Fourteen carefully selected films from the Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and San Sebastian film festivals. Five jury prizes in Cannes and Berlin. Festival debut at the Stasys Museum in Panevėžys and special screenings for students of the National Film School of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. With such news, the fifth contemporary film festival "Bear, Lion and Branch" invites you to cinemas on October 2-12.
Two weeks before the start of the festival, Giedrė Krikščiūnaitė, founder and director of "Bear, Lion and Branch", spoke about this year's main theme of the festival, its rich program, its distribution to make it easier to choose films, its geography, the trilogy being presented for the first time, and new film screening spaces.
What is the theme of this year's festival?
This year's main driving force of the festival program is hope, which constantly pushes the characters and characters in the films to move forward - to walk, drive, swim, fly. This also dictated the idea for the main slogan of the festival "The path opens by walking", which also reflects today's world, when moving forward helps to survive or come up with necessary solutions. This year, the festival will feature road films in various forms. Together with original contemporary filmmakers, we invite you to move forward and embark on journeys full of surprises, with magical routes that are unplanned and unpredictable.
Traditionally, films come from major film festivals? Which one was the most fruitful this year?
The Cannes Film Festival has a particularly strong program, so it’s no surprise that this year we have ten films from this region. Three of them were recognized by both critics and the Cannes jury, who awarded them the Jury Prize. These are the cinematic poem “Looking at the Sun” by German director Mascha Schilinski – one of the most interesting films I’ve seen at festivals in many years, “The Orphan” by Galician-born Spanish director Oliver Laxe, a wild tale set to the rhythms of techno music, and “Poetà” by Simón Mesa Soto, a witty film that won the Jury Prize for “Special View”.
We brought two films back from the Berlin Film Festival. It’s an interesting coincidence that they were also awarded the Jury Prizes – the Silver Bears. The Grand Prix was awarded to the dystopian, surprise-filled comedy from Brazil “Blue, the Bluest” (dir. Gabriel Mascaro), which will open our festival on October 2. And the Jury Prize was won by the bright, black-and-white road film from Argentina “Animal Talker” (dir. Ivan Fund), about a girl who can hear what animals are saying.
One film each came from the San Sebastian and Locarno film festivals. The original comedy "The Hen" will be presented in the competition program of the San Sebastian festival, which will soon begin. The author of this film about a hen, shot in Greece, is the legend of Hungarian cinema György Pálfi, who left his country due to disagreements with the authorities. The Locarno film festival will be represented by the brainchild of the new generation of South Korean director Syeyoung Park debut "Pelekas" (filmed with friends and on a very low budget), which will take you to the world of humans and mutants.
What will documentary film lovers find in the program?
Every year we include at least one documentary story about a famous and unique personality. This year, the focus is on the legendary English writer George Orwell. The film “Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5” about him was created by Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck. This film is not only about a portrait of a free personality, but also a kind of manifesto, exploring the modern mad world through the work of G. Orwell. By the way, this is the only film from the USA.
What is the geography of the remaining films?
Traditionally, the festival program includes more than one work by French masters. From the Cannes competition program comes the gripping drama “Case No. 137. A Personal Affair” by director Dominique Mollo (“News from Mars,” “Only Beasts,” “Twelfth Night”). This slowly but surely developing detective examines protests – both social and personal.
Anne Cazenave Cambet, presented in the Un Certain Regard program at Cannes, will make the audience's hearts flutter a story about the relationship between a mother and child and painful but important choices – "Love Me Tender" starring the wonderful actress Vicky Krieps ("Corsage", "Ingeborga Bachman - Journey into the Wilderness").
No less drama will be found in the film "Enzo", which is full of a young man's search for identity. This work is accompanied by a painful personal story, as its author, Laurent Cantet, who won the Cannes "Palme d'Or" with the drama "Class", died of a serious illness while making the film. His work was completed by French film masters Robin Campillo, the Darden brothers, and Jacques Audiard.
German films are an integral part of the identity of the festival "Bear, Lion and Branch". We will show not only the already mentioned M. Schilinski's film "Looking at the Sun", but also the drama "Reflections No. 3. Boat in the Ocean" by the beloved Lithuanian director Christian Petzold, presented at Cannes. The main role in it is played by his muse, the actress with a special style, Paula Beer.
As every year, we also have an Italian film. If you want to wander around bars, check out director Francesco Sossai's dramedy "To Keep the Roads Dust-Free," full of pearls of male wisdom. The film, shown at Cannes, will remind you of Aki Kaurismäki's or Thomas Vinterberg's stories about the odysseys of "men who are getting better."
This year, we will also present the Egyptian trilogy by the Swedish director of Egyptian origin, Tarik Saleh. We will show not only his latest film, "Eagles of the Republic", which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, but also two previous works, "Incident at the Nile Hilton Hotel" and "The Cairo Conspiracy", which have already been shown in Lithuania.
How to select movies from a rich program?
For the convenience of viewers, we also divide the films into thematic groups every year, which makes it easier to select works that are close to their taste. This year, we have distinguished four unexpected themes.
"The Other Side of Reality" are films that surprise us, are full of surprises, and are a bit mystical, like "The Orphan" or "The Animal Conjurer."
Films in the thematic group "Reflections" are aimed at cinephiles who enjoy multi-layered narratives, such as "Looking at the Sun" or "Pelekas".
"White Ravens" encompasses works whose main driving force is a charismatic character, such as "The Poet" or "The Hen".
And the films in the thematic group "(Im)personal Matters" reveal our political, societal, and social reality, for example, D. Moll's political criticism or R. Peck's documentary about G. Orwell.
In which cities will the "Bear, the Lion and the Twig" films be shown this year?
Our principle has remained the same for the fifth year in a row – we try to show one film screening in each cinema. In Vilnius, we will traditionally be at the cinemas “Forum Cinemas Vingis”, “Skalvija”, “Pasaka”, “Multikino”. We believe in education and training, therefore, in order to inspire even more young people with auteur cinema, this year for the first time we have prepared special screenings for students of the National Film School of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Special news awaits the people of Panevėžys – we will show the festival in the new cinema hall of the modern museum “Stasys Museum”. This is the first festival in this new cinema space. For the first time, the films will also come to Alytus, the renovated “Dainavos” cinema, as well as Visaginas. Traditionally, we will show them in Kaunas, at the “Romuva” cinema, as well as in Marijampolė, Anykščiai, and Utena.
The festival is always distinguished by its original visuals. What can we expect this year?
If we are showing auteur cinema, we also want to present it authentically. As is tradition, we are creating the main visual of the festival together with artist Elena Maja, who, after joint discussions, painted the highlight of the festival on canvas. Graphic design is traditionally created by Madis Kivi, and the original festival music is by Rafael Mamedov.
We also pay special attention to film translations, because we believe that it is important to maintain the mood, language and maximum convey the author's creative vision. We always carefully select translators, for example, if a person understands bureaucratic vocabulary and is familiar with French society, he translates "Case No. 137. A Personal Matter", and if he is close to the world of poetry - "The Poet". In addition, the films will be shown throughout Lithuania with Lithuanian and English subtitles, so that they can be seen by the widest possible audience.
The films of the contemporary film festival "The Bear, the Lion and the Branch" will be screened in Lithuanian cinemas from October 2 to 12.
You will find the festival sessions in Romuva here.