PRESS RELEASE
55th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
October 31 – November 9, 2014
BALKAN SURVEY
55th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
October 31 – November 9, 2014
BALKAN SURVEY
For 21 years the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s Balkan Survey section, curated by Dimitri Kerkinos, has been showcasing the best samples of the Balkan area’s film production. The themes of family, violence, loss and youth figure prominently this year, as well as stories that deal with traumas from the past and the uncertainty of contemporary societies. This year’s Balkan Survey also celebrates the work of Serbian auteur Zelimir Zilnik, whose films will be screened for the first time in Greece. Zilnik will be in Thessaloniki to introduce his films to the Festival’s audience.
The Balkan Survey Films:
Moving from the individual to the social, and vice versa, the films of this year’s selection tackle an important set of questions: How does one become part of a whole? How can a community accept individuality? Or diversity? And how is hope affected by social and financial collapse?
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep (Palme D’ Or winner) looks at a troubled marriage through a Chekhovian glass, drawing inspiration from the “Three Sisters”. Philosophical and moral questions drive this multi-layered investigation into contemporary Turkish society. Ceylan’s compatriot Kutlug Ataman depicts with a sensitive and humorous touch the Turkish tradition of circumcision through the story of a scared little boy that lives in one of the country’s poorest regions (The Lamb). Another regular of the Balkan Survey, Corneliu Porumboiu, lightens the tone up with The Second Game by putting together uncut footage of a 1988 football game and his own conversation with his referee father, turning what seems to be a seemingly simple narrative into an intriguing comment on political and social corruption.
The predicament of Serbia’s youth is explored in Ivan Ikic’s Barbarians (Special Mention at Karlovy Vary), a coming-of-age drama that unfolds during Kosovo’s declaration of independence. Young people also take center-stage in Andrea Staka’s Cure – The Life of Another, a based-on-a-true-story psychological thriller set in the city of Dubrovnik that tries to recover from its war traumas. Kosovarian director Isa Qosja focuses with his film Three Windows and a Hanging on the taboo subject of female rape during the war and the callous patriarchal stance on the crimes.
A European premiere, The Reaper by Croatian Zvonimir Juric uncovers via three stories the different sides of its protagonist, reflecting thus the war’s consequences on the nation. From the same country, Ognjen Svilicic approaches with his film These are the Rules (Best Actor award for Emir Hadzihafizbegovic at Venice Horizons) the same theme from a different angle: a couple stands helpless and desperate in the throes of a tragic situation.
The first Bulgarian film ever selected for the Sundance World Cinema competition, Viktoria by Maya Vitkova points, with touches of surrealism and satire, to the country’s radical changes through the story of a dysfunctional family. Kaan Mujdeci’s documentary-like Sivas from Turkey (Special Jury Prize at Venice) introduces the tough world of dog-fighting and the even tougher rules of the young protagonist’s violence-bred community. The first black and white Romanian film in 25 years, Quod Erat Demonstrandum by Andrei Gruzsniczki moves to the closed quarters of a family drama, shedding light on surveillance methods during Ceau?escu.
ZELIMIR ZILNIK TRIBUTE
“I simply learned that in the Balkans, people on the margins are actually the only part of society which somehow takes care of continuing on with normality in life”.
Zelimir Zilnik
A genuine political and cultural activist, Zelimir Zilnik demonstrates an admirable and unwavering solidarity to the human condition. Cinema is, according to Zilnik, “a tool for knowing the people”, and he has devoted his entire life to the exploration of everyday human experience – mostly, the one lived in the fringes of society. Characterized as one of the docudrama genre pioneers and with influences that range from Jean Rouch and Chris Marker to Glauber Rocha and Vittorio de Sica, he has discarded cinematic conventions and often sidestepped aesthetics in favour of content and authenticity, employing to that end amateur actors and location shooting. His is a truly and refreshingly alternative point of view that, despite its political makeup, always finds room for humor and experimentation. It is a rare opportunity to see the work of a rogue director who has gone against the grain, challenging prejudices and fearlessly criticising the status quo.
Born in a concentration camp in Nis, Serbia in 1942, Zilnik lost both his parents and was raised by relatives in Novi Sad, Serbia. He began making short experimental films while working as managing director for a local publication called Youth Forum. He studied Law in the University of Novi Sad, but never really practised it and turned instead to documentary filmmaking. It was at that time that he collaborated with famous Yugoslav auteur Dusan Makavejev on the latter’s film Love Affair or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (Ljubavni slucaj ili tragedija sluzbenice P.T.T.).
Despite winning the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1969 for his debut film Early Works, an epitome of the Yugoslav Black Wave and the first film in the history of Yugoslavia to win the top prize at a big international festival, the road ahead proved rocky for Zilnik. The film created such controversy within the country that it significantly contributed to the blacklisting of a number of Black Wave representatives, Zilnik among them. He consequently left for Germany, where he kept on making films, focusing on the experience of the foreign workforce - his films being among the first that ever touched upon the issue.
However, the release of the film Paradise (1976), which had terrorist references, coincided with a wave of terrorist attacks by leftist groups in Germany. Zilnik attracted thus once again the authorities’ attention. He eventually returned to Yugoslavia at the end of the seventies. He then started working for television for TV Belgrade and TV Novi Sad, making films that captured the country’s political and social transmutations. The Fall of Communism and the Yugoslav Wars only meant further political and social changes, and Zilnik kept on following them, focusing gradually more and more on the experiences of refugees and immigrants within Europe. His films have been screened at numerous international festivals and have gathered many awards. To this day, Zilnik counts, besides his directing and producing capacities, those of a mentor, teacher and visiting speaker. He is one of few remaining active directors of the Black Wave movement.
Zilnik’s first film Early Works (1968), inspired by the writings of the young Karl Marx, follows the journey of a group of three young men and a woman (symbolically named Yugoslava), who try to change the world after the student demonstrations in June 1968 in Belgrade by touring the country and raising the peasants’ awareness. An exemplary Black Wave film, Early Works could be seen as Easy Rider’s Balkan sibling - it actually attracted fierce criticism for being “too open to anarchist ideas”.
The Way Steel Was Tempered (1988) follows the story of smelter Leo, who dreams of a better life. The film is both a proletarian comedy and a direct expose of the uncontrollable corruption during the country’s economic collapse, just a few breaths before the Fall of Communism. As most Yugoslavs try to make money on the side, Zilnik comments on how moral decay knows no class; rich and poor alike are rotten – the extent of the damage being proportionate to the power one has in one’s hands. It is the first film for which Zilnik worked with cinematographer Misa Milosevic, who has since become a regular collaborator.
Another metaphor for the country’s disintegration is Marble Ass (1995), with which Zilnik introduced the queer culture of Belgrade to Serbian audiences (at the time many viewers angrily declared that they didn’t believe “such life” existed in their city). The timing is of importance here: at a time when patriots and soldiers are the men of the hour, Zilnik turns the patriarchal propaganda on its head. It is the gay and the transvestites who arise as the voice of logic and normality. The film also went to the Berlin IFF and won the Teddy Award in 2005.
A critique on the European Union’s closed borders policies Fortress Europe (2000) highlights the economic factors behind the European immigration criteria through the story of different immigrants. Zilnik takes real-life events and narratively expands them, creating a docudrama that provides the point of view of both immigrants and police officers.
In 2002 the Process of Readmission and Social integration of Returnees took effect, forcing immigrants to return to their country of origin. Some hadn’t been there in years; others didn’t have any ties, acquaintances or homes left. Through the story of Kenedi we become witnesses to how the Roma, in particular, dealt with the situation. Kenedi Goes Back Home (2003) follows the protagonist as he goes to where his family used to have a house, but to which he has no access, while its follow-up Kenedi, Lost and Found (2005) tracks his story as he illegally tries to go back into the EU to meet his family. The third installment of the trilogy, Kenedi is Getting Married (2007) meets Kenedi as he tries to make ends meet by offering sex services to women and men. The new European laws that allow same sex marriages start to strike Kenedi as his way out of his debt.
A selection of short and medium length films will accompany those mentioned above: his first documentary attempts Newsreel on Village Youth, in Winter (1967), Little Pioneers (1968) and Black Film (1971); Inventory (1975) from his German period; the uncategorizable and imaginative Tito Among the Serbs (1994); and his latest Pirika on Film (2013), which reunites Zilnik with one of the subjects of his earliest work.
The Films
Balkan Survey Feature Films:
Viktoria (Maya Vitkova) Bulgaria, Romania
Three Windows and a Hanging (Isa Qosja) UNMI Kosovo, Germany
These are the Rules (Ognjen Svilicic) Croatia, France, Serbia, FYROM
The Reaper (Zvonimir Juric) Croatia, Slovenia – European Premiere
The Second Game (Corneliu Porumboiu), Romania
Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Andrei Gruzsniczki), Romania
Barbarians (Ivan Ikic), Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia
The Lamb (Kutlug Ataman), Turkey, Germany
Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan), Turkey, France, Germany
Cure (Andrea Staka), Switzerland, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Sivas (Kaan Mujdeci), Turkey, Germany
Balkan Survey Shorts:
1000 (Danijel Zezelj), Croatia
12 Minutes (Nicolae Constantin Tanase), Romania
It Can Pass Through the Wall (Radu Jude), Romania
Horsepower (Daniel Sandu), Romania
Ela, Panda & Madam (Andrei Stefan Rautu), Romania
Moonless Summer (Stefan Ivancic), Serbia
Ice Cream (Serhat Karaaslan), Turkey – European Premiere
Zelimir Zilnik Tribute
Feature Films:
Early Works (1968), Yugoslavia
The Way Steel Was Tempered (1988), Yugoslavia
Marble Ass (1995), Yugoslavia
Fortress Europe (2000), Slovenia
Kennedi Goes Back Home (2003), Serbia & Montenegro
Kennedi is Getting Married (2007), Serbia
Shorts:
Newsreel on Village Youth, in Winter (1967), Yugoslavia
Little Pioneers (1968), Yugoslavia
Black Film (1971), Yugoslavia
Tito Among the Serbs (1994), Yugoslavia
Kenedi, Lost and Found (2005), Serbia & Montenegro
Pirika on Film (2013), Serbia
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