Question: Are the directors of both films Bleak Moments and Puccini for Beginners from the same country?

Mike Leigh( born 20 February 1943) is an English writer and director of film and theatre. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art( RADA), East 15 Acting School and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and London Film School. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s and'80s his career moved between theatre work and making films for BBC Television. His well- known films include the comedy- dramas" Life Is Sweet"( 1990) and" Career Girls"( 1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film" Topsy- Turvy"( 1999) and the bleak working- class drama" All or Nothing"( 2002). His most notable works are the black comedy- drama" Naked"( 1993), for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the Oscar- nominated, BAFTA and Palme d' Or- winning drama" Secrets& Lies"( 1996), the Golden Lion winning working- class drama" Vera Drake"( 2004), and the Palme d' Or nominated biopic" Mr. Turner"( 2014). His stage plays include" Smelling A RatIt's A Great Big ShameGreek TragedyGoose- PimplesEcstasy" and" Abigail's Party". Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present" emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." Leigh, Coveney said, has helped to create stars – Liz Smith in" Hard Labour", Alison Steadman in" Abigail's Party", Brenda Blethyn in" Grown- Ups", Antony Sher in" Goose- Pimples", Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in" Meantime", Jane Horrocks in" Life is Sweet", David Thewlis in" Naked—" and remarked that the list of actors who have worked with him over the years —including Paul Jesson, Phil Daniels, Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Sharp, Kathy Burke, Stephen Rea, Julie Walters –" comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent." His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney," comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." His aesthetic has been compared to the sensibility of the Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu and the Italian Federico Fellini. Ian Buruma, writing in" The New York Review of Books" in January 1994, commented:" It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo." <SEP> She was the script editor for the American television series," Without a Trace"( 2003) and has written many episodes for the show as well, but is perhaps best known for her feature film," The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love"( 1995). Her film" Puccini for Beginners" was in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006. She was also an activist with ACT UP for many years. Maria Maggenti( born c. 1962) is an American film director and screenwriter for film and television, who has traditionally created independent films. <SEP> Eduardo Humberto del Río García( June 20, 1934 – August 8, 2017), better known by his pen name Rius, was a Mexican intellectual, political cartoonist and writer born in Zamora, Michoacán. One of the most popular Mexican cartoonists, Rius has written over a hundred books that remain widely popular, especially amongst his Mexican readers. Rius was a fierce political activist, and his progressive and left- wing point of view is often present in his writings, accompanied by a strong criticism about neoliberal Mexican doctrines, US Government policies, and the Catholic Church. He used to be an open advocate of the Cuban revolution as in" Cuba for Beginners" and a strong Soviet bloc sympathizer until the end of the Cold War. In the 1960s he began cartooning in magazines and newspapers, sometimes regarding political themes. He made two famous comics," Los Supermachos" and" Los agachados", which were a humorous criticism of the Mexican government. After his successes with these, he made many books, all illustrated and written by hand by him and covering a range of topics on politics, vegetarianism, and religion. His books have become popular mainly because of their humour, which attempts to reach the general reader, as well as for their simplicity and intellectual acuteness. They give an overview of their theme without becoming difficult. In 1970, the first English edition of Rius's book" Cuba para principiantes", a humorous comic strip presentation of Cuban history and revolution, was published in the United States as" Cuba for Beginners". The book made no particularly great impact, but the 1976 English language publication of" Marx for Beginners", a translation of his" Marx para principiantes"( 1972), a comic strip representation of the life and ideas of Karl Marx, became an international bestseller and kicked off the" For Beginners" series of books from Writers and Readers and later Icon Books. In the 1990s, he participated in two political humour magazines:" El Chahuistle" and" El Chamuco"( named after an insect plague and the devil, respectively, because they were harsh on politicians and religious leaders). His success and long career have made him a reference point to the newer generations of political cartoonists in México. Mexican director Alfonso Arau made" Calzonzin Inspector", a live action film based on characters appearing in" Los Supermachos" that was released in 1974. He died on August 8, 2017 at the age of 83. <SEP> The film debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and was released to DVD in the United States on July 3, 2007. Puccini for Beginners is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Maria Maggenti and starring Elizabeth Reaser, Gretchen Mol, and Justin Kirk. <SEP> It began as a 75- minute stage play in March 1970 at the Open Space Theatre. Leigh and Les Blair had formed their own company, Autumn Productions, and Leigh wanted to make a film of" Bleak Moments." Bleak Moments is a 1971 British film, the first film of Mike Leigh. He was able to realise that desire when Albert Finney and Michael Medwin's Memorial Films, which had recently made" If..." and was about to produce Gumshoe," delivered the main financial backing, as well as unused spare bits of film rolls." <SEP> Matt Beckett( born 13 July 1973) is a Welsh former- professional cyclist who was born in Lancaster. He represented Wales in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. He was briefly one of the directors of Welsh Cycling in 2006.