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SHADOWS 8th November 22:00 LHC 3
Original Title: Senki
Country: Macedonia/Germany/Italy/Bulgaria/Spain
Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Format: 35 mm
Run time: 129’
Language: Macedonian with English subtitles
Directed by: Milcho Manchevski
Screenplay: Milcho Manchevski
Cinematographer: Fabio Cianchetti
Editor: David Ray, Martin Levenstein
Music: Ryan Shore, additional music by Kiril Djajkovski
Costumes Elisabetta Montaldo
Production: Senka DOOEL Film Production
Co-Production: blue eyes Fiction GmbH & Co. KG, Classic SRL, Camera Ltd, Tornasol Films SA
Producer: Milcho Manchevski, Amedeo Pagani, Corinna Mehner, Nermin Gladers, Martin Husmann, Dimitar Gochev,Gerrardo Herrero, Mariela Besuievsky
Cast: Borce Nacev, Vesna Stanojevska, Sabina Ajrula-Tozija , Salaetin Bilal, Ratka Radmanovic , Filareta Atanasova , Dime Iliev, Vladimir Jacev
Synopsis: The spirits of Aegean refugees, suicides and unbaptized babies haunt the protagonist of Shadows until he learns the way to give them eternal peace, and in the process, finally grows into the man he wants to be
About director: Milcho Manchevski wrote and directed the feature films "BEFORE THE RAIN" (1994), "DUST" (2001) and "SHADOWS" (2007) and over 50 short forms (experimental films, documentaries, commercials and music videos (including "TENNESSEE" for Arrested Development), and has guest-directed network and cable TV (HBO's "The Wire"). "BEFORE THE RAIN" won an Academy-Award nomination and thirty awards, including Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice, Independent Spirit, FIPRESCI, UNESCO, best film of the year in Argentina, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, and other awards in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, etc. The New York Times included "BEFORE THE RAIN" on its list of the best 1,000 films ever made.
MIRAGE 8th November 16:00 LHC 3
Original title: Iluzija
Country: FYROM, AT
Year: 2004
Genre: Drama
Format: 35mm
Film run: 106'
Language: Macedonian with English subtitles
Directed by: Svetozar Ristovski
Screenplay: Grace Lea Troje, Svetozar Ristovski
Cinematography by: Vladimir Samoilovski
Film editing: Atanas Georgiev
Art director: Igor Tosevski
Costumes designer: Alexander Wieser, Svetozar Ristovski
Production: Synchro Film, Video Bearbeitungs , Small moves (MK)
Cast: Mustafa Nadarevic, Vlado Jovanosvki, Nikola Djuricko, Dejan Acimovic, Marko Kovacevic
Synopsis: Marko's world is collapsing around him. Amidst Macedonian's tumultuous transition, gambling and alcohol poison life at home, while ruthless bullies make school unbearable. But Marko discovers dreams of escape when his teacher encourages him to enter a poetry competition in Paris
Director: Svetozar Ristovski was born in Veles, Macedonia and studied architecture and dramatic arts at the University of St. Kiril and Metodij in Skopje, Macedonia. His filmography includes the short documentary Second Class Passengers (1999), the feature length documentary Joy of Life (2001) and the short fiction film Hunter (2000). Mirage is his feature directorial debut.
Filmography
UPSIDEDOWN 8th November 19:00 LHC 3
Original Language Title: Prevrteno
Country: Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia
Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Format: 35mm
Run time: 105’
Language: Macedonian with English subtitles
Director: Igor Ivanov
Screenplay: Venko Andonovski, Igor Ivanov
Cinematographer: Tomi Salkovski
Music: Zoran Spasovski
Designer: Ivan Bartling, Igor Toshevski
Editor: Igor Andreevski
Producer: Vladimir Anastasov, Igor Nola
Production: Sektor Film
Synopsis: Hideous corners of the city, scenes without a trace of sophistication, depressing enclosed spaces – this is the setting chosen for the desperate life drama of young Jan Ludvik. Its individual chapters are recalled as retrospectives by Jan himself as he travels in a train hurtling through the darkening landscape, in the company of a random female passenger whose miserable exterior renders her the embodiment of the bleakest of destinies. Jan was a gifted student and, by some strange quirk of fate, also a talented circus artist, but the world in which he lives drives him only to self-destructive actions. Everything is marked by degradation, even love, for which cheap porn clubs are often an eloquent stage, and whose object is a palpably degenerate girl; several scenes are deliberately set in dingy, graffiti-covered urinals. Upside Down presents a modernised version of the film expressionism of the past; in this case, the wasted life of an individual forms a parallel to the disintegration engulfing society as a whole, a society which lacks spiritual horizons.
Director by: Igor Ivanov (b. 1973, Skopje, Macedonia) studied philosophy and began his film career in 1993, when he began directing a series of films for television. Between the years 1995 and 2004 he made several documentaries and short films; one of them, the 15-minute-long Bugs (Bubački, 2004), won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno festival. The title Upside Down, an adaptation of the novel Navel of the World by contemporary Macedonian writer Venko Andonovski, is his feature film debut. The film clearly revives the poetic quality of the so-called “Black Wave” in Yugoslav film during the 1960s, which closely examined the afflictions of society’s “other face” and the fatal dimensions of human existence.
DOEST IT HURT? The First Balkan Dogma 8th November 17:00 LHC 4
Original title: Boli li? - Prvata balkanska Dogma
Country: Netherlands/Macedonia
Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Format: 35mm
Run time: 100’
Language: Macedonian with English subtitles
Director: Aneta Lesnikovska
Script: Aneta Lesnikovska
Cinematographer: Lennert Hillege
Editor: Igor Andreevski
Sound: Braco, Slobodan Pajic, Editson Ranko Paukovic
Produced by: Biljana Stanoevska
Production: AKA Film - Makedonija, Concordia Pictures, NFI Productions
Cast: Irena Ristik, Igor Dzambazov, Dejan Lilik, Visar Vishka
For a change, a true film about a fictional event, instead of the other way round. Young Macedonian-Dutch filmmaker lies to her best friends and in this way makes the first Balkan (and Dutch) Dogma film.
Synopsis: Reality is based on fiction and vice versa. The director translates her own life and that of her friends to a fictional situation. Most of her friends are actors and film makers who do everything but act and make films. There is no money, no fund that makes film making possible in a country like Macedonia, so she sets to work according to the rules of Dogma.
Not just to help her friends find some work, but also to fulfil her own desire: to make her first full-length film. She lies to her friends that she has found foreign producers who are willing to finance the film. They have to wait for the Danish producers, who never come. In the meantime, she keeps researching and asks all her friends to tell their life stories. The whole process is filmed and what was once intended as preparation turns into the film itself. The distinction between fiction and reality is impossible to define in the end.Does It Hurt? is the first Balkan film shot according to the rules of Dogma, made to mark the 10th anniversary of the Dogma manifesto. And maybe even more than a formal Dogma drama, Does It Hurt? is a personal, refreshing and amusing document about the film maker and her friends. (SdH)Source: International Film Festival Rotterdam
Director: Aneta LESNIKOVSKA comes from Skopje, Macedonia, where she studied the history of art and archaeology. In 1992 she came to study at the audiovisual art department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. After her graduation in 1996 she had numerous expositions of her video and new media work. In the last few years she has been actively involved in many Macedonian films, including How I Killed a Saint that was screened in Rotterdam in 2004. Does It Hurt? - The First Balkan Dogma is her feature debut as director.
Ms. Lesnikovska will be present during the screening and Q&A
GYPSY BIRTH 8th November 13:00 LHC 3
Original title: DAE
Country: SFR Yugoslavia/Macedonia
Year: 1979
Genre: Documentary/Short
Format: 35mm
Run time: 16’
Language: Macedonian with English subtitles
Director: Popov Stole
Screenplay: Popovski Ante
Camerman: Samoilovski Misho
Editor: Grbevski Dimitar
Sound: Pakovski Gligor
Sound Editor: Pakovski Gligor
Ass. Camerman: Samoilovski Vladimir
Unit Manager: Teofilovski Risto - Ridgeway
Music Selection: Popov Stole
Producer: Risto Teofilovski
Production: VARDAR FILM
Plot: This 16-minute film is an extract from the Gypsies' way of life, dedicated to the celebration of the "St. George's Day" holiday. The theme of the film deals with the contrasts of the contemporary urban processes. Also, the film expresses a many-sided iconography as a source for incarnation of the romantic comprehension of life with no obstacles. The balladic atmosphere conjures up the reminiscences of the distant myths. This poetic vision on the life of the last nomads is shot in the authentic milieu of Gypsies' camp shortly before the celebration of their greatest holiday. Aatavistic characteristics of their beliefs are: the ritual bathing, as a symbol of body and soul purifying; then, the mystery of childbirth and the desire for life without restraints. All these attack the audience's senses, never leaving them indifferent.
Awards/Nominations:
1979: FYDSF, Belgrade, "Golden Medal Belgrade", for direction / Stole Popov
1979: FYDSF, Belgrade, "Golden Medal Belgrade" for best camera / Misho Samoilovski
1979: IFF, Oberhausen, Grand Prix
1979: IFF, Melbourne, Special Jury Award
1979: IFF, Leipzig, Special Jury Award
1979: FF, Ljubljana, Grand Prix
1980: IFF, London, Special Diploma
1980: Los Angeles, Nomination for "Oscar" Academy Award, among the five best documentary films
Director: Skopje, 20.8.1950. In 1973 he graduated in directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in the class of Professor Radosh Novakovic. During his studies he made 10 short feature films. In the period from 1974 to 1978 he had the status of a free-lance film worker. From 1978 to 1988 he worked as a director in "Vardar Film" and from 1985 to 1986 he was its director. From 1989 he worked as a professor of film directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje. The same year together with the actor Dancho Chevreski and the director Stevo Crvenkovski, he founded the private film production company "Triangle". In 1999 he became a member of the European Film Academy.
He began his career with the documentary "Fire" and was awarded the first prize at the Festival of Documentary and Short Films in Belgrade (1974). The documentary films "Australia, Australia" (1976) and "Dae" (1979) were awarded prizes at the same festival in Belgrade, while for the latter "Dae" he won prizes at the festivals in Oberhausen, Melbourne and an Oscar nomination as well.
Filmography:
1970: Sharplanina Dog's Wedding (Music Selection)
1973: 99 (Director, Screenplay)
1974: Fire (Director, Music Selection, Screenplay)
1975: Kocho Solev Racin (Ass. Director)
1975: Reunions (Screenplay)
1976: Australia, Australia (Director)
1977: Construction Factory "Mavrovo" (Director, Screenplay)
1977: The Verdict (Second Ass. Director)
1979: Dae (Director, Music Selection)
1979: Welcome (Director)
1981: The Red Horse (Director)
1984: Popova Shapka (Director, Screenplay)
1986: Happy New Year (Director)
1991: Tatoo (Director)
1997: Gipsy Magic (Director, Producer)
Other movies:
1973 FACTORY TRESKA, screenwriter, director, documentary, Filmske novosti Belgrade
1974 RACIN, text, documentary, Vardar Film
1974 ALKALOID, screenwriter, director, documentary, Filmske Novost Belgrade
1993 LIGHT GRAY, mentor, feature, TFRZ Pegasus Skopje, FDU Skopje, Vardar Film