A petty criminal from Sweden, a Danish ‘sugar baby’, a British journalist and ISIL fighter, Russian rockers, and a Colombian hitman are a diverse range of characters that will come to life on the screens of Motovun: in three weeks, the projectors of the Motovun Film Festival will start, and another journey around the world will begin with over 100 films and 65 screenings.
– This will be a year of great guests: from Sweden, we welcome Ruben Östlund, one of today’s most respected European directors, whose film The Square was nominated for an Oscar a few months ago and previously won the Palme d’Or. On the home front, our honorary guests will be acting giants Mustafa Nadarević and Rade Šerbedžija. Along with the film program, directors from Denmark, Germany, Montenegro, Sweden, Poland, Great Britain, Switzerland are coming, and we especially look forward to the Berlin – partner city program, from which many exceptional creatives, filmmakers, and visual artists will come, as well as three excellent DJs who will bring the spirit of Berlin clubs to the nights in Motovun, announced the director of the Motovun Film Festival Igor Mirković during the presentation of the 21st edition of the festival at the Zagreb Gliptotheque, which will take place this year from July 24 to 28.
>>>Ruben Östlund Winner of the Maverick Award at the Motovun Film Festival
Nineteen films in this year’s main competition program of the MFF are the result of a year-long search by the main selectors Jurica Pavičić and Miena Zajović for films that have soul, intrigue, energy, that do not leave one indifferent and that offer new cinematic perspectives.
– In the program, we again have films by great authors such as American director Debra Granik (Leave No Trace) and Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (The Wild Pear Tree), but also the latest work by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov (Summer), a sharp critic of Putin’s regime who has been under house arrest for some time. It is certainly worth highlighting the film Hannah by director Andrea Pallaora, featuring the brilliant Charlotte Rampling, who won the Best Actress award at Cannes, and Sweet Life by director Isabelle Eklöf, which raised a lot of dust after its premiere at Sundance due to its explicit depiction of sexual violence, announced Zajović.
However, along with star authors and titles, every year it is important for us to find films that almost no one has heard of yet, but we believe will become a big festival hit. This year, it is the debut Panic Attack by director Paweł Maślona, a tragicomedy that depicts dramatic moments in the lives of several unlucky individuals, to which we have decided to dedicate one of the most prominent places in the program.
The program also includes three feature-length Croatian films. The documentary Srbenka by Nebojša Slijepčević, which follows the preparations for the play Aleksandra Zec by theater director Oliver Frljić, has already won the prestigious Doc Alliance award and will have its Croatian premiere in Motovun. Taboo topics are also addressed in Chris the Swiss by Swiss director Anja Kofmel, who attempts to shed light on the circumstances of the never-investigated death of her cousin on the Slavonian battlefield in the 90s, which premiered in Cannes as part of the Critics’ Week program. As a small departure from the ghosts of the past, there is Aleksi, a debut film colored with summer Mediterranean notes by director Barbara Vekarić, featuring Tihana Lazović in the lead role, which speaks from the perspective of a girl who has everything – a big house, wealthy parents, and a winery, yet still does not know who she is and what she wants.
As a special curiosity, I would like to highlight one of the first films whose action takes place entirely on a computer screen. Profile, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, follows a London journalist who, through a fake Facebook profile, tries to find out how ISIL lures young European women to Syria as jihadist brides, and it won the audience award in the Berlin Panorama program. I would also like to highlight the Croatian premiere of the musical documentary about the equally famous and controversial British rapper of Tamil descent Matangi / Maya / M.I.A., in which we follow the ways M.I.A. uses music to spread political ideas, even though it brings her the status of an outsider, said Zajović.
– We are always asked: who is the partner country this year? Well, it is not a country, but a city. Berlin is coming to us, with about 20 films and artists from a dozen different countries. This is the image of Berlin, a multicultural magnet that attracts artists from around the world, many of whom have not resisted its call. In addition to people and films, an ambitious exhibition Walls and Bridges is coming from that city, in which we will present 13 artists from our and neighboring countries and their Berlin works, announced Igor Mirković about this year’s Berlin program, which the MFF brings in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Kroatien in Zagreb.
– The exhibition Walls and Bridges offers an overview of the intense dialogue between the Croatian creative scene and the scene in Berlin, the most popular city in Germany for artists for some time now. The exhibition, which will be hosted at this year’s Motovun Film Festival and later at Lauba in Zagreb, will showcase different positions and experiences of Croatian artists and demonstrate how representative their experiences are for both Croatian and international frameworks, stated Matthias Müller-Wieferig, director of the Goethe-Institut Kroatien, in collaboration with which the MFF brings the Berlin program.
– We are pleased that this year, alongside the Motovun Film Festival, in order for the festival to fully come to life in idea and realization, Hrvatski Telekom will provide free high-speed wireless internet throughout Motovun for festival organization, guests, and visitors. Users who cannot come to Motovun will be able to premiere selected feature-length and short films from this year’s Motovun festival in the MAXtv video library. The new MAXtv platform enables a range of interactivity, so we believe that our users, in addition to enjoying the festival, will also enjoy festival films via television, smartphones, or tablets wherever they are, said Richard Brešković, director of the Marketing Sector for private users at Hrvatski Telekom.
As every year, the Motovun Film Festival ensures that at least visitors from Zagreb have an easier journey to the Motovun hill: two festival buses will head to Istria on the ‘zero’ and the first day of the festival (July 23 and 24). Through the Kupi ulaznice.hr system, it is possible to purchase a one-way ticket to Motovun for the price of 130 kuna and secure a ticket from Motovun to Zagreb for the same price.
Until July 10, there is a sale action for ticket packages All for 15 kuna, which includes 10 tickets, each priced at 15 kuna for 10 different screenings that visitors choose themselves. The All for 15 kuna package and other packages can be purchased online through the Kupiulaznicu.hr system.
