Poland, France, German winners on European Film Fest 2017 Nouveau South Africa line-up
The fourth European Film Festival (2017 edition) for South Africa will screen at Cinema Nouveau in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg over two weekends between May 5 and May 14.
Things to Come, a very French film.
#EuroFilmFestSA
The films include award-winning entries from 12 countries:
Austria, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Netherlands, and Ireland and Croatia for the first time.
(Durban’s Gateway Nouveau is now located at the Ster Kinekor Complex, upstairs from the old Nouveau.)
Each film screens only once in Durban.
Here are the dates and times for Durban. For other cities, visit the Euro Film Fest website www.eurofilmfest.co.za
Click the movie links below to get a good bit of information on each film.
Connect with the festival on Twitter and Facebook: #EuroFilmFestSA. Booking is now open. Tickets are priced at R64. To book see www.cinemanouveau.co.za or www.sterkinekor.com.
DURBAN SCREENINGS
May 5, 2017
17:30 Strike a Pose (Netherlands)
20:30 Things to Come (France. I have seen this. Very French. Thoughtful, real, definitely worth seeing.)
May 6, 2017
17:30 Zip & Zap and the Captain’s Island (Spain) – children
20:30 American Honey (UK)
A still from King of the Belgians.
May 7, 2017
17:30 King of the Belgians (Belgium)
20:30 Sweet Dreams (Italy)
May 12, 2017
17:30 Game of Checkers (Portugal)
20:30 The Queen of Ireland (Ireland)
May 13, 2017
17:30 Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (Austria)
20:30 The High Sun (Croatia)
May 14, 2017
17:30 Spoor (Poland)
20:30 Toni Erdmann (Germany) Don’t miss this one. Whacky, wild and thought-provoking.
Festival Director Katarina Hedrén, curator for the second time, says: “With this year’s selection, which includes films of different genres, textures and moods, the aim is to entertain, amuse and offer opportunities for reflection, new discoveries and recognition.
A mixed pot in terms of film themes
“The theme binding the films together is cinematic excellence through acclaimed and award-winning films from 12 European countries.”
From the Polish film Spoor.
The 2017 selection is a mixed pot in terms of film themes, which span from animal rights to family dynamics. Dramas and documentaries, comedies, tales of grief and a children’s adventure sit side by side on this eclectic program.
“The films are new, but the commitment remains the same: to offer audiences in South Africa an opportunity to experience acclaimed and award-winning European cinema,” adds Hedrén.
Each film reflects the skills and take on the world of film-makers who are not limited by national borders. And so, American Honey, an award-winning British-made road movie set in America’s mid-west, is as much a magical mystery tour into Americana as it is a coming-of-age drama, she says.
King of the Belgians is a comedic piece coming out of Belgium, which sees the Belgian king and his entourage crossing the Balkans in a madcap adventure, after learning of a coup back home. Acknowledged by the Rotterdam International Film Festival, this movie is a road trip with a difference, at once thoughtful, hilarious and wild.
Strike a Pose is a Dutch documentary exploration of “Madonna’s men”—the male dancers who served to consolidate the pop icon’s message and status as an outspoken advocate for LGBT-rights. This winner of a jury award at the Key West Film Festival is an unrelenting documentary which exposes new aspects of a well-known story.
From the German film Tony Erdmann.
Germany’s Toni Erdmann is the outlandish tale of how the passing of a family dog sets off a series of events with a major impact on a father-daughter relationship. Touted as an academy award winner for best foreign film in 2017, I saw the preview and found it funny, thoughtful, sexy, outlandish, real—and well worth watching.
Read a UK Guardian interview Pokot (Spoor) reflects divided nature of Polish society with three-times Oscar-nominated Polish film director (of Spoor), Agnieszka Holland, who has said her first foray into murder mystery had accidentally turned into an allegory of the divided society her native Poland has become under its populist nationalist government.
If you want help decided which films you want to link to, above, to learn more about, here is a brief summary of each of the 12 films that will be screened at the 2017 European Film Festival 2017 South Africa:
Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe (Austria), drama, directed by Maria Schrader and starring Tómas Lemarquis, Barbara Sukowa and Josef Hader. German, English, Portuguese, French and Spanish with English subtitles. 106min (2016).
King Of The Belgians (Belgium), comedy, directed by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth and starring Peter Van den Begin, Lucie Debay, Bruno Georis and Pieter van der Houwen. Flemish, French, English and Bulgarian with English subtitles. 94min (2016).
A still from Strike a Pose.
The High Sun (Croatia), drama, directed by Dalibor Matanic and starring Tihana Lazovic, Goran Markovic and Nives Ivankovic. Croatian with English subtitles. 123min (2015).
Things To Come (France), drama, directed by Mia Hansen-Love and starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon and Roman Kolinka. French, German and English with English subtitles. 102min (2016).
Toni Erdmann (Germany), drama, directed by Maren Ade and starring Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek and Michael Wittenborn. German with English subtitles. 162min (2016). Up for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.
The Queen Of Ireland (Ireland), documentary, directed by Conor Horgan and starring Declan Buckley, Phillip McMahon and Una Mullally. English. 86 min (2015).
Sweet Dreams (Italy), drama, directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Bérénice Bejo, Valerio Mastandrea and Fabrizio Gifuni. Italian with English subtitles. 134min (2016).
Strike A Pose (Netherlands), documentary, directed by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan and starring Luis Camacho, Oliver S. Crumes III, Salim Gauwloos, Jose Gutierez, Kevin Stea, Carlton Wilborn and Gabriel Trupin. English. 83min (2016).
Spoor (Poland), drama, directed by Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik and starring Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka, Wiktor Zborowski and Jakub Gierszal. Polish with English subtitles. 128min (2017).
Game Of Checkers (Portugal), drama, directed by Patrícia Sequeira and starring Ana Nave, Ana Padrão, Fátima Belo, Maria João Luís and Rita Blanco. Portuguese with English subtitles. 87min (2016).
Another still from Palka or Spoor, the Polish film.
Zip & Zap and the Captain’s Island (Spain), drama (children’s adventure), directed by Oskar Santos and starring Elena Anaya, Carolina Lapausa, Teo Planell, Tom Wilton, and Toni Gómez. Spanish with English subtitles. 105min: PG 8+ (2016).
American Honey (UK), drama, directed by Andrea Arnold and starring Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough. 163min: English (2016)
“European film-making has seen another year of highly creative output, and film-makers continue to produce works that challenge and uproot. We are happy that Festival Director Katarina Hedrén’s 2017 film selection has given even more variety to the European Film Festival,” says Norbert Spitz, Director of the Goethe-Institut, on behalf of the European partners.
How the festival came together
The European Film Festival is coordinated by the Goethe-Institut South Africa, hosted by Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau, and organised in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to South Africa and 12 other European cultural agencies or embassies in South Africa: the General Representation of the Government of Flanders, the French Institute, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Camões Institute, the British Council, and the Embassies of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. The European Film Festival is part of the EuropeFest, presenting in South Africa in May 2017 a diverse range of EU Member States cultural events.
Again, the Euro Film Fest website www.eurofilmfest.co.za
Connect with the festival on Twitter and Facebook: #EuroFilmFestSA.
Bookings are now open. Tickets are priced at R64. To book see www.cinemanouveau.co.za or www.sterkinekor.com.
See you at the movies.
