13/04/2011

Set up five years ago through a merger of the Cologne Feminale and the Dortmund Femme Totale Festival, the Dortmund|Cologne International Women’s Film Festival (April 12-17), headed by Silke Räbiger, is in full swing in the two North Rhine-Westphalian cities, with a line-up of 100 films from 30 countries.

The event opened yesterday evening with Even the Rain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile], a superb human story about conquest and subjugation, scripted by brilliant screenwriter Paul Laverty and directed by Madrid-born actress-director Icíar Bollaín. In fact, this year’s watchword is engagement, in both a stylistic and thematic sense.

Bollaín’s film will vie for the fourth Best Women’s Feature Film Award (worth €25,000, to be shared for the first time between the film’s director and German distributor), alongside seven other powerfully-themed contenders. Six of these are European: Marion Hänsel’s Belgian film Black Ocean [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about nuclear tests in Mururoa; Francesca Comencini’s The White Space [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Dutch director Nicole van Kilsdonk’s Heading West [+see also:
trailer
film profile], both tales about solitude and motherhood; Nanouk Leopold’s subtle Dutch film about female desire, Brownian Movement [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Czech helmer Zuzana Liová’s House [+see also:
trailer
interview: Zuzana Liová
film profile]; and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s highly-acclaimed Greek title Attenberg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Athina Rachel Tsangari
film profile] (which earned the Volpi Cup for actress Ariane Labed at last year’s Venice Mostra).

Besides the additional competitions (for the Audience Award, Best Woman Director of Photography Award, etc.) and other special screenings, the festival is this year hosting a wide-ranging Focus entitled "Now What – Films About Getting Out of Here", which explores answers to the global crisis through different sub-sections (on capitalism, urbanisation, resistance through art...). Educational events, forums and meetings are also planned, as well as workshops and seminars for professionals.

(Translated from French)