06. October 2014

25-THE RETROSPECTIVE

Several renowned film critics from all over the world have chosen what they personally believe to be the best film that was produced in the past twenty-five years (i.e. since the fall of the Iron Curtain) in the twenty-five countries covered by the LET’S CEE Film Festival four out 25-THE RETROSPECTIVE. However, for organisational reasons, only ten of these twenty-five films will be shown at this year’s Festival. These include cult films such as THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Emir Kusturica’s UNDERGROUND, IN THE FOG by Sergei Loznitsa, NO MAN'S LAND by Danis Tanović, the Romanian feature THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU by Cristi Puiu, or BEFORE THE RAIN by Milcho Manchevski. The programme, which will be continued next year, will be completed by THE BAT from Azerbaijan, the morbid gangster thriller 13 TZAMETI from Georgia, KUKUMI from Kosovo, and TULPAN from Kazakhstan. Films including Jan Svěráks KOLYA from the Czech Republic, SATANTANGO by Béla Tarr from Hungary, MY JOY by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, or Russian director Andrei Swjaginzew’s THE RETURN will be included in next year’s programme.

The 25-Retrospective contains following films:

+ Albania: Amnesty (Buyar Alimani, 2011)
+ Armenia: Calendar (Atom Egoyan, 1993)
+ Azerbaijan: The Bat (Ayaz Salayev, 1995)
+ Belarus: In the Fog (Sergey Loznitsa, 2012)
+ Bosnia and Herzegovina: No Man's Land (Danis Tanović, 2001)
+ Bulgaria: Ave (Konstantin Bojanov, 2011)
+ Croatia: Fine Dead Girls (Dalibor Matanić, 2002)
+ Czech Republic: Kolya (Jan Svěrák, 1996)
+ Estonia: The Temptation of St. Tony (Veiko Õunpuu, 2009)
+ Georgia: 13 Tzameti (Géla Babluani, 2005)
+ Hungary: Satantango (Béla Tarr, 1994)
+ Kazakhstan: Tulpan (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 2008)
+ Kosovo: Kukumi (Isa Qosja, 2005)
+ Latvia: Mother, I Love You (Jānis Nords, 2013)
+ Lithuania: Freedom (Sharunas Bartas, 2000)
+ Macedonia: Before the Rain (Milcho Manchevski, 1994)
+ Moldova: The Unsaved (Igor Cobileanski, 2013)
+ Montenegro: The Little Love God (Željko Sošić, 2011)
+ Poland: The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1991)
+ Romania: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005)
+ Russia: The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003)
+ Serbia: Underground (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
+ Slovakia: My Dog Killer (Mira Fornay, 2013)
+ Slovenia: Spare Parts (Damjan Kozole, 2003)
+ Ukraine: My Joy (Sergey Loznitsa, 2010)

The following film critics participated in the survey: Thomas Abeltshauser from Berlin, his colleagues Anna Bielak from Warsaw, Gulia Dobre from Bucharest and Báron György from Budapest, Maria Chalkou, editor of Filmicon from Greece, Matthieu Darras of the San Sebastian Film Festival, Eberhard von Elterlein from the Berliner Morgenpost, Ernesto Diezmartínez from the Reforma newspaper in Mexico, Duma Dana of the Romanian Film magazine, Nenad Dukic from Radio Belgrade, Elsa Demo from Albania, Jan Pieter Ekker from the Netherlands, Juan Carlos González A. from Kinetoscopio in Colombia, Carmen Gray from Dazed & Confused Magazine in England, Richard Haridy from Australia’s Quickflix, Christian Jungen of the NZZ, film historian Lauri Kärk from Estonia, Salome Kikaleishvili from Georgia, Blagoja Kunovski from Macedonia, Jochen Kürten of the Deutsche Welle, Daniel Lindvall of Film International in Sewden, Demetrios Matheou of the Sunday Herald in England, Irish-American filmmaker and critic James McDonald, Persian Essayist and film critic Minou Moshir, Michael Omasta of the Falter magazine in Austria, Pamela Pianezza, editor in chief of French Tess Magazine, Vuk Perović of the public broadcasting service in Montenegro, Rod Quinn of Australia’s ABC Radio, Tomasz Raczek of Polish Latarnik, Nick Roddick of the Evening Standard in England, German film historian Hans Joachim Schlegel, Marcel Štefančič of Mladina in Slovenia, legendary critic David Sterritt from the USA, Ioana Stupariu of the Telegraf in Romania, Gorazd Trušnovec of Ekran in Slovenia, Nina Tsyrkun from the Iskusstvo Kino magazine in Russia, Andreas Ungerböck of the Austrian Ray Magazine, Denis Valič from Slovenia, Božidar Zečević of Filmograf in Serbia and many more. We would like to express our gratitude!