With 16 new award-winning films featured, cinema-lovers are in for a treat at the 10th European Film Festival from 12-22 October.
To enjoy the full cinema experience the festival has scheduled one screening of each film at Ster- Kinekor The Zone, Rosebank, Johannesburg, and The Labia, Cape Town with five films being screened at Ster-Kinekor Gateway Durban. Eleven of the films will also be available online.
The films are:
- 20,000 SPECIES OF BEES (Spain) by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren focuses on the gradual transitioning of an eight-year-old child who asks “How come everyone knows who they are and I don’t?”.
- Cannes Palm d’Or winner, ANATOMY OF A FALL (France) is an astonishingly well-written and directed “court-room drama” by Justine Triet.
- AS IN HEAVEN (Denmark) by director Tea Lindeburg, takes place in turn-of-the-century rural.
- Denmark, highlighting woman-centred experiences that remain just as relevant today.
- The Oscar-nominated CLOSE (Belgium) by Lukas Dhont is a sensitive portrayal of how the pressures of masculinity shatters the innocent friendship of two 13-year old boys.
- The Oscar-nominated film EO (Poland), directed by the legendary Jerzy Skolimowski, is a beguiling and often harrowing tale of life seen from a donkey’s perspective.
- Barbara Kulcsar’s feel-good comedy GOLDEN YEARS (Switzerland) shows that coming-of-age can come at any time.
- GOODBYE JULIA (African-European co-production) directed by Mohamed Kordofani, and winner of the Cannes Freedom Award, tells of the friendship between two women who represent the complicated relationship and differences between northern and southern Sudan.
- Petr Václav’s sumptuous IL BOEMO (THE BOHEMIAN) is a special treat for music lovers about 18th-century composer Josef Mysliveček who was admired by Mozart, but forgotten by history.
- MAVKA – THE FOREST SONG (Ukraine), by directors Oleh Malamuzh and Oleksandra Ruban, is the highest-grossing Ukrainian film ever. This uplifting animated story touches on themes of love, trust, and the coexistence of people and forest creatures.
- MIKADO (Romania), directed by Emanuel Pârvu, is a fast-paced drama about power dynamics in a Romanian family.
- Zornitsa Sophia’s MOTHER starts out with a theatre director in Bulgaria struggling to come to terms with her inability to have a child and progresses to her discovering a new and culturally challenging kind of motherhood in Kenya.
- Martijn de Jong’s NARCOSIS (Netherlands), a deeply touching story about love, loss, and acceptance, won four Golden Calf awards at the Netherlands Film Festival.
- José Miguel Ribeiro’s animated film NAYOLA (Portugal) is about three generations of women plagued by the long civil war in Angola.
- THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS (Italy) is a compelling journey of friendship and self-discovery directed by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen.
- THE OLD OAK (UK) by legendary filmmaker Ken Loach is an incisive social drama focussed on a North England village and the tension between locals and Syrian refugees.
- THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE (Germany) directed by İlker Çatak, is a gripping film about a lot of things — conformity, rebellion, racism, optics, and intergenerational mistrust.
Filmmaker engagements, community centre, and schools’ programmes will deepen the festival’s reach, while the countrywide online programme of free screenings will run concurrently during the festival. The festival will also present events at the Alliance Française in Eswatini (20-22 October) and Lesotho (20 – 29 October).
Visit www.eurofilmfest.co.za for more information, to book or to watch online.