27/10/2022 - With screenings taking place from 17-25 November, the brand-new strand will showcase 16 films, including ten world and three international premieres

Today, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF, 11-27 November) announced the programme of the inaugural edition of its Critics’ Picks strand, running from 17-25 November. The brand-new section will include 16 films, with ten world and three international premieres. Three films will be presented out of competition, including a gala screening of Kim Ki-duk’s posthumous effort, Call of God [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Kyrgyzstan/Estonia/Lithuania). According to the official press release, the sidebar “serves to highlight and celebrate a curated selection of powerful and artistically outstanding works which might otherwise be overlooked in PÖFF’s broader programme”.

The programming team is spearheaded by Nikolaj Nikitin, head of SOFA School of Film Advancement. Speaking about his curatorial work, he said: “I was not prepared for the amazing, diverse, excellent level and quality of films we had to choose from – it was easy in a way but, in another way, incredibly difficult to make the final selection. It’s a huge pleasure to join the Black Nights family, and it’s been an honour to curate this competition with my own PÖFF debut. I feel privileged and very honoured, especially as 13 outstanding titles are just a lucky number to start with, and our opener, Roxy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dito Tsindsadze
film profile] [a German-Georgian-Belgian co-production directed by Dito Tsintsadze], a genius and genuine genre thriller, clearly proves that European auteurs don’t have to hide behind Hollywood’s back.”

Meanwhile, festival director Tiina Lokk added: “The Critics’ Picks competition programme solves a challenge that our programme team has been encountering for many years: brilliant arthouse films that are unfortunately often lost in the mix of our fast-growing line-up and large-scale international festivals. It’s essential to our mission as a festival to create structures to introduce films of all shapes, colours and sizes to our audience. The critics who have put together this new programme have succeeded in selecting some uniquely compelling and engaging features. I can’t wait to introduce them to wider audiences this November.”

The closing film will be Karaoke by Moshe Rosenthal (Israel), a comedy about a married middle-class suburban couple in their 60s who are drawn to their new neighbour, a charismatic bachelor who has karaoke evenings in his flat. Among the European highlights are Marko Šantić’s drama on memory loss Wake Me [+see also:
film review
interview: Marko Šantić
film profile] (Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia); Vincenzo Pirrotta’s The Bone Breakers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vincenzo Pirrotta
film profile] (Italy), premiered in Venetian Nights and based on the story of a group of criminals breaking the arms and legs of consenting victims in order to fake car crashes and defraud insurance companies; and Carol Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carol Morley
film profile] (UK), revolving around the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation.

Here is the list of the selected titles:

Critics’ Picks – In Competition

Roxy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dito Tsindsadze
film profile] – Dito Tsintsadze (Germany/Georgia/Belgium)
Typist Artist Pirate King [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carol Morley
film profile] – Carol Morley (UK)
Conversations on Hatred [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Vera Fogwill (Spain/Argentina)
About Us But Not About Us – Jun Robles Lana (Philippines)
The Rise & Fall of Comrade Zylo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatmir Koci
film profile] – Fatmir Koçi (Albania)
Wake Me [+see also:
film review
interview: Marko Šantić
film profile] – Marko Šantić (Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia)
The Chambermaid [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mariana Čengel Solčanská an…
film profile] – Mariana Čengel Solčanská (Slovakia)
Suna [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Çigdem Sezgin (Turkey/Spain/Bulgaria)
In the Morning of la Petite Mort – Yu-Lin Wang (Taiwan)
A Childless Village – Reza Jamali (Iran)
The Good Person – Eitan Anner (Israel)
The Young Arsonists – Sheila Pye (Canada)
The Bone Breakers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vincenzo Pirrotta
film profile] – Vincenzo Pirrotta (Italy)

Critics’ Picks – Out of Competition

Sparta [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Ulrich Seidl (Austria/Germany/France)
Call of God [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Kim Ki-duk (Kyrgyzstan/Estonia/Lithuania)
Karaoke – Moshe Rosenthal (Israel)