Director Bohdan Sláma and producer Pavel Strnad will present their film Four Suns (Čtyři slunce) as the opening film of the prestigious 12th goEast international film festival in Wiesbaden, Germany. Four Suns will contend for the title of Best Film and €10,000 in the main competition. The goEast festival, which focuses on the cinematography of Central and Eastern Europe, begins tomorrow (April 18) and will screen five Czech films in its competition and non-competition sections. Among the festival’s symposiums and workshops is a masterclass by FAMU dean Pavel Jech on the topic of dramaturgy and development of film projects. This year’s selection of Czech films follows last year’s successful Jan Švankmajer retrospective. Apart from Four Suns, the audience can also look forward to a personal visit from Šimon Špidla and the presentation of his debut film, Into Oblivion (Mrtvá trať), in documentary competition. The film tells the story of the construction of a railway during the Stalin regime. Some 80,000 people, mainly prisoners from the gulag, worked intensively on the railway for four years. Many of them died of exhaustion and disease on the taiga. Eventually, after Stalin’s death, the railway was abandoned and returned to wilderness. Director Václav Havel’s film debut, Leaving (Odcházení), has become popular in the Czech Republic and will be presented in the Highlights bloc of successful audience films. In the Specials selection, children can look forward to Jan Svěrák’s popular film Kooky (Kuky se vrací). Otakar Vávra’s film Witchhammer (Kladivo na čarodějnice will be presented in the same selection as a memorial tribute to the director. Contemporary Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa will be the subject of a retrospective Portrait. An established documentary-maker Loznitsa made his feature debut two years with My Joy (Schastye moe). Among the festival’s accompanying programmes for professionals is the Young Professionals section. Pavel Jech, dean of Prague’s FAMU, will lead a lecture on communication processes between the screenwriter and dramaturg entitled Development Heaven. This year’s festival is also paying special tribute to contemporary Georgian cinematography, a film festival in Zagreb, and the Slovenian Cinematéca. The 12th goEast festival takes place April 18–24, 2012 in Wiesbaden, Germany. You can find more information about the festival at www.filmfestival-goeast.de.