33rd Cottbus Film Festival begins: 17 world premieres included
Cottbus will once again be a meeting point for many film fans over the next few days. This year, the 33rd Festival of Eastern European Film in Brandenburg's second-largest city will feature 17 world premieres and 59 German premieres. From Tuesday until the weekend, a total of around 150 films from 40 countries will be screened in eight venues. The festival cinemas are connected by blue lines, the old town is already bathed in blue light for the show. Prizes totaling almost 70,000 euros will be awarded in the three competition categories of feature film, short film and youth film.
"This year's competition is more diverse than ever before," said program director Bernd Buder. "We are showing films ranging from the political thriller "Libertate" by Tudor Giurgiu, which is based on true events and traces the events during the fall of the Ceauşescu regime in Romania, to the kung fu comedy "The invisible fight" by Rainer Sarnet, in which flying monks cause quite a stir in the life of a heavy metal fan."
World premieres include the film "Clara" by Romanian director Sabin Dorohoi and "The Well" by Rufat Ray from Azerbaijan.
The festival will open on Tuesday evening with the film "Bei uns heißt sie Hanka" by Grit Lemke. The Lusatian author ("Kinder von Hoy") looks at the Sorbian present between Lower and Upper Lusatia, traditional costume clichés and rap music. Her documentary is an authentic inside view, Lemke comes across stories of repressed identity, defiant self-assertion, denial and re-appropriation in her search for her own origins, explained Buder.
As in the previous year, the Saturday of the festival (11.11.) will be dedicated to Ukraine: admission to the screenings of many Ukrainian films is free on presentation of a Ukrainian passport. "Ukrainian cinema continues to be one of the most creative film landscapes in Europe," said the program director. "We are showing coming-of-age films, a comedy about homophobia, films about traumatic war experiences and also a Hitchcock-style thriller about the Soviet era."
On Sunday (November 12), the short film "The Boy" - a tribute to the Israeli filmmaker Yahav Winner - will be screened. According to a festival spokeswoman, Winner was killed by Hamas terrorists during attacks in a kibbutz. The short film is about an approaching war and will be shown in the Cottbus Stadthalle in the evening.
One focus of this year's festival is the film country Kazakhstan. "Close up" shows films from a country that, geopolitically located between the Russian Federation and China, is searching for its own identity," it said.
Attendees looking forward to the festival can anticipate watching numerous films, as 17 movie premieres are part of this year's event. The Cottbus Movie Festival is not just about new releases; it also includes 59 German premieres, totaling around 150 films from 40 countries being screened.
Cinephiles attending the festival may find themselves chuckling at the kung fu comedy "The invisible fight" by Rainer Sarnet, a movie that creates quite a stir with its flying monks and heavy metal fan protagonist.
Source: www.dpa.com
