Competition Programme – Feature Film

"Here we go with the line-up of the anniversary edition! 10 years since the Sarajevo Film Festival decided to introduce the Competition Programme as a programme entirely dedicated to the promotion of cinema and talent from South East Europe. Many things have changed in the meantime, the industry has consolidated into a powerful and potential force and the films from this part of the world have gained recognition. South East Europe has become a very potential market and a surprising platform for co-productions and collaborations. "

Elma Tataragić,
Selector
(Read more here!)

WORLD PREMIERE


CROSSING BOUNDARIES / GRENZGÄNGER
Austria, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 90 min.
Director and screenplay: Florian Flicker
Uloge: Andrea Wenzl, Andreas Lust, Stefan Pohl

A woman - two men: her husband wants her to flirt with the other man to distract him from finding out about the couple’s activities as people smugglers. The other man wants to flirt with the woman to get some evidence about the illegal things they do. They fall in love - the woman, being manipulated by both men, finally chooses the only possible way out...

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES


PRESENT TENSE / SIMDIKI ZAMAN                            
(FIRST FEATURE)
Turkey, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 110 min.
Director: Belmin Söylemez
Screenplay: Belmin Söylemez, Haşmet Topaloğlu
Cast: Sanem Öge, Şenay Aydin, Ozan Bilen, Suat Oktan, Nesrin Yildirim, Erdi Kement, Mesut Yilmaz

A young,  unemployed woman applies to a fortune-telling café lying that she has experience.  While she reads the coffee cups of many different women, she also tries to find a way out herself. She is surrounded with troubles and her mind is made up: she will escape to America like her rebellious aunt did some years ago. But how? She needs money, papers and a visa. Through the shapes emerging in coffee cups, she expresses her own frustrations and desires to match with those of the customers. Will she be able to get away from present tense and try her luck for the future?


REDEMPTION STREET / USTANIČKA ULICA
(FIRST FEATURE)
Serbia, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 97 min.
Director: Miroslav Terzić
Screenplay: Đorđe Milosavljević, Nikola Pejaković
Cast: Gordan Kičić, Uliks Fehmiu, Rade Šerbedžija, Petar Božović, Predrag Ejdus, Jelena Đokić, Milica Mihajlović

Dušan, a young deputy war crimes prosecutor, is given the task to investigate a paramilitary formation, the First Pioneer's unit, that was operating on the battlefields in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, where they disappeared without a trace. Dušan is determined to bring the case to an end and to show his father, a famous retired professor at the law faculty, but to his boss too, that he is capable for this job. This becomes for Dušan much more than a simple case – it becomes a personal confrontation.

REGIONAL PREMIERES


BEYOND THE HILL / TEPENIN ARDI
(FIRST FEATURE)
Turkey, Greece, 2012, DCP, Colour, 94 min.
Director and screenplay: Emin Alper
Cast: Tamer Levent, Reha Özcan, Mehmet Özgür, Berk Hakman, Banu Fotocan, Furkan Berk Kiran, Sercan Gümüs, Sevval Kus

It’s a summer day and a retired forester Faik is receiving visitors at his country home. His son Nusret has come to visit with Faik’s two grandsons Caner and Zafer. Despite the summer setting however, the mood remains oddly muted. Faik is having problems with the local nomads and is constantly on his guard. This small group is completed by the family of Mehmet and Meryem and brings together different temperaments and social classes. But conflicts are avoided: it’s all someone else’s fault, that of the nomads, who remain an invisible foe.


CHILDREN OF SARAJEVO / DJECA
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, France, Turkey, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 90 min.
Director and screenplay: Aida Begić
Cast: Marija Pikić, Ismir Gagula, Nikola Đuričko, Jasna Ornela Bery, Bojan Navojec, Aleksandar Seksan, Staša Dukić, Mirela Lambić, Vedran Đekić, Sadžida Šetić, Velibor Topić

Rahima (23) and Nedim (14) are orphans of the Bosnian war. They live in Sarajevo, a transitional society that has lost its moral compass, including in the way it treats children of the people who were killed fighting for the freedom of their city. After crime-prone adolescent years, Rahima has found comfort in Islam and she hopes her brother will follow in her footsteps. Their life of bare survival becomes even more difficult after Nedim gets into a fistfight with the son of a local strongman and breaks his expensive mobile phone. This incident triggers a chain of events leading Rahima to the discovery that her brother leads a double life.


EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY / TOATĂ LUMEA DIN FAMILIA NOASTRĂ
Romania, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 108 min.   
Director: Radu Jude
Screenplay: Radu Jude, Corina Sabău
Cast: Șerban Pavlu, Sofia Nicolaescu, Mihaela Sîrbu, Gabriel Spahiu, Tamara Buciuceanu–Botez, Stela Popescu

Marius is a divorced man in his late thirties. His ex-wife, Otilia, remarried an accountant. Their 5-years-old daughter, Sofia, lives with her mother, causing Marius a deep frustration. According to the law, Marius can spend with his daughter only a limited amount of time. The day Marius goes to take his daughter on a short holiday to the seaside, he finds out that his ex-wife is not at home and he is told that his daughter is sick. He doesn't believe it and tries to take Sofia by force. This small incident proves to be the trigger for a violent and emotional rollercoaster.

   
VOICE OF MY FATHER / BABAMIN SESI
(FIRST FEATURE)
Turkey, Germany, France, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 88 min.
Director: Orhan Eskiköy, Zeynel Doğan
Screenplay: Orhan Eskiköy
Cast: Zeynel Doğan, Basê Doğan, Gülízar Doğan

Basê waits for her older son Hasan to come home after years of not seeing him. The reasons for Hasan leaving are the same as those that drove her husband Mustafa to work far from home. Although Mustafa can't touch the lives of his children through his voice recordings, he continues to haunt Basê. When Mehmet, Basê's younger son, learns that he's to be a father, he reflects that he never knew his own father and starts hunting down the tapes.


WHAT IS LOVE
Austria, 2012, Colour, 80 min.
Director and screenplay: Ruth Mader
Cast: Saskia Maca, Helene Bubna, Michael Bubna, Thomas Rath, Walter Scalet, Eva Suchy

This film is a portrait of life, a portrait of people with varying life plans. It asks the meaning of life, about how to fill the gap between birth and death, and what is happiness. Short fiction and documentary pieces tell the stories of some very different protagonists of a generation: from the forest-owning family in their stately home to the factory worker following her daily routine.


THE WOMAN WHO BRUSHED OFF HER TEARS
Macedonia, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, 2012, 35 mm, Colour, 103 min.
Director and screenplay: Teona Strugar Mitevska
Cast: Victoria Abril, Labina Mitevska, Jean Marie Galay, Arben Bajraktaraj

Helena has lost her son and suffers from her husband's abuse. Ajsun is struggling to reunite his family while dealing with the hatred of his father-in-law. How far are they willing to go to find inner peace?