Bergamo Film Meeting 34, March 2026
By Alex Deleon, Bergamo, Italy
Beautiful small town.
No frills festival.
No red carpets, no hullabaloo.
Just terrific films all day long at two xlnt venues.
Everything centralized within short walking distance.
Mainly a public festival for a town full of film buffs.
In focus, retros of four film directors,
Full retrospective, Jancsò. focus on Meadows, Zbanić, Zelenka, and
Star festival guest, Anna Karina, princess of the French Nouvelle Vague.
Seen so far on first three days.
Four Jancsos. Four by Meadows Three by Zdanić. Many other revelations.
Great press conference in festival tent with Shane Meadows.
Most striking flixx so far:
Meadows; "This is England" 2006. Nearly anthropological study of Skinheads in Nottingham. Mind blower. Meadows is an unschooled film Auteur. Discovery.
"Island of Love" (Otok Ljubavi), by Jasmila Zdanić of Bosnia, in English. Love quadrangle amongst two women, one pregnant, and two men. All combinations imaginable, no holds barred. Serious social comedy. Teorema rides again at an Adriatic summer resort. Rousing. All new faces. Extremely sexy young Romanian actress.
Jancso's Historic documentary on Heroes Square, "Hösök tér" another eye opener.
Two classic Jancsos; Egi Bárány (Agnus Dei), 1970, and "Red Psalm", 1971 with lots of hussars on horseback, juicy naked women, and rousing folk dances. Everything you've always wanted to know about Jancsó, but were afraid to ask.
"Jajda"' Thirst -- highly off-beat five person drama on a yellow hilltop in Bulgaria in the midst of a severe drought, introduces precocious sixteen year old sexpot with hypnotic eyes. So weird it could win competition prize.
"Une Histoire Fou" -- Guerdiguian's 2015 take on the Aftermath of the Armenian genocide two generations later in France.
Opening b/w sequence showing the assassination of Turkish genocide author, Talat Pasha, and subsequent trial of Armenian avenger Soghomon Telijian in German court, is a complete film on its own ....
And the amazing hits keep rolling -- if we can only get enough sleep!
English untrained Grunge Auteur Shane Meadows with son and remarkable Italian interpreter Anna Ribotta after Meadows press conference. He spoke volumes and she didn't miss a beat
