The second Friday of Black Nights is ablaze with several world premieres, international guests, films that shed light on environmental issues, and lots of other gems in competition and side programmes. Get the best start to your weekend here!
We all have people we look up to; idols, heroes. Maybe it's a celebrity, maybe it's your sibling, a friend, your mother. They say you should never meet your biggest heroes, for the magic will be lost. Then: what about being someone else's hero? And can you still be a hero, if the other does not want to be saved?
In today's selection, we encounter heroes, and other magnificent creatures. We get lost in labyrinths and deep in the woods. Read along, and check the full schedule for today here
16:30 | Coca-Cola iSense
19:30 | Virtual Hall
"Never meet your heroes" seems to be the best suited motto for Antoinette Jadaone’s latest film "Fan Girl", a powerful take on the adolescent obsession with on-screen idols that addresses a universal theme but firmly grounds it in the social reality of the Philippines and in particular in the world of Filipino romantic comedies.
Jane is a high-school student who lives with her mother and her abusive boyfriend. To escape the gloomy reality of her daily life she takes refuge in the glossy, romantic on-screen world of celebrity heartthrob Paulo Avelino – who plays himself in the film. One day, while attending an event she finds her way to the actor’s pick-up truck and manages to hide in it, excited and thrilled at the prospect of spending time with her idol.
Part of our Official Selection - Competition
17:45 | Artis 1
20:45 | Virtual Hall
In the Broumov region in the Czech Republic, the last wolf was eliminated two centuries ago. Its reintroduction, like elsewhere in Europe, triggers passionate debate between livestock farmers and environmentalists. Martin Páv planted his camera in the middle of this battlefield, on which is being played out the pacified coexistence of humans with this totem animal, a symbol of wild nature.
Part of our Environmental Film Programme.
19:30 | Coca-Cola Plaza 6
22:30 | Virtual Hall
A story about a newsstand in Paris, that has been in the same family for four generations already. A look at the world from the other side of the counter.
19:15 | Coca-Cola iSense + Q&A with Esko Rips
The film is set in Jutland during World War I. Kalle is a childminded boy whose simplicity is so obvious that he would hardly be expected to be invited to enlist in the army. But things go differently and Kalle is mobilised. His mother Erna cannot accept it: no one wants to send their child to war, particularly if you’re afraid that your son cannot cope in his bliss-ful innocence. Thus, Erna decides to follow his son to protect him.
Part of our Official Selection - Competition
21:00 | Coca-Cola Plaza 7 + Q&A with Rikke Tambo Andersen, Jonas Kærup Hjort, Joen Højerslev
A truly remarkable piece for those who have the courage to roam Kafkaesque labyrinths in the name of a cultural experience and who are not afraid of grotesquely pitch-black absurd humour.
In fulfilling his everyday duties, the most common of common communal clerks ends up in a huge building to check the water meter. That task turns out to be the last fragment of the man’s everyday routine – he is imprisoned in a house to escape from which he must chew his way through the toughest knots of human existence.
Part of our First Feature Competition
22:15 | Coca-Cola Plaza iSense
Life in Karataş village runs along an untroubled path, until its patriarchal way of life is challenged by Ulbolsyn, a woman whose coldblooded heart and blazing temperament are not afraid of setting everything on fire.
Ulbolsyn, enjoying the freedom of self-actualisation in the big city, has decided to also save her little sister Azhar who is still living in their home village and who is being married off to the local soothsayer to become his youngest wife. While trying to find a way out of the hopelessly closed circle, Ulbolsyn is not helped by the fact that Azhar herself does not wish to be rescued.
Part of our Official Selection - Competition