MASTERFUL FILMS TACKLING BURNING ISSUES

A varied and daring line-up of films grappling with the major social and artistic concerns of our times makes up this year’s edition of Cyprus Film Days International Festival 2024.

The 22nd edition brings its expectant audience a film programme that creates a meaningful dialogue with spectators while elevating the viewing experience into an opportunity for social awareness and quality entertainment in a spirit of open-mindedness.

Five of the best-crafted, most talked-about films that struck a chord with international audiences will be screened out-of-competition in the Viewfinder section – A close up of Contemporary World Cinema.

These are:

• The last –by his own admission– film by the icon of political cinema, director Ken Loach, titled The Old Oak, about the last pub standing in a village of Northeastern England.
• Tokyo-made, Cannes-winning, Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, the new film by Wim Wenders, inspired by the beauty and dignity of the everyday.
• Green Border, the eye-opening new film by renowned director Agnieszka Holland that takes a plunge into the geopolitical aspects of the refugee crisis, winner of the Special Jury Prize in Venice.
• Afire, Christian Petzold’s elliptical, slow-burning tragicomedy that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale.
• A shrewd black comedy by iconoclast Radu Jude that enthralled audiences at the Chicago and Locarno Film Festivals: Do not Expect too Much from the End of the World.

A thoroughly chosen, diverse line-up of films that resonates with the cinematic tendencies of our times makes up the Glocal Images International Competition Section.

These are:

• A Strange Path (Brazil), a deeply personal family drama by Guto Parente that premiered in competition at Tribeca Film Festival.
• Sofia Exarchou’s gloomily realistic film, Animal (Greece, Austria, Romania, Cyprus, Bulgaria), which triumphed at Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
• Dreaming & Dying (Singapore, Indonesia), Nelson Yeo’s experimental fantasy drama that won the Pardo d’Oro for Best Feature Film at Locarno.
• Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah a Boy (Jordan, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) a fascinating drama of female emancipation, screened in the presence of the Jordanian director.
• 78 Days (Serbia), Emilija Gasic’s dynamic debut set against the backdrop of the 1999 NATO bombings of Serbia, which premiered at Rotterdam, to be screened in the presence of the director.
• The urgent, politically engaged drama by Palestinian British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi, The Teacher (UK, Palestine, Qatar), first screened at Toronto.
• Slow (Lithuania, Spain, Sweden), a romantic, Sundance-winning film by Marija Kavtaradze that challenges intimacy stereotypes.

Four distinct films by acclaimed Cypriot directors are featured in the Cypriot Films Competition Section which promises to be a highlight of this year’s edition. These films are also competing in the Glocal Images International Competition Section.

These are:

• Five Shilling Nylon, the last film by the late Christos Shopahas, set in 1940s Cyprus.
• The new film by acclaimed director Adonis Florides, Africa Star (Cyprus), a close-up of the lives of three Cypriot women from different generations.
• Detached House (Cyprus, Greece), Ioakim Mylonas’ debut feature, a satirical dark comedy based on the same-titled book by Dimitris Mitsotakis.
• Kyros Papavassiliou’s Embryo Larva Butterfly, a lyrical, existential film that confounds our sense of time (Cyprus, Greece).

This year’s CFD edition also features the section “Taste of Indie”, an ode to independent, micro-budget filmmaking, with two films:

These are:

• Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens (1982) that touches upon issues of female identity and self-reinvention, the first independent American film to compete at Cannes Film Festival.
• Jay and Mark Duplass’s Baghead (2008), a comedy horror film that defined the American mumblecore genre.

Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias (2023 – France, Palestine, Belgium, Qatar), a documentary tracing the story of four generations of Palestinian women, scheduled as a special screening at Zena Palace in Nicosia.

This year’s screening programme is also enriched with The Jury Presents section featuring three films drawn from the work of the Festival’s International Jury members.

Last, the Children and Youth section showcases five compelling films: The Apple Day (K) by Mahmoud Ghaffari (Iran), Adventures in the Land of Asha (K) by Sophie Farkas Bolla (Canada), Big Dreams (K) by Dan Pánek (Czech Republic), in the director’s presence, Nezouh (12+) by Soudade Kaadan (UK, Syria, France,  Qatar) and Searching (12+) by Anneesh Chaganty (USA, Russia). (All films for children and youth have been awarded the relevant classification (as anoted) pursuant to the Motion Picture Content Rating System Law of 2002.)

* The Festival’s detailed programme is posted on cyprusfilmdays.com.

General info about the festival:

• €5 per screening | €30 festival pass (for all screenings).
• Free for students upon display of student card.
• Free for children (Children and Youth Section).
• Free for holders of Disability Card.
• All films aside the Children and Youth Section are suitable for 18+.
• All films will be screened in their original language with English and Greek subtitles. Films of the National Competition Section will be screened with Turkish subtitles.

For more information: Rialto Theatre 77 77 77 45

www.cyprusfilmdays.com

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Organisers:
Deputy Ministry of Culture Department of Contemporary Culture, Rialto Theatre
Under the auspices of: Limassol Municipality & Nicosia Municipality

In partnership with: CIPA Film in Cyprus
Supported by: Institut Français de Chypre, German Embassy Nicosia
Technical Partner: Event Pro
Audience Award Sponsor: TFI Markets
Award Sponsors: Caretta Films, Authorwave, CYENS
Dot.on.the.Map Award Sponsor: P.S. Movies and Stories
Hospitality Sponsor: Mediterranean Hotel
Media Sponsors: CITY, CyBC
Dot.on.the.Map Industry Days Hospitality Sponsor: Alinea

Supporters:
Mall of Cyprus, K-Cineplex, LOEL, The Friends of Cinema Society (Nicosia), Limassol Cine Club, Larnaca-Famagusta Cinema Society, Directors Guild of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, University of Cyprus (Alumni Office), UCLAN, Dance House Lefkosia, Dance House Lemesos, Cyprus New Movement, EMEL Ltd-Limassol Buses, Cyprus Public Transport, Lemesos Newspaper, Limassol Today, Lemesos Blog, Vestnik Kipra, Limassol Tourism Board.