17/01/2012

The 23rd Trieste Film Festival, the main Italian event involving cinema from Central and Eastern Europe, opens on Thursday, January 19, until Wednesday 25. The event will be opened by Majki [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Milcho Manchevski
film profile] (Mothers) by Milcho Manchevski (Golden Lion in Venice in 1994 with Prima della pioggia), three stories part truth, part fiction, which "deal with the truth as it is reflected in a broken mirror", according to the director himself, who will attend the festival and will hold a masterclass on January 21.

While the closing film will be Odchazeni (Leaving) by Václav Havel, who passed away recently. The Czech playwright and politician’s film debut (he was President of the Czech Republic), is a tragi-comic story of an old man and former Chancellor who, once divested of his authority, is not capable of accepting his new situation.

There are three competitive sections, the awards for which will be granted by the public: the International Features Competition, with 8 titles in Italian premiere, including Loverboy [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ada Condeescu
film profile] by Romania’s Cătălin Mitulescu (already in Cannes in the ‘Un certain regard’ section); The Loneliest Planet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Russia-born American Julia Loktev, with Gael García Bernal; Adikos Kosmos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Unfair World) by Filippos Tsitos (Plato's Academy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Constantin Moriatis
interview: Filippos Tsitos
interview: Filippos Tsitos
film profile]), Best Director and Best Actor (Antonis Kafetzopoulos) at the Festival of San Sebastian; Andrej Zvjagincev’s Elena (Golden Lion in Venice in 2003 with his debut film The Return), the Jury’s Special Prize in Cannes in the Un certain regard section; Izlet (A Trip) by Slovenia’s Nejc Gazvoda (Best Actor, Actress, Screenplay, Editing and Soundtrack at the latest edition of the Slovenian Film Festival). 17 shorts will compete for the Mediterranean Cinema Prize; a further 18 films will be screened in the International Documentaries Competition, all in international premiere.

In collaboration with the Corso Salani Association, the festival will also assign the Corso Salani Award, in memory of the Tuscan director and actor who passed away in 2010, which will be chosen from five finalist projects by Italian filmmakers. Then, over to Polish cinema with a homage to the Wajda School, with a selection which considers all the main figures of the famous film school founded by Andrzej Wajda (fiction shorts, feature films, but especially documentaries), and a retrospective dedicated to Grzegorz Królikiewicz, whose films are considered by new generations as the masterpieces denied during Poland’s dark ages.

Finally, industry professionals will be meeting at the co-production events When East Meets West (January 19-21): 182 projects from 29 European countries which will be screened to over 150 experts of the audiovisual industry from all over Europe. The meeting is organised by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Regional Fund, in collaboration with EAVE, Eurimages, Central European Iniative, Antenna Media Torino and Cineuropa.

To see the festival’s rich programme, click here.

(Translated from Italian)