European cinema goes to Lecce
Southern Europe is looking to the East. Indeed, the 6th European Film Festival in Lecce, which will be taking place from the 5th to the 10th of April, includes many Eastern titles (from Macedonia, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland) besides the usual guests like Spain, Germany, England, Russia, and Iceland. The ten European films in competition are Fallen by Fred Kelemen (Germany), Febrer by Silvia Quer (Spain), How I Killed a Saint by Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia), Guarded Secrets by Zsuzsa Böszörményi (Hungary), My Stepbrother Frankestein by Valerij Todorovskij (Russia), Niceland by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Iceland), The Ruins by Janez Burger (Slovenia), Symmetry by Konrad Niewolski (Poland), Yasmin by Kenny Glenaan (England), and Tu devi essere il lupo by Vittorio Moroni (Italy).
During the festival, a congress attended by, amongst others, Viviane Reding, member of the European Commission, and Gaetano Blandini, national secretary for cinema, will take place around the question of the identity of European cinema. Amongst the other guests, we find the director Gillo Pontecorvo and the actress Virna Lisi, to whom special tributes will be dedicated, as well as Edgar Reitz, who is bringing Heimat 3.
‘Our mission, explained Cristina Soldano, the artistic director of the festival, is to act as an interface between the different cultures and cinematic languages and as a means to promote European cinema.’ To this end, the festival particularly emphasizes emerging talents by organising the contest called ‘Emerging European Film-Makers’ which consists in a selection of short films from the 25 members of the EU. The festival is organised by the Ministry of Culture, the AIP, the Experimental Centre, the Critics (SNCCI) and the Cinema journalists (SNGCI) Societies.
(Translated from Italian)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
