FESTIVALS Belgium
Sojcher to give cinema lesson at Eurocine27
by Aurore Engelen
05/05/2011 - On May 9, the 8th Eurocine27 will take place in Brussels and six other European cities (including cities in Poland and Hungary for the first time). The project was started in 2004, when Europe was getting ready to welcome 10 new countries into the Union. The event, then called Eurocine25, aimed to offer a showcase to European cinematic creativity.
Today, Eurocine27 has gained a certain reputation among film enthusiasts, who get to see discover films often not distributed theatrically. Highlights among this year’s selection include Filippos Tsitos’s Lux Prize 2010 finalist Plato’s Academy [trailer, film focus] (Greece); Danish director Martin P. Zandvliet’s Applause [trailer, film focus] (winner of the Europa Cinemas Label Award at Karlovy Vary); Szabolcs Hajdu’s outlandish Bibliothèque Pascal [trailer, film focus], which was unveiled at the latest Brussels Film Festival and was Hungary’s Oscar entry; Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential Killing [trailer, film focus] (Poland), which created a stir at Venice; Marek Najbrt’s Protector, winner of the Czech Lion for Best Film; and Feo Aladag’s When We Leave [trailer, film focus], winner of the Lux Prize 2010.
The UK will be represented in the line-up by Everywhere and Nowhere [trailer] and Ireland by The Runway.
On the Belgian side, iconoclastic director Frédéric Sojcher will represent his country with Hitler In Hollywood [trailer] (released this week in France). This is a significant choice given that the director – who is also a film teacher and theorist – describes Hitler In Hollywood as a film that strives to promote European cinema.
A documentary-style road movie through the European “capitals” of cinema (Berlin, Venice, Cannes), Hitler In Hollywood centres on Maria de Medeiros, who is looking for a missing film that could have changed the face of the world and international cinema, and rebalanced the power relations between Europe and the United States. Sojcher will deliver a film lesson after the screening.
(Translated from French)
