“Horizons” set to attract the crowds at Karlovy Vary
by Sakis Kontos
The official selection – competition is by definition the one to attract the attention of the media and the guests’ in a film festival. For “film hungry” Czech audiences though their own Karlovy Vary International Film Festival presents them with their best chance to also have a look at important features which, for various reasons, might never get distributed here.
Strangely enough these could include 2005 “Palm d’or” and “Golden Bear” winners – L'enfant [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
film profile] (“The Child”) by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne and U-Carmen eKhayelitsha by Mark Dornford-May. Both films will be among 42 productions, selected from the program of the recent Toronto, Venice (2004), Berlin and Cannes festivals and presented at Karlovy Vary’s retrospective “Horizons”.
“Horizons” is actually a testing ground for most European films who are still suffering against their American counterparts within the Czech distribution system. Some distributors admit that if the Karlovy Vary public embraces a feature then there is sufficient proof that the film might do well in the box office.
Included in this year’s retrospective are films by Danish director Lars von Trier, Manderlay [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second part of his “American” trilogy, and his compatriot Susanne Bier Brothers [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Brdre”) as well as Wim Wenders’ Don't Come Knocking [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Also incorporated in the program are at least half a dozen features which have caused some kind of controversy for their storyline or language, including Lukas Moodyson’s explicit A Hole In My Heart (“Et hal I mit hjarta”), Roger Michell’s Enduring Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and two dramas from the Balkan peninsula, the Serbian Midwinter night’s dream (“San zimske noci”) by Goran Paskaljević and the Greek Omiros [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Hostage”) by Constantinos Giannaris.
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