Within the following six days, the section East of the West – Competition presents twelve world or international premieres, all of them being either the first or second film of filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe, with the addition of Greece and Turkey. While making the selection of the films for the festival, the dramaturges took into account both their quality and variety of genres.
On Saturday, the section was opened by the Azerbaijani film Pomegranate Orchard directed by Ilgar Najaf, who, along with the film’s screenwriter and producers, arrived to introduce hiswork. The film takes place in a humble family farmstead situated in the Azerbaijani countryside and tells the story of elderly Shamil and his son Gabil who returned home after twelve years. The drama offers a contrasting set of picturesque landscape views and the reflections of wrongdoings from the past, the central topic of the film.
Other films of the section include a Russian comedy road movie How Viktor „the Garlic“ took Alexey „the Stud“ to the Nursing Home, but also a Turkish art load The Stone, an Estonian comedy taking place in a fastfood The End of the Chain or a love story from contemporary post-Maidan Ukraine Falling.
There will also be a Czech-Slovak duel. An outstanding Slovak drama by Juraj Lehotský Nina has found its way among the dozen films that made it to the final selection beating tens of other candidates; it is a portrait of a marriage falling apart and a daughter, a competitive swimmer. The film Nina will be challenged by a Czech psychological film Absence of Closeness by debutant filmmaker Josef Tuka with Jana Plodková in the lead role.
A visually captivating film Dede, a debut by director Mariam Khatchvani set in Svatenie, a sparsely inhabited mountain area in the north-western part of Georgia, depicts the conflict between an arranged marriage and romantic love. Love drama Unwanted created by a Kosovan-Dutch co-production tells the story of a deep generation gap. This topic is the common denominator of several films in the East of the West section. “Problems of the past influence the present and this is often reflected in generation conflicts,” added dramaturge Lenka Tyrpáková on the topic of this section.
More about the section East of the West in Festival daily.
