Today, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF, 11-27 November) announced the programme of the inaugural edition of its Critics’ Picks strand, running from 17-25 November. The brand-new section will include 16 films, with ten world and three international premieres. Three films will be presented out of competition, including a gala screening of Kim Ki-duk’s posthumous effort, Call of God [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Kyrgyzstan/Estonia/Lithuania). According to the official press release, the sidebar “serves to highlight and celebrate a curated selection of powerful and artistically outstanding works which might otherwise be overlooked in PÖFF’s broader programme”.

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The programming team is spearheaded by Nikolaj Nikitin, head of SOFA School of Film Advancement. Speaking about his curatorial work, he said: “I was not prepared for the amazing, diverse, excellent level and quality of films we had to choose from – it was easy in a way but, in another way, incredibly difficult to make the final selection. It’s a huge pleasure to join the Black Nights family, and it’s been an honour to curate this competition with my own PÖFF debut. I feel privileged and very honoured, especially as 13 outstanding titles are just a lucky number to start with, and our opener, Roxy [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Dito Tsindsadze
scheda film] [a German-Georgian-Belgian co-production directed by Dito Tsintsadze], a genius and genuine genre thriller, clearly proves that European auteurs don’t have to hide behind Hollywood’s back.”

Meanwhile, festival director Tiina Lokk added: “The Critics’ Picks competition programme solves a challenge that our programme team has been encountering for many years: brilliant arthouse films that are unfortunately often lost in the mix of our fast-growing line-up and large-scale international festivals. It’s essential to our mission as a festival to create structures to introduce films of all shapes, colours and sizes to our audience. The critics who have put together this new programme have succeeded in selecting some uniquely compelling and engaging features. I can’t wait to introduce them to wider audiences this November.”

The closing film will be Karaoke by Moshe Rosenthal (Israel), a comedy about a married middle-class suburban couple in their 60s who are drawn to their new neighbour, a charismatic bachelor who has karaoke evenings in his flat. Among the European highlights are Marko Šantić’s drama on memory loss Wake Me [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Marko Šantić
scheda film] (Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia); Vincenzo Pirrotta’s The Bone Breakers [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Vincenzo Pirrotta
scheda film] (Italy), premiered in Venetian Nights and based on the story of a group of criminals breaking the arms and legs of consenting victims in order to fake car crashes and defraud insurance companies; and Carol Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Carol Morley
scheda film] (UK), revolving around the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation.

Here is the list of the selected titles:

Critics’ Picks – In Competition

Roxy [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Dito Tsindsadze
scheda film] – Dito Tsintsadze (Germany/Georgia/Belgium)
Typist Artist Pirate King [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Carol Morley
scheda film] – Carol Morley (UK)
Conversations on Hatred [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] – Vera Fogwill (Spain/Argentina)
About Us But Not About Us – Jun Robles Lana (Philippines)
The Rise & Fall of Comrade Zylo [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Fatmir Koci
scheda film] – Fatmir Koçi (Albania)
Wake Me [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Marko Šantić
scheda film] – Marko Šantić (Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia)
The Chambermaid [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Mariana Čengel Solčanská e…
scheda film] – Mariana Čengel Solčanská (Slovakia)
Suna [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] – Çigdem Sezgin (Turkey/Spain/Bulgaria)
In the Morning of la Petite Mort – Yu-Lin Wang (Taiwan)
A Childless Village – Reza Jamali (Iran)
The Good Person – Eitan Anner (Israel)
The Young Arsonists – Sheila Pye (Canada)
The Bone Breakers [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Vincenzo Pirrotta
scheda film] – Vincenzo Pirrotta (Italy)

Critics’ Picks – Out of Competition

Sparta [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] – Ulrich Seidl (Austria/Germany/France)
Call of God [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Kim Ki-duk (Kyrgyzstan/Estonia/Lithuania)
Karaoke – Moshe Rosenthal (Israel)