April 12 – 20, 2024

 

Tributes

Tribute Kawase/Szumowska/Hansen-Løve

Naomi Kawase

Female directors Νaomi Kawase, Małgorzata Szumowska and Mia Hansen-Løve have been awarded at numerous international festivals and are considered some of the most important female directors today. The success of their latest films, included in this year’s Viewfinder section, and the need to enhance the visibility of stories told by female filmmakers calls for a (re)discovery of their past work. Therefore, this year’s ‘tribute to a director’ is dedicated to contemporary female auteurs Kawase, Szumowska and Hansen-Løve.

Naomi Kawase was born in 1969, in Japan. In 1997, she became the youngest (aged 27) winner of the Camera d’Or at Festival de Cannes with her first feature Suzaku. Kawase became a Festival de Cannes favorite as she returned in 2003 with her third feature Shara and in 2007 ,with her 4th feature The Mourning Forest (2007), which received the Grand Prix and which will be screened at Cyprus Film Days this season. Kawase’s Hanezu (2011), Still the Water (2014) and An (2015) also premiered at Cannes.

The Mourning Forest (2007)

A caregiver at a small retirement home takes one of her patients for a drive to the country, but the two end up stranded in a forest where they embark on an exhausting, yet enlightening, two-day journey.

An (2015)

An old lady wants to get a job in her favorite canteen, giving the lonely owner the secret recipe for dorayaki, a traditional japanese pancakes stuffed with “an”, a cream made from red beans.

Małgorzata Szumowska

was born in Krakow in 1973. She made her feature film debut in 2000 with Happy Man, which was nominated for the European Discovery of the Year Award (European Film Awards). She won Silver Leopard at Locarno FF in 2008 with 33 Scenes from Life. Her films Stranger (2004) and Elles (2011), with Juliette Binoche, both screened in the Berlinale Panorama. In the Name of (2011) screened in Competition at Berlin IFF and won a Teddy Award. It was followed by Body (2015), which won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the same festival. We will be seeing both of these films at this year’s Cyprus Film Days.

In the Name of (2011)

Adam, a Catholic priest, who dedicates his life to helping teens with behavioural problems, embraces celibacy in order to fight his homosexual impulses. Soon he befriends a misfit adolescent who stirs feelings deep within him that are far too powerful to deny.

Vody (2015)

A poetic study on the human body, infused with black humor, and main protagonists a coroner, his anorexic daughter and a physiotherapist living in modern Poland.

Mia Hansen-Løve

Directed her first feature All is Forgiven at the age of 26, in 2007. The film was screened at the “Quinzaine des réalisateurs” at the Festival des Cannes and received the Louis-Delluc first film award. Her second film, Father of my Children, which we will be watching at Cyprus Film Days, screened at Festival des Cannes in 2009 in the “Un Certain Regard” section and won the Special Jury Prize. In 2010, Variety ranked Mia Hansen-Løve in the top ten international directors to know. Her third feature, Goodbye First Love, premiered at Locarno International Film Festival in 2011. Hansen-Løve’s fifth feature, Things to Come (2016) – also screening at CFD- won the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin IFF.

Father of my Children (2009)

Grégoire Canvel runs a well-respected independent film company and is torn between the demands of his family and his obsession with his career. Behind this dedication and busy work schedule, he hides a big secret.

Τhings to Come (2016)

Isabelle Hupert starred in the role of a philosophy teacher. Passionate about her work, married, with two children, she divides her time between her family, her students and her possessive mother. Until the day her husband tells her he’s leaving her for another woman.