53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival: Tribute to Theo Angelopoulos

by Dimitris Ioannou

“For all of the difficulties, all the frustrations and hardships, filmmaking is, finally, a human adventure...” Theo Angelopoulos

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) is back and this year honours the great Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, who died on January this year on a road accident. The 53rd TIFF will take place from November 2 to 11, 2012 in the beautiful city of Thessaloniki, the second largest city of Greece.

Defying the European crisis, that the last few years has submerged Greece's economy into new levels, the Festival invites both filmmakers and audience to be there and support that big celebration of film. With a lower budget than other years, but without loosing a bit of it's quality, stands strong and dedicated, as always, to independent cinema. They promise a ten day event full of films from all over the world, cinematic surprises, distinguished guests, tributes, Master Classes, round table discussions and parallel events.

Holy Motors (2012) the provocative film of Leos Carax that divided the audience at the Cannes Film Festival this year, winning ultimately the Award of the Youth, will open the Festival at the cinema Olympion. The “weird” movie of the French filmmaker, starring among others Denis Lavant, Eva Mendes and the Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue, tells the story of a man named Oscar and his -from dawn till dusk- journey between multiple parallel lives in the center of a dreamy Paris. On the other hand, the film In Another Country (2012) by the Korean writer-director Hong Sang-soo, which will close the Festival, takes us on the Korean seaside town of Mohang where we find the amazing French actress Isabelle Huppert in a triple role. She plays three identically named French tourists who each visits the same resort for a different reason.

On the “International Competition” we have 15 movies competing for the Golden, Silver and Bronze Alexander, the top prizes of the Festival. The movies are: A Hijacking by Tobias Lindholm (Demark), A Month in Thailand by Paul Negoescu (Romania), Aqui u alla by Antonio Méndez  Espraza (Spain-USA-Mexico), Epilogue by Amir Manor (Israel), I Am Not a Hipster by Destin Daniel Cretton (USA), Kinshasa Kids by Marc-Henri Wajnberg (Belgium-France), Living by Vasily Sigarev (Russia), Loving by Sławomir Fabicki (Poland), Mold by Ali Aydin (Turkey-Germany), Our Little Differences by Sylvie Michel (Germany), Southwest by Eduardo Nunes (Brazil), Taboor by Vahid Vakilifar (Iran), The Color of the Chameleon by Emil Christov (Bulgaria) and two films from Greece, Boy Eating the Bird's Food by Ektoras Ligizos and Joy by Ilias Yannakakis.

The “Open Horizons” section divided in the core programme and the special screenings, include 50 films that where especially chosen by the director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Dimitris Eipides. The section itself focuses on works that represent the most recent trends in worldwide independent production, as well as thematically original, aesthetically challenging and socially minded films.

Among the films that comprise the “Open Horizons” section are Costas Gavras' newest film, Capital with Gabriel Byrne and Gad Elmaleh, Sergei Loznitsa’s second fiction feature, In the Fog, that won the FIPRESCI Award in the 2012 Cannes IFF, the first two films of a trilogy from the Austrian director Ulrich Seidl Paradise: Love and Paradise: Faith (Special Jury Prize in the 2012 Venice IFF), War Witch by Kim Nguyen with Rachel Mwanza who won the Silver Bear for lead actress at the 2012 Berlin IFF and the Best Actress and Best Narrative Feature Awards at the 2012 Tribeca IFF, and Dead Europe by Tony Krawitz based on the novel by Christos Tsiolkas, about a Greek-Australian man named Isaac, who is travelling to Europe to discover his family’s roots and uncover its secrets.

With renewed vision and films of all genres the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival embraces it's dark side and establishes a new section entitled “Night Views”. “Night Views” will focus on cinema that experiments with both form and content, breaks taboos, explores the darkest sides of human nature and defies mainstream concerns and conventions. This first year the Festival will showcase the work of two filmmakers, Greek Costas Zapas, with the films Uncut Family (2004), The Last Porn Movie (2006), Minor Freedoms (2008) and The Rebellion of Red Maria (2010), and Israeli Lior Shamriz with Japan Japan (2007), Saturn Returns (2009), Mirrors for Princes (2011), as well as his latest film, A Low Life Mythology (2012).

Like every year since 1994 when it first introduced, the “Balkan Survey” section of the TIFF, showcases a selection of the most important Balkan films of the year. Dimitris Kerkinos, the programme coordinator of this section, achieved to gather 13 films, both shorts and features, from Turkey, Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, among other countries. At the same time, a retrospective with the work of Christian Mungiu, one of the foremost representatives of the Romanian New Wave, will be shown at the Festival.

Except Mungiu's films, the work of three completely different but very charismatic and unique directors will be celebrated this year. Aki Kaurismaki (Finland), Bahman Ghobadi (Iran) and Andreas Dresen (Germany). The audience will have the chance to see eleven films by the Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, including the first feature film he ever made back in 1983 with title Crime and Punishment, as well as his latest film La Havre, for which he took the FIPRESCI Award and the Ecumenical Jury Special Mention at the 2011 Cannes IFF.

The Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi is coming with five films including his latest installment Rhino Season, which is inspired by the true story of a Kurdish poet who was imprisoned for three decades, starring Behrouz Vossoughi and Monica Bellucci as the poet and his wife.  Andreas Dresen who was born in East Germany, will present to the Greek audience a small selection of his work, including his newest film Stopped on Track, which is about a family man diagnosed with brain cancer. All four directors are invited to attend the event.

When it comes to the Greek section of the Festival, all words run out. Eleni Androutsopoulou, the programme coordinator, achieved to find 14 films “made in Greece” that cover all sectors of the New Greek cinema. Leaving out the two competing for the top awards, we have: 11 Meetings with my Father by Nikos Kornilios, A Ship to Palestine by Nikos Koundouros, A.C.A.B. All Cats Are Brilliant by Constantina Voulgari, Big Hit by Karolos Zonaras, Higuita by The Boy (aka Alexandros Voulgaris), Kame Koummando by Manolis Damianakis, Loveless Zoritsa by Christina Hadjicharalambours and Radoslav Pavković, Papadopoulos & Sons by Marcus Markou, Red City by Manos Cizek,  The Capsule by Athina Rachel Tsangari, The Telemachy by Alexander Nally and Yellow City by Savvas Katirtzidis.

Landscape in the Mist (1988), Voyage to Cythera (1984) and The Travelling Players (1975) are the three landmark films by Theodoros “Theo” Angelopoulos that the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival chose to screen, to honor the memory of the celebrated filmmaker, who died on January 24, 2012, after being involved in an accident, while he was shooting his latest film, the final part of a trilogy, (The Other Sea) in Athens. His films have been shown at the most important film festivals around the world. Although he has been nominated many times, he finaly won the Palme d'Or at the 51st Cannes Film Festival in 1998 for the movie Eternity and a Day.  He shot his first feature film in 1970 with the title Reconstruction.

Thomas Elsaesser, Professor Emeritus of Film and Television Studies at the University of Amsterdam and Visiting Professor at Yale University for the last six years, will be the President of this years jury committee. Mr. Elsaesser will join the famous Denish director Ole Christian Madsen, Laufey Gudjonsdottir founding director of the Icelandic Film Centre in 2003, João Pedro Rodrigues, film director from Portugal and Greek cinematographer Thymios Bakatakis, known for his work with Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsaggari, in their multi-award winning movies Dogtooth (2009) and Attenberg (2010).

150 movies will be screened throughout the Festival and all of them with one common interest. The human being. All the filmmakers above, achieved one way or antoher to tell stories of the common people. Like us. People in love, people in pain, people who struggle everyday for a better tomorrow. After all, the best movies are based on true stories.