14/08/2014 - Mamarosh, Ida to bookend festival

The Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival (September 17-21), located at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which occupies a unique position as the most northerly English town that borders Scotland, has chosen Border Crossing as its theme for its 10^th anniversary, with its programme exploring border identities and the crossing of boundaries all over the world, coinciding with the referendum for an independent Scotland on September 18.

Opening the festival is Momcilo Mrdakovic’s Mamarosh [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Serbia/Germany/Hungary), the tale of a film projectionist from Serbia who flees to New York only to find that 35mm is dead and resolves to revive it. Closing the festival is Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile] (Poland/Denmark), about a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.

Virginia Heath’s From Scotland with Love represents the festival crossing into Scotland for the first time, with this medley of archive footage being presented at the gallery at Paxton House in Berwick – north of the Tweed.

Festival Director Melanie Iredale said, “With over 75 features, short films and artists’ video representing the work of filmmakers and artists from over 35 countries, the Festival will screen in thirteen unique locations around and within the town’s Elizabethan town walls, transforming everything from the ice houses to prison cells into pop-up screening venues. With this line-up and topical theme the festival extends beyond Berwick, beyond the Scottish independence referendum, encapsulating global perspectives – bringing an international flavour to the heart of Berwick-upon-Tweed.”