The mostly nonprofessional cast at the Thomaston Opera House, directed by Stephen P. Fredericksen, didn't always find its way securely into each of the show's numbers.

The film was shot using a nonprofessional cast of actors from the Villaverde area just south of Madrid.

The sold-out Smoot Theater swelled with 800 viewers, while hundreds of spectators watched Mr. Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director, and his local, nonprofessional cast walk the red carpet.

With an entirely nonprofessional cast and all police roles played by real Chinese policemen, her film has effortless authenticity and a quiet, watchful style.

Using a nonprofessional, local cast and a subtle, efficient script by Coleman Hough, Mr. Soderbergh constructs a tale of jealousy and claustrophobia involving three doll-factory workers.

What holds the movie together are its heartfelt, natural performances by a mostly nonprofessional cast.

The cast, mostly nonprofessional, performs with a reserve that makes the movie emotionally flat and a little opaque.

Using a mostly nonprofessional cast, shooting straightforwardly in the humblest of surroundings, Mr. Sembene nonetheless constructs a work of wry sophistication.

But neither could such a transcendent moment as the climax of King Vidor's "Hallelujah," a pioneering 1929 film shot on location in the South with an all-black, mostly nonprofessional cast.

The utter simplicity of "Yaaba," set against flat, barren plains in an African village made of mud and straw and acted by a barefoot, nonprofessional cast, bespeaks great sophistication.