Carice van Houten in Black Book

Taken out of competition in Miami following its win of the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Padre Nuestro by first-time feature writer-director Christopher Zalla is a taught and suspenseful immigration drama that moves from the streets of Mexico to New York City. Born in Kenya and brought up in countries all over the globe including South America, Zalla's experience of being a foreigner in a foreign land and his global perspective enabled him to develop fully fleshed sympathetic characterizations of a group of essentially unlovable characters in bleak tale of stolen identity that exposes the dark side of the American dream: "In Latin cultures, I think in general I think there is a much greater awareness of acceptance of darkness. Darkness is not necessarily bad or frightening. It is much a part of the culture. And there is a value to it."

Three anticipated international releases from iconic directors made their bows in Miami. Black Book marks Paul Verhoeven's (Robocop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls) return to his Dutch filmmaking roots after over twenty years in Hollywood: "I felt [living] in Holland and — as this was a reaction so strongly against my work in the United States in the fantasy science fiction world — I was pushed from the inside after Hollow Man to return to more realism. I really felt that I had done enough of fantasy and the scripts I got at that time were all science fiction and fantasy, and I thought: 'Enough is enough!'" Set in the final years of the Second World War, Rachel (a riveting performance by Carice van Houten), separated from her family, joins a group of Jews fleeing the Nazis. When they are all gunned down escaping on a boat under the cover of night, she is the sole survivor. She joins the Resistance and because of her beguiling beauty is chosen to infiltrate the German command.

This year's festival features more than 40 films from female directors and pre-eminent among them has to the celebrated German feminist director Margarethe von Trotta (The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum, Rosenstrasse), whose once secure reputation seems to be in question with her latest offering I Am the Other Woman. Once again collaborating with the late screenwriter Peter Marthesheimer and drawing heavily on the influences of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, David Lynch, and Hitchcock, I Am The Other Woman veers into unstable territory as it becomes apparent that the film's protagonist, Carolina (Katja Reimann) is unaware of her seriously warped multiple personality disorder and accompanying daddy issues (remember The Three Faces of Eve?). A buttoned-up corporate lawyer by day, she hits the hotspots of Frankfurt in a fire engine red dress and platinum blonde wig by night, looking for paying male clients. "It is also melodrama [presented] in a cinematic way," says von Trotta, "I don't want every moment to be read in psycho-analytic [way]." However, an emasculated domineering wheelchair-bound father (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Madonna-whore imagery and an obsessed lover determined to save her from herself are but some of the predictable clichés that are almost laugh-out-loud funny. Or was that von Trotta's intention? "I think the American audience is much more disposed to laugh at places where [Europeans] don't laugh. I like that."