Over 50 features and 40 short films from 18 post-communist countries as well as a variety of complementary events are on the programme of the 7th edition of CinEast (www.cineast.lu), the Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, which kicks off tomorrow, Thursday 9 October, at the Neimënster cultural centre in Luxembourg with the screening of Maciej Pieprzyca’s Life Feels Good. The festival will run until 26 October.
Life Feels Good, also included in the festival’s competition programme, features a stunning performance by the Polish actor Dawid Ogrodnik in the role of a man suffering from cerebral palsy trying to prove to the world that he is a normal, intelligent human being. CinEast’s competition also includes Barbarians by Ivan Ikić, Land of Storms by Adám Császi, Quod Erat Demonstrandum by Andrei Gruzsniczki, The Tree by Sonja Prosenc, The Way Out by Petr Václav and Viktoria by Maya Vitkova.
The screening will be preceded by the official opening of the festival’s photography exhibition “So Far, So Close” (from 6 pm at Neimënster, see the catalogue here) showcasing over 220 works of 16 artists reflecting on the state of affairs of the reconciliation process between the “East” and the “West” a quarter of a century after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The exhibition forms part of the festival’s thematic cycle of the same name, which also includes a selection of related films as well as a debate.
The CinEast festival will present around 100 screenings, Q&A sessions with 25 guests (Sergei Loznitsa, Ulay, Igor Cobileanski, Ivan Ikić, etc.), a focus on Ukraine and the Balkan countries, culinary events, children’s programmes, special evenings, a co-production workshop as well as a charity project. Music lovers are in for a treat with concerts by the gypsy Balkan brass orchestra Fanfara Transilvania from Romania (11/10 at the club Melusina), Polish indie-rockers Kristen (16/10 at Exit07), Bulgarian jazz piano legend Milcho Leviev (17/10 at Neimënster) and Ukrainian electro-pop duo Zapaska (25/10 at Sang&Klang, Closing Event).
