Country in Focus – Macedonia
by Rada Sesic, artistic director of ENFF

Macedonia is politically and culturally a country in focus right now at the Balkans. With the tensions in the Region concerning Serbian resistance to Kosovo’s independence at one border and long lasting political and cultural strive with Greece at the other, a new multiethnic and multicultural functional democracy  is trying  to find its way to become a part of the United Europe. The country is progressing and changing fast, yet deeply cherishes its ancient culture and traditions. Macedonian cinema reflects these stories in its new productions. No matter how many Macedonian films were awarded in the last decade, they are still rather unknown. While Bosnian films, as well as Serbian, received much attention in the world press, Macedonian cinema remains a bit aside. That’s why we bring now to the Dutch audience new and exciting cinema of this southern Balkan state that borders with the still enigmatic Albania and turbulent Kosovo

SHADOWS, the new film of the renowned Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski (BEFORE THE RAIN) deals with crime and punishment as well as with a hot issue of today: displacement and the search for identity. No matter that the director lives both in the USA and Macedonia, he manages to give all his films a profound cultural imprint with a very strong flavour of his roots. DOES IT HURT?- FIRST BALKAN DOGMA  by daring Aneta Lesnikovska brings an intriguing mixture of fiction and documentary elements, posing important questions and still keeping the narrative smoothly running. This challenging film brought Macedonian cinema to the prestigious Tiger competition at the International Rotterdam Film Festival. UP SIDE DOWN by Igor Ivanov is another young, inspiring, cinematically modern film that brings up important issues of growing up and building a future in this southern Balkan country in transition, burdened by unemployment and a staggering economy. MIRAGE by Svetozar Ristovski explores a similar theme but within a quite different social milieu, unveiling the spirit of the Macedonian province and people in the margins of society. Cinematically superb and intense with brilliant camera work and great performances, this film already won several awards at the prestigious festivals.

Besides recent production, we also have a gem of classical Macedonian cinema – the documentary DAE by known film director Stole Popov. This is maybe the most famous Macedonian short film ever. Winning the Grand Prix at Oberhausen and other important festivals, this film entered at the time all anthologies of the best Yugoslavian cinema.

And finally, the youngest Macedonian director, with an appealing and refreshing concept connected closely to video art, is Alexandar Spasoski who made the lucid and mesmerizing VOYEUR.

This is just a modest pick of an upcoming and dynamic cinema with directors showing the promise of a bright future. Interestingly enough, out of four fiction films we present three debuts, and these, along with work of other inspiring directors such as sisters Teona and Labina Mitevska or Igor Trajkov, Darko Mitrevski, Sergej Stanojkovski, put Macedonian production on the world map.