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Jakarta Post

Europe on Screen is back with refreshing lineup

With 50 films from 31 European countries, this year’s Europe on Screen film festival offers a treat for people of all ages

Iwan Setiawan (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, November 25, 2012

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Europe on Screen is back with refreshing lineup

W

ith 50 films from 31 European countries, this year’s Europe on Screen film festival offers a treat for people of all ages.

First held in 1990 and the second one held nine years later, the European Film Festival has been held annually in Indonesia since 2003 under the banner “Europe on Screen” (EOS).

A popular fixture, this year’s program is even more colorful and varied, showcasing themes such as love, family, rejection and hatred, crossing cultural boundaries.

Dutch filmmaker Orlow Seunke, who revived the Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest) back in 2004-2007, has taken the role of festival director, replacing Lulu Ratna, who ended her term last year.

Under Seunke, JiFFest’s audience grew from 9,000 to 63,000, successfully convincing the EU Delegation and member states that he could work his “magic” with EOS.

“In Europe, we make as many films as in the United States. Yet, European films have a bad image. People think the films have ‘no ending’ or ‘an open ending’ or are ‘heavy’ or there is ‘lots of talking’,” he said in his speech where he thanked the member states for trusting him with the festival’s film selection this year.

“It is the task of Europe on Screen to change that image. Films from Europe are entertaining.”

Seunke, on the advice of Rudy Tjio, who also consulted with him on his film selections in JiFFest, divided the films into three sections: Xtra, Discovery and Docu.

The Xtra section is filled with high profile films such as box-office hits Rare Exports, award winning films Amour; The Kid with a Bike and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and many more.

The Discovery section showcases interestingly themed films from European countries whose film productions are almost unheard of in Indonesia despite their acknowledgement at many international film festivals.

Some of these films include Fish n’ Chips from Cyprus, Erratum from Poland and Punk’s Not Dead from Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Docu section naturally comprises documentaries. Through this section, the film programmers intend to prove that documentaries can be as entertaining as fictional films.

Some of these films are El Bulli — which follows the chef of a 3-star restaurant for an entire year; Garbo: The Spy — about the double agent who fooled the Nazis during World War II into believing that the D-day invasion would take place in Calais and not in Normandy; and Vera 68 – following the dramatic ups and downs in the life of the queen of 1960s gymnastics from Czech Republic.

EOS 2012, which will take place in Jakarta from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, will open with French film Rust and Bone and conclude with Dutch film, The Heineken Kidnapping.

Other than the film screenings in six different venues around Central and South Jakarta — Erasmus Huis, GoetheHaus, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, IFI Salemba, Kineforum and Blitzmegaplex at Grand Indonesia — there are also some extra activities planned in-between screenings.

The sideline events include a Q&A session with directors of Meet the Fokkens, a discussion about film distribution, a film analysis session in cooperation with SAE Institute Jakarta and a camera workshop by Canon.

The other highlight of this year’s festival is the Short Film Competition, exclusively for Indonesian (short) filmmakers.

From 157 entrees, 10 finalist films will be screened during the festival. At the end of the festival, a panel of international judges — Mark A. Kneer from Germany, Peter Aquilina of the UK and Rudy Tjio of Germany — will select two winners.

Festival highlights

This Must Be the Place (2011/Italy: 118 min).
Director: Paolo Sorrentino. Cast: Sean Penn, Frances McDormand.

50 year old retired goth rocker Cheyenne travels from London to NY to visit his dying father. He then journeys across the United States to seek revenge against an ex-Nazi war criminal who persecuted his father in Auschwitz.

Fish n’ Chips (2011/Cyprus: 102 min)
Director: Elias Demetriou. Cast: Marios Ioannou, Marlene Kaminsky.

Andy, a hard working Cypriot immigrant in London, decided to take his fiancée and his mother back to his home country, Cyprus, thinking that he can have a better future there. A personal tale of the director who has British, Greek and Cypriot citizenship, which explores issues of immigration, identity, and complicated national loyalties.

Volcano (2011/Iceland: 95 min)

Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson. Cast: Theodór Júlíusson, Margrét Helga Jóhannsdóttir.

Hannes is estranged from his family, has hardly any friends and his relationship with his wife has faded. Volcano is a love story about someone who has to deal with the choices of the past and the difficulties of the present in order to face the future.

Garbo: The Spy (2009/Spain: 88 min)

Director: Edmon Roach.

This is a film about the spy, Juan Pujol Garcia (code name: Garbo), a self-made double agent during World War II, who fed false information to the Nazis and fabricated a network of phantom agents across Europe.

Vera 68 (2012/Czech Republic: 100 min)
Director: Olga Sommerová.

Vera Cáslavská was the recipient of 7 gold and 4 silver Olympic medals in the 60s. This film presents the dramatic story of the many ups and downs in the life of this brave woman with a personality strong enough to conquer anything.

Short Film Competition Finalists (Indonesia: 97 min)

Bunglon (Dir. Angkasa Ramadhan), Ci Luck Ba (Dir. Satria Adiyasa), Jumprit Singit (Dir. Mahesa Desaga), Keripik Sukun Mbok Darmi (Dir. Heri Kurniawan), Merindu Mantan (Dir. Andri Cung), Missing (Dir. Pinkan Veronique), Moriendo (Dir. Andrey Pratama), Payung Merah (Dir. Andri Cung & Edward Gunawan), Senyawa (Dir. Raphael Wregas Bhanuteja) and Wan An (Dir. Yandy Laurens)

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