Introduction to the Film Programme
The common
denominator for artists hosted in the spirit of this year’s festival motto –
Abracadabra! – is the “magic” of the outlived and non-functional patriarchal
patterns, socio-political conventions and moral and ethical norms and values
that prefer something more abstract and elusive than an individual human being
– namely, the “magical power” of religion, ideology and political beliefs,
which can serve to liberate an individual or transform them into a tool for
manipulation and enslavement in the name of consumerism, (neo)capitalism,
religious fanatism, craving for money, lust for power, authority and control.
In
collaboration with Slovenska Kinoteka, we are presenting a retrospective of
Marguerite Duras, the French writer and director, a free-spirited artist who
overcame a number of obstacles – from poverty and her father’s death in early
childhood, to a Victorian rigidity that failed to harness her sexuality and
“unlady-like” behaviour – to hold on to her dreams to dedicate her life to
writing. Slovenska Kinoteka will also host a presentation from a similar
women’s festival from Cairo – the Arab-Iberoamerican Women’s
Film Festival aimed at the network development of Arab, Spanish and Latin
American women filmmakers. Their perspective from behind the camera as they
found themselves in the arena of the current “Arab spring” brings films from Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia. These films deal with a series of
social and political topics that every new turmoil in the world once again
ejects to the surface, such as migrations, exile, terrorism, activism or the
role of women in the social structure of the community.
Together
with Kinodvor City Cinema we have organised a pre-festival event – the premiere
of the film omnibus Some Other Stories,
“a project by five women directors, revealing the social pulse in the
territories of the former Yugoslavia as well as the dilemmas, doubts, hopes and
relationships to current topics of the younger generation” in which women play
the leading role, not only on the screen but in the production process as well.
The children’s section of the film programme encompasses two screenings of Tomorrow Will Be Better by Polish
director Dorota Kędzierzawska, a story about three young fugitives, “the
great little heroes of the wicked times we live in.”
In
collaboration with the Škuc Gallery, the panel entitled “Female Workers:
Between Freedom, Choice and Poverty” will include the screening of the Serbian
documentary
12-15%, which addresses the presence and ways of
representation of women (and other marginalized groups) in media.
The
principal thought to be reflected on by our viewers is that modern science has
already developed efficient methods to resolve a number of catastrophic global
phenomena – from epidemics to relieving hunger, poverty and environment
protection issues. And that mankind and every individual hold within themselves
a totally different set of values and objectives from the one imposed upon all
of us by the global rat race. It might seem unreal and utopian, but human history
is full of incredible violence and miracles alike. The transformation of
mankind into a community of autonomous and liberated individuals regardless their
skin colour, race, religious or political belief – utopia? or – Abracadabra!
Let the magic begin. (Barbara Hribar)
Programme:
Marija Džidževa (MK), Ana Maria Rossi (SRB),
Ivona Juka (HR), Ines Tanović (BiH), Hanna Slak (SI)
Some Other Stories
Dorota Kędzierzawska
Tomorrow Will Be Better (Jutro będzie lepiej)
Marguerite Duras Retrospective
Lidija Vasiljevic & Violeta
Andjelkovic
12–15%
Arab Lotfi
Tell Your Tale, Little Bird
Nadia El Fani
The Children of Lenin
Amal Ramsis
Forbidden
Dahna Abou Rahmeh
Kingdom of Women
Nada Doumani
Errant Home
MARGUERITE DURAS RETROSPECTIVE
Ingenium and ingenuitas… Great stylists
are few. In the French prose of the 20th century, Alain, Proust, Gide,
Giraudoux and two or three others. To be a great stylist means first of all
having that inimitable way in which the author edits the substance of their
creative process. Three words, two commas, and we recognise them. Or three
shots, two pans. Indeed, it is absolutely the same in film. We instantly
recognise Méliés, Eisenstein, Ophüls, Fellini. Marguerite Duras’ originality
(and she shares this only with Cocteau) is that she is a great stylist in
literature and cinema alike.
In film, what is Duras recognised for? Or, to put it
slightly different, what inimitable quality has she brought to contemporary
cinematography to embody a moment of this contemporaneity? A world – her worlds
– that’s for sure. A world whose mental meteorology is familiar with the
tempestuousness of mad love, living despair and blanks in the memory, and whose
geography extends from Indo-China, past Auschwitz to the coast of Normandy. But
this world already exists in her books. Then it is mainly a particular
aesthetics of the simple and the sublime comprised of long shots and slow pans,
a broad autonomy of images and soundtrack where music and voice play a
bewitching role; in short, the aesthetics of generalised “litotes”: nothing is
ever completely played, presented in a realistic way. The viewer has to finish
the film by himself, he has to read it and combine disparate elements. One
could talk about a talent, a genius (lat.: ingenium).
Maybe we should – or to the same extent – talk about ingenuitas. If the word gave us “ingenuity”, then it first of all
illustrates the nobility of emotions and the condition of a free man (or,
hearkening way back to Plautus, a free woman). Because only a man, only a woman,
who approaches film with the ultimate naivety and sense of utopia – and the
firmness that gives absolute freedom – can, the same as Marguerite Duras,
encourage not yet established young people (Bruno Nuytten, Carlos d’Alessio,
Gerard Dépardieu), take distance from technical achievements that seem
unavoidable these days, impose on the actors a new way of acting and ultimate
sacrifice (such as silence) and finally surrender to the ecstasy with a simple
admiration, considered arrogance, in front of realised images. Yes, he or she
can, just like she did, re-discover film.
(Dominique
Noguez)
Programme
Thursday, October 6th
9 pm: India Song
Saturday, October 8th
7 pm: Destroy, She Said (Détruire dit-elle)
9 pm: Baxter, Vera Baxter
Sunday, October 9th
7 pm: Agatha et les lectures illimitées
9 pm: The Children (Les enfants)
Monday, October 10th
10 pm: The Atlantic Man (L'homme Atlantique)
Friday, October 14th
7 pm: Hiroshima mon amour
