SCANORAMA 2009 programme
Dear “Scanorama” friends,
exclusive events dedicated to the year of European Capital of Culture, classics and modernity, layers of Nordic dimensions, traditions and innovations – these are main guidelines for this year’s Scanorama programme. Thirteen new and time proven programmes will help viewers engage in the most vibrant film news, connect traditions and innovations, not the least perceive the components of the process of contemporary European cinema.
What we aspire this year you can see in the catalogue. I am very happy to be able to show you the works of a fine collection of most prominent filmmakers. Not only acclaimed ones, the proclaimed living classic directors (Lars von Trier, Andrzej Wajda, Jan Troell, etc.), but the future classics as well. European Film Forum Scanorama is the festival of discoveries. Not only popular and well-known films, but also new names, new works, new ideas, new style, the opportunity to discover something that no one else will show, for the face of any festival is the films they screen.
There has never been such abundance of new films from all over Europe like this year. Guests of a festival constitute its vitality. Never before has the winner of the Oscar visited Scanorama, albeit successful. British director James Marsh and producer Simon Chinn who have won the Oscar this year for their film “Man on Wire” (2008) are one of the most respectable and very welcomed guests of Scanorama. In the context of economical crisis their film acquires symbolic meaning. The heroic dance on a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center up in 400 meters height has been named “the artistic crime of the century”. Back then, in 1974, the acrobat was arrested for his illegal action. Thirty five years would pass and the director James Marsh would recollect this event, win the Oscar in 2009 and remind the true moral of the story – nothing is impossible if a man pursues with great passion. Another guest of Scanorama, Norwegian director Thomas Lien, set out to China to search for the memory of the character of his film (“Hunting Down Memory”, 2009). Being a captain of a ship that travels around the world, Thomas Lien puts his experience in the film and eagerly shares it with the audience. That is how two films, balancing on the point of performance and reality, will meet up. As will characterful people.
“Shooting Stars” is coming to Lithuania for the first time, too. European Film Promotion (EFP) initiative visits the most famous festivals in Europe as well as the rest of the world. In this year of European Capital of Culture the event will be presented to the audience of Scanorama. We will be able to talk to them live after film screenings. The opportunity of meeting the actor in reality brightens and vitalizes the film itself. Céline Bolomey (“The Noise in My Head”, Switzerland, Germany, 2008), Cyron Melville (“Love and Rage”, Denmark, Sweden, 2009), Orsolya Tóth (“My One and Onlies”, Hungary, 2006) were acknowledged as rising stars of future European film talents. They will appear in the context of such world famous actors, not only from Europe but around the globe, like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe (“Antichrist”, 2009), Trine Dyrholm (“Little Soldier”, 2008), Gael García Bernal (“Mammoth”, 2009), Birgit Minichmayr (“Everyone Else”, 2009), Brenda Blethyn (“London River”, 2009), Mads Mikkelsen (“Flame & Citron”, 2008), Paprika Steen (“Applause”, 2009), Krystyna Janda (“Sweet Rush”, 2009).
The traditional master-class “Go Young Generation” with a great bunch of exclusive guests will be especially useful for Lithuanian cinema professionals. One of most famous European producers, a former chairman of European Film Academy (EFA), winner of numerous film awards, Nik Powell from United Kingdom, is the spirit of the workshop this year. The guests list will also include director from Poland Magdalena Piekorz (“Drowsiness”, 2008) Vladimir Paskaljević from Serbia (“Devil’s Town”, 2009), Polish writer and screenwriter Wojciech Kuczok (“Drowsiness”, 2008), British producer Alastair Clark (“Unmade Beds”, 2009), Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Arūnas Matelis, first assistant director for international projects Tatjana Jakovleva. Guests will discuss the creation and production process, judge on the projects submitted by young cinematographers, select the winner of the traditional short film programme “New Baltic Cinema” in which future talents of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are introduced. This programme will be enriched by a good deal of our young neighbours.
Crossing Europe cinematographically, new films from young and ambitious directors from Serbia, Romania, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands reveal the shades of inner life of today’s people. Clashes of tradition and mentality, religion-based conflicts, people’s lives in the times of economic crisis. These subjects reflect differently in films of various approaches and styles. Sometimes it appears deeply dramatic, like in “London River” (United Kingdom, France, Algeria, 2009), “Piggies” (Poland, Germany, 2009), “Katalin Varga” (Romania, 2009); sometimes sarcastic and ironic – “French Film” (United Kingdom, 2009), Landscape No.2 (Slovenia, 2008); sometimes portrayed with a dose of black humour – “Devil’s Town” (Serbia, 2009); sometimes presented youthfully, playfully, poetically – “Everyone Else” (Germany, 2009), “Unmade Beds” (United Kingdom, 2009); sometimes impresses with psychological depth and dramatic tension – “Drowsiness” (Poland, 2008), “Katia's Sister” (Netherlands, 2008).
The films of this year’s programme “Crossing Europe” crosses the borders of Europe itself. The story told by Swedish director Lukas Moodysson’s “Mammoth” (2009) is set in America and then transferred to Thailand, the production of the film linking Northern and Western Europe. Problems of busy parents who do not have time for their kids, exploitation of children, working abroad women dramas are painfully recognizable both in life and in films. Is it Europe? America? Or is it that crossing the world shows how people are more similar than different? Europe spreads widely in terms of subjects (man’s situation in times of economic crisis) and production (co-production between countries of Europe and other continents). By crossing the geographical boundaries cinema perpetuates and reflects the existence of a human being, the “here and now”. The concept of “here” entails the whole world. That is why the programme includes two films of new film generation from Turkey, thus far not yet discovered here in Lithuania – “Wrong Rosary” (dir. Mahmut Fazil Coskun, 2009) and “Autumn” (dir. Özcan Alper, 2008). Directors contemplate the subjects of subtle spiritual life and communication that now are of more significance as Turkey is pursuing membership in European Union. These authors do not reflect an officially formed image of Turkey. Instead, they artistically portray the dramatism of ancient traditions and the necessity for change. The outstanding segment of Europe’s panorama – the latest work of Polish cinema classic Andrzej Wajda “Sweet Rush” (2009) which was warmly acclaimed in Berlin International Film Festival and other prominent international film forums, recently nominated for European Film Academy Award. This original feature provides the context of solidity to other Polish works screened in Scanorama.
Linking classics and modernity is the essential mission of Scanorama. This year, the core of classics programme is the giant of silent film, Carl Theodor Dreyer, a Danish film director whose 120th birthday anniversary the world of cinema celebrates to date. Diverse levels of classic traditions are perceived in programme of “Scanorama news” as well. The Nordic dimension has always been and still remains very important to Scanorama as it is important to European cinema altogether. Two aspects describe the diversity of Nordic films – worked-out classical (Jan Troell’s “Everlasting Moments”, 2009) and controversially provocative (Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist”, 2009).
The short film programme “European Lights” presents the great opportunity for all nightbirds of Scanorama to dive into the realm of the best short films and enjoy the mastery, freedom of improvisation, and different approaches from European Film Academy nominees and laureates.
As a response to economic crisis, Scanorama offers a cinematographic solution to it – a programme “You, the Living” which encompasses most-liked Nordic films that bring back the optimism. The anti-crisis programme will be complemented with a spectacular work of the genre hard to define – a film of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn “Bronson” (2009). The protagonist is the legendary British criminal Michael Gordon Peterson, calling himself Bronson. He shouts, punches, screams, falls into despair and euphoria. A happy madman who has not found his happiness? A genius who has discovered heaven in prison? Tragicomedy? Black humour? Whichever you prefer. A democratic approach of a prominent artist, a very special person for Scanorama, Carl Theodor Dreyer, would come in handy for appreciating such films: “We should not devalue popular films because they have a value of their own: they are like a bright sunlight beam for ordinary people; after seeing it, they relive pleasant moments for the whole week ahead.” Such impression is created by the film “Clara” (2008) which takes us to the Romantic era. The characters of the film, music geniuses Robert Schumann, his wife Clara, and Johannes Brahms, gave the world the unforgettable music. It is a dramatic story of love and pain portrayed in a big screen by a distant relative of Brahms, namely director Helma Sanders-Brahms, yet another guest of Scanorama.
In the rubric of retrospectives “Focus On” Scanorama introduces two young artists: a splendid Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie whose role in “Max Manus” has recently been awarded with national prize, and German director Andreas Dresen whose latest film “Whiskey with Vodka” has earned him the title of the best director in Karlovy Vary.
Scanorama promises good cinema autumn in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipėda!
Looking forward to seeing you,
Dr. Gražina Arlickaitė
European Film Forum Scanorama director
European Film Academy member
