“
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.
by Dimitris Ioannou
