The competition programmes of the 19th Vilnius International Film Festival opens tonight (Saturday March 29) with a special gala screening of Emir Kusturica's 1981 debut "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?"
Kusturica's coming of age story, set in Communist Yugoslavia of the early 1960s, displays early signs of the stylistic flair which was to become his visual trademark.
The film introduces the festival's long established main competition programme, New Europe - New Names, which features talented debut filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe whose work already suggests they are names to watch.
A new competiton programme, Baltic Gaze, focuses on films from countries in the Baltic region or which share Baltic sea coastlines.
Both programmes feature films that have already won critical acclaim or created buzz at international film festivals.
In New Europe - New Names local audiences in Vilnius and Kaunus -- where additional screenings are scheduled -- will have a chance to see "The Gambler", the feature debut by Lithuanian director Ignas Jonynas, which is not due for theatrical release here until the autumn.
"The Gambler" (Losejas), based on an original screenplay by Jonynas and Kristupas Sabolius, is a dark thriller about a paramedic whose gambling problem spirals out of control when love, life and death are all put at stake.
Other highlights include Georgian director Levan Koguashvili's low-key, charming and enchanting "Blind Dates" about a 40 year old school teacher searching for love. The film has been creating a buzz with critics and cineastes at festivals worldwide.
Hungarian director Adam Csaszi's homosexual coming of age story, "Land of Storms" proved a strong seller at the European Film Market in Berlin last month and Bosnian filmmaker Faruk Loncarevic's tale of forbidden love in Sarajevo "With Mom" packed a powerful emotional punch that has left few festival viewers unmoved.
Other titles in the selection are: "Japanese Dog" (Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Romania); "Class Enemy" (Rok Bicek, Slovenia); "The Girl from the Wardrobe" (Bodo Kox, Poland); "Miracle" (Juraj Lehotsky, Slovakia, Czech Republic); "Alienation" (Miko Lazarov, Bulgaria); "A Stranger" (Bobo Jelcic, Croatia); and "Quod Erat Demonstrandum" (Andrei Gruzsniczki, Romania).
Baltic Gaze brings a rich selection of new discoveries together for the first time.
Russian director Aleksandr Veledinsky's "The Geographer Drank His Globe Away", starring Konstantin Khabensky as a drunken teacher who wins over his class of provincial hooligans when he takes the worst of them on a challenging white-water rafting weekend, has been hailed as a new quality in Russian cinema.
London-based Pawel Pawlikowski's return to his native Poland with "Ida" - a hauntingly beautiful story of a young woman's discovery of her Jewish roots as she prepares to take her vows as a Catholic nun, has won a dozen awards worldwide, including Toronto's FIPRESCI critics prize. Pawlikowski will be in Vilnius, as a festival guest, to present his film a screening of "Ida" on Sunday.
Natalia Meschaninova's bleak tale of life in Russia's rotting industrial hinterland, "The Hope Factory" offers a very different vision from the fondly portrayed world seen in Veledinsky's film.
Other titles in Baltic Gaze are: "Chasing the Wind" (Rune Denstad Langlo, Norway); "Free Range" (Veiko Ounpuu, Estonia); "The Hour of the Lynx" (Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, Denmark/Sweden); "Tangerines" (Zara Urushadze, Estonia/Georgia); "The Disciple" (Ulrika Bengts, Finland); "Life Feels Good" (Maciej Pieprzyca, Poland); "The Police Officer's Wife" (Philip Groning, Germany); and "Hotell" (Lisa Langeth, Sweden/Denmark).
