EFP ScrEEningS oF AcAdEmy AwArd EntriES From EuroPE

EFP Screenings of Academy Award ®
Entries from Europe
© SeanPavonePhoto - Fotolia.com
22 films submitted in the BEST FOREIGN
LANGUAGE FILM category
October 29 - November 10, 2014
Wilshire Screening Room, Beverly Hills
European Film Promotion invites you to the screenings of 22 films
submitted in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the
87th Academy Awards®.
SCREENING ADDRESS
Wilshire Screening Room
8670 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills
Free parking available
European Film Promotion
Hamburg, Germany
+49 40 390 6252
www.efp-online.com
Jo Mühlberger
Project Director
[email protected]
+49 170 800 4156
Tatiana Detlofson
LA publicist
[email protected]
+1 310 260 2800
Please RSVP for the individual screenings to
[email protected]
editors: Jo Mühlberger, Kristina Timmermann. design: Nanke Siemon
Contact during AFM
EFP Umbrella Office
Loews Hotel #863
+1 310 458 6700 ext. 863
SCREENING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, October 29
6:30 PM
Italy: HUMAN CAPITAL by Paolo Virzì (110 min)
8:30 PM Luxembourg: NEVER DIE YOUNG by Pol Cruchten (66 min)
Thursday, October 30
6:30 PM Denmark: SORROW AND JOY by Nils Malmros (107 min)
8:30 PM Spain: LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED by David Trueba (108 min)
Friday, October 31
5:00 PM FYRo Macedonia: TO THE HILT by Stole Popov (165 min)
Saturday, November 1
3:30 PM Poland: IDA by Paweł Pawlikowski (80 min)
6:00 PM Serbia: SEE YOU IN MONTEVIDEO by Dragan Bjelogrlic (146 min)
Sunday, November 2
3:30 PM Greece: LITTLE ENGLAND by Pantelis Voulgaris (132 min)
6:30 PM Croatia: COWBOYS by Tomislav Mršić (107 min)
Monday, November 3
6:30 PM Czech Republic: FAIR PLAY by Andrea Sedláčková (100 min)
8:30 PM Iceland: LIFE IN A FISHBOWL by Baldvin Zophoníasson (130 min)
Tuesday, November 4
6:30 PM Finland: CONCRETE NIGHT by Pirjo Honkasalo (96 min) followed by Q&A with the director and the producer
8:30 PM Bulgaria: BULGARIAN RHAPSODY by Ivan Nitchev (108 min)
Thursday, November 6
6:30 PM Norway: 1001 GRAMS by Bent Hamer (93 min) followed by Q&A with the director
8:30 PM Estonia: TANGERINES by Zaza Urushadze (87 min) followed by Q&A with the director and the producer
Friday, November 7
5:00 PM The Netherlands: ACCUSED by Paula van der Oest (97 min) followed by Q&A with the director
Saturday, November 8
3:30 PM Germany: BELOVED SISTERS by Dominik Graf (170 min) followed by Q&A with actors
7:00 PM Lithuania: THE GAMBLER by Ignas Jonynas (109 min) followed by Q&A with the lead actress
Sunday, November 9
3:30 PM Montenegro: THE KIDS FROM THE MARX AND ENGELS STREET by Nikola Vukčević (95 min)
followed by Q&A with the director and the producer
6:30 PM Kosovo*: Three WINDOWS AND A HANGING by Isa Qosja (93 min) followed by Q&A with the producer
Monday, November 10
7:00 PM Romania: THE JAPANESE DOG by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (90 min)
9:00 PM Slovak Republic: A STEP INTO THE DARK by Miloslav Luther (120 min) followed by Q&A with the lead actor and the cinematographer
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
HUMAN CAPITAL
Italy
Directed by
Paolo Virzì
Wednesday, October 29 at 6:30 pm
HUMAN CAPITAL
(Il capitale umano)
Italy
Directed by Paolo Virzì
Synopsis
Human Capital begins at the end, as a cyclist is run off the road by a careening SUV the night before
Christmas Eve. As details emerge of the events leading up to the accident, the lives of the well-to-do
Bernaschi family, privileged and detached, will intertwine with the Ossolas, struggling to keep their
comfortable middle-class life, in ways neither could have expected. Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio),
in dire financial straits, anticipates the birth of twins with his second wife (Valeria Golino). Meanwhile,
Dino’s teenage daughter’s relationship with hedge-fund manager Giovanni Bernaschi’s playboy son
complicates an already tricky social dance of status, money and ambition.
Director’s Statement
This project began first and foremost as a real “love affair” with the wonderful novel by Stephen
Amidon, Human Capital, set in an affluent Connecticut suburb in the last decade. Those characters,
and that story, seemed emblematic of our times, even in Italy: a wealth that doesn’t come from
work, but from the most ruthless of financial speculation; the dashed hopes of climbing the social
ladder; the anxiety that money causes; a generation of young people forced to pay a higher price
for happiness, because of the fitful ambitions of their parents, or their own frustrations. The story
of Drew Hagel—the restless real estate agent who takes advantage of his daughter’s presumed
relationship with the son of a wealthy broker to try and join the board of an aggressive investment
fund—immediately struck a chord. It seemed written just for us, to express a state of affairs that
concerns us all. So we made it an Italian story, the story of Dino Ossola, a real estate agent, who’s
enrolled his daughter Serena in a prestigious prep school he can barely afford. We immersed that
mosaic of stories and characters in today’s North Italian Provence, a region straddling the border
of wealth and desperation.
We decided to structure the plot like a real thriller, with a dead body on our hands from the very
first scene: a cyclist hit on an icy winter’s night, on the eve of the Christmas holidays. Tracing the
steps of the various characters, the entire film retells the story of what happened that night, piece
by piece, showing how that accident could change each of their lives.
Mainly, however, it tells the story of how money—the angst of multiplying it, the anxiety of losing
it—determines the relationships, the fates, and the worth of the people it touches.
Director
Paolo Virzì
Screenplay
Paolo Virzì, Francesco Bruni, Francesco
Piccolo, from the novel by Stephen Amidon
Main cast
Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Golino, Valeria
Bruni Tedeschi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Luigi Lo Cascio
Production
Company Indiana Production Company, Italy
Co- prod.
Country France
Crime/Thriller
Genre
Language Italian 2014
Year
Length 110 min
www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=372
Contact
US-Distributor
Film Movement
New York
+1 212 9417 744
[email protected]
www.filmmovement.com
International Sales
BAC FILMS
Paris, France
+33 1 53 53 52 52
[email protected]
www.bacfilms.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Istituto Luce Cinecittà
Annabella Nucara
Rome, Italy
+39 06 722861
[email protected]
www.filmitalia.org
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Athens International Film Festival - Opening Nights 2014: Premiere
• Chicago International Film Festival 2014: Main Competition
• Cinéalma - L’âme de la méditerranée 2014
• David di Donatello 2014: Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Valeria Golino), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Fabrizio Gifuni), Best Editing, Best Sound (Roberto Mozzarelli)
• Filmfest München 2014: Spotlight
• Flanders International Film Festival Ghent 2014: Gala
• Globi d‘Oro 2014: Best Film
• Jerusalem International Film Festival 2014: Gala
• Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014: Horizons
• Motovun Film Festival 2014: Main program
• New Zealand International Film Festival 2014
• Seattle International Film Festival 2014: Contemporary World Cinema
• Sydney Film Festival 2014
• The Norwegian Int‘l Film Festival - Haugesund 2014: Main Programme
• Tribeca Film Festival 2014: World Narrative Competition - Best Actress
• Vancouver International Film Festival 2014: Cinema of Our Time
NEVER DIE YOUNG
Luxembourg
Directed by
Pol Cruchten
Wednesday, October 29 at 8:30 pm
NEVER DIE
YOUNG
Luxembourg
Directed by Pol Cruchten
(NEVER DIE YOUNG)
Synopsis
Guido is born in Pétange/Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg on December 7th, 1959. At the age of 12, he
is sent to a boarding school in Arlon/Belgium for three long years. His return to Pétange marks the
beginning of his downward spiral. He starts selling heroin to pay for his own consumption and is
rapidly confronted with the justice department. The occurrence marking his life forever occurs when
he‘s 20 years old. Trying to escape from a police department, where he was just brought to, Guido
throws himself head first off an eight-meter high wall. He miraculously survives the fall, but remains
paralyzed for the rest of his life. At the re-education center, despite the wheelchair he‘s stuck to day
after day, his addiction remains as lively as ever.
Contact
International Sales
Eastwest Filmdistribution
Austria
Sasha Wieser
+43 6642338411
[email protected]
www.eastwest-distribution.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Film Fund Luxembourg
Françoise Lentz
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
+352 2478 2179
[email protected]
www.filmfund.lu
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Lëtzebuerger Filmpräis 2014 – Best Documentary
Director
Pol Cruchten
Screenplay
Pol Cruchten
Main cast
Robinson Stévenin (male voice),
Laurence Côte (female voice)
Production
Company Genre
Language
Year
Length
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo0RgluOYoI
Red Lion, Luxembourg
Docu-Fiction
French 2014
66 min
SORROW AND JOY
Denmark
Directed by
Nils Malmros
Thursday, October 30 at 6:30 pm
SORROW AND JOY
(SORG OG GLÆDE)
Denmark
Directed by Nils Malmros
Synopsis
In SORROW AND JOY filmmaker Johannes and his wife, Signe experience the biggest sorrow one
can ever imagine when Signe kills their 9-month-old daughter. In the midst of all the hopelessness
Johannes has to fight the legal system to secure his wife the lightest possible sentence and at the
same time try to reach out to her in order to continue life after death.
Contact
International Sales
Trust Nordisk
Hvidovre, Denmark Lena Juhl Seidelin
+45 3686 8703
[email protected]
www.trustnordisk.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Director Nils Malmros is one of Danish films most significant auteurs - SORROW AND JOY is his most
personal film to date and chronicles tragic events from his own life.
Director’s Statement
My own adolescence has formed the basis of my films describing the loss of innocence and coming
of age. They circle around unrequited and unhappy love. With my new film I want to tell a story of
how to reach a mutual and mature love through immense sorrow and joy. It may sound grand, but
I certainly feel that my words are justified.
Nils Malmros 2013
Danish Film Institute
Christian Juhl Lemche
Copenhagen, Denmark
+45 33 74 3400
[email protected]
www.dfi.dk
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Edinburg International Film Festival
• Rome International Film Festival
Director
Nils Malmros
Screenplay
Nils Malmros, John Mogensen
Main cast
Jakob Cedergren, Helle Fagralid, Nicolas Bro,
Ida Dwinger
trustnordisk.com/film/2013-sorrow-and-joy
Production
Company Nordisk Film Production A/S,
Denmark
Drama
Genre
Language Danish 2013
Year
Length 107 min
Living Is Easy With
Eyes Closed
Spain
Directed by
David Trueba
Thursday, October 30 at 8:30 pm
Living Is Easy
With Eyes Closed
Spain
Directed by David Trueba
(Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados)
Synopsis
Spain, 1966: Antonio (Javier Cámara) is a teacher and a Beatles fan – facets he combines by getting his
pupils to recite the lyrics from “Help” in English class. When he learns that his idol John Lennon is making
a film in Almería (Richard Lester’s “How I Won The War”) he resolves to meet him. On the journey he picks
up two young runaways: Belén, a pregnant girl fleeing a convent, and Juanjo, a boy escaping a dictatorial
father.
Director’s Statement
The backdrop for Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed is sixties’ Spain: grey, contradictory, dictatorship-driven.
Its older citizens are still conditioned by a civil-war past while the new, younger generation craves for
moral and social freedom. This contrast is especially pronounced in the southern part of the country; for
instance, the severely impoverished province of Almería, where the first waves of massive tourism and
foreign super film productions clash with delays and local limitations.
In this setting, John Lennon’s arrival in Spain to participate in Richard Lester’s How I Won the War,
brightens the mood of a segment of the youth population, symbolizing as he does freedom, a new
morality and progress. The Lennon who arrives to Spain is a Lennon in crisis. He has just released his
troubles-induced Help. Uncertain about the future of the Beatles, experimenting with drugs and at the
brink of a personal and professional divorce, Almería offers Lennon a chance isolate to himself and reflect.
It is an introspective period in which his songs reveal a hitherto unknown intimate side, drawing on
childhood memories and his later frustrations, many of which originate with the conflicting facets of
sweeping success. Musical history notes that during his stay in Almería, Lennon composed one of his
most personal pieces, Strawberry Fields Forever. Lennon is not the protagonist in this story; he is rather
an unreachable icon, a symbol… The protagonists, in reality, are the three characters who belong to
that Spain of the sixties: a demanding and dynamic English teacher, who suspects that social reform is
more the product of personal ambition than political planning, a person who allows himself to be swept
away by enthusiasm and desire; and two young people who, in different ways, struggle with prevailing
social frustrations and the idea that others can govern their destinies. The three characters represent
three types of rebellion against the established order. They are not historical characters but anonymous
individuals who by waging personal battles, both intimately and zealously, contributed to social change
in their country. They are the true agents of a change brought about by atypical, non-traditional heroes.
Director
David Trueba Screenplay
David Trueba
Main cast
Javier Cámara, Natalia de Molina,
Francesc Colomer
Production
Company
Genre
Language
Year
Length
Fernando Trueba P.C., S.A., Spain
Comedy-Drama
Spanish 2013
108 min
www.livingiseasywitheyesclosed.com www.livingiseasywitheyesclosed.com/trailer.html
Contact
US-Distributor
Outsider Pictures
Santa Monica
+1 310 393 4190
[email protected]
www.outsiderpictures.us
International Sales
6 Sales
Spain
Marina Fuentes
+34 91 172 37 34
[email protected]
www.6sales.es
in cooperation with and supported by
ICAA (Spain)
Rafael Cabrera
Madrid, Spain
+34 91 701 7259
[email protected]
www.mcu.es/cine/index
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• San Sebastian Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival
• Göteborg International Film Festival
• Festival Internacional de Cine de Punta del Este
• The Prague International Film Festival
• Espoo Ciné International Film Festival
• International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
To The Hilt
FYRo Macedonia
Directed by
Stole Popov
Friday, October 31 at 5:00 pm
To The Hilt
(DO BALCAK)
FYRo Macedonia
Directed by Stole Popov
Synopsis
Macedonia, a small country at the heart of the Balkans, which was under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire
for five centuries, provides the setting for To the Hilt in the years of general collapse and „free fall“ after
the Macedonian uprising of 1903 and its bloody suppression. The story is a complex quadrangle between
an uncompromising, idealist rebel, a merciless Turkish officer, an opportunist rich man‘s son returning
home after his studies in Europe, and a lucid and open-minded European woman, who flirts with the
three men and triggers a series of events with dire and unforeseeable consequences. The characters go
through turbulent collisions resulting in cathartic experiences and a new self-awareness as the story
brings the paradoxes and absurdities of Macedonian history to boiling-point.
Director’s Statement
The film is a harsh and romantic story in which the eternal Macedonian history quest for identity and
independence is viewed through the prism of the relative notions of freedom, justice, love, sacrifice
and treason. Caught in a trap, one of the characters declares his radical philosophy: “Fuck life if you
aren’t ready to die for it!” It is an unusual story, dated more than a hundred years ago, but appears very
modern, ongoing and provocative considering the fatally cycled repetition of history, full of emotions
and fierce passion.
The aspect of open-ended relation Islam – Christianity makes “To the Hilt” very interesting for
contemporary viewers all around the world.
Director
Stole Popov
Screenplay
Goran Stefanovski
Main cast
Inti Sraj, Martin Jordanovski, Sashko Kocev,
Toni Mihajlovski
Drama, fiction, historial
Genre
Language Macedonian, French, English, Turkish
2014
Year
Length 165 min
stolepopov.com/production/to-the-hilt/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=35q1sKuUypw
Contact
Production Company
Triangle Film
Skopje, Macedonia
Dancho Chevrevski
+ 389 75 204 767; +389 70 244 977
[email protected]
[email protected]
in cooperation with and supported by
Macedonian Film Agency
Darko Basheski
Skopje, Macedonia
+389 2 3224 100
[email protected]
www.filmfund.gov.mk
Ida
Poland
Directed by
Paweł Pawlikowski
Saturday, November 1 at 3:30 pm
IDA
(IDA)
Poland
Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
Synopsis
Poland 1962. Anna is a novice, an orphan brought up by nuns in the convent. She has to see Wanda,
the only living relative, before she takes her vows. Wanda tells Anna that Anna is Jewish. Both women
start a journey not only to find their family tragic story, but who they really are and where they belong.
They question their religions and ideas they believed in. Both are trying to go on living but only one of
them can.
Director’s Statement
IDA is a film about identity, family, faith, guilt, socialism and music. I wanted to make a film about history,
which wouldn’t feel like a historical film; a film which is moral, but has no lessons to offer; I wanted to
tell a story in which ‘everyone has their reasons’; a story closer to poetry than plot. Most of all, I wanted
to steer clear of the usual rhetoric of the Polish cinema. The Poland in IDA is shown by an ‘outsider’ with
no axe to grind, filtered through personal memory and emotion, the sounds and images of childhood.
Contact
US-Distributor
Music Box Films
Chicago
+1 312 241 1320
[email protected]
www.musicboxfilms.com
International Sales
Portobello Film Sales Copenhagen, Denmark Christian Falkenberg Husum
+45 4037 3908 [email protected]
in cooperation with and supported by
Polish Film Institute
Olga Domżała
Warsaw, Poland
+48 22 4210 497
[email protected]
www.pisf.pl
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Winner London Film Festival 2013
• Winner Critics Prize – Toronto 2013
• Winner Warsaw Film Festival 2013
• Winner Golden Lion Gdynia Film Festival 2013
• Winner ASC Spotlight Award 2013
Director
Paweł Pawlikowski
Screenplay
Paweł Pawlikowski, Rebeca Lenkiewicz
Main cast
Agata Trzebuchowska , Agata Kulesza,
Dawid Ogrodnik
www.ida-movie.com
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Country Genre
Language
Year
Length
Opus Film, Poland
Denmark
Drama
Polish 2013
80 min
SEE YOU IN MONTEVIDEO
Serbia
Directed by
Dragan Bjelogrlic
Saturday, November 1 at 6:00 pm
SEE YOU IN
MONTEVIDEO
Serbia
Directed by Dragan Bjelogrlic
(MONEVIDEO VIDIMO SE)
Synopsis
A tale of how Yugoslavia’s football team took part in the 1st world cup in Montevideo, in 1930. Inspired by
true events, a football saga that continues in Uruguay’s capital where Yugoslavia’s team finds itself among
strong opponents. An underdog team, a team that no one believes in, draws as an opponent Brazil’s
national team. Lead by a vision, the Yugoslavian boys, with perseverance and enthusiasm, manage to
surprise the global sports scene, as well as a meddling and notorious talent scout.
Director’s Statement
“When we started working on film, in front of us a whole new and wonderful world started to unfold. A
world of simple people who regarded themselves as ordinary, not realizing that they were everything but
ordinary. We found ourselves in a time in which romance was a way of life and chivalry the foundation
of behavior.
Following the football traces, we discovered a magical force. In a time when playing sports was a privilege
of the upper class, “the new game in shorts” came over the little people from the margins. And those, to
whom most earthly benefits were out of reach, embraced this game, recognizing not only their heroes in
it but hope, obtainable by all.
We tell the tale about all those things… In a kind of tale that we all love to watch since we can’t all live
in it…”
Director
Dragan Bjelogrlic
Screenplay
Ranko Bozic, Dimitrije Vojnov,
Dragan Bejlogrlic
Main cast
Miloš Biković, Petar Strugar, Armand Assante,
Viktor Savić, Elena Martínez
www.montevideoproject.com
http://vimeo.com/92920752
Genre
Language
Year
Length
Historical Melodrama
Serbian, English, Spanish, French
2014
146 min
Contact
Production Company
Intermedia Network
Belgrade, Serbia
Katarina Radojkovic
+38 1631043394
[email protected]
www.intermedianetwork.rs
in cooperation with and supported by
Film Center Serbia
Miroljub Vučković
Belgrade, Serbia
+381 11 262 5131
[email protected]
www.fcs.rs
Little England
Greece
Directed by
Pantelis Voulgaris
Sunday, November 2 at 3:30 pm
Little
England
Greece
Directed by Pantelis Voulgaris
(MIKRA AGGLIA)
Synopsis
1930s, Andros, a Greek island. 20-year-old Orsa is passionately in love with sailor Spyros Maltabes. Orsa
won’t reveal her secret to anyone, not even to her sister Moscha. A free spirit, Moscha wants to escape
the dictates of local tradition: women marrying sailors and spending their lives in loneliness. The girls’
mother, Mina, the shrewd wife of captain Savvas, is at the helm of the family. Her priority is to marry
off her daughters to wealthy husbands. She turns down Spyros’ marriage proposal for Orsa, as he comes
from a humble background; Orsa marries Nikos Vatokouzis, a captain and ship owner. After several years,
Spyros returns to the island as an accomplished captain and marries Moscha. In the wake of World War II,
suppressed feelings are rekindled and cruel games of fate reveal secrets, leading to devastation.
Director’s Statement
I have been making stories for almost 50 years. Most of all I was inspired by human stories. Tales of
existence. Of seamen who are tossed about the oceans, of women tortured by the waves of loneliness.
Ioanna Karystiani’s novel “Little England” has a strong storyline with twists and vibrant female and male
characters, a particular insight on a specific era, the social conditions, the human adventure.
Director
Pantelis Voulgaris
Screenplay
Ioanna Karystiani
Main cast
Penelope Tsilika, Sofia Kokkali, Andreas
Konstantinou, Maximos Moumouris
Production
Company
Genre
Language
Year
Length
Mikra Agglia SA, Greece
Drama
Greek 2013
132 min
mikraaggliafilm.gr
www.facebook.com/MikraAggliaFilm
vimeo.com/twothirtyfive/review/104484485/2a3ee9b4ab
Contact
International Sales
Mikra Agglia SA
Athens, Greece
Katerina Helioti
+30 210 4580311
[email protected]
in cooperation with and supported by
Greek Film Centre
Stavroula Geronimaki
Athens, Greece
+30 210 367 8530
[email protected]
www.gfc.gr
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• 17th Shanghai International Film Festival 2014: Golden Goblet Awards for Best Feature Film, Best Director & Best Actress
• Hellenic Film Academy Awards: Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Make-up, Sound mixing
• 38th Montreal World Film Festival: Participation in the “World Greats” section
• Euphoria Film Festival Los Angeles: Honorary Screening
Cowboys
Croatia
Directed by
Tomislav Mršić
Sunday, November 2 at 6:30 pm
Cowboys
(Kauboji)
Croatia
Directed by Tomislav Mršić
Synopsis
All the world‘s a stage, but only some can be cowboys.
Sasha, a successful theatre director, has been offered the opportunity to re-start a neglected local theater
in his home town, which is a challenge as the city has no actors. When the theater schedules auditions for
a new show, only inexperienced candidates show up. The director and his new ensemble of misfits decide
to base their play on classic Hollywood Westerns, their only common ground. As the actors embrace
the stereotypes of the genre – the fight between good and evil, the clash between civilization and the
wilderness – they develop their stories. Breaking every rule of stagecraft, as time passes they start to view
the play as a metaphor for their own destinies, and grasp it as the opportunity of a lifetime.
Director’s Statement
“Cowboys“ was by the most part inspired by the stage hit, in which eight outsiders are trying to make a
musical. The universal dramaturgical framework (template) for the story of a man fighting with himself,
and the protagonists of the play develop their life stories and in doing so inevitably affect each other.
Genre, movie is positioned somewhere between social drama and a comedy. The place chosen for the
small industrial town, a small and claustrophobic enough to live in it being impossible, a large and diverse
enough that the story and characters that follow are possible and believable.
Dramaturgy wise, „The Cowboys“ shared a lot with the British social drama (Billy Elliot, Full Monty,
Brassed Off ...), genre or subgenre as some characterize, in which the emphasis is always on the clear
story, functionally profiled characters and subtle social subtext actions outlined.
Director
Tomislav Mršić
Screenplay
Tomislav Mršić
Main cast
Saša Anočić, Živko Anočić, Matija Antolić,
Hrvoje Barišić, Kruno Klabučar,
Ivana Rushaidat, Rakan Rushaidat,
Radovan Ruždjak
www.kabinet.hr
facebook.com/kaubojifilm
Production
Company Genre
Language
Year
Length
Kabinet, Croatia
Comedy
Croatian 2013
107 min
Contact
International Sales
Wide Management
Paris, France
Loic Magneron
+33 6 60 43 96 86
[email protected]
www.widemanagement.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Croatian Audiovisual Centre
Katarina Prpić
Zagreb, Croatia
+385 1 604 1080
[email protected]
URL: www.havc.hr
Fair Play
Czech Republic
Directed by
Andrea Sedláčková
Monday, November 3 at 6:30 pm
Fair Play
(Fair Play)
Czech Republic
Directed by Andrea Sedláčková
Synopsis
Set in Czechoslovakia in the 1980, young and talented sprinter Anna (Judit Bárdos) is selected for
the national team and starts training to qualify for the Olympic Games. As a part of the preparation
she is placed in a secret „medical programme“ where they begin dopeing her with anabolic steroids.
Her performance improves, but after she collapses at training, she learns the truth. Anna decides
to continue her training without the steroids even though her mother (Anna Geislerova) is worried
that she won‘t be able to keep up with other athletes and might not qualify for the Olympics, which
she sees as the only chance for her daughter to escape from behind the Iron Curtain.
Contact
International Sales
Intramovies
Rome, Italy
Paola Corvino
+39 335 841 0149
[email protected]
www.intramovies.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Czech Film Center
Markéta Šantrochova
Prague, Czech Republic
+420 22 1105 321
[email protected]
www.filmcenter.cz
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• IFF Karlovy Vary
• Busan IFF
• BFI London
• Westwind
• Stockholm IFF
• Ljublana IFF
• Chicago IFF
Director
Andrea Sedláčková
Screenplay
Andrea Sedláčková
Main cast
Judit Bárdos, Ana Geislerová, Eva Josefiková,
Roman Luknár
www.fairplayfilm.cz
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Countries Genre
Language
Year
Length
Negativ, Czech Republic
Slovak Republic, Germany
Drama
Czech
2014
100 min
Life in a fishbowl
Iceland
Directed by
Baldvin Z
Monday, November 3 at 8:30 pm
Life in a
fishbowl
Iceland
Directed by Baldvin Z
(Vonarstræti)
Synopsis
After a horrible tragedy, writer Móri, drinks himself into oblivion by going on a twenty-year binge.
Eik, a young single mom, moonlights as a prostitute to make ends meet. Young father and good
husband, Sölvi, is recruited into the snake pit of the Icelandic international banking system. Soon
fate will step in and they will all meet.
Director’s Statement
“Life in a Fishbowl” is a simple story about three people who must face decisive changes to find
some sort of redemption. On closer inspection, the stories unveil layer upon layer of meaning which
become ever thicker and more complicated as we delve deeper into each character. What the main
character have in common is that they all lead a double life in one way or another. They all have
daughters of a similar age and all have some sort of reckoning with the past, present of future
looming over them.
For my part, it is vital that the audience initially see three characters they think they know
everything about. As we get further into the story and get to know the characters better, we find
out that they all have a deeper and a more complicated aspects to them. At the end, the audience
sees three protagonists they feel they have come to know intimately but not as celluloid characters.
Director
Baldvin Z
Screenplay
Baldvin Z, Birgir Steinarson
Main cast
Hera Hilmar, Thorsteinn Bachmann,
Thor Kristjansson
Producers
Ingvar Thordarson, Júlíus Kemp
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Countries Genre
Language
Year
Length
The Icelandic Film Company, Iceland
Finland, Sweden,
Czech Republic
Drama
Icelandic 2014
130 min
www.kisi.is
Contact
International Sales
Films Boutique
Berlin, Germany
Jean-Christophe Simon
+49 30 69537850
[email protected]
filmsboutique.com
PR
Karen Fried & Associates
Los Angeles, US
Sara Vahabi
+1 818 980-6220
+1 310 993-5458
in cooperation with and supported by
Icelandic Film Centre
Laufey Guðjónsdóttir
Reykjavík, Iceland
+354 562 3580
[email protected]
www.icelandicfilmcentre.is
Concrete Night
Finland
Directed by
Pirjo Honkasalo
Tuesday, November 4 at 6:30 pm
Concrete Night
(Betoniyö)
Finland
Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo
Synopsis
Concrete Night opens in a cramped, concrete-jungle home in Helsinki. Ilkka, the elder of the two
brothers, is leaving to serve a prison sentence. During Ilkka’s last 24 hours of freedom, his younger
sibling, vulnerable Simo, follows the brother he admires through the fateful events of that hot
summer night. Pirjo Honkasalo‘s bold film is a dream-like odyssey about a fragile mind of a young
boy and the loss of innocence as he drifts around the city.
Director’s Statement
Concrete Night is not a film about school killings, mass murderers or the Chechen brothers in Boston.
It’s a film about a young mind that was shattered long before the all-encompassing misanthropy
may have got a hold of it. This is a film about the metaphysics of coincidences in a world which we,
blinded by our delusional omnipotence, think we have control over and thus the ability to destroy.
The protagonist of the film, 14-year-old Simo, is the fragile and sensitive surface reflecting all the
rumblings that take place around him. Simo, lacking the ability to distort what he sees or change it
to something more pleasing to him, sees the world accurately, just as it is. Life is unbearable when
seen without a filter. Humans can‘t live that way. Being an adult means building walls to protect
one’s self. This is what Author Marja-Leena Mikkola wrote about Pirkko Saisio’s novel in the 1980s:
”Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream arouses a sense of unease in the spectator. The face
of the screaming creature has no expression, and yet it draws the spectator in. One is compelled to
look intensely at the gaping mouth of the face, one cannot avoid it and one cannot escape from it. I
experienced something similar to this when I read Pirkko Saisio’s ‘Concrete Night’. It has been ripped
of everything superfluous – pity, tenderness, hatred, irony – all that remained was this scream,
this howl. In Concrete Night everything is dead for good. We‘ve seen both mentally and physically
neglected young people in suburban ghettos before. They have something that Simo doesn’t; a
subculture of their own and some concept of themselves. In Concrete Night Simo is an outsider; a
faceless young man. Lifting Simo and his environment into the focus of literal description is an act
of love of sorts. The total (and successful) settling inside Simo is an even greater one. The author
accepts Simo.” I, too, accept Simo.
August 2013, Pirjo Honkasalo
Director
Pirjo Honkasalo
Screenplay
Pirkko Saisio, Pirjo Honkasalo
Main cast
Johannes Brotherus, Jari Virman, Anneli
Karppinen, Juhan Ulfsak
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Countries Genre
Language
Year
Length
Bufo, Finland
Sweden, Denmark
Drama
Finnish 2013
96 min
www.concretenight.com www.vimeo.com/71820702
Contact
International Sales
Film Republic
London, UK
Xavier Henry-Rashid
+44 7835 999 112 [email protected]
www.filmrepublic.biz
PR
Silversalt PR
New York, US
Thessa Mooij
+1 212 729 7971
[email protected]
www.silversaltpr.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Finnish Film Foundation
Jaana Puskala
Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 6220 3026
[email protected]
www.ses.fi
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• World premiere: Toronto IFF 2013 (Masters Series)
• St. Petersburg IFF 2013 (Competition Programme)
• Warsaw IFF 2013 (International Competition)
• Thessaloniki IFF 2013
• Plus Camerimage – The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography 2013 (Main Competition)
• Rotterdam IFF 2014
• Göteborg IFF 2014 (Dragon Award Competition)
• Nomination for Nordic Council Film Prize 2014
• Long-listed for the European Film Awards 2014
• A Golden Arena for Best Feature Film at Pula Film Festival 2014
• Officine Lab Award to the Best not leading Actor at European Film Festival Lecce
• 6 Jussi Awards: Best Film, Director, Cinematography, Set Design, Sound Design, Editing
Bulgarian Rhapsody
Bulgaria
Directed by
Ivan Nichev
Tuesday, November 4 at 8:30 pm
Bulgarian
Rhapsody
Bulgaria
Directed by Ivan Nichev
(Bulgarska Rafsodia)
Synopsis
Summer of 1943. The Jews of Greater Bulgaria must adhere to the laws of Germany. Moni (17), a
Jewish youngster from Sofia and Giogio the son of the commissar for Jewish affairs’ driver, meet
Shelly (17) a Jewish girl from Kavala (Greece). The two face the values and limits of friendship,
as they both fall in love with her, while outside rages their conflicted world. The Bulgarians are
ordered to deport the Jews; trains traverse Bulgaria with 11,343 Jews from Macedonia and Tracia.
The fate of the three youngsters mirrors the lives of the Balkan Jews during WWII, challenged with
the horrors of that period.
Director’s Statement
Violence afflicted on people is always weaved into my films. Unfortunately, violence takes place
not only in times of war. Since WWII, which is the setting of our film BULGARIAN RHAPSODY, have
passed more than 70 years. A few days ago, showing my film in Buenos Aires Argentina, I walked
along a street and on the pavement for a rather long time I was followed by the memorial bronze
plates engraved with the names of the children murdered in the terrorist attack in 1994. Those
Children from AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) kindergarten will never grow up. My
film BULGARIAN RHAPSODY is my cry against this violence. This should never happen again.
Director
Ivan Nichev
Screenplay
Yourii Dachev, Ivan Nichev, Tatyana Granitova,
Jean Pierre Magro
Main cast
Kristiyan Makarov, Angela Nedyalkova, Stefan
Popov, Moni Moshonov, Tatyana Lolova
Co-prod.
Country Genre
Language
Year
Length
Israel
Drama
Bulgarian, Ladino, German
2014
108 min
www.youtube.com/watch?v=owTDPeS915Q&list=UU3Q4IeLk0WqXJEvGc6aNFwA&n
oredirect=1
Contact
Production Company
Cinepaz Eood
Sofia, Bulgaria
Nissim Levy
+972 52 2577908
[email protected]
in cooperation with and supported by
Bulgarian National Film Center
Irina Kanousheva
Sofia, Bulgaria
+359 2 988 38 31
[email protected]
www.nfc.bg
1001 Grams
Norway
Directed by
Bent Hamer
Thursday, November 6 at 6:30 pm
1001 Grams
Norway
Directed by Bent Hamer
(1001 gram)
Synopsis
When Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own
measurement of disappointment, grief and, not least, love, that ends up on the scale. Finally Marie is
forced to come to terms with how much a human life truly weighs and which measurements she intends
to live by.
Director’s Statement
Man determines the definition of weight, but in my opinion it is equally important and interesting to
understand what the definition of weight does to man. I have for a long time been fascinated by what
exists in the area between scientific understanding and human action. That is also what resulted in my
film Kitchen Stories in 2003. With 1001 Grams I see an opportunity (beyond measure) to further develop
that same type of view upon life through stylized esthetics and poetic humor.
Contact
International Sales
Les Films du Losange
Paris, France
Agathe Valentin
+33 1 44 43 87 10
[email protected]
www.filmsdulosange.fr
in cooperation with and supported by
Norwegian Film Institute
Stine Oppegaard
Oslo, Norway
+47 22474500
[email protected]
www.nfi.no
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• 2014 Toronto International Film Festival
• 2014 Festival do Rio - Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival
• 2014 London Film Festival
• 2014 Tokyo IFF
Director
Bent Hamer
Screenplay
Bent Hamer
Main cast
Ane Dahl Torp, Laurent Stocker, Stein Winge
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Countries Genre
Language
Year
Length
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVIAtIHcehM
BulBul Film AS, Norway
Germany, France
Drama
Norwegian, French, English 2014
93 min
TANGERINES
Estonia
Directed by
Zaza Urushadze
Thursday, November 6 at 8:30 pm
TANGERINES
(MANDARIINID)
Estonia
Directed by Zaza Urushadze
Synopsis
Autumn of 1992. An empty village in Caucasia is left with only two villagers. Defying the approaching
war, an old man Ivo and his neighbour Markus are the last ones who haven‘t left. Markus has his
tangerine plantation to harvest, though the risk of wartime cropping is against Ivo‘s will. The two men
become directly involved in battle conflict when Ivo finds a survivor, a Caucasian named Akhmed, on
the battlefield and despite the rising threat carries the wounded man to his home. At the same time
Markus, while burying perished Georgians, also finds a survivor. The tangerine harvesters must now
resolve their own war that expands under their roof with enemies from both sides.
Director’s Statement
People without borders – is the leitmotif of the film.
It is unsettling how irresponsible politicians unleash wars that send ordinary people to die. People,
who love life and are unique worlds of their own – death of a person is irreversible, but to politicians
that is just statistics. And often the cause of a conflict is artificial to begin with.
The film is an attempt to show that even severe enemies can overcome this unnatural opposition
and institutionalised slaughtering. It is about trust in the human kindness that will eventually
prevail, if people are able to forgive, help and protect each other, even from their own people and
at the cost of their own lives.
Director
Zaza Urushadze
Screenplay
Zaza Urushadze
Main cast
Lembit Ulfsak, Giorgi Nakhashidze,
Elmo Nüganen, Misha Meskhi
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Country Genre
Language
Year
Length
allfilm.ee/en/filmid/tangerines/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMXjmYmwp-o
Allfilm, Estonia
Georgia
Drama
Estonian, Russian 2013
87 min
Contact
International Sales
Cinemavault
Toronto, Canada Ryan Lee
+1 416 363 6060 [email protected]
www.cinemavault.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Estonian Film Institute
Lea Kroonmann
Tallinn, Estonia
+372 627 6060
[email protected]
www.efsa.ee
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Palm Springs International Film Festival 2014 – 2nd Runner-up
• Seattle International Film Festival 2014 – 2nd Runner-up
• San Francisco International Film Festival 2014
• Warsaw International Film Festival 2013 - Best Director,
Audience Award
• Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival 2013 – Special Award of Mannheim-Heidelberg, German Distributors Award, Audience Award
• Film Festival Oostende 2014 – Best Film
• Eurasia International Film Festival 2014 – Best Actor
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2013 – Best Estonian Film, Don Quijote Jury Prize by International Federation of Film Societies
• 32nd Fajr International Film Destival 2014 - Best Film,
Best Screenplay
• Bari International Film Festival 2014 – Best Film
• Montreal World Film Festival 2014
Accused
The Netherlands
Directed by
Paula van der Oest
Friday, November 7 at 5:00 pm
Accused
(Lucia de B.)
The Netherlands
Directed by Paula van der Oest
Synopsis
Based on a true story.
Nurse Lucia (40) has been present at one inexplicable death too many, and the hospital alerts the
police. Assistant District Attorney Judith (28), driven by ambition and genuinely outraged, gets caught
in the „politics“ of the hospital and her own legal department and Lucia is shockingly sentenced to
life in prison. But something keeps troubling Judith, and she discovers inconsistencies in witness
statements, and even the suppression of lab evidence. Ignored by her superiors, Judith teams up with
Lucia’s lawyer, but at every appeal the original guilty verdict is confirmed. Things look bleak until they
get the media involved and the biggest miscarriage of justice in Dutch history is finally reversed.
Director’s Statement
ACCUSED is a multi-genre film that moves between courtroom drama, thriller and biopic. In its 97
minutes I wanted to investigate the mechanisms and tunnel vision that led to the collective hysteria
that got nurse Lucia de Berk convicted for murders she never committed. That no one committed, as
it turned out.
Contact
International Sales
Fortissimo
The Netherlands
Nelleke Driessen, Laura Talsma
+31 20 627 3215
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.fortissimofilms.com
in cooperation with and supported by
EYE International
Claudia Landsberger
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
+31 20 7582 375
[email protected]
international.eyefilm.nl
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Selected at The Netherlands Film Festival
• Nomination for for Beste Actress for Ariane Schluter at
The Netherlands Film Festival
• Moniek Kramer in collaboration with Tijs van Marle were nominated for „De Zilveren Krulstaart“. The Zilveren Krulstaart is a price for writers of the best scenario’s of the year.
• On 2 May 2014 Accused received a Golden Film status. More than 100.000 people went to see the film all acros the country
(in The Netherlands) since its release on 3 April 2014
Director
Paula van der Oest
Screenplay
Moniek Kramer in collaboration with
Tijs van Marle
Main cast
Ariane Schluter, Sallie Harmsen, Fedja van
Huêt, Barry Atsma, Annet Malherbe
Production
Company Rinkel Film BV, The Netherlands
Co-prod.
Countries Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg
Drama, Thriller
Genre
Language Dutch 2014
Year
Length 97 min
luciadebdefilm.nl/
www.rinkelfilm.com/en/project/13/lucia-de-b
Beloved Sisters
Germany
Directed by
Dominik Graf
Saturday, November 8 at 3:30 pm
Beloved Sisters
(Die geliebten Schwestern)
Germany
Directed by Dominik Graf
Synopsis
The aristocratic sisters Charlotte and Caroline both fall in love with the controversial young writer and
hothead Friedrich Schiller. Defying the conventions of their time, the sisters decide to share their love
with Schiller. What begins playfully, almost as a game among the three of them, soon turns serious as
it leads to the end of a pact...
Director’s Statement
Producer Uschi Reich proposed the story of BELOVED SISTERS to me: A ménage à trois in the late 18th
Century. Two young noblewomen fall in love with the same man – a commoner – who falls for both
women, for better or worse. The perfect scenario for a drama. But there‘s hardly any jealousy in this story.
All three just want each other to be happy. They agree that one of the two sisters will marry the man, for
the other sister is unhappily married already. So the younger sister marries him for the both of them, as it
were. No bickering, no rivalry. The utopian threesome. But then life intervenes, time goes by like a river,
everyday life takes over… and everything that seemed so simple suddenly gets more and more difficult.
In the summer of 1788, Friedrich Schiller and the von Lengefeld sisters Charlotte and Caroline find
themselves in this love triangle in the town of Rudolstadt. The girls are from a family of Thuringian petty
nobles - who hardly have any more money than the infamous but impoverished poet Schiller. Time stands
still for them, the world becomes a idyllic place of falling-in-love, making a few plans and imagining how
it could go on with them. Everything gets more complicated the moment summer ends. What attracted
me the most from the outset was making a movie about words, words of love, words ofjoyous longing,
promise of a life less ordinary. Filming their correspondence, watching the characters write each other,
sometime letting them read the letters out loud. Talking about their feelings, about their love triangle,
planning, conspiring a little to get to see each other. Three very intelligent people, each complex in their
very own way. From a modern perspective, I tried to shoot the movie as if writing a book – as if the film
stock were writing paper. Historical characters always seem more interesting to me today. Their world is
far away, a mystery, follows other laws and maxims, they‘re not as close-minded as we are – no matter
what kind of obstacles they had to overcome – they live with other extreme experiences, they know
things we don‘t. This makes historical characters in films seem very beautiful to me. Several parts of this
story are mere conjecture and speculation, for important letters and key sources have been lost. Shooting
this film was a great joy. Dominik Graf, January 2014
Director
Dominik Graf
Screenplay
Dominik Graf
Main cast
Hannah Herzsprung, Florian Stetter,
Henriette Confurius, Claudia Messner
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Country Genre
Language
Year
Length
Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktions GmbH, Germany
Austria
Drama
German, French 2014
170 min
www.senator.de/movie/die-geliebten-schwestern
www.globalscreen.de/cinema.current_line_up/content/show/355709
Contact
US-Distributor
Music Box Films
Chicago
+1 312 241 1320
[email protected]
www.musicboxfilms.com
International Sales
Global Screen GmbH
Munich, Germany
Julia Weber
+49 89 2441295 590
[email protected]
www.globalscreen.de
in cooperation with and supported by
German Films
Mariette Rissenbeek
Munich, Germany
+49 89 599 787 0
[email protected]
www.german-films.de
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
Awards:
• Winner: Best Cinematography, Bavarian Film Awards 2013
• Nomination: Best Film, Berlin International Film Festival 2014
Festivals:
• Berlinale – World Premiere, In Competition, Febuary 2014
• CPH: PIX Copenhagen, April 2014
• Transilvania IFF, May 2014
• Shanghai IFF, Spectrum, June 2014
• Edinburgh IFF, June 2014
• Moscow IFF, June 2014
• Voices Independent Cinema from European Screens Festival, Vologda, June 2014
• New York FF, September 2014
• GI Beirut – Week of German films, September 2014
• Chicago IFF, October 2014
• FilmNeu GI Washington, October 2014
• GoetheFest Belgrad, October 2014
• German Film Festival Ukraine, October 2014
• International Historical FF of Waterloo, October 2014
• GI Hong Kong KINO 2014, October 2014
• German Film Festival Singapore, November 2014
THE GAMBLER
Lithuania
Directed by
Ignas Jonynas
Saturday, November 8 at 7:00 pm
THE GAMBLER
(LOSEJAS)
Lithuania
Directed by Ignas Jonynas
Synopsis
Vincentas is the best employee at the emergency services station, whose passion is one – gambling in
different games. Whenever he lands in some difficult situation, the medic is forced to grab onto something
radical to return the money he is constantly losing. An idea strikes Vincentas to create an illegal game
related to his profession. Initially the employees at emergency services are the only ones to be attracted to
this macabre engagement. Soon enough, however, the idea kicks off and starts spreading like wildfire. The
medic colleagues become betting agents, whereas Vincentas takes control of its bank. As financial matters
keep on improving, a coworker Ieva starts objecting to the game. A passionate relationship has just unfolded
between her and Vincentas. Soon enough he is going to face making a fateful choice – the game or love.
Director’s Statement
My generation grew up in the Soviet system, graduated from Soviet schools, and was immersed in
double standard thinking. And then suddenly everything changed. Liberated from the communist
state, we found ourselves in the capitalist world of unrestrained freedom. Imposed collective
egalitarianism was replaced with market economy rules, in which you get as much as you manage
to earn for yourself.
This is why I wanted to make a film about the moral dilemma that arises within the individual who
was formed in the junction of different regimes. The main character of „The Gambler“, Vincentas, is
that new hybrid person. He belongs to the two conflicting systems.
His duality is best revealed in the critical situations which are experienced by the paramedic, who
also happens to be an avid gambler. Balancing between death and life at work and trying to pay
back his debts, he creates a game based on human life. Thus, the world-view of the post-Soviet
conformist and the capitalist winner converge.
This is an explosive mix for any moral system.
Ignas Jonynas
Director
Ignas Jonynas
Screenplay
Kristupas Sabolius, Ignas Jonynas
Main cast
Vytautas Kaniusonis, Oona Mekas, Romuald
Lavrynovic, Valerijus Jevsejevas, Lukas Kersys
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Country Genre
Language
Year
Length
www.losejas.lt
youtu.be/ViBIaviZ-tU
Studio Uljana Kim, Lithuania
Latvia
Drama
Lithuanian 2013
109 min
Contact
International Sales
Wide
Paris, France
Loic Magneron
+33 153950464
[email protected]
www.widemanagement.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Lithuanian Film Centre
Liana Ruokytė-Jonsson
Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 213 05 47
[email protected]
www.lkc.lt/en
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• San Sebastian Film Festival – First feature competition
• Warsaw Film Festival – International Competition; Special Jury Award
• Tallinn Black Nights FF - Tridens Competition
• Marrakesh Film Festival – Official competition
• 25th Trieste Film Festival - Feature film competition
• Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Official competition
THE KIDS FROM THE MARX AND
ENGELS STREET
Montenegro
Directed by
Nikola Vukcevic
Sunday, November 9 at 3:30 pm
Montenegro
THE KIDS FROM
Directed by Nikola Vukcevic
THE MARX AND
ENGELS STREET (Dječaci iz Ulice Marksa i Engelsa)
Synopsis
A story about two brothers during one night: older brother Stanko (30) is going to kill a man for a first time, and
his younger brother Vojo (16) is going to make love for the first time. Fifteen years ago, Stanko witnesses murder
of his father and swears he‘ll have his revenge (in that moment, Stanko was a singer of a popular band, and his
father was a famous basketball coach). Stanko had been shopped by his mother to the police for possessing a
gun and was confronted by his father‘s murderer, an influential politician, with the choice of going to prison or
the army... or leaving the country. Fifteen years later, Stanko is a successful musician in London and by chance
he sees his father‘s murderer. Stanko remembers his unfulfilled pledge and decides to return to Montenegro. In
Montenegro, Stanko finds that Vojo (16) has a few problems he can’t fix himself so Stanko tries to help him. That
same night, Stanko and his father’s murderer finally meet. Will Stanko find his revenge? On the other side of
town, will Vojo find his needs..? ...and what is the price of being filled with satisfaction?
Director’s Statement
I am confident that this feature project has several important elements that guarantee a strong film story:
truth, belief and precise dramaturgy mathematics. Our movie is about personal history, as opposite side of
collective history - as fact. Balkan people - knows a lot about those two histories: intimate and collective
history. During the last twenty years the history has been relentlessly and violently unfolding on the
Balkans: wars, revolutions, strikes, violent government changes, fight for survival, murders, criminal,
corruption, twisted system of values. In the shadow of these events, on their margins, are the personal
histories of young people: first kisses, emotional growth, first and true loves are thwarted (and hatred,
intolerance, vengeance...), twisted by the circumstances in their surroundings. This film places at the
centre stage young people whose personal histories have no alternative and whose hopes and desires
are stronger than the circumstances that divide them. In the search for their goals - they will learn more
than they hoped for. Vojo and Stanko will reveal more than they set out to know, with more than 20 other
characters; as a metaphor of way of living in post-transition Montenegro (independent since 2006), as
the youngest UN country.
One of the film’s “characters” is the city of Podgorica itself. The capital of unknown country Montenegro
(it was Former Yugoslavia, up to 2006) is undergoing transformation from old to new, from province to a
capital, unsure of its own value but certain of its existence in its specificity, through its urban myths that
have not yet been told cinematographically. This will, no doubt, be of interest to international audiences.
Director
Nikola Vukcevic
Screenplay
Nikola Vukcevic, Milica Piletic
Main cast
Momčilo Otašević, Goran Bogdan,
Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Ana Sofrenovic,
Branka Stanić
Co-prod.
Countries Croatia, Serbia
Balkan tragy-commedy
Genre
Language Montenegrin (Serbo-croat) 2014
Year
Length 93 min
www.djecaci.me www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsK_aJot70M
Contact
Production Company
Galileo production Montenegro
Montenegro
Nikola Vukcevic
+382 67258049
[email protected] www.djecaci.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Ministry of Culture
of Montenegro
Ilija Subotić
Cetinje, Montenegro
+ 382 41 232 571
[email protected]
www.mku.gov.me
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Herceg Novi - Montenegro Film Festival, August 2014:
Best director, Best camera
Three Windows
and a Hanging
Kosovo*
Directed by
Isa Qosja
Sunday, November 9 at 6:30 pm
Three Windows
and a Hanging
Kosovo*
Directed by Isa Qosja
(TRI DRITARE DHE NJË VARJE)
Synopsis
A harrowing tale about a village forced to come to terms with the raping of women by Serb forces
during the 1998-99 Kosovo, seeks to tackle a sensitive issue that has largely been kept out of the
spotlight for over a decade.
Director’s Statement
Three Windows and a Hanging has a very tough theme. It was not easy to make a film about it. The
characters are psychologically complex, always on the edge of certain emotions. I did not want to
make a film that was hard to watch, but I still didn‘t want to avoid the drama and relations between
the characters.
Contact
International Sales
EZ Films
Paris, France
Ray Meirovitz
+33 671 792 026
+33 953 698 094
[email protected]
www.ez-films.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Kosova Cinematography Center
Arben Zharku
Prishtina, Kosovo*
+381 38 213 228
[email protected]
www.qkk-rks.com
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• Connecting Cottbus 2012 - Best Pitch Award
• Cinelink Work in Progress, Sarajevo Film Festival 2013 Post Republic
• Sarajevo Film Festival 2014 – Competition - Cineuropa AWARD
• Durres International Film Festival Summer Fest 2014 Golden Gladiator/Best Film
Director
Isa Qosja
Screenplay
Zymber Kelmendi
Main cast
Irena Cahani, Luan Jaha,
Donat Qosja, Aurita Agushi,
Leonora Mehmetaj
Production
Company
Co-prod.
Country Genre
Language
Year
Length
CMB, Kosovo*
Germany
Drama
Albanian 2014
93 min
vimeo.com/user13914625/review/101957640/b7b649ff18
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ
Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
The Japanese Dog
Romania
Directed by
Tudor Cristian
Jurgiu
Monday, November 10 at 7:00 pm
The Japanese
Dog
Romania
Directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu
(Câinele japonez)
Synopsis
Elderly Costache Moldu has lost his wife and all his goods in a flood. The unexpected return of his son, Ticu,
from Japan forces them to relearn how to communicate, to become a family again. Costache becomes a
real grandfather to his 7 years old grandson, while Ticu straightens mistakes from the past.
in cooperation with and supported by
A delicate film about family reconciliation
Director’s Statement
From the very beginning I was taken by the simpleness and the ingenuity of Ioan Antoci’s script. I tried to
keep this spirit when I did the film.
The way in which I restructured the script, my choice of keeping a distance in the picture, the durations,
the cuts we did in the editing process, all were aimed at a certain sobriety of the emotion – not wanting
to avoid emotion, but trying to accumulate it behind the cold and rough faces and surfaces.
Victor Rebengiuc understood this aproach perfectly and he succeded to give the film the exact nuances
inbetween the limits of too harsh chill and too dramatic exacerbation. A very emotional contrast
emerged from the combination of Rebengiuc’s input and the candour of the figure of the grandson (Toma
Hashimoto).
Director
Tudor Cristian Jurgiu
Screenplay
Ioan Antoci, Gabriel Gheorghe,
Tudor Cristian Jurgiu
Main cast
Victor Rebengiuc, Şerban Pavlu, Laurenţiu
Lazăr, Kana Hashimoto, Toma Hashimoto,
Ioana Abur, Alexandrina Halic
Contact
International Sales
m-appeal world sales UG
Berlin, Germany
Aleksandra Abykova
+49 30 61 50 75 05
[email protected]
www.m-appeal.com
Production
Company
Genre
Language
Year
Length
www.cainelejaponez.ro/en
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC-fbU8uT2M
Libra Film Productions, Romania
Drama
Romanian 2013
90 min
Romanian Film Promotion
Cristian Hordilă
+40 733 735 952
[email protected]
www.romfilmpromotion.ro
Festivals and Awards (Selection)
• San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain, 2013
• Warsaw Film Festival, Poland 2013
• Mumbai International Film Festival, India 2013
• Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece, 2013
• Arras International Film Festival, France, November 2013
• Kerala International Film Festival, India, December 2014
• Bengaluru International Film Festival, India, December 2014
• SBIFF Santa Barbara International Film Festival, USA, January 2014
• New Directors New Films New York, Usa, March 2014
• Vilnius International Film Festival, Latvia, March 2014
• Cleveland International Film Festival, USA, March 2014
• Febiofest International Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic, March 2014
• Istanbul International Film Festival, Turkey, April 2014
• Romanian Film Festival in Stokholm, Sweden, May 2014
• Seattle International Film Festival, USA, June 2014
• Shanghai International Film Festibal, China, June 2014
• Edinburgh International Film Festival, UK, June 2014
• Pula International Film Festival, Croatia, July 2014
• Five Lakes Film Festival, Germany, July 2014
• Chichester International Film Festival, UK, August 2014
• Haifa International Film Festival, Israel, October 2014
A Step Into
the Dark
Slovak Republic
Directed by
Miloslav Luther
Monday, November 10 at 9:00 pm
A Step Into
the Dark
Slovak Republic
Directed by Miloslav Luther
(Krok do Tmy)
Synopsis
A period drama about a young physician who was forced to carry out executions during the war.
He is unable to come to grips with his past and later resists a promising career opportunity offered
by the regime. He falls headlong into a passionate and erotic extramarital relationship. Is this
physician a hero or a murderer? The troubled fates of our antiheroes from the early Communist
period are stories of violence and resistance, weakness and courage, just like today
Director’s Statement
At the beginning of the fifties of the last century, where our story takes place, I have lived a happy
childhood in an unhappy world. Today, I do not know which of my memories of the dark post-war
time I really experienced, or just heard or read somewhere, or pieced together from various sources.
I know however with certainty, that adults lives passing by me that time, where richer and more
contradictory like their simple, black and white interpretations in history textbooks or media.
Like today and always, every man is the architect of his own life, the „author“ of the bright and dark
side of the conscience. Which is full of love, disappointment, happiness, suffering, kindness, cruelty,
generosity, heroism, betrayal...
The conscience is the only thing which accompanies us our whole life. Whether we want to or do
not want.I believe that with our intense story, almost fictional, we’ll give the perceptive viewer a
lot of what he is experiencing in his own life so he will finish watching this film in a deep emotion.
Director
Miloslav Luther
Screenplay
Marian Puobis
Main cast
Marko Igonda, Monika Haasova,
Kristyna Bokova, Miroslav Donutil
Production
Company
Genre
Language
Year
Length
TRIGON Production s.r.o,
Slovak Republic
Drama, Romance
Slovak 2014
120 min
www.trigon-production.sk
vimeo.com/106669979
Contact
International Sales
Amadeus Entertainment Ltd
London, United Kingdom
Ivo Fiorenza
[email protected]
www.amadeus-ent.com
in cooperation with and supported by
Slovak Film Institute
Alexandra Strelková
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
+421 2 5710 1503
[email protected]
www.sfu.sk
Festivals and Awards (Selection):
• Montreal World Film Festival 2014
• Art Film Fest Trencianske Teplice 2014
Programme of the European Union
Creative Europe
Support Programme for Europe’s
Cultural and Creative Sectors 2014 - 2020
www.ec.europa.eu/culture/creative-europe
For AMPAS, HFPA, guild members and press
RSVP: [email protected]
For buyers
RSVP: [email protected]
European Film Promotion, Friedensallee 14-16, 22765 Hamburg, Germany
[email protected]
www.efp-online.com
watch trailers here
In cooperation with
Bulgarian National Film Center, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Czech Film Center, Danish Film Institute, Estonian Film Institute, EYE International (The Netherlands), Film
Center Serbia, Film Fund Luxembourg, Finnish Film Foundation, German Films, Greek Film Centre, Icelandic Film Centre, ICAA (Spain), Istituto Luce Cinecittà (Italy), Kosova
Cinematography Center, Lithuanian Film Centre, Macedonian Film Agency, Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, Norwegian Film Institute, Polish Film Institute, Romanian Film
Promotion, Slovak Film Institute
with the support of the EU MEDIA Programme (2007-2013)
EFP is financially supported by