email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

FESTIVALS Canada / Europe

The Changing Face of Europe: EFP launches a showcase section at Hot Docs, Toronto

by 

- In collaboration with the Canadian event starting at the end of April, European Film Promotion will present a programme of ten new docs illustrating the current state of Europe

The Changing Face of Europe: EFP launches a showcase section at Hot Docs, Toronto
Braguino by Clément Cogitore

A new initiative announced last month is on its way to becoming a reality: this year, EFP - European Film Promotion is launching, in collaboration with Toronto's Hot Docs – Canadian International Documentary Festival (the 25th edition of which is set to take place from 26 April-6 May) and with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA, a programme entitled The Changing Face of Europe, showcasing ten new documentaries illustrating and examining the current cultural, geographic, economic and political factors affecting Europe today. The ten selected films have just been announced. 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

From a line-up of 36 submissions made by EFP member organisations, the organisers of North America's largest documentary festival, conference and market have accepted ten outstanding, creative works, representing 14 European countries. All of these documentaries will be personally introduced by their filmmakers and sometimes also accompanied by their producers. The programme, including one world, two international and four North American premieres, embraces a variety of topics.

Clément Cogitore's Braguino, a French-Finnish co-production submitted by UniFrance, is set in the vast loneliness of the Siberian taiga, whilst Melanie Andernach and Andreas Köhler's Global Family follows a family clan scattered around the globe after fleeing war-torn Somalia (submitted by German Films), and Heike Bachelier and Andy Heathcote's Of Fish and Foe observes Scottish salmon fishermen (British Council). 

Kiur Aarma and Raimo Joerand's Rodeo [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 retraces the first free Estonian election since World War II and its results (Estonian Film Institute). Simon Lereng Wilmont's Danish-Finnish-Swedish title The Distant Barking of Dogs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
tackles the effects of war on children through the story of an East Ukrainian boy (Danish Film Institute). 

The Czech Film Center is presenting two films: Petr Horký's The Russian Job, on a run-down automobile factory from the Soviet era which an experienced Swedish manager tries to bring back to prosperity, as well as Vít Klusák's portrait of a Czech Neo-Nazi at odds with his life, The White World According to Daliborek [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vít Klusák
film profile
]
Istituto Luce Cinecittà's entry, much lighter in tone and subject, is Diego Pascal Panarello's The Strange Sound of Happiness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
.

The selection is rounded off by two very personal stories broaching the subjects of cultural identity and new lifestyle concepts: Biljana Tutorov's When Pigs Come [+see also:
trailer
interview: Biljana Tutorov
film profile
]
, on the director's own grandmother's daily life in a small border town that was successively part of five different countries throughout her lifetime (Film Center Serbia), and Ilir Hasanaj's To Want, To Need, to Love, on a recently separated couple trying to find a way to work and live together by joining a performance art project travelling through Europe (Kosova Cinematography Center). 

The filmmakers selected to take part in The Changing Face of Europe will participate in an array of festival industry events, including workshops, pitches and meetings with potential buyers, which will enhance their professional development on an international scale and increase their films' access to the North American and international markets. Click here for more information on the selection for The Changing Face of Europe 2018.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy