When did the homeland dissolve? Scene from the film “When the Phone Rang”
Photo: Filmcenter Serbia
Especially in times like these, you ask yourself where you can find the strength to face reality. The answer is: in the cinema! The films at the 34th Cottbus Film Festival for Eastern European Film, which ended on Sunday, demonstrated the power of charity in dark times. According to program director Bernd Buder, the filmmakers knew exactly how to identify the “unspoken ‘elephant in the room’.” One of the twelve competition films from 19 co-production countries even went into space.
In Pavlo Ostrikov’s Ukrainian sci-fi film debut “U Are The Universe,” an astronaut disposes of radioactive waste in space. His on-board computer is particularly good at cracking bad jokes. But it is true that the earth is destroyed. Just when the spaceman believes he is the only human in the universe, he hears a voice. From then on they send each other messages. The main actor, Volodymyr Kravchuk, who has a certain sense of humor, cries, freezes, wobbles and dreams so convincingly that you forget that he is alone. “U Are The Universe” is more than a low-budget update of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but rather a poetic-cosmic statement to humanity. In addition to the audience award, Pavlo Ostrikov received the special award for best director.
Iva Radivojević won the main prize of the Transparent Lubina and the Fipresci Prize for “When the Phone Rang”. One Friday in 1992, a girl finds out on the phone that her grandfather has died. “In her memory, it was the phone call that brought about the war,” the narrator’s voice can be heard saying. And then the phone keeps ringing under the ticking kitchen clock. The time machine effect in the Serbian competition entry about the nameless Yugoslavia, in which dreams and reality overlap, is not always convincing. The jury admired “the authentic narrative of a country falling apart and its unique, poetic film language”, perfectly balanced between the girl’s emotional level, the collective pain and the political events in the reproduction of memories.
The films at the Cottbus Film Festival demonstrated the power of charity in dark times.
Filip Peruzović’s silent drama “Good Children” received praise from the international festival jury. In the film, brother and sister clear out room by room in their late mother’s house. Between bed bugs, ping-pong tables and childhood memories, they slowly get closer to each other. Greek director Orfeas Peretzis also tells a family story with “Riviera,” in which a 17-year-old mourns her recently deceased father. They are connected by an old palm tree that she regularly talks to and hugs. Eva Samioti received the Crystal Lubina for her courageous and complex performance of a woman who only slowly breaks away from what has long been lost. Peretzis’ debut captures the summer in the Athens coastal suburb as beautifully as the girl’s melancholy.
Damian Kocur’s “Under the Vulcano,” which focuses on a 15-year-old on vacation in Tenerife, is particularly touching. When war breaks out in Ukraine, she and her family are no longer vacationers but refugees in exile. But no one really seems to understand them; instead, they should continue to splash around in the pool and visit ruins as a tourist attraction. Sad realities that do not promise a happy ending.
The almost unreal rocky landscapes and turquoise water of Lake Yssyk Köl in Kyrgyzstan provide the perfect backdrop for the gangster drama “Deal at the Boarder”. Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi’s film about a slave who is rescued by two smugglers is autobiographically motivated. Ryskeldi’s brother disappeared when he was 14. Only later did he find out that he had been taken into slavery. Nevertheless, “Deal at the Boarder” is not a hard-hitting film. Rather, he looks into the light at the end of the horizon. Vuk Ršumović also looks for light in “Dwelling Among the Gods”. When Fereshteh Hosseini (playing herself) learns in Belgrade that her brother may have drowned in the river, she does everything she can to see him. But a wave of bureaucracy hits her. In the end, her charisma and the help of an interpreter make the difference.
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Nikola Vukčević’s dark fantasy film “The Tower of Strength” features honorable men in Montenegro and far too much pathos. Nadejda Koseva’s “The Trap,” about a wild boar hunt on an idyllic river delta, is pleasantly unobtrusive. In Alexander Trifonov’s eyes you can read his character’s love for animals; two crows become unusual supporting actors that bring people and animals closer together. Adam Martinec’s Czech tragicomedy “Our Lovely Pig Slaughter” is more distant. As a pig is increasingly dismantled into its individual parts for the annual family meal, the problems of individual family members gradually become apparent.
Ignas Miškinis’ “Southern Chronicles” takes a look into the 90s. A rugby player from the prefabricated building falls in love with a well-off guitar player. To impress her, he reads books and becomes a rugby poet. The soundtrack rewinds time, the camera stays close to its characters, and the class differences are palpable. Assel Aushakimova’s drama “Bikechess” is also noteworthy: while the lesbian sister of a Kazakh journalist is arrested for holding a Blanco poster in the air, the journalist makes advertising films for the Kazakh state disguised as reports. They are so absurd that they make you smile for a moment. Another way to face difficult times. At least temporarily.
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