FILMMAKER SCORSESE SAYS CHARACTER MORE IMPORTANT THAN PLOT

Veteran US movie director Martin Scorsese, a top draw at the Marrakesh international film festival, said strong scripts and characters were more important to him than the plot.

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AFP) - "The most important (thing) is the script and in the script I expect the character and the story," Scorsese said late Saturday.

"I am much more interested by the character than by the plot. ... There is no plot in "Taxi Driver", not in "The Last Temptation of Christ" and in "Gangs of New York" there is not a lot of plot," he said.

Scorsese's vast repertoire of work addresses issues ranging from Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and the violence endemic in American society.

Czech-born director Milos Forman is this year's chairman of the jury, which includes Moroccan filmmaker Hamid Bennani, Pavel Lounguine of Russia, Claude Miller of France and Britain's Shekar Kapur.

In contention for the festival's Golden Star award this year are 14 films, representing Algeria, Estonia, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, and the United States.

The festival, which runs until December 15, will feature 110 films in all.