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| Josh O’Connor and Lily LaTorre play father and daughter in Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding, in the Crystal Globe Competition at Karlovy Vary Film Festival Photo: Film Servis KVIFF |
Hot on the high heels of the Cannes Film Festival, the organisers of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival which takes place in the Bohemian spa town two hours south of Prague, have unveiled a serious-minded programme of titles for various strands of the selection, including Crystal Globe Competition.
The artistic director Karel Och sets the tone by suggesting that filmmakers “fearlessly protect the right to challenge expectations, to disrupt stereotypes and to win over hearts and minds with equal intensity.” He admits, however, that the creatives while pushing boundaries must also remember “the necessary connection between a film and its audience."
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| Family drama and trauma - Camille Cottin and Monia Chokri in Out Of Love by Nathan Ambrosioni Photo: Film Servis KVIFF |
Although 11 titles have been revealed one from Iran remains a mystery for the moment “for the safety of its makers” but it will be revealed closer to the festival which runs from 4 to 12 July.
Among the Competition titles is US director Max Walker-Silverman’s Sundance entry Rebuilding with Josh O’Connor playing a Colorado ranch owner who has to start all over a gain after a devastating wildfire; Catalan director Pere Vilà Barceló’s When A River Becomes The Sea about a young archeology student coping with mental trauma; and youthful French director Nathan Ambrosioni with a family drama Out Of Love, dealing with a woman (Camille Cottin) forced to become a mother to children she scarcely knows.
Turkish director Gözde Kura has his Cinema Jazireh, set in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, given a world première while Norwegian director Nina Knag’s feature debut Don’t Call Me Mama also takes a bow. It deals with a teacher who grows close to an 18-year-old refugee. Meanwhile in a selection that sees family and relationships topics brought to the fore. The Luminous Life, by Portuguese director João Rosas, has as its main character a 24-year-old whose dream of being a professional musician is falling apart. Then fate throws several opportunities his way to take control of his life again.
In the Proxima Competition - which, with its ethos of even edgier works by new film talents resembles Cannes' Un Certain Regard - are such inevitable topics as AI, in Brazil’s Davi Pretto, in which a 40-year-old protagonist loses his memory and cannot remember where he is from; a Greek horror outing in They Come Out Of Margo by Alexandros Voulgaris and Trepa Nation by Ammar al-Beik set in a Syriam refugee camp on the outskirts of Berlin.
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| John Garfield - a studio portrait of a Forties star who personified the “Method” school of acting Photo: Film Servis KVIFF |
A mixed bunch of Special Screenings feature a European premiere for Dragonfly by the UK’s Paul Andrew Williams, about two neighbours in a small English town (Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough) who could not be more different but strike up a friendship. A Second Life, from French director Laurent Slama, is described as 'an urban fairy tale' and set in Paris just before the Olympics and centred around another unlikely friendship.
The Crystal Globe jury comprises Mexican producer Nicolás Celis, filmmaker and screen writer Babak Jalali; film critic and programmer Jessica Kiang; Czech actor Jiří Mádl; and Norwegian actress Tuva Novotny.
The Proxima jury has in its ranks Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara; Rumanian film director Noaz Deshe; Dominican film-maker Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias; Czech screenwriter and journalist Jakub Felcman and Marissa Frobes, an agent in the Media Finance department at leading entertainment and sports agency CAA.
One of the star Hollywood attractions of the 1940s, John Garfield, will be present for a special tribute, with his performances on view in ten titles - no fewer than eight of them on 35mm prints, including The Postman Always Rings Twice by Tay Garnett, made in 1946. Garfield, who personified the 'Method' style of acting, was said to have influenced Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman, among many.
Crystal Globe Competition
- Cinema Jazireh (Tur-Iran-Bulg-Rom) - dir: Gözde Kural
- Divia (Pol-Ukr-Neth-US) - dir: Dmytro Hreshko
- Out Of Love (Fr) - dir: Nathan Ambrosioni
- Jimmy Jaguar (Hun) - dir: Bence Fliegauf
- When A River Becomes The Sea - dir: Pere Vilà Barceló (Sp)
- Better Go Mad In The Wild (Cz-Slovak) - dir: Miro Remo
- Rebuilding (US) - dir: Max Walker-Silverman
- Broken Voices (Cz-Slovak) - dir: Ondřej Provazník
- Don’t Call Me Mama (Nor) - dir: Nina Knag
- The Visitor (Lith-Nor-Swe) - dir: Vytautas
- The Luminous Life (Port-Fr) - dir: João Rosas
Proxima Competition
- The Anatomy Of The Horses (Sp-Peru-Col-Fr) - dir: Daniel Vidal Toche
- Before / After (Bel) - dir: Manoël Dupont
- Thus Spoke The Wind (Armenia) - dir: Maria Rigel
- Sand City (Bangladesh) - dir: Mahde Hasan
- Forensics (Col) - dir: Federico Atehortúa Arteaga
- Future Future (Braz) - dir: Davi Pretto
- How Come It’s All Green Out Here? (Ser-Cro-Bulg) - dir: Nikola Ležaić
- The Other Side Of Summer (Cz-Cro) - dir: Vojtěch Strakatý
- Action Item (Slovak-Cz-Ger) - dir: Paula Ďurinová
- Rain Fell On The Nothing New (Ger) - dir: Steffen Goldkamp
- Renovation (Lith-Lat-Bel) - dir: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
- TrepaNation (Syria-Ger-Fr) - dir: Ammar al-Beik
- They Come Out Of Margo (Greece) - dir: Alexandros Voulgaris
Special Screenings
- Dragonfly (UK) - dir: Paul Andrew Williams
- Duchoň (Slovak-Cz) - dir: Peter Bebjak
- Promise, I’ll Be Fine (Slovak-Cz) - dir: Katarína Gramatová
- All That’s Left Of You (Ger-Cyp-Pal-Jor-Greece-Qatar-Saudi) -b dir: Cherien Dabis
- Caravan (Cz-Slovak) - dir: Zuzana Kirchnerová
- Summer School, 2001 (Cz-Slovak) - dir: Dužan Duong
- The Czech Film Project (Cz) - dir: Marek Novák, Mikuláš Novotný
- A Second Life (Fr) - dir: Laurent Slama
- Tehran Another View (Iran-UK) - dir: Ali Behrad
