Sorry, Haters is a 2005

2005 in film

- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 written and directed by Jeff Stanzler

Jeff Stanzler

Jeff Stanzler is an American screenwriter and director. He wrote and directed the 2005 psychological thriller, Sorry, Haters, an "official selection" in both the Toronto and American Film Institute film festivals. He is currently working on a documentary about politics in West Africa. He's...

, starring Robin Wright Penn, Abdel Kechiche

Abdel Kechiche

Abdellatif Kechiche is an actor, movie director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2000 with La Faute à Voltaire , aka Poetical Refugee, which he also wrote. He also directed L'Esquive, which won a César Award for Best Film and Best Director...

, Élodie Bouchez

Élodie Bouchez

Élodie Bouchez-Bangalter is a French actress. She is best known in the United States for her role as Renée Rienne on the fifth and final season of the television show Alias...

 and Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh is a Canadian actress. She is best known for the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She also played notable roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways, and had a supporting role on the...

, distributed by IFC Films

IFC Films

IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....

. It was an "official selection" in both the Toronto and American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

s. It was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 on August 8, 2006.

Plot summary

Ashade (Abdel Kechiche), a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 taxicab driver from Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 encounters a strange fare in Phoebe, played by Robin Wright Penn. The lead character, bitter from a recent divorce

Divorce

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

, forces friendship upon Ashade who accepts it very reluctantly. When she learns of Ashade's family's legal problems, she imposes upon him further. This imposition reveals a dangerous side to Phoebe, causing Ashade to flee their brief friendship. Phoebe retaliates in spite, turning Ashade's life upside-down. In order to put his life back in order, Ashade must seek out Phoebe and enlist her help, and in doing so, he learns about and falls prey to her dark secret.

Awards

In 2007, Sorry, Haters was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards

Independent Spirit Awards

The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...

for Best Screenplay and Best Female Lead.

External links

• Sorry, Haters official website
• Sorry, Haters trailer
• Rogert Ebert review
• Sorry Haters on Lower Manhattan Project, a French Canadian site dedicated to 9/11 in the culture.