The 21st Motovun Film Festival, taking place in the small town of Motovun in central Istria, is scheduled to kick off on Tuesday, July 24, and will feature screenings of more than a hundred films from all over the world during the four-day event.
The festival, which over the years has become the main summer event for lovers of contemporary indie cinema, will screen films from large cinematographies such as the US, France, and China, but will also include recent releases from smaller countries, including Montenegro, Switzerland, Columbia, Denmark, and Poland.
The films screened will include recent works by renowned film-makers such as Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, American Debra Granik, and Russia’s Kirill Serebrennikov, but also many other jewels made by lesser known film directors or even debutants.
One of these, Panic Attack, the debut film by Polish director Paweł Maślona, will open the festival on Tuesday. The film explores dramatic moments in the lives of several unlucky characters, distinguished by a unique combination of tragic and comic elements. Other highlights of the programme include a film about the recruitment into the Islamic State jihadist group (Profil), a stylised grotesque from France (The Wold Boys), and a Russian rock musical (Summer).
Three Croatian film features will also be screened, two of which have stirred considerable controversy in recent months – Srbenka, a documentary which had already won several international accolades, and Chris the Swiss, an animated documentary about a lesser known tragic episode of Croatia’s 1991-95 independence war that hasn’t been cleared up to this day.
Other than screenings, the festival will host a number of events which will be attended by renowned film-makers, including Swedish director Ruben Östlund, whose film The Square won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
The festival, will also hosts exhibitions, lectures and performances themed on the culture of the German capital Berlin, with appearances by many Berlin-based artists.
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