Emilio Estevez

DIFF 2006 opens with the gala screening of Bobby, writer, director and actor Emilio Estevez's comeback film.

Estevez's acting career began in 1979 as the stand-in for his father, actor Martin Sheen, in Apocalypse Now.

He made his big screen debut in the Matt Dillon-starrer Tex in 1982 followed by hits such as The Outsiders and Repo Man.

During the making of St Elmo's Fire in the mid-1980s, Estevez and his young co-stars were dubbed Hollywood's Brat Pack.

His friends during this period included Demi Moore, to whom he was briefly engaged, and Tom Cruise, at whose wedding to Mimi Rogers he was the best man.

Wisdom dawns

Estevez shook off the brat-pack image with Wisdom, becoming at 24 the youngest Hollywood actor to write, direct and act in a movie.

He also wrote Men at Work, co-starring his younger brother Charlie Sheen.

Besides hits such as Young Guns and Stakeout, one of his most famous roles was as coach Gordon Bombay in the Disney film The Mighty Ducks. But after a string of flops Estevez turned to television.

He began working on the script of Bobby seven years ago.

The film was inspired by the memory of a childhood visit with his father to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles a year after Robert Kennedy had been assassinated in the hotel's kitchen.

The film took so long to make because at one point Estevez had a severe case of writer's block and almost gave up on the project.

His brother Charlie Sheen suggested a change of scene and Estevez drove out in his car and checked into a motel for the night.

Real drama

While talking to the woman at the front desk, he discovered that she had actually been in the ballroom the night Bobby Kennedy was shot.

Her recollections sparked his imagination, resulting in a story featuring 22 diverse characters whose lives intersect on June 6, 1968, the night Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated.

The script combines political message, nostalgia, drama and everything from love to racism.

The film was shot in 37 days on a set that is an amazing re-creation of the now demolished Ambassador Hotel.

After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival this year, Bobby received a seven-minute standing ovation, the longest in the 63-year history of the festival.