Febiofest highlights Kusturica and Jarmusch
FEBIOFEST 2005, the largest and most up-to-date festival of Czech cinema in Slovakia, starts in Bratislava on April 11 and will continue in seven other Slovak towns through April 29.
Czech-German-Slovak tragicomedy Příběhy obyčejného šílenství, directed by Petr Zelenka will open this, the 12th annual festival. Bratislava's Aupark Palace Cinema will screen the film with English subtitles from April 11 to 17. The film tells the story of a family break-up in today's "crazy" world.
The festival also has a large international section, with a retrospective on legendary Polish director Andrej Wajda and profiles of American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Sarajevo-based director Emir Kusturica.
Altogether, the festival will offer 107 films from 22 countries in original versions, many with English subtitles.
Another of the festival's sections includes HBO productions, American video-films, movies from festivals around the world and from the Slovak Film Club Association. Visitors will be able to see The Company by Robert Altman, Exils by French director Tony Gatlif, Korean film Old Boy by Park Chan-wook, German-Turkish film Head on by Fatih Akin, and The Girl from Monday by the renowned American, Hal Hartley.
The section profiling Jarmusch will feature his 1980's debut Permanent Vacation, made on a budget of just $12,000, as well as Stranger than Paradise, which he created in cooperation with German director Wim Wenders and which helped him break into the silver screen community.
Other movies by Jarmusch at the festival include Down by Law, Mystery Train, Night on Earth, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of Samurai, and his latest titles, Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (a testimony of seven international independent filmmakers on the theme of "time"), and Coffee and Cigarettes.
The profile of Kusturica, often referred to as the "Yugoslavian Fellini" for his inclination towards magical realism, includes his 1981 debut feature Sjecaš li se Dolly Bell, Dom za vešanje, his cult films Arizona Dream, with Johnny Depp, and Underground, as well as the German-French-Yugoslavian co-production Crna maćka, beli maćor, and his latest Život je čudo (La vie est un miracle), a Yugoslavian-French coproduction.
After Bratislava, where it runs from April 11 to 17 in six cinemas (Tatra, Hviezda, Mladosť, České Centrum, Filmclub Nostalgia, and IC.sk), Febiofest 2005 moves to Nitra, Martin, Žilina, Prešov, Košice, Banská Bystrica and Poprad.
For an exact schedule, please visit www.asfk.sk.
Hungarian president honours Slovak writer
SLOVAK writer Karol Wlachovský recently received an honour from Hungarian President Ferenc Mádl, the TASR newswire reported.
The president honoured Wlachovský, a translator and cultural diplomat, for strengthening Hungarian-Slovak ties and for his devoted translations of Hungarian literature into Slovak.
Wlachovský was among several Hungarians and foreigners to receive an honour.
Prepared by Spectator staff
