Era New Horizons welcomes visionaries and defies trends

by Dorota Hartwich

22/07/2009 - Kicking off tomorrow in Wroclaw is the 9th Era New Horizons Film Festival (July 23-August 2) with a line-up of over 500 titles. This rich programme could enable the event to exceed last year’s 127,000 visitors.

The uniqueness of Era New Horizons and its official competition lies in its selection policy, which favours films that go beyond the "mainstream" borders, are predominantly experimental and interesting in form as well as content.

Festival director Roman Gutek commented: "Era New Horizons is a meeting place for film visionaries and uncompromising artists, who go against trends, work in their own style and unique language, and are inimitable".

As every year, the festival will screen a significant number (150 at this edition) of titles unreleased in Poland. Opening with Michael Haneke’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winner The White Ribbon [trailer, film focus], the event will also show recent works by Pedro Almodóvar, Wim Wenders, Abbas Kiarostami and Peter Greenaway.

Although the festival focuses on innovative and internationally recognised titles, the line-up also includes "intimate" films (Alain Cavalier’s Irene [trailer], Agnès Varda’s The Beaches of Agnès [trailer]). Moreover, there will be numerous retrospectives dedicated to directors from very different backgrounds (Tsai Ming-Liang, Jennifer Reeves, Jan Troell, Guy Maddin, Krzysztof Zanussi, Miklos Jancso).

Over 200 guests from the international film world will be in attendance in Wroclaw, including Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders and Peter Greenaway.

International Competition:
A Lake [trailer] - Philippe Grandrieux (France)
Burrowing [trailer] - Henrik Hellström (Sweden)
Dazzle - Cyrus Frisch (Netherlands)
Helen [trailer, film focus] - Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor (UK/Ireland)
Hunger [trailer, film focus] - Steve McQueen (UK)
Irene - Alain Cavalier (France)
Ne Change Rien [trailer] - Pedro Costa (Portugal)
Face [trailer] - Tsai Ming-Liang (France)
Sell Out! - Yeo Joon Han (Malaysia)
Exhausted - Kim Gok (South Korea)
Mock up on Mu - Craig Baldwin (USA)
Oxygen - Iwan Wyrypajew (Russia)
Spyder - Ishibashi Kiyomi (Japan)
Twilight Dancing - Tian Gao & Joshua Tong (China)

(Translated from French)