Third Bratislava International Film Festival 2001
»Something like an acorn to an oak« so the former Slovak film minister Martin Smatlak described the overnight rise to prominence of the Bratislava film festival. Back in 1999, the festival with its competition for first and second feature films was little more than the dream child of Vladimir Krajniak (executive director) and Peter Nagel (artistic director). A year later, with a diverse program to support the competition entries, the festival drew an astonishing audience of 44,000 to a half-dozen venues at the Istropolis Center (four screens), the Ster Century Cinemas multiplex, and a couple of neighborhood cinemas. In 2001, for the Third Bratislava International Film Festival (30 November - 8 December 2001), the organizers booked all eight screens at the Ster Century Cinemas, plus the renovated Kino Mladost in the historical center located but a short walk from festival headquarters at the Hotel Danube. Most important of all, a FIPRESCI (International Critics) Jury and an Ecumenical Jury augmented the awards given by the International Jury.
Bratislava is now one of the premiere special-event film festivals on the calendar. It offers state-of-the-art projection facilities, a 250-page catalogue with in-depth information on films and directors, and an easy access to the Slovak capital via flights to Vienna, a mere 40-minute drive away from the Hotel Danube. As for festival courtesy, »we’re all treated here the same,« enthused Janine Euvrard, French president of the FIPRESCI Jury, in reference to the Guest Service headed by Lubisa Turcanova. Given that Cannes and Venice had booked an unusually high number of quality films by debut directors and newcomers, the scouts for the Third BIFF had only to pick the plums from these meccas of cinema art. As a result, »the jury can’t possibly make a mistake,« said Stefan Ulrik, a programmer at the Karlovy Vary film festival, in reference to the Bratislava competition. Of the 20 films selected, four had already been critical discoveries at Venice, while another quartet had been invited to Cannes.
Venice entries set the tone at Bratislava. Ulrich Seidl’s Hundstage (Dog Days) (Austria), awarded the Grand Jury Prize on the Lido, shared the Special Award for Best Director and received the FIPRESCI Prize at Bratislava. An earthy, ribald, multicolored portrait of the lower middle-class by an award-winning documentarist, Dog Days might be considered cruel and tasteless were it not for its open compassion for lonely people who manage to carry on with their quaint fantasies and modest aspirations.
Damien Odoul’s Le souffle (Deep Breath) (France), awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Cinema of the Present section at Venice, received the Special Award for Best Director at Bratislava. Shot in black-and-white and set during a hot summer afternoon, Deep Breath chronicles the trauma of a 15-year-old boy whose agonizing passage to manhood occurs during a painful encounter with death while under the influence of alcohol. Zhu Wen’s Hai xian (Seafood) (China), awarded the Special Jury Prize in the International Competition at Venice, also deals with anxieties in a radical, agitated context. A debut feature shot with a digital camera by an accomplished novelist-screenwriter, Seafood is the story of a prostitute who leaves Beijing for the small seaside town of Beideihe in the dead of winter to commit suicide, only to have to resolve a conflicting situation first with an interfering policeman.
Jan Cvitkovic’s Kruh in mleko (Bread and Milk) (Slovenia), awarded the Golden Lion at Venice for Best Feature Debut, was handed two more awards at Bratislava: a Special Mention by the FIPRESCI Jury and the Best Actor Award to Peter Musevski by the International Jury. In Bread and Milk, another moral tale shot in black-and-white, Cvitkovic sketches the downfall of Ivan (Peter Musevski), an alcoholic who has just been released from his drying-out program and wants to start a new life with his ever-suffering wife Sonja and 16-year-old drug-addict son Robi. Sent by Sonja to the store to buy a loaf of bread and a liter of milk, Ivan meets an old school chum who once knew his wife. It's enough to tip the scales - and Ivan reaches for the fatal slug of cognac.
As for Cannes entries at BIFF, these were plucked from the Certain Regard section and the Directors Fortnight sidebar. From the Certain Regard came Wisit Sasananatieng’s Fah Talai Jone (The Tears of the Black Tiger) (Thailand), a mock spaghetti western with touches of commercial Hindi fare, and Dover Kosashvili’s Hatouna mehuheret (Late Marriage) (Israel/France), a spoof of a bridegroom’s dilemma as to whether he should obey traditional Georgian-Jewish family customs or marry his true love, a divorcee with a child. From the Directors Fortnight came Cristi Puiu’s Marfa si banii (Stuff and Dough) (Romania), a roadmovie about a naive village lad in need of money who’s duped into delivering »stuff« for a mafia boss to a contact in Bucharest, and Gjergj Xhuvani’s Slogans (Albania/France), a glance back at the pure idiocy of having school children white-wash stones for road slogans during the Enver Hoxha regime in the heyday of socialist realism.
The International Jury, with Czech writer Antonin Liehm serving as its president, awarded the Grand Prize to Maryam Shahriar’s Dokhtaran-e khorshid (Daughters of the Sun) (Iran), seen at Rotterdam and Mannheim. Directed by an Iranian-American filmmaker currently based in Tehran, Daughters of the Sun is anything but a feminist theme. Maryam Shahriar is more interested in depicting the disadvantages of social conditions in rural Iran. When impoverished parents find it necessary to cut the long beautiful hair of their young daughter, it’s because they want Amangol to find work as a boy at a carpet-weaving compound. Her situation worsens when another girl at the compound falls in love with the sensitive and outgoing Amangol, setting the scene for a tragedy.
Yan Yan Mak’s GeGe (Brother) (China), previously awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at Hong Kong, received the Ecumenical Award at Bratislava. A roadmovie that bends the genre to tell an unusual story of magic, and mystery, it’s about Ming, a young man from Hong Kong, who sets out on a journey to Qinghai in Chinese Tibet to find his long-lost brother. Aided only by a letter with a picture, he later stumbles on some Super-8 footage shot by his brother, plus a map of places he had visited in China. This discovery, in turn, prompts Ming to retrace his brother’s steps and so the film’s horizon opens even wider. A visual delight, Brother has a enchanting soundtrack to match.
Josef Fares’s Jalla! Jalla! (Sweden) was voted the Audience Award. A mirthful comedy, it’s about two young friends, a Swede and an Arab, who spend most of their time raking leaves or picking up dog leavings for the parks department. On the side, they wrestle with each other’s girlfriend problems, one ridden by fears of impotence, the other by the dilemma of parents picking out a Lebanese bride for him. This commercial hit, directed by a 24-year-old Lebanese-born filmmaker making his feature film debut, is the Swedish nomination for the foreign film Oscar.
Altogether, 170 films were presented in ten sections at the 2001 BIFF a feast possible only because sidebar series were mounted months in advance by a staff of separate programmers. With eight venues to choose from, the choice more often than not fell to attractions in the »European Films« section: Lone Scherfig’s Italiensk for Begyndere (Italian for Beginners) (Denmark), Robert Glinski’s Czesc Tereska (Hi Teresa) (Poland), Sandrine Veysset’s Martha... Martha (France), or Czech director Petr Zelenka’s Powers in the Erotic Tales shorts series (Germany). Crowds lined, too, for films by such highly regarded Independents in the »Off the Mainstream« section as Jessica Hausner’s Lovely Rita (Austria), Bela Tarr’s Werckmeister harmoniak (Werckmeister Harmonies) (Hungary/Germany/France), Don Rotheroe’s My Brother Tom (UK), and Tsai Ming-liang’s Ni nei pien chi tien (What Time Is It There?) (Taiwan/France).
Further, there was the »Profile« tribute to Dutch documentarist Johan van der Keuken. A pair of »Zoom« programs focused on »Argentinean Cinema« and »Canadian Cinema«. A series titled »Free Zone: The Media Exposed« featured films that kicked the shins of the media, like Milos Forman’s The Man on the Moon (USA) and Neil LaBute’s Nurse Betty (USA). The Slovak »Premieres« program offered Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy (France) next to Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Quo Vadis (Poland). A series of children’s films fit neatly under a seasonal »Santa Claus« title.
Also, in the »Out of the Sections« program there was a TV documentary shot just around the corner from Bratislava: John Paskievich’s The Gypsies of Svinia, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The plight of impoverished gypsies is appalling in this Slovak village, for now that communism has been replaced by democracy, the community survives more or less by theft and burglary of neighbors. It received a Special Mention by the Ecumenical Jury. And Bratislava organized a two-day seminar on »The Role of Film Festivals in the Distribution of European Films« a move to assure Bratislava a position among Europe’s film festivals.
Ronald Holloway