KINOSCOPE STRANDS, NEW TALENT INITIATIVE FORGING AHEAD ONLINE AT SARAJEVO FILM FEST

At 26, the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) is still a young festival by European standards. Youthful exuberance permeates the 2020 program, with no strand more indicative of progressive, cutting-edge curation than the Kinoscope selection, which this year presents a 15 film roster of the best in international cinema via the festivals’ recently-launched online portal.

The SFF Directorate moved from its planned hybrid festival to a wholly virtual event when the Civil Protection Headquarters of Sarajevo Canton and the Federal Ministry of Health issued a COVID-19 action plan on August 4 that included "recommendations to the population in the Federation of [Bosnia and Herzegovina] to avoid public gatherings and limit their movement due to the deteriorating epidemiological situation.” 

Festival organisers, who had employed measures to meet the August 14 launch that allowed for open-air screenings and adhered to social-distancing rules, reacted immediately. The full program, including the Opening night film Concentrate Grandma from director Pjer Žalica (pictured, right), moved to ondemand.sff.ba and will be available to all residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours.

In addition to the core In Focus strand, which presents ten features from the region, and the 49 films vying for honours in the Competitive Programs, the SFF Kinoscope highlights contemporary themes and global film trends. Established in 2012, Kinoscope is programmed by producer and curation veteran Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja (pictured, below), founder of the Festival Scope platform. In 2020, the pair have selected works representing 14 countries, including eight unique visions from women directors.

Under the ‘Kinoscope’ banner, SFF will present Guillaume Brac’s French road-trip comedy, À l'abordage (All Hands on Deck), starring Eric Nantchouang and Asma Messaoudene; Hong Sang-soo’s minimalist drama Domangchin Yeoja (The Woman Who Ran), winner of the 2020 Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Director; the Danish crime family drama Kød & blod (Wildland), from Jeanette Nordahl; Gagarin, the breakout Cannes 2020 hit from co-directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’ and, Kitty Green’s understated but blistering post-Weinstein/#MeToo statement, The Assistant, with Julia Garner.

‘Kinoscope Real’ offers five works of potent social relevance, presented across a diverse range of genres. The ability for cinema to bring hope to a family in wartorn Donbas is documented in Iryna Tsilyk’s Ukrainian/Lithuanian co-production, Zemlia Blakytna Niby Apel'syn (The Earth is Blue as an Orange); fellow Ukrainian Valentyn Vasyanovych’s bleak, PTSD-themed scifi-er, Atlantis; Garagenvolk (Garage People), director Natalija Yefimkina’s insight into the garage-dwelling communities of Russia’s frozen north; Camilo Restrepo’s revenge thriller Los Conductos (Encounters), a French/Colombian/Brazilian co-pro that chronicles of a man seeking redemption through the killing of a sect leader; and, from the enclaved kingdom of Lesotho in South Africa, the spiritually uplifting eco-drama This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection from filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

Finally, the artistically fearless films of the ‘Kinoscope Surreal’ selection. These include Shirley, Josephine Decker’s descent into the mad literary mind of author Shirley Jackson, featuring a vivid turn in the title role by Elizabeth Moss; Noah Hutton’s low-tech scifi vision of a man-vs-robot workplace, Lapsis; UK director Rose Glass’ acclaimed thriller Saint Maud, a study in the dangers of hardline religious beliefs as seen through a complex female relationship; the Australian festival hit Relic, starring Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote as the mother and daughter who must cope with the horrific manifestations of a matriarch’s dementia; and, South Korean auteur Kim Yong-Hoon’s bag-of-cash mystery/thriller, Beasts that Cling to Straw (pictured, right).

At time of publishing, all these films will be available to Bosnia and Herzegovina residents via the festival screening platform. Also scheduled to be broadcast online will be accompanying programs, lectures and interviews with authors, including the 14th edition of the industry development program Talents Sarajevo, featuring 62 young candidates chosen from the filmmaking communities of Southeast Europe and the South Caucasus.

The SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL will commence August 14 at 8.00pm CEST and run until August 21. Visit the event’s Official Website for further details.