European film festival "Scanorama" presented this year's program, which includes films evaluated in Berlin and Cannes, works that outline the changing geopolitical and existential contours of the world, and the voice of talented female creators.
"This year, the curatorial direction and changes in the internal structure of the festival would most accurately be described by the work of Franz Kafka, the pioneer of modernist literature, Metamorphosis." The festival program reveals the perspectives of the changing world and the processes of cinema itself, and the experienced Swiss program maker Annina Wettstein, who joined the team, strengthened her focus on new film trends, took a more radical look at commercial cinema, found original means of expression and showed attention to young talented European directors," the festival program presented founder and art director Gražina Arlickaitė.
The 22nd edition of the festival will be opened by the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival, "The Second Act" by French director Quentin Dupieux, symbolically echoing the intonation of the opening of the main European film festival. The biggest autumn film festival will be closed by Linas Mikuta's documentary "Gabriel from Paradise Lost", continuing the tradition of closing the festival with a film by a Lithuanian filmmaker.
Wide Europe
European cinema horizons will be opened the widest this year by Portuguese cinema. "Banzo" by Margarida Cardoso, presented in the Karlovy Vary competition program, shockingly and enchantingly reveals the gruesome colonial experiences of Portugal and other territories. It is extended in completely different aesthetic registers by Miguel Gomes' colonial Asian odyssey "Grand Tour", awarded for best director at the Cannes Film Festival.
Awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Bruno Dumont's Empire creates a European version of Star Wars, offering not only a satirical vision of a cosmic apocalypse, but also an apt commentary on the modern human condition.
Crossing Europe has also been affected by the winds of metamorphosis, with individual city highlights. Screenings of the French classic Agnès Varda's film "The Short Point" (1955) and British director Mark Jenkin's film "Masalas" (2019) are dedicated to Klaipėda. The exclusive "Afterlife" (35) by the British creator Charlie Shackleton, shot on 2021 mm film, shown from a single copy and disappearing with each screening, will be shown only at the "Skalvija" cinema center in Vilnius and the "Romuva" cinema center in Kaunas. Klaipėda viewers will also be treated to a special film and live music session - the screen adaptation of Dante's "Divine Comedy" "Hell" (1911) created by Italian directors Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovano and Giuseppe de Liguoro will open rarely seen pages of silent film history.
Voice of the North
One of Scanorama's flagship programs "News from the North" includes "The Girl with the Needle" by the Swedish director Magnus von Horn and "When the Light Breaks" by Icelander Rúnar Rúnarsson, which was screened at Cannes. Mr. von Horn continues the Bergmanian tradition of gender tensions in a gothic thriller based on true events of the last century that left an indelible mark on Danish history. Rúnarsson's latest film engages with a subtle simplicity that is increasingly rare in today's effects-loving world of cinema.
Norwegian director Lilja Ingolsdottir's debut "Worthy of Love", which tells the story of broken love and a collapsing family, is memorable for its artistic maturity. The film won as many as 5 awards at the Karlovy Vary festival - the Special Jury Prize for the best debut, the award for the best actress role, the prestigious Fipresci Award, the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the European Cinemas Award.
The first parts of Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud's trilogy "Sex and Love" explore modern human relationships, revealing incredible dynamics between the actors and immersing them in a dense cinematic atmosphere. The script of the film "Maja iš Audrau salos" by the Finnish director Tiina Lymi reminds the stories of Žemaitė's "Leaking Happiness", but the attitude of the main character and the ending of the story offer a completely different perspective.
The main competition: the voice of talented women
This year, the main competition, characterized by stylistic and meaningful diversity, is dominated by the voice of young and talented European women directors, covering a wide thematic and aesthetic amplitude from the horror of war to the analysis of internecine conflicts.
Ukrainian director Oksana Karpovič's documentary "Intercepted Connection", awarded a special mention by the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlin Film Festival, combines the conversations of Russian soldiers with their relatives with the landscapes of war-torn Ukraine, shockingly revealing the destructive goals of the Russian Empire and the precision-functioning propaganda apparatus. Polish director Vita Maria Drygas' debut documentary Danger Zone, presented at the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival IDFA, explores the rise of war tourism and its personal and geopolitical territories.
Maja Novakovič's documentary story "Who will come knocking on the door?", unfolding in the harsh landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina, closely observes the natural and inevitable flow of life. Sarah Summa's Arthur and Diana explores new definitions of family ties with exceptional cinematic textures. It is seconded by Sawandi Groskind and Kim Ekberg's XXL, which ingeniously blurs the lines between realism and fantasy in a brother and sister's wanderings around Kaurismak Helsinki. Ramon Zürcher's "The Sparrow in the Chimney" explores family existence by intertwining the fate lines of two sisters. Sonja Prosenc's "Family Therapy" explores the boundaries of external and internal reality, inviting us to look into the complex fabric of fears and expectations. Louise Courvoisier's The Devil tells a lively and sensitive coming-of-age story. Pavel G. Vesnakov's "Stillness" embarks on a journey of self-discovery, opening a personal memory. Iva Radivojevic's "When the phone rang" also reveals a complex landscape of memory.
For film eccentrics, the program "Think What You Want" will intrigue with interesting debuts and works that explore film forms. Norwegian director Thea Hvistendahl's conceptual zombie film How to Deal with the Immortals, which opened the Gothenburg Film Festival, will be the cornerstone of the "Creatures of the Night" program dedicated to the interests of genre cinema.
The present and the past of Lithuanian cinema
Lithuanian premieres this year will be represented by Elizabetes Mežules-Gricmanes and Ramunė Rakauskaitė's Latvian-Lithuanian co-production "Last Rock and Roll", Ksenia Kravtsova's Ukrainian-Lithuanian co-production "Through the Infinity Lens" and Šarūnas Mikulski's "Disappearing" which will complement the Klaipėda program. species".
This year, the program "Open Lithuanian Cinema History" will invite you to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the only Lithuanian musical "The Devil's Bride", to remember the centenary of Donats Banionis and the important film for his creative biography "Adams nori betu szmogumi", marking the fateful meeting with its director Vytautas Žalakevičius, in Klaipėda - take another look at the early period of Algimantas Puipa's work and his legendary film "A Woman and Her Four Men".
Unknown Soviet-era cinema of Sakartvelo
The treasures of the "Lietuvos kino" archive will be opened this year by the films of the great directors of Sakartvel, Tengiz Abuladze and Otar Iosselianis. The masterpieces of Soviet Sakartvel's cinema will be combined with the artistic searches and achievements of its contemporary directors in the world cinema space in Lana Gogoberidze's latest film "Mother and Daughter, or the Night Never Ends", presented at the Berlin Film Festival.
The voices of young cinema will traditionally be presented by the Short Film Competition. Four programs of short films from different European countries will reveal the view of the latest generation of filmmakers on the world and cinema around them.
The program "SCA directions" for the film industry will invite you to reflect on the complex relationship between the history of Ukrainian cinema and the present, to discuss the concept of the author in cinema, to take a deeper look at the professions of film critics and actors and the difficulties they face, as well as to discuss the issue of the end of cinema, which has been predicted for decades.
This year, the European film festival "Scanorama" will take place from November 7 to 21 in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Marijampole and Visaginas. The project is partially financed by the Lithuanian Film Center.
Scanorama sessions can be found in Romuva here.