19/04/2021 - The Wiesbaden-based gathering is offering its content online for the audience, aiming to return to its physical spaces soon

The 21^st edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, organised by DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, will this year run online from 20 to 26 April, and is set to feature 92 films which will be available to German audiences on-demand and will include 32 national and two international premieres. Screenings for the jury and for a limited number of press representatives will be held in cinemas, in accordance with the current COVID-19 pandemic protection regulations of the state government of Hessen.

As every year, goEast will offer highlights from the current Central and Eastern European cinema via its Competition programme, which for the first time will be available to the audience through the VoD provider filmwerte. The Competition jury, comprising artist and director Saodat Ismailova, producer and filmmaker Volia Chajkouskaya, documentarian Thomas Heise, actress, director and Roma activist Alina Dieerban, and film critic Jay Weissberg, will be welcomed at goEast’s physical cinema, the Caligari FilmBühne in Wiesbaden, where they will watch and evaluate the films to decide who will win the €10,000 Golden Lily.

The 16 films – 9 fiction and 7 documentaries – of the Competition programme derive from the entire post-socialist area of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Festival director Heleen Gerritsen explained: “As a thematic focus, this year we see a return to partisan stories in the Competition. This is an important subject in the Central and Eastern European cinema landscape, one that is at times wrapped up in mythology too, and is now approached from new angles in the current films in our programme – for example, from the point of view of female partisans, or from a Roma perspective as well."

In detail, the selection includes the fiction features Bebia, à mon seul désir [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juja Dobrachkous
film profile] by Juja Dobrachkous (Georgia/UK), Bilesuvar [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Elvin Adigozel (Azerbaijan/France), Chupacabra by Grigory Kolomytsev (Russia), In The Dusk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sharunas Bartas
film profile] by Šarūnas Bartas (Lithuania/France/Czech Republic/Serbia/Portugal/Latvia), The Last Ones [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Veiko Õunpuu
film profile] by Veiko Õunpuu (Estonia/Finland/Netherlands), Papier-Mache by Vitaly Suslin (Russia), Should the Wind Drop [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nora Martirosyan
film profile] by Nora Martirosyan (France/Armenia/Belgium), Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period of Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lili Horvat
interview: Natasa Stork
film profile] by Lili Horvát (Hungary), Ulbolsyn [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan/France) as well as Yerzhanov’s Yellow Cat [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Kazakhstan/France), which will open this year’s goEast.

In addition, the documentaries Holy Father [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Andrei Dăscălescu (Romania), How I Became A Partisan [+see also:
interview: Vera Lacková
film profile] by Vera Lacková (Slovakia/Czech Republic), Landscapes of Resistance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Popivoda
film profile] by Marta Popivoda (Serbia/France), Life of Ivanna [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Renato Borrayo Serrano (Russia/Norway/Estonia/Finland), Once Upon a Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Ivan Ramljak (Croatia), Please Hold The Line [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Pavel Cuzuioc (Austria), and This Rain Will Never Stop [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alina Gorlova
film profile] by Alina Gorlova (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany/Qatar) wrap the selection.

Furthermore, the Bioscope section, which is devoted to film productions that deserve sustained attention, will feature the latest works by Vitaly Mansky (Gorbachev. Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Jasmila Žbanić (Quo Vadis, Aida? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jasmila Žbanić
film profile]), Laila Pakalniņa (In The Mirror [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laila Pakalniņa
film profile]), Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda (Once Upon a Time in Poland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), along with Tatia Skhirtladze and Anna Khazaradze (Glory to the Queen [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) among others.

At the Pan-European Picnic, the main question to be explored will be the promotion of intercultural encounters when distancing regulations keep individuals and cultures apart, aiming to prove that the collective experience of (film) culture is also possible at a distance. Some examples include the genuine K67 Ost-Kiosk, which goEast has installed as a festival meeting place, and the evening short film walk which will lead guests through Offenbach by night in May and open a new vista to cinema by projecting films onto house facades.

Finally, the Open Frame Award, the most innovative competition at goEast, will once again feature the digital venues of Caligari VR and the goEast VRoofTop Lounge. The programme will include a selection of Central and Eastern European virtual reality and 360° film projects that extend in various innovative forms of narrative art, from poetic experiments to interactive experiences for the senses, and will be vying for the €5,000 prize sponsored by BHF Bank Foundation.