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FESTIVALS Germany / Eastern Europe

goEast 2016 kicks off

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- Wiesbaden is ready to host the 16th edition of the German festival focusing on Central and Eastern European film

goEast 2016 kicks off
Death in Sarajevo by Danis Tanovic

The trailer for goEast, the German Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, promises energy and drive as the festival suits up for its 16th edition, which will liven up the cities of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt from 20-26 April. The catchcries for the important gathering this year, which plays host to some 400 professionals and 11,000 viewers each year, are exchange and freshness: dialogue and youth are at the core of this year’s selection, as well as the industry section and the instructional activities offered by goEast.

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The international competition will be opened by Berlinale laureate Death in Sarajevo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danis Tanovic
film profile
]
, an intense reflection on Europe by Danis Tanovic. Among the 16 feature films duking it out for the prizes on offer (ten fictions and six documentaries), there are some that are still steeped in Eastern Europe’s communist past, such as Laila Pakalnina’s Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Latvia/Poland/Estonia), Igor Drljaca’s The Waiting Room [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Canada/Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Marko Skop’s Eva Nová [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marko Škop
film profile
]
(Slovakia/Czech Republic). Others have bloodier themes, such as Agnieszka Smoczynska’s The Lure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile
]
(Poland), in which man-eating mermaids do their worst in some Warsaw nightclubs during the 1980s, as well as The Red Spider [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marcin Koszalka
film profile
]
(Poland/Czech Republic/Slovakia), Marcin Koszalka’s feature-film debut about a serial killer terrorising the streets of Krakow during the 1960s. Ukrainian films Song of Songs [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Eva Neymann and Ukrainian Sheriffs [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Roman Bondarchuk tell the tales of star-crossed lovers and the difficult job undertaken by two police officers, respectively. Romanian filmmaker Marian Crisan’s new film, Orizont [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marian Crisan
film profile
]
, tackles the theme of hoping for a better life, away from the hopelessness caused by corruption. And the blackness gets even darker in Czech director Petr Vaclav’s We Are Never Alone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Vaclav
film profile
]
and Slovakian filmmaker Palo Korec’s melange of documentary and fiction, Waiting Room, telling anonymous travellers’ stories. 

The Portrait section has been dedicated to Polish director Juliusz Machulski’s playful and vibrant films. As part of the Beyond Belonging section, audiences can go and see Radu Jude’s Aferim! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile
]
, Serbian filmmaker Ognjen Glovonić’s Depth Two [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Croatian director Ana Hušman’s Postcards, as well as older, predominantly Yugoslav, films. The Symposium section, which will hold conferences on the topic of crime films, in addition to screenings, should also be mentioned.

Alongside the screenings, goEast offers a wide range of industry and instructional activities. Young Filmmakers for Peace will bring together 14 young directors representing different warzones (either current or recent) in order to explore the situation of cinema during times of war and the possibilities for the medium to be used as an instrument of peace across a number of workshops, screenings and conferences. Meanwhile, the East-West Talent Lab will allow 30 producers and directors to learn about project development, funding applications and even how to look for a partnership with a television channel, all the while allowing them to promote their projects and network amongst themselves.

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(Translated from French)

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