CEFURS RAUS!
Goran Vojnović | Slovenia, Croatia 2013 | 100 min
International première
The high-rise district of Fužine at the gates of Ljubljana is mainly inhabited by “Chefuri” – once fellow countrymen from the south of former Yugoslavia, who are now branded as “foreigners”. Marko, Adi, Aco and Dejan defy this stigma with a zest for life and by playing it big. But soon conflicts arise.
GEOGRAF GLOBUS PROPIL – THE GEOGRAPHER DRANK HIS GLOBE AWAY
Aleksandr Veledinsky | Russia 2013 | 120 min
German première
Quirky Viktor comes to terms with post-Soviet society and his new job as a geography teacher but only with a slug of alcohol. He is at daggers drawn with his pupils, yet he manages to cope with all challenges – more or less successfully.
LA LIMITA DE JOS A CERULUI – THE UNSAVED
Igor Cobileanski | Romania, Moldova 2012 | 80 min
German première
A small, remote town in the Republic of Moldova. Viorel is in his early twenties and without great ambitions. He accepts a job in a canteen only because his mother would otherwise throw him out. When he falls in love with Maria, he is finally energized – but his decisions have serious consequences.
LYUBY MENE – LOVE ME
Maryna Er-Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er | Ukraine, Turkey 2013 | 90 min
European première
Rather involuntarily, Cemal travels with his Turkish friends as a sex tourist to Kiev. In a bar he meets Sasha, who is disappointed with her married lover. Despite language barriers, they get to know each other closer and fall in love. But reality soon catches up with them.
MAJOR – THE MAJOR
Yury Bykov | Russia 2013 | 99 min
German première
The police major Sobolev is on his way to the hospital, his wife is in labour. The road is icy, he accelerates – and hits a boy. Sobolev has to decide whether he should confess or take advantage of his position. The only Russian contribution to one of the competitions in Cannes in 2013.
ODUMIRANJE – WITHERING
Miloš Pušic | Serbia, Switzerland 2013 | 109 min
German première
After many years, Janko returns to his half-deserted Serbian hometown. His mother hopes he will stay and start a family – but Janko has only come to buy the land he inherited from his father and on which his grave lies. A gripping family story with stirring images.
PAPUSZA
Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze | Poland 2013 | 131 min
German première
Poland at the beginning of the 20th century: The Roma girl Papusza secretly learns to read and write. When the writer Jerzy Ficowski publishes her poems years later, she becomes famous overnight. But Papusza has to pay a high price for her fame. The tragic life story of Bronisława Wajs in beguiling black-and-white pictures.
ROXANNE
Vali Hotea | Romania, Hungary 2013 | 98 min
German première
Tavi is in his late thirties and lives in Bucharest. When he takes a look into his secret service file, he finds out that his former girlfriend Roxanne was expecting a child – twenty years ago after they had just separated. Is he the father of her son? A realistic staging of how politics influence the private sphere.
SVECENIKOVA DJECA – THE PRIEST´S CHILDREN
Vinko Brešan | Croatia, Serbia 2013 | 91 min
German première
Tragicomic story of a priest who wants to increase the birth rate in his parish. Vitamin placebos instead of oral contraceptives, condoms with holes – but nothing works as planned. The director Vinko Brešan won the main prize in Cottbus in 1997.
ZA ONE KOJI NE MOGU DA GOVORE – FOR THOSE WHO CAN TELL NO TALES
Jasmila Žbanic | Bosnia-Herzegovina 2013 | 82 min
German première
During her holidays in Bosnia, an Australian tourist ends up in the small town of Visegrad, where Ivo Andric’s novel The Bridge on the Drina is set. She makes a horrible discovery and gets on the tracks of an act of violence committed during the war. A disturbing thriller on the suppression of the past.
ZÁZRAK – MIRACLE
Juraj Lehotský | Slovakia, Czech Republic 2013 | 78 min
German première
For Ela, aged 15, freedom appears to hold even less prospects than the children’s home which she was brought to by her mother: She is surrounded by drugs, crime and human trafficking, but doesn’t give up. Employing a documentary aesthetic, the film accompanies a young girl growing up under adverse conditions.
List of films in the Short Feature Competition:
CLAUDIU SI CRAPII – CLAUDIU AND THE FISH
Andrei Tanase | Romania, Germany 2013 | 16 min
German première
In the midst of a large, German-style shopping mall in Romania, a kind-hearted fellow has a job selling fish and makes an effort to come to terms. But the unexpected cough of a carp has him pluck up his courage to change things. A well-played gambit with ironic moments.
COLECTIA DE AROME – THE FLAVORS COLLECTION
Igor Cobileanski | Moldova, Romania 2013 | 15 min
International première
“If Bruce Lee fought against Tyson – who do you think would win?” cute little Victor asks his father. With his round glasses, the twelve-year-old doesn’t make the impression of a fighter; his friend Dima, on the other hand, looks pretty much worse for wear. He lends Victor his sport shoes, which he currently has no use for with a broken arm and neck brace.
HOMO CIRIS
Jana Mináriková | Slovakia 2013 | 23 min
German première
A vault, cool neon light, drooping wires, engines attached to tubs and an older man wearing tracksuit trousers and worn-out shoes. He snatches a pot and walks to the hall, where bubbling and gurgling can be heard. He murmurs Latin names, looks through glass panes and scatters fish food into the tanks. He talks to the fish, calms them down and observes them – the rainbow-coloured play of fins, scales and bulgy eyes. An enjoyable modern fairy tale.
JYMJYRT – SILENCE
Nargiza Mamatkulova | Kyrgyzstan 2012 | 15 min
German première
A snow-covered village. Grandmother and grandchild sit together on the carpet watching television. They live simply and in harmony, but everything begins to totter when the landlady comes to collect the rent. No money? Aren’t her children sending any money from Moscow? Then she at least wants the TV. But the boy is against that. And he knows a trick…
KISOBRAN – UMBRELLA
Jure Pavlovic | Croatia 2012 | 18 min
German première
Tea appears unexpectedly in the early morning in front of Ivan’s door. Why? She forgot her sister’s umbrella. It was a long evening and it’s been ages since she was so drunk. Should she stay for a beer? Smoke another cigarette on the balcony? She hesitates and hopes.
NORMA ZHIZNI – THE NOEM OF LIFE
Evgeny Byalo | Russia 2013 | 22 min
German première
Remember when you were young, sneaking back home on a summer afternoon. Add the constriction of a flat in a prefabricated building with yellowed wallpaper and your idols on the wall: Sometimes young people have to grow up abruptly and in the very next moment act accordingly.
PRAGOVI – THRESHOLDS
Dijana Mladenovic | Croatia 2013 | 13 min
German première
A house in Croatia in 1933. While cooking, a man hears Croatian soldiers breaking into the flat next door and searching for weapons. Through the peephole he sees his wife come home and confront the soldiers...
PSUBRAT – BROTHER DOG
Maria Zbaska | Poland 2013 | 30 min
International première
Christmas time – a special season. Everyone is straining their purses and letting off steam on their loved ones. “Married... with Children” in Polish, told from the perspective of the younger of two brothers who comes up with apt words for this life cycle of dramas and feasts. Hanging around together in a prefabricated tenement building, the first love, violence – rounded off with video-clip-like moments to catch one’s breath.
PROBLEME DE FAMILIE –- FAMILY ISSUES
Ruxandra Ghitescu | Romania, Germany 2012 | 14 min
International première
It’s a Saturday, 6:40 am. Laura is not in her room. When her father calls her on the phone, an argument begins that Laura is sorry for in the end, because she does love her father. And he loves her. Only the father’s girlfriend suspects the reason for the dilemma. A sensitive snapshot of a patchwork family.
TITQOS AQ IKO ZGVA – AS IF THERE WAS A SEA
Levan Sikharulidze | Georgia 2012 | 13 min
German première
Summer. Heat. The relaxing sound of waves hitting the beach, the honk of a ship’s horn. A young woman has dozed off while reading on her red-and-white-striped sun lounger. The sea is far away and one only wears diving goggles here when peeling onions. What can you do if you live in a container in the middle of nowhere, with long freight trains the only things around?
