On Friday, April 4, the AFI Dallas International Film Festival will screen the anime film, Vexille, the latest animated offering from director and screenplay writer Fumihiko Sori. Previously featured at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last September, and more recently at the Anime Matsuri convention in Houston, Texas, the film is part of AFI's "Maverick" series, considered to be one of the festival's "edgier" categories.

The film follows an American Special Forces team that infiltrates a self-isolated Japan, to uncover the devastation that has been unleashed on the country by a megacorporation engaged in forbidden research into biotechnology and robotics. Director Sori himself will introduce the film, and after the screening, which will be in Japanese with subtitles, will engage with the audience in a Q&A session.

This festival screening is nicely timed to precede North American distributor FUNimation's release of the DVD, set for May 20.

Meanwhile, later this month, at the