Short, Shorter, Anarchic – The RheinMain Short Film Award and Anarcho Shorts at goEast  

The RheinMain Short Film Award is gearing up for its third edition at goEast. The  

competition, made possible with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain,  honours the best short film production here with prize money in the amount of 2,500 euros.  The winning film is chosen by a jury composed of directors of independent arthouse cinemas 

from the region. Film fans can expect a broad spectrum of short-duration entertainment  here, starting with intimate depictions of everyday life in HAVE YOU SEEN THAT MAN? (L-aţi văzut pe omul ăla?, Romania, 2019) and extending all the way to essayistic documentary  works like Julia Pelka's FAT KATHY (Gruba Kaśka, Poland, 2019), in which vigilant clams are  there to warn the inhabitants of Warsaw in the event that their water supply should become  contaminated. The characters in MAN (Latvia, 2020) and FIGURANT (Czech Republic, 2019) set off in search of meaning. In the latter, French actor Denis Lavant delivers a mesmerising  performance with that uniquely expressive face of his. The animated film MY GALACTIC  TWIN GALACTION (Russia, 2020), directed by Sasha Svirsky, is rather experimental fare,  whose crazy intergalactic storyline is set to a beat that has the potential to get stuck in your  head on repeat. Feminine film images feature heavily in SISTERS (Ukraine, 2019), URAL  (Germany, 2019) and BAD NIGHT STORY (Bajka na niespokojny sen, Poland, 2019), which  deal respectively with anti-feminism in Ukraine, the religious thoughts of a young girl  approaching her first communion and the guilty conscience of a Russian migrant whose  father was involved in Soviet nuclear testing. Following the festival in Wiesbaden, the short  film programme will once again head out on a tour of the region's independent cinemas. 

With its radical visions, from the AI-controlled rap music of TREMENDOUS CREAM (Russia,  2020) to a night watchman struggling to satisfy his Tetrisfix in NIGHT SHIFT (Latvia, 2019), the programme from Anarcho Shorts offers pretty much everything which has been off limits during the past months in lockdown. In HIGH-RISE (Russia, 2020), a Russian foreign  service employee attempts to disappear 20 kilos of cocaine but ends up unceremoniously  dusting a downtown neighbourhood with the white powder instead. MY FAT ARSE AND I  (Poland, 2020) takes a critical look at extreme ideals of beauty, which culminate in an  invitation to the kingdom of skinny posteriors. Animalistic realms beckon in the musical  rooster romp COCKPERA (Croatia, 2020), the parasitic tale of friendship LOVE IS JUST A  DEATH AWAY (Czech Republic, 2019) and BEST ANIMAL VIDEOS (Poland, 2019). In the latter,  a more-than-human swan with a nicotine addiction befriends a cat trying to make ends meet with raunchy Internet videos. 

Propulsive Balkan Beats  

Unfortunately, it is still too early for wild parties in our present Corona circumstances.  However, this year goEast intends to get out on the dance floor again, if only cinematically for now: Sergej Kreso's documentary film HERE WE MOVE, HERE WE GROOVE (Netherlands, 2020) will be our party stand-in, as we dive into the driving Balkan Beats of DJ Robert Šoko,  who has been combining electronic Balkan music with Western music influences since the  early 1990s. The film, an ode to the European cultural melting pot, accompanies Šoko, a  refugee from Yugoslavia in his youth, on a journey back to his roots starting off from Berlin,  where refugees from Syria and Afghanistan are still pursuing the same dream that transfixed  him long ago. On his way, the DJ collects new musical influences that he weaves into his  stirring sets. 

Experimental Film Master Class with Péter Lichter and Márió Z. Nemes 

Published in 2017, the Hungarofuturist Manifesto was a reaction to infringements on the  freedom of the press and attacks on the scientific community and civil initiatives under the  Hungarian FIDESZ administration led by Viktor Orbán. Poet Márió Z. Nemes, whose work  Barokk Femina serves as the basis for the eponymous experimental film by Péter Lichter, is  an active part of this art movement, which draws its inspiration from Afrofuturism. BAROKK  FEMINA (Hungary, 2020) is featured in the BIOSCOPE section this year at goEast. In the scope  of a master class, Lichter and Nemes will speak about their collaboration, independent  filmmaking in Hungary and the multi-layered, Dadaist approach to realising the film, which is  composed of material drawn from archival footage, news images, Hollywood cinema and  video games. 

You can find images related to the festival and festival programming in our download section. 

The full programme for the 21st edition of goEast – Festival of Central and European Film will  be announced in late March. 

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut &  Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are  HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, BHF BANK  Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, Renovabis and Deutsch Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter  Allgemeine Zeitung.