The honor of opening the festival went to ``Dust,'' by Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski, who won a Golden Lion here seven years ago with his debut film, ``Before the Rain,'' and promptly sank from sight.

His shoot 'em-up, cut' em-up, string 'em-up comeback was less than triumphant. The dean of Italian movie critics, Tullio Kezich, complained bitterly in the newspaper Corriere della Sera that it was ``certainly unpleasant to see the Festival inaugurated, with trumpets and drums, with a really bad film.''

The movie, a Cain-and-Abel tale set in Macedonia at the beginning of the 20th century and, in the framing narrative, modern-day New York, stars Joseph Fiennes.

Both directors and some commentators have defended the level of violence in these films as valid reflections of the histories and cultures they depict.

``Film is one of the best ways to transform the violence of the world into myth,'' Manchevski said in an interview, invoking the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.