09/04/2008

Wiesbaden is hosting the goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film (April 9-15), which kicks off today.

The event – which was created in 2001 and promotes dialogue between the different film industries – will have a grand opening with the screening of the Russian Oscar-nominated film 12, which is a remake by acclaimed director Nikita Mikhalkov of the classic title 12 Angry Men.

The line-up includes over 150 features and shorts, as well as experimental and animated films.

Ten features and six documentaries are in competition, including Katyn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Wajda
interview: Michal Kwiecinski
film profile] (see Focus), by Polish master Andrzej Wajda, which enjoyed remarkable domestic box office success; Love And Other Crimes [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a co-production between four European countries directed by Serbian filmmaker Stefan Arsenijevic and screened at the latest Berlinale (see news); I'm From Titov Veles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teona Strugar Mitevska
film profile] by Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, which also screened at Berlin; All Will Be Well by Polish director Tomasz Wiszniewski; the Finnish/Hungarian film Last Bus Stop by Zsuzsa Böszörményi and Kai Salminen; Kadri Kõusaar Wiesbaden’s UK/Estonian title Magnus; Vaclav by Czech director Jiří Vejdělek; and Thomas Ciulei’s Romanian documentary The Flower Bridge.

The jury is presided by the prominent German producer Eberhard Junkersdorf (who has worked with Volker Schlöndorff on several films, namely the Oscar-winning Cannes triumph The Tin Drum and Death of a Salesman).

Among the seven other sections that comprise goEast, Symposium offers a reflection on the history of Eastern Europe, the identity of its different peoples and its reconstruction.

The Portrait section is devoted to the work of the radical young Hungarian director Benedek Fliegauf and the Highlights sidebar presents films that have won domestic acclaim and have been lauded at international festivals (including the humorous and poetic Grandhotel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Czech director David Ondříček and Veiko Õunpuu’s Estonian title Autumn Ball [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

Signature ventures into experimental territory and there is a section devoted to works by film students. Moreover, the special section will screen recent films, such as the Estonian/Latvian animated film Lotte from Gadgetville by Janno Põldma and Heiki Ernits and California Dreamin' [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Romania’s Cristian Nemescu, as well as archive films.

(Translated from French)