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Guests at the 35th Filmfest Dresden
Numerous film guests have announced their intention to attend the 35th edition of Filmfest Dresden: From the International Competition, the Columbian director Jorge Cadena is coming to Dresden and presenting his film FLORES DEL OTRO PATIO (International Competition 1). From the International Competition 3, among others, the festival is welcoming the director Mo Harawe, who comes from Mogadishu, with his film WILL MY PARENTS COME TO SEE ME (2022 German Short Film Award, etc.). In addition, Mo Harawe has curated the RIPPLE EFFECT programme in this year’s EXIT HAPPYLAND antiracism thematic focus. The filmmaker Suchana Saha is travelling from India and presenting DEAR ME, her animation work painted on glass. In the National Competition, guests are expected for each film being screened, including the animation director Anne Isensee, whose new film INTRO is opening the National Competition. Isensee has already been represented numerous times at Filmfest Dresden, such as in 2021 with DUE TO LEGAL REASONS THIS FILM IS CALLED BREAKING BERT. Likewise in the Central German Competition, which on the occasion of the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) funding body’s 25th anniversary is being celebrated in partnership with MDM regional film productions, filmmakers from the eight works being screened are expected to attend this year. These include Julius Gintaras Blum (CHEMKIDS) or the members of Kolektiw Klanki (MRÓČELE), the first all-female Sorbian rap group.
Also in the special programmes, numerous international guests plan to attend to festival. The French director Yann Gonzalez, to whom this year’s tribute is dedicated, is personally presenting a short film programme, as well as the multi award-winning queer horror feature film KNIFE+HEART.
For the anniversary programme honouring the Dutch father-son directing duo Paul and Menno de Nooijer – who have been close friends and companions of Filmfest Dresden for 20 20 years – Menno de Nooijer is travelling to Dresden and will be present at the screenings of the ANIMATED 2 – WE’LL MEET AGAIN, DON’T KNOW WHERE, DON’T KNOW WHEN programme.
From the “Cinema Digestif” late night specials, among others, the festival is welcoming Nadia Denton from Great Britain who has curated the BEYOND NOLLYWOOD – WHEN SAND ENTER GARRI programme and who is also participating in the discussion on the EXIT HAPPYLAND thematic focus (Friday, 21.04. 18.30, Hole of Fame).
The artist and filmmaker Maryam Tafakory, who comes from Iran and now lives in Great Britain, is presenting the EXIT HAPPYLAND – FROM ANYWHERE programme that she curated, and she will speak, among others, with the director Niki Kohandel about her film THE SPARROW IS FREE.
On Saturday, 22 April (16.00), Filmfest Dresden is welcoming the writer and former Saxon State Representative for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, Lutz Rathenow, to whom an homage is dedicated this year. The documentary THE FIST CIRCLES FONDLY – FILM JOURNAL WITH LUTZ RATHENOW, AUTHOR, EAST BERLIN (West Germany, 1990) from Hilde Bechert and Klaus Dexel, who is also attending the event, is being screened at the festival.
For this year’s retrospective THE SWEET WORD FREEDOM (Thursday, 20.04., 20.00, Lingnerschloss & Saturday, 22.04., 20.00, Schauburg) in honour of the Lithuanian underground director Artūras Barysas, the curator Dr. Claus Löser is welcoming the film restorer Lijana Siuchina and the British music producer David Ellis, as well as the artist’s son Vytis Barysas to Dresden. The retrospective comprises 16 short films shot between 1971 and 1982, which were recently rediscovered in Lithuania, then restored and had new soundtracks added to them. They will now be presented for the first time ever here in Germany at Filmfest Dresden.
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