Duration: November 4-14 Venue: ArcLight Theaters City: Hollywood Country: USA Edition: 2004 Web: AFI FEST 2004

Plume Noire covered once again the AFI FEST film festival to bring you back exclusive reviews of the films presented. AFI FEST 2004 featured 134 films from 24 countries, 26 of them being world premieres.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon Behind the portrait of an ordinary loser who decides to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House, The Assassination of Richard Nixon delivers a harsh and cruel vision of American society, carried from beginning to end by the masterful Sean Penn.

A Very Long Engagement In A Very Long Engagement, Jean-Pierre Jeunet once again leads us into his pastel colored fantasy world, this time however, presenting us a war melodrama steering us away from the quirky madness of his first two films and the nostalgic cuteness of the last.

Bad Education Amlodovar's most ambitious and personal film, Bad Education functions like a double account of apprenticeship.

The Big Question Shot on location during the filming of The Passion of the Christ, The Big Question tries to figure out what God is through interviews with the cast and crew of Mel Gibson's film.

Chrystal Some movies are problematic as they embark you on a great voyage before getting you lost on some sort of screenwriting back roads.

Duck Season Feature Jury Prize After seeing so many Mexican films about crime or poverty, Duck Season, a comedy about a group of kids letting loose while alone for the weekend, is a good surprise.

Ferpect Crime Álex de la Iglesia has this time set his camera on beauty, ugliness, jealousy & the curse of marriage, with the most unexpected background, the women's section of a Spanish department store.

Frozen Frozen is a surreal and evocative tale set in a depressing fishing town on England's coast. Though at times the pace is uneven, director Juliet McKoen knows when to reel the audience in for a finale that is as tragic as it is shocking.

Ong-Bak Set in Thailand, Ong Bak follows the journey of a monk with spectacular martial art skills who must reclaim the head of a Buddha statue which was stolen from his village.

RX RX follows the road-trip gone wrong of three Los Angeles teenagers on their way to a rave in Mexico—a cover for the boys' secret plan to smuggle back some drugs.

The Woodsman With a taboo subject like pedophilia, it would have been easy to assume that The Woodsman would be a provocative film. On the contrary, the filmmakers have crafted a subtle film about second chances given by society.