The 32nd edition of the International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava (19-25 March) returns with a programme that delves into contemporary social and political themes. This year’s thematic focus, Distorted Reality, extends beyond present-day issues to examine the cultural landscape of the 1990s. The festival’s documentary selection and retrospectives address historical shifts and ideological confrontations. The In the Heart of Europe competitions continue to highlight cinema from the Visegrad countries, Austria and Ukraine, encompassing fiction, documentary and short-film contests. Meanwhile, the Fiction Competition presents films that engage with personal transformation, societal constraints and existential dilemmas. Among the titles selected in the latter strand is After Party [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vojtěch Strakatý
scheda film] by Vojtěch Strakatý (Czech Republic), in which a young woman’s carefree summer is disrupted by her father’s financial ruin. Bálint Szimler’s Lesson Learned [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Bálint Szimler
scheda film] (Hungary) portrays ideological clashes in the educational system, while Bernhard Wenger’s Peacock [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Bernhard Wenger
scheda film] (Austria/Germany) offers a darkly humorous perspective on a man who builds his identity around the expectations of others.

The Documentary Competition brings together works that explore personal reinvention, shifting identities, and the tension between past and present. Happiness to All [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Filip Remunda
scheda film] by Filip Remunda (Czech Republic/Netherlands) follows a Russian vlogger’s ideological transformation, Marie Dvořáková’s World Between Us [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Czech Republic/Slovakia) traces a Czech artist’s pursuit of the American Dream, while Maria Stoianova’s Fragments of Ice [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Ukraine/Norway) reconstructs a Soviet figure skater’s vision of paradise through rediscovered home videos.

The Short Film Competition offers a diverse selection of fiction, documentary and animation exploring themes of love, trauma and war. Among the competition shorts are Agnieszka Nowosielska’s Ave Eva (Poland), a reflection on longing and societal norms; Rebeka Bizubová’s Confession (Slovakia), a personal reckoning with sexual harassment in the church; and Damian Kosowski’s People & Things (Poland), a meditation on loss and uncertainty in the aftermath of war.

The festival maintains its longstanding collaboration with the Visegrad Film Forum (see the news), reinforcing its role as a hub for Central European cinema. “As in previous years, audiences can experience a remarkable synergy between Febiofest Bratislava and the Visegrad Film Forum, particularly through exclusive master classes,” says festival president Peter Dubecký. Programme director Ondrej Starinský adds: “We are honoured that this collaboration will allow us to open the festival with a keynote by distinguished Romanian producer Ada Solomon.”

The festival’s industry strand, Bratislava Industry Days, once again features the Works in Progress initiative (read the 2024 industry report), showcasing upcoming Slovak films. This year’s selection includes Duchoň, Peter Bebjak’s biopic of Slovak crooner Karol Duchoň; Denis Dobrovoda’s documentary The Consequences of Truth, on Slovak Jewish hero Alfred Wetzler, who warned the world about Nazi extermination camps; and Anna Ďurišíková and Andrej Koleničík’s coming-of-age drama Animals of the East. For the first time, the Works in Progress initiative has been expanded to include international projects, among which were selected Books Are Our Weapons by Máté Konkol (Hungary), Katarzyna Trzaska’s Against the Grain (Poland) and Soft Hours, a psychological drama by Anna Gyimesi, co-produced by Hungary and Slovakia.

The full line-up is available to peruse here.