14/05/2008

One of the most beautiful cities on the Adriatic coast has received a festival it deserves, besides the Split International Festival of New Films, which takes place in September. The Split Festival of Mediterranean Film will take place from May 27-31 and will present nine feature and five short films in competition.

Alongside well-known titles such as The Edge of Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatih Akin
interview: Klaus Maeck
film profile] (which will open the festival), The Secret of the Grain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile], The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Tale 52and The Orphanage [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the feature competition includes Lebanon's Nadine Labaki's Caramel [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Italian/German co-production Suddenly, Last Winter by Gustaf Hofer and Luca Ragazzi, French director Samuel Benchetrif's I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Algerian film La Maison Jaune [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Amor Hakkar.

The five shorts are Giganti by Fabio Mollo (Italy), Luca Governatori's Vita Di Giacomo (Italy/France), Nitbus by Juanjo Gimenez (Spain), Evgeny Ruman's A Piece of News (Israel) and Ioakim Mylonas' Pharmakon (Cyprus).

A special retrospective of eight Mediterranean-themed films will include Jean Vigo's A Propos De Nice (1930), German director Victor Janson's Die Korallenprinzessin (1937), Tewfik Saleh Dupes (Syria, 1972) and Jean Daniel Pollet's Mediterranee. The “youngest” film in this selection is UK filmmaker Isaac Julien's Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask from 1996.

"We chose the Mediterranean primarily because Split and Croatia belong to this region," says Alen Munitic, the festival director. "It's a region rich with history, culture and tradition and we believe it is often underestimated for no reason. Split is getting a festival that is unique to Croatia and that will be special in comparison with festivals that show films from all six continents."