It’s December 21^st, the shortest day of the year. We’re eager to present you 21 short films selected for Competition programme of Kustendorf 2019:

All Inclusive, Corina Schwingruber Ilić, Switzerland

All These Creatures, Charles Williams, Australia

Autumn Waltz, Ognjen Petković, Serbia, USA

Being More Like Bagsy, Mikkel Storm Glomstein, Norway

Costacurta, Saša Karanović, Republic of Srpska

Elizabeth, Wojciech Klimala, Poland

Five Minutes to Sea, Natalia Mirzoyan, Russia

Hasta Siempre, Comandante, Faisal Attrache, Spain/Cuba/Syria

How to Swim, Noa Gusakov, Israel

I’ve Got Something For You Too, Iwo Kondefer, Poland

Kapital, Ivan Perekatov, Russia

Manila is Full of Men Named Boy, Andrew Stephen Lee, Philippines/USA

Mitosis, Halit Ruhat Yildiz, Germany

Satan, Carlos Tapia González, Switzerland

Slaughter, Saman Hosseinpour, Ako Zandkarimi, Iran

The Last Tale about Earth, Magdalena Seweryn, Igor Polaniewicz, Poland

The Divine Way, Ilaria Di Carlo, Germany

The Fold of the Cowards, Xabier Alconero, Spain

The Monk, Zharko Ivanov, Macedonia

Titanyum, Gökçe Erdem, Turkey/Canada

To Hell with Marie, Leopold Dewolf, USA, France

 

The Competition Programme of 12^th Kustendorf consists of 15 fiction films, 3 documentaries, 2 animated and one experimental short film. We wish to take the opportunity to thank all the authors who submitted their work. After seeing 718 short films from around the globe, we can conclude that it was a great year in the world of shorts, and that we could have screened even more films if we had more festival nights on our hands.

The festival will take place between Friday 11 January and Wednesday 16 January 2019.

On the last day of the Festival, the screening of the documentary film No gods, No Masters, A History of Anarchism by the French documentarian Tancrede Ramonet was followed by a workshop with the director.

Originally a philosopher, Ramonet approaches documentary filmmaking as a continuation of his philosophical research, so he perceives this history of anarchism as a practical contribution to the tradition of anarchist thought. I wanted to do propaganda by deed, but I do not have it in me, so this is my propaganda by deed, Ramonet said about his film.

The history of anarchism to this day remains hidden and unknown. Some events are known and historically researched, but the whole story of anarchist movements, from Proudhon to date, does not exist. So Ramonet’s film, which took him five years to research, is both a significant contribution to historiography and a significant document of anarchism.

The audience in Mećavnik could see how anarchism developed from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, to the suppression of major uprisings at the start of World War II. Ramonet also made the third part of the film, which follows events since the end of the World War II to date. But, the financial support for development was cut and the third part, which he managed to finish, was stopped. Anarchism seems to be acceptable only when it’s folklore, only when it’s in the past, Ramonet concludes, admitting this is a form of censorship of his project.

Censorship, the director claims, only confirms that anarchism is still current and problematic, which again proves that our time is very similar to the time of major social upheavals from the late nineteenth century, and that the story of anarchism is more necessary than ever.

The closing ceremony of the 11th International Film and Music Festival Küstendorf was also the award ceremony of the Competition Programme.

The winner of this year’s Vilko Filač award for best cinematography is Piotr Pawlus for the film It’s Really Awesome. István Borbás gave the award, emphasizing the significance of photography and comparing it to building bridges between light and shadow, directing and acting, calling Vilko Filač a great bridge builder, whose presence is felt in every shot he took.

The ceremony continued with special and main awards.

Since all stories are told, it is always good to see one retold in a new way, in a new geography, said a member of this year’s Jury, Peca Popović, and handed the first special jury award to the film Chanel by Humberto Vallejo. The second special jury award went to the film Merry-go-round by Ruslan Bratov. The Jury said that this film re-plays a known cinematic theme about masculine mindlessness in an irresistible and very humorous way.

Bronze Egg was given by professor Serge Regourd to the film Lumpen by Nikola Vičinić. Regourd emphasized that the film talks about the reality of a global market which reduces the life of a good worker to insignificance.

Silver Egg went to the film Fifteen by Sameh Alaa. Vlastimir Sudar presented this award, pointing out that this is a film that shows how in the world of grown-ups, one child takes responsibility of an uncertain future.

The main award, the Golden Egg, was given to the film which in a sensitive way witnesses a lust for life in a politically complex world, film Bomboné directed by Rakan Mayasi. The award was presented to the Palestinian director by Peca Popović.

On the fifth day of the Festival, Directions by the Bulgarian director Stefan Komandarev premiered in Serbia. After the screening, the director held a workshop for the participants and guests.

Bulgarian nominee for the Oscars twice alreday, Komandarev is a director who insists on the poetry of migration and transition, which he feels as the central problems of his country, common to most countries of Eastern Europe. Directions is a film that could easily be placed in Serbia, Romania or Bosnia, which makes it socially universal, recognizable and significant for an entire region.

As with films The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (2008) and The Judgement (2014), Directions too are obsessed with the transition crisis and migrations to the countries of Western Europe. While the previous two films depicted the lives of Bulgarians who moved to the West and migrants passing through Bulgaria on their way to the West, it is now about the life of Bulgarian cabbies, who Komandarev uses as representatives of the entire Bulgarian society.

Bulgaria is a country of optimists, Komndarev quoted one of his characters, because pessimists and realists have already left. This joke is the essence of Komandarev’s sense of life and the mood of his films. No matter how hard and rough his image of the society is, the director does not shun humor or hope.

I made this film for my children, because I am worried about the world they live in, Komandarev concluded and added, in the style of the jokes about pessimists, that there was still hope.

Bulgaria’s film premiere is yet to happen, but the director shared the story of the film’s test screening shown only for taxi drivers from the Bulgarian capital. About 250 taxi drivers saw the film, says Komandarev, and accepted it as the truth about themselves. For him, this was the ultimate test for the film and the confirmation of the optimism he chooses to stick to.

On the fifth day of Küstendorf, professor Emir Kusturica officially opened the exhibition dedicated to the work of production designer Miljen Kreka Kljaković.

Kljaković, with four decades of experience in the field, has worked on films such as Special Education, How I Was Systematically Destroyed by an Idiot, The Elusive Summer of ’68, Caught in the Throat, Taiwan Canasta, Petria’s Wreath, Saint George Slays the Dragon, Muhammad: The Messenger of God. He rose to world fame with Delicatessen, a film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet awarded with Cesar and Felix. Kljaković worked with professor Kusturica on Time of the Gypsies, Underground and Arizona Dream.

Opening the exhibition, Kusturica referred to Kreka as a complete author, who follows not only the director’s vision, but also his own unique path. Professor Kusturica added that the visitors can see the work of a devout craftsman and an exceptional artist, whose presence made Underground what it is.

The exhibition consists of original sketches and photographs of the built sets. Among the exhibits is Kljaković’s work on the film Muhammad by Majid Majidi, the largest project of his career so far in terms of space ‒ a replica of the medieval Mecca, Byzantine monastery Bosra and several interiors, spanning 120.000 square meters.