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JIHLAVA 2017

The Ji.hlava IDFF kicks off its 21st edition

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- The biggest documentary hub in Central and Eastern Europe will once again present a diverse and dynamic programme of documentary films from the region and the entire world

The Ji.hlava IDFF kicks off its 21st edition
Enticing, Sugary, Boundless or Songs and Dances about Death by Tetiana Khodakivska and Oleksandr Stekolenko

From 24-29 October, Jihlava, the city on the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia, will once again become a mecca of documentary film thanks to the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, which this year will not shy away from the political situation in the country. While the gathering will open with a ceremony resembling a political rally, directed by renowned Czech theatre director Jiří Havelka, the organisers promise that the festival will be an “ideal post-election wellness resort”. Over six days, films will be screened in as many as ten competition sections, in addition to retrospectives and 15 non-competitive sections. The highlights include the new works by Petr Václav, André Valentim Almeida and Eric BaudelairePiotr Stasik and Péter Forgács. This year’s retrospective programmes will be dedicated to filmmakers such as Jean RouchShinsuke Ogawa and Marcel Ophuls, while the non-competitive sections encompass programmes as diverse as “Marriage Stories” by Czech documentarian Helena Třeštíková, movies about the cult of Lenin, the cinematic manifestation of Trump’s presidency in the USA, psychedelic films and the screening of FAMU’s recent cinematic output.

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As at previous editions of the festival, the “Between the Seas” programme section is dedicated to the countries and nations of Central and Eastern Europe, including their historical, political and cultural interrelationships. The alluringly entitled Enticing, Sugary, Boundless or Songs and Dances about Death [+see also:
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 by Tetiana Khodakivska and Oleksandr Stekolenko (Ukraine) is a collage of intimate portraits centred on the motive of death and a contemplation of life in relation to our own mortality. Acclaimed Polish director Piotr Stasik is presenting his Opera about Poland, another collage, but this time in the guise of a travelogue about Polish identity, which should resonate especially strongly because of the current political situation and the rise of nationalism in the country. In contrast, the Hungarian doc Picturesque Epochs [+see also:
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 by Péter Forgács is a journey through time, spanning 200 years of Hungarian history and leading us through different ages and concepts of painting, while the Ukrainian title This Is a War, Baby by Yurii Pupirin is an existential satire that transforms the scenes of fighting, ruin and destruction on the Donetsk front into a tragicomic parable of survival. 

A collection of Czech documentaries feature in the Czech Joy competition, which aims to present a diverse range of new topics and highlight the adventurous spirit of cinematic expression. Skokan [+see also:
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 by multiple award winner Petr Václav was partly shot at the Cannes Film Festival. A “documentary film with fairy-tale aspects”, it emphasises authenticity while telling the fictional tale of Skokan, whose story has mostly been improvised by real-life ex-con Julius Oračko. Among other entries, documentarian Jana Počtová will be presenting a study of the current structure of the family with Non-Parent [+see also:
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, while Czech society during the communist era will be ironically examined in Everything’s Gonna Be Fine by Robin Kvapil

The full line-up of the 21st Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival can be found here.

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