From Paul Simon to Haitian kidnappers to Turkish sci-fi

From Paul Simon to Haitian kidnappers to Turkish sci-fi

2024.08.08. 13:54

Week by week, more exciting details are revealed about the CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival program as we get closer and closer to the event taking place from 6 to 14 September. This year’s selection of the Open Eye program, which has become a tradition, will feature films from outside Europe, with separate sections for Chinese (China Focus) and Turkish (Turkish Days) films.

The most ambitious piece in the Open Eye section is In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon. The American documentary gives us a glimpse into the now six-decade-long musical career of the former Simon and Garfunkel member. Oscar- and Emmy-winning director Alex Gibney follows Simon as he records his latest album and revisits the most important moments of his career.

Zoljargal Purevdash’s Only if I could Hibernate was the first Mongolian film to compete at Cannes. Its protagonist, poor teenager Ulzii, decides to win a physics competition in the hope of winning a scholarship. His illiterate mother, however, finds a job in the countryside and leaves the boy at home with his siblings in the middle of winter.

In Kidnapping Inc., Doc and Zoe are tasked with a seemingly simple kidnapping, but they find themselves in the middle of a political conspiracy. Bruno Mourral’s frenetic action-comedy went straight from Haiti to the Sundance Film Festival, the biggest American film festival, and is now up for the title of the festival’s most entertaining film at CineFest.

In the Turkish film Faruk, a filmmaker’s daughter documents the imminent demolition of her father’s Istanbul apartment building. In Asli Özge’s film, which won the International Film Critics’ Prize in Berlin, Faruk, who is over 90, gradually becomes the protagonist of the film.

Goodbye Julia! the film by Mohamed Kordofani was a hit in Cannes and since then it has been touring the world’s film festivals. Set in Sudan, the film explores the contrast between North and South within the country through the eyes of a guilt-ridden singer who seeks redemption for indirectly contributing to the death of a family man.

Tatami is the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker, and the names are well-known from CineFest for their previous work: Iranian Zar Amir won the Best Actress award at Cannes for the Holy Spider, and Israeli Guy Nattiv won an Oscar for his short film Skin. In this tense sports film – which will also be the closing film of CineFest – Iranian female judoka Leila is called upon by the Islamic Republic to fake an injury and lose at the world championships, forcing her to make the most important decision of her life.

Co-organized with the Shanghai International Film Festival, the China Focus program aims to showcase China’s diverse art scene with four exciting films. The films will be accompanied by a delegation from the festival. Yishu Yang’s film, coming from the Shanghai Film Festival, is set on a small island’s organic farm located in A Land Behind, where the fates of several generations intertwine and the contrasts of different perspectives and desires surface.

In the film, A Day Tripper, you get a glimpse of everyday life in a city in northern China. A wife wants to start a new life, tries to move away and breaks up with her lover. A young teacher attempts to change the education system. At a remote bus stop, people wait all day for the bus, not knowing that it will never stop there again. Yanqi Chen’s film won the top prize at the Fribourg Film Festival in Switzerland.

Director Dong Luo received the Best First Feature Film Award in Shanghai for May. Through the eyes of the seventy-year-old protagonist, his work asks whether it is possible to build new relationships, or even find love, at this age.

Johnny Keep Walking! is a madcap comedy in which a technician is mistakenly put in command during a wave of layoffs dubbed “restructuring”. To save his own job, the HR manager tries to cover the mistake in Runnian Dong’s caricature of corporate culture.

Hayat, which has already screened at the Sofia and Thessaloniki Film Festivals, will offer Turkish film lovers a thrilling time at the Turkish Days program. In Zeki Demirkubuz’s drama, a girl runs away from home because her father would force her to marry. Her fiancé sets off through the bustling streets of Istanbul in search of her.

In Emre Kavuk’s science fiction A Better Tomorrow, Ozan asks the state for permission to commit suicide because he can’t bear to see his lover leave him. His petition is rejected because a girl named Ekin is in love with him. Ozan has to find Ekin to convince her not to love him.

In the coming weeks, more information will be revealed about the festival’s program and the start of ticket sales.

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