Facts:
– Programme Section >globalEAST< concentrating on the Netherlands
– famous Dutch director Ineke Smits in the International Jury
– Dutch ambassador attending the film festival opening
The global cinema discovery tour continues: After last year´s trip to
Italy, the 25th FilmFestival Cottbus now sets off to the Netherlands. Five
film contributions in the >globalEAST< section present the diverse results
of co-operations between our north-western neighbour and the countries of
Central and Eastern Europe.
The Netherlands are capturing European cinema – and not only with big,
established names like cult director Alex Van Warmerdam, doyen Paul
Verhoeven or award-winning filmmaker Jos Stelling, who has a lot of
experience with Eastern Europe and has been a frequent guest in Cottbus.
This is something that cannot be overlooked, especially in view of the
country´s participation in international co-productions, the partners of
which are often from a country beyond the Oder – for example, Loznitsa´s
documentary film MAIDAN recently released in Germany or Sokurov´s award-
winning World War Two drama FRANCOFONIA. This development has prompted the
East-West co-production market connecting cottbus, taking place
simultaneously with the festival, to also take a closer look at the
Netherlands. It will provide an additional pitch for a yet to be announced
Dutch project.
The >globalEAST< section of the anniversary edition of FilmFestival Cottbus
will present several examples of this intensive cinematic connection
between the Netherlands and Eastern Europe. Five productions give insights
into the diverse results of international co-operation and reveal the broad
range of European cinematography:
The documentary film STAND BY YOUR PRESIDENT (Netherlands 2014) portrays
Dutch-born Sandra Roelofs, wife of the former Georgian president Mikheil
Saakashvili, who as „First Lady” played clearly more than just a
representational role. The film´s director, Ineke Smits, who works in both
the Netherlands and Georgia, will not only present her own film during the
festival week but also act as a member of the International Jury awarding
the coveted prizes.
In KURAI KURAI (Netherlands 2014), the director and photographer Marjoleine
Boonstra uses breath-taking pictures to convey myths of the Kirghiz steppe
and tell the story of a young man searching for answers to the big
questions in life. Marinus Groothof looks back at more recent historical
events: With THE SKY ABOVE US (Netherlands, Belgium, Serbia, Greece 2015),
the Netherlander stages a Serbian project that grants a view into the inner
life of three people during the NATO bombardment of Belgrade in 1999. In
MEET ME IN VENICE (Netherlands 2015) by Eddy Terstall, a father and
daughter, who had been alienated for years, set off on a (rail)road trip
through the Balkans. A game of attraction and seduction is played by the
two young female protagonists in NUDE AREA (Poland, Netherlands 2014). This
arthouse film by the Polish director Urszula Antoniak, who lives in the
Netherlands, negotiates the hierarchies between rich and poor as well as
conceptions of Islam – entirely without dialogues.
This year´s >globalEAST< programme series was compiled with the support of
the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Nederlands Filmfonds and
the EYE film institute Netherlands. The ambassador Monique van Daalen has
announced that she will attend the opening and address the audience with
words of welcome.
The festival is substantially supported by the State of Brandenburg, the
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the City of Cottbus as well as the MEDIA –
Creative Europe programme of the European Union.