An 11-year-old boy is in search of his place in life and his identity. The boy, who lives in an abandoned riverboat, makes friends with a girl living in a house nearby. The encounter brings not only the first affection, but also leads to an important discovery - the message that you do not necessarily have to be alone in this world. This, in a nutshell, is the story of I Am, a 93-minute Polish film directed by noted contemporary Polish director Dorata Kedzierzawawska. These two films form just the tip of a brilliant array of diverse films from the European Union screened at a recent film festival in Kolkata.
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID) 2008, recognizes that Europe’s cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. It encourages people of Europe to explore the advantages of its rich cultural heritage and provides an opportunity to learn from different cultural traditions. One of the objectives of the Year is to establish intercultural dialogue within the European Union as a foundation through which intricate cultural environments can be accessed and dialogue with different cultures can be promoted. The 13th European Union Film Festival 2008 is a step in celebrating the diversity of European cultures, both in India and in Europe. The EU held its film festival in India from 1st to 30th April at the Habitat Centre. Delhi, National Film Archive of India, Pune, Tagore Centenary Hall, Calicut/Kozhikode, South Indian Film Chamber Theatre, Chennai and Nandan West Bengal Film Centre, Kolkata.
The films screened were On The Other Side Of The Bridge (Austria), Long Weekend Ultranova (Belgium), Honey and Wine (Cyprus), It’s Spring in Prague Every Year (Czech Republic), After the Wedding (Denmark), Golden Beach (Estonia), FC Venus (Finland), You and Me (France), Yella (Germany), Eighth Day of the Week (Hungary), Last of the High Kings (Ireland), Bye Bye Blackbird (Luxembourg), Waiter (Netherlands), I Am (Poland), Occident (Romania), Two Syllables Behind (Czech Republic), Short Circuit (Slovenia), Fiction (Spain), Kids In Da Hood (Sweden) and Stephen Fry:The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive (United Kingdom.)
The quality of films, made between the mid-1990s and 2006, were uneven though most of them offered strikingly original storylines and characters. But peeping from behind the glossy surface of brilliant technology and good acting are signs of decay in human relationships filled with dysfunctional families, broken relationships, deserting fathers, promiscuous mothers and caring grandmothers! FC Venus stood out for its touching blend of emotions, pathos, nostalgia and comedy, holding up the value of a united family against all odds. Short Circuit followed a strange blend of the narrative and the anti-narrative, spooling out several stories and bringing them sometimes to meet at some common ground. Two Syllables Behind turned out to be more confusing than lucid, showing life of a young Bratislavian girl running on a fast track where she finds it difficult to come to terms with the different pressures that pull her all the time. On the Other Side of the Bridge retold the real love story of the Chinese police cadet Du Chengrong (Ma Yunglong) and the Viennese teenager (Gertrude Wagner) Fanny Ebner who marry and live happily ever after in distant China bridging with their undying love for each other all differences of culture, language, geography, lifestyle and political victimization and torture.
It’s Spring In Prague Every Year (2005), from Czech Republic offers a fictional narrative to unspools the story of the preparations and that go into the performance of classical music at the Prague Spring Music Festival. Sex, faith, children, the poetry of ordinary things and the voices are the elements that form the narrative. Three segments in the film show three different thematically ordered works at the festival.
Yella (2006/2007) is a beautiful film that revolves around the part illusory and part real world of a single protagonist, Yella, whose marriage to an imbalanced and violent man stalks her so much that she is forced to leave town in search of a job outside Germany. The structure of the film is as intriguing as the content, the characterization and the journey of Yella, both introspective and physical, making for a brilliant film within its comparatively brief footage of 88 minutes. It is a German film directed by Christian Petzoid was among the few outstanding films at the fest.