The new competition section invites you to the East

The new competition section invites you to the East

2024.08.02. 10:35

The CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new feature film competition category. From 6 to 14 September, in addition to the now traditional Competition Program, Open Eye and CineDocs, audiences will have the chance to choose from eight feature films in the East of Europe selection. The line-up will bring the best of contemporary Eastern European cinema, with Hungary included in the selection.

In terms of Eastern Europeanism, the quintessential film of the selection is The Hungarian Dressmaker, a Slovak, Czech and Hungarian co-production. Set in the turbulent years of the Second World War, the film, which was highly acclaimed at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, features Marika, a heroine who risks her own life. A widow living on the Slovak-Hungarian border, she hides a Jewish boy while both a Slovak Hlinka Guards captain and a German Nazi officer seek her favor. Starring Alexandra Borbély of On Body and Soul!

In Zenith, the inmates of an underground prison make a successful escape, but the team’s spiritual leader is increasingly feeling the taste of power. Director György Kristóf has previously toured Cannes with Out, and now he has dreamed up a much more monumental film. The Slovakian-Hungarian co-production offers thrills not only for lovers of dystopian sci-fi, but also for lovers of dance and music.

The Czech Waves won the Audience Award in Karlovy Vary, and domestic audiences will surely find this gripping thriller intriguing. Although the historical period of the 1968 Prague Spring – the attempt to establish ‘socialism with a human face’ and its rapid demise – has been the subject of many films before, Jiří Mádl’s new approach to the events is presented through the eyes of radio journalists risking their lives to get the truth out, recalling classics such as All the President’s Men and Argo.

The new Hungarian comedy, The Rebound, by Csaba Vékes, one of the directors of the highly successful Be My Dad!, is sure to be a huge success. Kálmán (Péter Scherer) and his team are preparing for the European Button Football Championship. When it seems that the big competition will have to be cancelled due to financial obstacles, a billionaire mistakenly transfers a small fortune to the team’s account… The American, who is running after his own money, is played by Patrick Duffy, the former Bobby Ewing from the Dallas series.

Debuting at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, 78 Days shows a whole new side to the Kosovo war. Three sisters start a video diary with the family camera after their father’s enlistment, showing their everyday life from cooking to make-up to fighting and, of course, the alarming noise of sirens and war. Now based in New York, Serbian filmmaker Emilija Gašić’s first feature film moves away from news footage and brings the period of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign up close and personal.

A coming-of-age story is the latest work by Marian Crisan, one of the leading figures of the Romanian New Wave. The protagonist of Warboy sets off to the terrifying, wild landscapes of the Apuseni mountains to rescue his family’s horses during the Second World War.

Winner of the Audience Award at the Sofia International Film Festival, Because I Love Bad Weather is a moving Bulgarian romantic drama. Irina flees her own life and returns to her native Bulgarian village, where she reunites with her former neighbor and childhood friend after 20 years. As she waits for her husband and he mourns his parents, they revisit their memories and discover a life-changing secret.

Observation is a thriller made in Slovenia, with Italian and Croatian help. As a paramedic tries to find out why she’s receiving disturbing videos of a crime, it becomes increasingly clear that he’s involved in the gruesome case.

      |