06/04/2011

This year marks the 11th goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, which opens today and runs until April 12 in Wiesbaden, the spa town nicknamed the "Nice of the North". In the line-up are127 films hailing from 30 countries.

The event will kick off this evening at the Caligari Cinema with Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential Killing [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jerzy Skolimowski
film profile], produced by Poland’s Skopia Film in co-production with Norway, Ireland and Hungary. It stars Vincent Gallo as a disorientated war prisoner who is being pursued.

Under its new director Gaby Babic, the event continues to foster dialogue between nations, and between filmmakers and viewers. But she emphasised that the focus is more than ever on the diversity and radicalism of approaches.

This is clear from the themes of the 16 titles in competition (ten narrative films and six documentaries selected from among 300 submissions). They will vie for prizes worth a total of €29,500, including the Skoda Award/Golden Lys for Best Film, to be awarded by a jury headed by Serbian director Zelimir Zilnik.

Contenders include Aurora [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Voda
film profile] by Romania’s Cristi Puiu (presented at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section); Locarno prize-winner Morgen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by fellow Romanian director Marian Crişan; Juliusz Machulski’s Polish vampire satire The Lullaby; Hungarian director Bence Miklauzic’s Children of the Green Dragon, a "Kung Fu film without the fighting"; Bujar Alimani’s Amnesty [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bujar Alimani
film profile], a cross between a love story and tragedy set in present-day Albania; Czech helmer David Jařab’s Head – Hands – Heart, which opens with the discovery of a dismembered Austrian-Hungarian officer; Bulgarian director Ivailo Hristov’s romantic road movie Footsteps in the Sand, set against a backdrop of communism and migration; and Aleksey Balabanov’s latest, A Stoker.

There are many other parallel awards up for grabs, especially for emerging talents and film students, for whom the festival has organised competitions, workshops and other opportunities to make oneself known in the industry.

This year, besides the special screenings and the "Highlights" section showing the year’s unmissable titles, there is a new thematic programme on the notion of migration. Meanwhile, the traditional goEast Symposium will explore the way in which Eastern European films have reflected the breakthrough and impact of far-right political movements since 1989.

Finally, there will be a tribute to Czech director-artist Jan Švankmajer, who transcends genres and media.

(Translated from French)