Milcho Manchevski’s acclaimed Before the Rain (1994) is considered “one of the greatest debut feature films in the history of cinema” (Annette Insdorf) and “one of the most important films of the decade” (Ann Kibbey). The New York Times included it on its list “Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.“ It won the Golden Lion in Venice, Independent Spirit, an Academy Award nomination, FIPRESCI, UNSECO, film of the year in Argentina, Sweden, Turkey, Italy and awards in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, etc.
“Manchevski continues down his distinctive artistic path” (Hollywood Reporter) with the award-winning features Dust (which opened Venice 2001), Shadows (2007), Mothers (2010), Bikini Moon (2017), Willow (2019), Kaymak (2022), more than 50 short forms, including The End of Time (2017), Thursday (2013), Macedonia Timeless (2010), 1.73 (1984), Arrested Development’s Tennessee (1991) and an episode of HBO`s The Wire (2002). “His work stands out in world cinema for its unique way of playing with space, time and emotion” (Keith Brown).
Roger Ebert said, “Work like this keeps me going. A reminder of the nobility that film can attain.” “His unique blend of experimentation, poetry, emotion, and a demand for the active participation of the viewer in the construction of meaning are highly praised.“ (Conor McGrady).
Manchevski’s work is part of the curricula at numerous universities and is the subject of many essays and books. It is also part of the curricula at numerous universities, and has been discoursed at a number of conferences. The University of Leipzig (Germany) and the European University Institute in Florence (Italy) hosted academic conferences dedicated, respectively, to Before the Rain and Dust.
He had three solo exhibitions of photographs, published works of fiction, essays, books of photographs and staged performance art.
Manchevski served as Head of Directing Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Film program. He also taught at Feirstein Graduate School (Brooklyn College), EICTV (Cuba), VGIK (Russia), etc. Manchevski is a member of the Directors Guild of America, European Film Academy and the PEN Club, and holds an honorary doctorate from VGIK in Moscow.
12: Balkan New Film Festival i Stockholm – ZITA, Birger Jarlsgatan 37
IDENTITET, Odengatan 15
mellan 3-8 november
Filmer från Balkan berättar om ett Europa i förändring. Folket på Balkan befinner sig i transit och det är den individuella förändringen som överskrider ländernas gränser som verkar inspirera filmskapandet i regionen. Med Balkan Nordic Film Festival är det dessa filmer vi vill erbjuda den svenska och nordiska publiken.
3 nov. ZITA stora salongen
18.00 Festivalinvigning
Bilo jednom u Srbiji / Onde Upon a Time in Serbia
Serbia, 2022, drama comedy, 135 ‘, with English subtitles
director: Petar Ristovski
In a short two decade period of time, twinned friends, the winners of the First War, are resolved to win even in peacetime. Dine has a cinema, Cone a weaving craft with the greatest local entrepreneur Mita by his side. When a small provincial town becomes “Serbian Manchester”, there comes the Second War!
Cast: Viktor Savic, Nemanja Oliveric, Teodora Ristovski, Sloboda Micalovic, Radovan Vujovic, Dragan Bjelogrlic, Miki Manojlovic
Production: Soul Food Films
4 nov. ZITA stora salongen
16.00
Nebesa/ Heavens Above
Serbia, 2021, comedy, drama, 123’, with English subtitle
Director Srdjan Dragojevic
Three stories set in 1993, 2001 and 2026. The heroes reappear in different stories and in new, ever more bizarre circumstances. Their destinies intertwine. Heavens Above gives an unconventional perspective on the transition period in a post-communist country – treating this era as a turbulent shift from pagan world into a Christian era, many Centuries ago. The occurrences of miracles are the answer of collective consciousness to the changes that force the whole community to look at the world around them, turned upside down, in a new light and miraculous perspective.
Cast: Goran Navojec, Ksenija Marinković, Bojan Navojec, Nataša Marković, Sana Kostić, Radoslav Rale Milenković, Miloš Samolov, Nela Mihailović, Nikola Pejaković,
Production: DELIRIUM
18.30
Kajmak/Kaymak
Makedonia, 2022, drama, 106’, with English subtitles
Director: Milcho Manchevski
Kaymak is an irreverent love story – it’s also a critique of the contemporary illiberal hypocrisy.
A young, rich couple are on top of the world, when a distant relative comes to live with them. Meanwhile, the neighbours in the crumbling house down below are middle-aged and feeling left behind, when the husband starts an affair with a cheese-seller. The two families are respectable at the beginning, happy at the end.
Underneath its exploration of the eternal search for love, Kaymak tackles darker social issues – surrogate parenting, infidelity, woman’s role in family and society, human trafficking, sexual liberty…
Cast: Sara Klimoska, Kamka Tocinovski, Aleksandar Mikic, Simona Spirovska, Ana Stojanovska, Filip Trajkovikj
Production: Banana Film, Meta Film, N279 Entertainment, Jaako dobra produkcija
5 nov. ZITA stora salongen
18.00
Awarding eve
Sveta Petka Krst u kamenu/ A Cross In The Desert,
Serbia, Jordan, 2022, drama, 123’, with English subtitles
Director: Aleksandar Hadzi Djurovic
Pious girl Paraskeva spent 40 years of her life in desert fighting temptations, sins and inner demons.
Cast: Milena Predic, Milica Stefanovic, Filfip Hajdukovic
Production: Aleksandrija film, Filmski Centar Srbije, Jordan Pioneers
6 nov. IDENTITET
18.00
Pelikan/Pelican,
Croatia, 2022, drama-comedy, 87’, with English subtitles
Director: Filip Heraković
A spa resort way past its finest years, people so relaxed they are on the verge of dying, and one goalkeeper trying to find salvation in a vacuum. Vacuum cleaner, that is.
Cast: Edi Ćelić, Lucija Barišić, Marko Petrić, Ivan Glowatzky, Tena Nemet Brankov
Production: Wolfgang & Dolly
Heroji/Heroes
Serbia, 2022, drama, 71’, with English subtitles
Director Goran Nikolic
A story set in the Middle Ages about a warrior knight who survived the historic Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Along the way, he meets a wild boy, all alone. And they continue this journey together. This man is a personification of all small heroes, that no songs are sang about.
Cast: Mladen Sovilj, Todor Jovanovic
Production: Faculty for Dramatic Arts Belgrade, Fame Solutions, Talking Wolf Productions
7 nov. IDENTITET
18.00
Tragovi / Traces,
Croatia, Lithuania, Serbia, 2022, drama, 98’, with English subtitles
Director Dubravka Turic
After the death of her father, young scientist Ana struggles with an identity crisis, being the last member of a once large family. The changes inside her are suddenly reflected in reality – loneliness, crisis, emigration – and her scientific research on mystical symbols and human traces left in stone are mysteriously intertwined with her life until she regains her confidence, moves on and finally stops hiding her vitiligo marks, traces of her traumas.
Cast: Marija Skaricic, Niksa Butijer, Lana Baric
Production: Kinorama, Tremora
Jahaci/ Jezdeci
Slovenia, 2022, drama, 110’, with English subtitles
Director: Dominik Mancej
Slovenia, the spring of 1999. Two friends from a small village decide to transform their mopeds into choppers and embark on a journey. Looking for freedom and love, driven by mad impulses and haunted by conservative moulds of tradition, they start believing and understanding things that were previously unimaginable. On the road through Slovenia and Croatia – countries recently separated from Yugoslavia – they are accompanied by a young runaway woman with a mysterious past and an old biker who has seen the world in search of freedom. These characters challenge each other and themselves through shared experiences, which break their ties to and conception of the old, thus giving way to the new. But the path is treacherous and with the sudden death of a companion, their friendship is at stake.
Cast:Peter Frankl, Nikola Kojo, Petja Labovic
Production: Peter Frankl, Nikola Kojo, Petja Labovic
20.00
Ala je lep ovaj svet /
Serbia, 2022, comedy, fantasy, romance, 90’, with English subtitles
Director: Filip Colovic
Angel Ljubisa is trying to bring together the incompatible, the unestablished director Bata, Una, the popular and charismatic TV presenter and the police inspector Trisic.
Cast: Andriija Kuzmaovic, Andjelka Prpic
Production: Blue Butterfly
8 nov. IDENTITET
18.00
Снежана на крајот умира / Snow white dies in the end,
North Macedonia, Cyprus, 2022, drama comedy, 105’, with English Subtitles
Director: Kristijan Risteski
Six people are living in the wrong time and place for their own values. After making a deathbed promise to look after her friend’s son, Snezhana becomes ‘mother’ to Bobby, a brand new 20-year-old junkie ‘son’. Maya is a recluse, ‘a lone wolf’, and Igor, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, is ‘a fish out of water’. They are not supposed to meet, but they do and fall in love. Nikola, Gorazd and Deyan are childhood friends who struggle to adapt to this new world, dehumanized by virtual communication, relativization of morality and the aggressive encroachments of politics on their lives.
Cast: Verica Nedeska, Ivica Dimitrijevic, Sashko Kocev,
Productions: FOKUS POKUS Production, Vertigo Visual, Caretta Films
Luca/Lucia,
Serbia, 2022, thriller, 94’, with English subtitles
Director: Ivica Vidanovic
Luca, daughter of the retired secret service inspector Petar went missing. Wanting to find the reason of her disappearance, Petar digs deep into his past and his world of lies slowly starts to crumble.
Cast: Jovo Maksic, Smiljana Marinkovic
Production: Apollon, Cinnamon Films, PFI Studios
Festival pass 400 SEK för samtliga filmer
Enstaka biljetter 140 SEK
Studenter och pensionärer 120 SEK
ONLINE pass 400 SEK
Se separat program på www.baneff.com.
Efter filmer Q&A with the guests
Med stöd från ingen!
I samarbete med Biograf ZITA, ABF Stockholm, M.A.M.M.A. production, Justin Theatre Production. Kontakt. info@baneff.com, +08 221190, www.baneff.com
kontakt: 08 221190, info@baneff.com
PRESS kontakt: 08 221190
Balkan Nordic Film Festival (Balkan New Film Festival) arrangerades för första gången 2012 och 2023 arrangerar vi den 12 upplagan av festivalen där vi vill erbjuda den svenska publiken en möjlighet att uppleva den breda filmproduktion som skapas på Balkan, något som annars är väldigt sällsynt.
Med bakgrund i Serbien och som verksam inom film och kultur både i Sverige och på Balkan, har festivalens grundare och fortfarande idag huvudansvariga Jelena Mila en djup kännedom om det utbud som finns och ett nätverk som gör det möjligt att se till att de bästa titlarna kommer till festivalen. Mila är skådespelerska, producent och regissör samt forskare inom Cinema studies från Stockholms Universitet (avhandling: From Low Budget to Big Business, Releasing Strategies for Independent Films and Industry Division) och Faculty for Drama Art Belgrad.
Från att enbart ha arrangerats i Stockholm har Balkan Nordic Film Festival (BaNeFF) vuxit och erbjuder visningar i en rad städer i Sverige och även i Norge och Finland. 2023 planerar vi visningar i Göteborg, Norrköping, Malmö, Västerås och Lund. I Norge finns festivalen i samarbete med Cinemateket i Oslo och Bergen och vi arrangerar också visningar i Trondheim. I Finland samarbetar vi med Kulturhuset i Jakobstad.
Balkan Nordic Film Festival är den största filmfestivalen i Norden som visar filmer från Balkan och närområdet, samt filmer som har skapats på Balkan och som relaterar till Balkan. I programmet ryms filmer från länder med en historia som liknar forna Jugoslavien i ett gränsland mellan östra och västra blocken, mellan kommunismen och den liberala kapitalismen och vi visar film från Albanien, Bulgarien, Vitryssland, Grekland, Ungern och Rumänien vid sidan av film från Bosnien och Hercegovina, Kroatien, Makedonien, Montenegro, Slovenien och Serbien.
Vi ser Balkan som porten till Europa. Till andra festivaler kommer kanske någon eller några enstaka titlar, men på BaNeFF representeras hela regionen. Detta gör programmet en angelägenhet för alla med rötter i regionen, oavsett varifrån, och samtidigt en angelägenhet för en bred publik som får möjlighet att se film de annars inte fått tillgång till.