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First titles confirmed for the main competition at the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF

April 28, 2009, 10:47 AM

The Karlovy Vary festival’s international feature film competition traditionally attracts greatest attention, with its screening of films by renowned filmmakers and talented first-time directors in their world, international or European premieres.


György Pálfi, one of Hungary’s most talented contemporary directors and creator of the controversial Taxidermia, will present his latest film to an international public for the first time, I Am Not Your Friend (Nem vagyok a barátod). This cynical drama set in modern Budapest tells of a group of characters agonizingly bound by mutual emotional abuse. Always original, Pálfi offers an ingenious study on the theme of alienation in a world of consumerism, impersonalised sex and long lost innocence.

Nine years after winning Best Director at the Karlovy Vary IFF for his film Marshal Tito’s Spirit, the festival welcomes back to the competition celebrated Croatian director Vinko Brešan. His convincing drama Will Not Stop There (Nije kraj) tells the story of Croatian war veteran Martin who sets out to try and find the Serbian prostitute Desa. This is a love story steeped in mystery with touches of black humour, narrated in the spirit of Balkan magic realism by Djuro, an eccentric porn-film actor. Vinko Brešan last captured the attention of the Karlovy Vary public and the jury of the section East of the West five years ago with his film Witnesses, screened that same year to critical acclaim in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Slovakia, whose film industry is currently enjoying a revival, will be one of the countries represented in the KVIFF’s main competition this year. The feature film debut by Vladimír Balko, Soul at Peace (Pokoj v duši), based on a screenplay by Jiří Křižan, follows the story of Tono, a man in his forties who returns to his native village after years in prison to discover that attempts to eliminate the shadows of the past will be more difficult than he had envisaged. This classically constructed drama depicting the conflict between good and evil that rages within the morally intractable hero, is a truly compelling work thanks to Martin Štrba’s spellbinding camera and excellent performances from Attila Mokos, Roman Luknár and Polish star Robert Wieckiewicz.

Accompanied by acting legend Parviz Parastui, familiar from the films of Majid Majidi or Maziar Miri, Abdolreza Kahani, a member of the youngest generation of Iranian filmmakers, will be bringing his latest film to Karlovy Vary this year. The title of his subtle psychological drama, Twenty (Bist), refers to the number of days remaining before the closure of a once popular reception hall, which now only manages to keep its head above water by hosting funeral wakes. The depressed owner (played by the excellent Parastui) resolves to close the venue, however, his decision is overturned by a handful of employees for whom the restaurant means much more than a mere source of income.

The representative of Korean film in the Karlovy Vary competition, the starkly minimalist Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells (Barami Memounen Got, Himalya), made in a coproduction with France, also boasts a star actor whose reputation far exceeds his country of origin. An acute sense of guilt for the death of an illegal migrant worker from distant Nepal is the reason why a well-situated Korean executive in his forties (Choi Min-sik, familiar from the films Old Boy or Lady Vengeance) sets off on a journey to the “roof of the world”. The film image is the chief means of expression in this melancholic narrative which draws to a great extent on its exotic location and the people who live there. Much anticipated by film critics, the film will be presented in Karlovy Vary by director Jeon Soo-il himself, whose With a Girl of Black Soil was extremely well received during its premiere in Venice and subsequent screening at last year’s KVIFF.

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