The 15th International Film Festival Bratislava will be held from 6 to 12 November in five city cinemas – in two theatres of Kino Lumière, in Kino Mladosť, in Kino Nostalgia, and in a newly opened Kino FILM EUROPE. Other venues of the festival screenings will be Bateliér, which will roof selected film projections and the accompanying programme of the partner project Danube Art Cargo, and Park Inn Danube Hotel, which will serve as the festival background zone for guest service, accreditation centre and press centre.
This year's 15th IFF Bratislava will screen high-quality films diverse as for genres and topics. The core of the festival programme consists of three competition sections, completed by traditional programme sections Panorama, Cutting Edge, Stories, Tribute, and Made in Slovakia.
The section Made in Slovakia will present awarded films, such as Mira Fornay's My Dog Killer, Matúš Vizár's Pandas, or The Exhibition of Peter Begányi and Andrej Kolenčík, but also interesting premieres. Director of the successful film Exhibits or Stories from Castle, Pavol Korec, comes with a new film titled Propeller – In Search of lost Time, in which he returns to the six people from various subcultures of Slovakia who were protagonists of the documentary cycle Propeller made 10 years ago. Flowers & Roots by Dodo Banyák is a portrait of a scriptwriter, writer and pedagogue James Ragan, member of this year's jury for the IFF Bratislava Competition of First and Second Feature Films. Although Ragan is a native from Pittsburgh, he grew up among Slovak emigrants and has a special relationship to Slovakia. The screening will also include Pavol Barabáš's Footprints on the Ridge, which is a continuation of mapping the great stories of the High Tatras, or the best student films by young filmmakers, including the fresh winners of the Festival Áčko: Pavol Čižmár's Celebration (Grand Prix and Best Fiction Film) and Peter Komár's I And Lucia (Best Documentary Film).
The Slovak film Miracle by Juraj Lehotský has its place in the viewers' favourite section Stories, this year subtitled Films of Human Strength. The section will offer also two films nominated to the European Parliament Award LUX 2013 - Broken Circle Breakdown, by the Belgian director Felix van Groeningen, whose film The Misfortunates was screened at the IFF Bratislava and Miele, film debut of the famous Italian actress Valeria Golino.
The section Cutting Edge presents works which shift the boundaries of film expression. There is J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost – a monodrama starring Robert Redford, who is left alone on his ship amidst the ocean. After her film Modra (IFF Bratislava 2010), the Canadian director of Slovak origin Ingrid Veninger comes with her new film - The Animal Project, which is a story of actors who agree to take part in an experiment: they wonder the streets of Toronto in animal costumes.
The Israeli cinematography has shown its strength several times in the recent years. The viewers can verify this in the section Focus, within which they will find a festival hit and multiple award holder Ajami of Scandar Kopty and Yaron Shani – a film about a quarter of the same name in the Palestinian city Jaffa. Through different characters we find out what the situation is in this place, which is a melting pot of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures. 7 Days – a film by siblings Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, is a family drama taking place on the background of the Persian Gulf War: when one sister of nine siblings suddenly dies, the family gathers for the 7-day mourning, during which they cannot leave the house. The closed environment causes various long-hidden facts to surface.
The Special Event will present a recording of a theatre performance Frankenstein – stage hit based on the Gothic novel of Mary Shelley in direction of the Oscar-winning Danny Boyle, with the music of Underworld. The main roles in this play about the creature composed of body parts and put to life and into the world of people by means of chemicals are here performed by the prestigious Olivier Award holders Benedict Cumberbatch (Frankenstein) and Johnny Lee Miller (the Monster).
The IFF Bratislava will also present one of the best acclaimed films of this year's IFF Venice and the winner of the Best Screenplay - Philomena of the British classic Stephen Frears, and new films by the Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi The Past and the legend of the American independent cinema Gus Van Santa Promised Land.
For further information about the 15th International Film Festival Bratislava visit the website www.iffbratislava.sk or the Facebook profile.
15TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL BRATISLAVA
November 6 – 12, 2013
Main organisers
Ars Nova Association
Partners Production
The Festival is held with the generous financial support of the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
With the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
COME AND EXPERIENCE IT!
More info: SILVIA TURNEROVÁ
Tel.: +421 2 54 41 06 73; +421 905 708 333; E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
