "Alles Is Liefd" ("Love is All") and Poland, "Drzazgi" ("Splinters") have English and Thai subtitles, otherwise the films are subtitled only in English.

British spirit

The exception to the subtitle rule is the British documentary "Sounds Like Teen Spirit", which has no subtitles. It goes behind the scenes of the youth music spectacle, the Junior Eurovision contest, where contestants aged 10 to 15 compose and write their own entries then sing them in their country's language.

The German-French production, "La Paloma - Longing Worldwide", is an award-winning documentary that investigates the rich history of the evocative song "La Paloma" through archival footage and interviews with people from Cuba to Romania, Germany and Tanzania.

Eastern bloc

Festival-goers will also get to see rare gems like the Romanian film "Silent Wedding", which tells the story of a ceremony arranged for the day on which Joseph Stalin died and which has to be temporarily postponed.

Another must-see from Romania is "Nesfarsit" ("California Dreaming"), winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Set in 1999 during the war in Kosovo, it depicts what happens when gangsters in a small Romanian village try to seize an American-guarded military train.

Lithuania's "The Collectress" is a psychological drama based on a true story.

Other films are "Gibellina - The Earthquake" from Austria, "A Farewell to Hemingway" from Bulgaria, "Citizen Havel" from the Czech Republic, "Christmas Story" from Finland, "Adventurers" from Hungary, "Good Morning Heartache" and "The Viceroys" from Italy, "Irina Palm" from Luxembourg, "Mataharis" and "Obaba" from Spain and "The Linnaus Experience" from Sweden.

 SUBTITLED SUBTEXT

>> The EU Film Festival runs until November 29 at at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

>> Tickets are Bt100. There are also 300 limited-edition packages that offer six movies for Bt500.

 >> Visit www.SFCinema|City.com, www.Deltha.EC.|Europa.eu or call (02) 268 8888.