29/09/2020 - The festival dedicated to Central and Eastern European cinema will feature a Focus on Hungary, another on Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski and, for the first time, films from Belarus

The 13th edition of CinÉast, the Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, is set to unfold in a hybrid format from 8-25 October, with screenings at major venues in the city (Cinémathèque, Neimënster, Ciné Utopia and Kinepolis Kirchberg) and in other towns across the country, operating under strict measures due to COVID-19. The majority of the films in the programme will also be available to watch online via the dedicated platform CinEast Online Cinema, geo-blocked to Luxembourg and with a limited number of virtual tickets.

Despite these circumstances, around 110 physical screenings of 47 features and more than 20 short films are still being scheduled. Following the official opening ceremony on 8 October at the Neimënster cultural centre, the festival will begin with a screening of the black comedy Comrade Draculich [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Márk Bodzsár
film profile] by Hungarian director Márk Bodzsár, playing as part of the festival’s Focus on Hungary, showing new Hungarian features and shorts, and featuring a Hungarian band performing at the opening party.

The competition line-up of eight films includes Charlatan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Holland
film profile] by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland; the Kosovo-set film Drita by Daniel Kruglikov; Father [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Srdan Golubović
film profile] by Serbian director Srdan Golubović; Mare [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Staka
film profile] by Swiss helmer Andrea Štaka; Otto the Barbarian [+see also:
film review
interview: Ruxandra Ghiţescu
film profile], the feature debut by Romania's Ruxandra Ghițescu; Servants [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile] by Slovakian producer and filmmaker Ivan Ostrochovský; Spiral [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the feature debut from Romanian director Cecília Felméri; and Stories from the Chestnut Woods [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Slovenian director, screenwriter, director of photography and editor Gregor Božić. These films will be competing for the Grand Prix, the Special Prize of the Jury and the Critics' Prize.

A Cinéfocus on Milcho Manchevski will bring several works by the Macedonian director to the festival: his “eastern western” Dust (2001) and, on Manchevski Night, a double bill of his latest film, Willow [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Milcho Manchevski
interview: Sara Klimoska
film profile], and the 1994 Golden Lion-winning classic Before the Rain, followed by an extended Q&A session with the helmer.

Films from Belarus will for the first time be screened at the festival, bringing the number of Central and Eastern European countries featured at CinÉast to 21: Vlada Senkova’s Two, Darya Zhuk’s Crystal Swan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Darya Zhuk
film profile] and the short fiction film Lake of Happiness by Aliaksei Paluyan.

This year’s edition will revolve around the theme “Planting the Future. Our Planet and Societies at a Crossroads”, with an extensive photography exhibition called “Planting the Future”, and two of the four CinéDebates dedicated to conversations around climate activism and alternative, sustainable lifestyles.

More information about this year’s programme can be found on the festival’s website.