Kids Taken Seriously at BUFF

by Annika Pham

16/03/2006 - The 23rd BUFF International Children and Youth Film Festival is unfolding this week in Malmö (March 14-18) with a rich programme divided among 13 sections, including a main competition section, a special retrospective dedicated to Swedish filmmaker Ulf Malmros, and a focus on Children in Danger.

This serious subject is the main theme of this year’s event and of today’s seminar, co-organised with charity group Save the Children. Three documentary filmmakers will discuss their experience of children in danger: Denmark’s Frode Højer Pedersen, Dutch director Sander Francken, who visited rehabilitation centres for child soldiers in Uganda, and South Africa’s Firdoze Bulbulia. Six films will illustrate the topic, including Bahman Ghobadi’s Iran/Iraq co-production Turtles Can fly. and Svetozar Ristovski’s Macedonian/Austrian title Mirage.

Eight feature films will compete for the €5,500 City of Malmö Best Film Award in the main competition: Sweden’s Percy, Buffalo Bill & Me [trailer] and Zozo [trailer], Russian film The Italian, the Chinese The Story of Xiaoyan, German films The Smile of the Monsterfish. and Treasure of the White Falcons, the UK’s Love + Hate and the Dutch Bluebird. The five-member jury will include Dutch buyer Dick de Jong (Twin Film) and US producer Nancy Rae Stone (Beacon Pictures).