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KARLOVY VARY 2018

Karlovy Vary to spotlight poetic documentaries from the Baltic region

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- The biggest Czech film event will this year honour Miloš Forman, and celebrate Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian poetic documentaries

Karlovy Vary to spotlight poetic documentaries from the Baltic region
Director Miloš Forman (© KVIFF)

The 53rd edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) will open with Loves of a Blonde to honour the memory of the late Miloš Forman. Furthermore, the Czech National Orchestra will perform music from The Firemen’s Ball, Taking Off, Valmont, Amadeus and Hair at the opening concert. “Miloš Forman was not only an excellent filmmaker, but also a great friend of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. We have decided to remember him not through laudatory speeches, but through what he symbolised – film,” says KVIFF president Jiří Bartoška.

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Besides the tribute to the Austin Film Society (see the news), the KVIFF programmers have put together an extensive retrospective of poetic documentaries from the Baltic region on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the independence of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The retrospective Reflections of Time: Baltic Poetic Documentary will consist of six blocks of short and medium-length films, and two feature-length documentaries. “Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia share with the former Czechoslovakia not just the year in which they declared their independence, but also an exceptionally artistic outpouring of cinematic production in the 1960s. We are glad that this year’s festival will be able to offer a unique report on the Baltic cinematic miracle,” says the KVIFF’s artistic director, Karel Och.

Among the selected documentaries are Latvian films by Ivars KraulitisAivars FreimanisHerz Frank, early pioneer of the new cinematic style Uldis Brauns, two award-winning documentaries, The Old Man and the Land and The Dreams of the Centenarians, by the founding father of Lithuanian poetic documentary film, Robertas VerbaA Trip Across Misty Meadows by Henrikas Šablevičius, and Estonian films by Andres SöötÜlo Tambek and Mark Soosaar. The section will also contain films from the 1990s, such as The Land of the BlindAnti-Gravitation, and Laila Pakalniņa’s trilogy The LinenThe Ferry and The Mail. The programmers consider the highlight to be the metaphysical essay Bridges of Time [+see also:
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 by Audrius Stonys and Kristine Briede. “Baltic poetic documentary cinema created an independent world, free from Soviet ideology, lies and propaganda. It was a declaration of inner freedom. The black-and-white world of poetic documentary films was full of colour. Sadness was full of joy,” says Stonys.

The 53rd edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will run from 29 June-7 July 2018.

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