The 12th EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL in SOUTH AFRICA is a cinematic journey in search of love, identity, family and belonging. Opening in South Africa on 09 October and running until 19 October, 10 contemporary European films reflect on the realities of Europe and its place in the world today. Their strong characters in unusual situations, carefully crafted stories and breath taking landscapes make these films a road trip for the heart and mind.
Live screenings take place at The Labia in Cape Town and The Bioscope and Nu Metro Hyde Park in Johannesburg. A curated selection of films will also be available for online streaming in Southern Africa at www.eurofilmfest.co.za.
The festival is brought to you by the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, and sponsored by the Delegation of the European Union, Cineuropa, and the Embassies and cultural institutes of Denmark, Flanders, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Follow the FESTIVAL on its website and Instagram for regular updates:
Website: www.eurofilmfest.co.za
Social media links:
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/EUFFSA
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/euffsa/
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfyfef3vke-pTxaBgPjRatw
Festival Film Highlights
In urban Denmark, A Perfectly Normal Family redefines love and understanding when Emma’s father, Thomas, announces that he wants to become Agnetha. Father and daughter fight to keep what they had while accepting that everything has changed (Denmark).
In Real Faces, Julia, an ambitious casting agent, relocates to Brussels after a breakup. Struggling to build a new life, she masks her insecurities behind a façade of success and happiness. She meets reclusive microbiologist Eliott and forms an unexpected, authentic friendship that inspires her to break free from societal expectations (Belgium/Flanders).
In Le Mohican, an unlikely hero, supported by his Corsican community, is on the run from the mafia and ruthless property developers who threaten to take his land. His resistance transforms him into a legend (France).
From German filmmaker Christian Petzold comes Miroirs #3, a haunting, character-driven exploration of loss, memory, and unexpected recovery when an accident survivor is taken in by a good Samaritan family (Germany).
Fuori, meaning “outside”, is written and directed by Mario Martone and about the controversial feminist writer Goliarda Sapienza. The story unfolds in the summer of the 1980s, following the writer’s imprisonment due to a bizarre and unexpected incident. In prison she forms an unusual and lasting bond with other inmates (Italy).
The North has been called “the best hiking movie to date”, and the power of its energy – feel the wind, touch the water and endure the frustration of setting up a tent in a storm – underlies the journey of “humans who need to reconnect with nature and themselves and grow through friendships”. The film takes place in the breath taking mountains of the Scottish Highlands (the Netherlands).
In Under the Volcano, a summer vacation in Tenerife turns to chaos when a Ukrainian family learns about the invasion of their country (Poland).
The film Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures explores a different type of travel, focussing on economic migrants and their fantasy of escaping their circumstances; it has been described as “a chilling exploration of modern servitude.” (Portugal).
The brothers, Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar, are part of the production team of Sirat, an unusual journey of a father and his son searching for his daughter through the remote southern Moroccan desert, with the soundtrack leading the way in this “odyssey between life and death.” (Spain).
In Unicorns, rising star Ben Hardy plays a mechanic and a single father who falls in love with a South Asian drag queen, in a film which reminds us of what it takes to transform and cross borders, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. The directors are Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd (the United Kingdom).