109 films from 39 countries will be shown this year at goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film from Wednesday 10 April to Tuesday 16 April. Festival director Heleen Gerritsen presented the programme at a press conference held Thursday morning at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne cinema, where she expressed her excitement regarding the festival’s 23 German premieres, three international first screenings and one world premiere. Aside from a broad range of top-calibre filmmaking, the festival also offers a significantly expanded accompanying programme, featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, film talks and, of course, the legendary goEast parties. New this year is the “Pan-European Picnic”, which sees the festival cultivating even deeper roots within the local community.
“In the 19th year of goEast’s existence, the DFF is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its own founding here in Wiesbaden as the Federal Republic of Germany’s first institution for cinema heritage,” commented Ellen Harrington, director of DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. “We would like to thank the state capital and the state of Hessen for supporting our mission and for supporting goEast, which has been committed to promoting a vibrant culture of debate since 2001. Their tool of choice in these efforts is cinema, which demonstrates in a variety of ways that democracy is a central asset of a united Europe. goEast is a showcase for the cinema of Central and Eastern Europe and demands – 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall – that we treat everyone with respect, in particular the marginalised elements of our society too,” emphasised Harrington.
The goEast Competition again features a total of sixteen films which will be vying for the festival’s three main awards. “This year’s Competition section is distinguished by works from young filmmakers, including several debut films, and works which treat themes of intergenerational conflict. As such, the films seize upon current tendencies in society – in the West as well adolescents and millennials are taking to the streets in protest and rebelling against the decisions and politics of older generations,” observed festival director Heleen Gerritsen. “In the East, the conflict is further exacerbated by the fact that the different generations came of age in different political and economic systems. Both aesthetically and thematically, the young generation of filmmakers is choosing to use another film language, a new one,” Gerritsen continued. “This year’s films often revolve around young individuals, their motivations in life, their drives for discovery and emancipation, or their relationships with older family members and authority figures as well. But for instance they also explore the question of why young people are willing to make radical sacrifices for their political convictions,” as Gerritsen revealed.
Around 200 filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe are expected to attend goEast. Želimir Žilnik and Sami Mustafa are among the guests of this year’s Symposium, entitled “Constructions of the Other: Roma and the Cinema of Central and Eastern Europe”. The Homage is devoting an extensive retrospective to the work of a venerable master of the Polish New Wave, Krzysztof Zanussi, who will be on hand to give insight into his life’s work. Multi-award-winning director and this year’s goEast Jury President Teona Strugar Mitevska is presenting her opening film
GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, goEast is partnering for the first time with FilmFestival Cottbus to present the thematic focus “Everything Remains Different? The Wild 90s”, which directs attention back to the transitional period following the dissolution of the Iron Curtain. The newly created event series “Pan-European Picnic” promises to cross borders between East and West and interdisciplinary boundaries between film, literature and the visual arts. At the film talks in the “goEast Salon”, audience members have the chance to enter into direct dialogue with the filmmakers of the Competition while enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the Festival Center.
For Axel Imholz, head of the Cultural Department of the State Capital Wiesbaden, the history of the city is linked in myriad ways with Germany’s Eastern European neighbours. The celebrated painter Alexej von Jawlensky, who lived in Wiesbaden and is buried there as well, and the Russian Orthodox Saint Elizabeth’s Church atop the Neroberg are just two of the best-known examples that testify to this connection. “goEast brings international filmmakers and film fans to Wiesbaden and generates important insights and understanding for the cultures of our neighbours to the East with its films and talk formats – that is just as timely and important today as it was at the beginning of the festival,” observed Imholz. The head of the city’s Cultural Department emphasised that Wiesbaden considers itself lucky to be able to host such a unique festival highlight in the state capital.
Dr. Helmut Müller, managing director of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, which is supporting the pilot project “Pan-European Picnic” this year, is particularly looking forward to the new event series: “30 years after the Pan-European Picnic of Sopron, on the border between Hungary and Austria, we have to ask ourselves today just how united and border-free our Europe is and how things look when it comes to solidarity and mutual understanding.” According to Müller, it is all the more important to protect and expand upon the achievements made in understanding in all levels and forms. “That is precisely the approach taken by the Pan-European Picnic in Wiesbaden: it’s about building a bridge between the established film festival and small cultural associations, a bridge to locations outside of the film theatres, places where individuals with Central and Eastern European migration backgrounds come together from throughout the entire Rhine-Main region.”
Dr. Markus Ingenlath, managing director of Renovabis, explained: “With the creation and support of a research grant for documentary films with a focus on human and minority rights in Eastern Europe, goEast is turning its attention to issues of exceptional relevance for the present moment. These efforts are in harmony with the spirit of our work at Renovabis: we want to take a credible and unflinching look at the situation in our ‘neighbourhood’, for it is only by doing so that real dialogue can take place,” according to Ingenlath. “In addition, the festival provides the opportunity to take advantage of another information channel, namely cinema, and to show that these politically sensitive issues belong within the broad spectrum of our mission, when it comes to promoting the development of civil society,” emphasised Ingenlath.
On 10 April, goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will kick off its 19th edition with this year’s opening film GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA (GOSPOD POSTOI, IMETO I' E PETRUNIJA, North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, France, 2019) by North Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska.
You can find photo materials for this year’s festival in our download section: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/Press/downloads
The full programme for the 19th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is available at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/program
goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the German Federal Foreign Ministry and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include 3sat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
