The IFFR (International Film Festival of Rotterdam) was held between January 25th and February 5th – this year’s edition being the 46th.
The festival shows drama films, creative documentaries and other visual arts. There are also retrospectives, even though the emphasis is on discovering and recognising new talent. The films are in 4 different categories, the one for emerging young film directors called “Bright Future”. A young generation, with a personal style and vision. It is often the first opportunity these young directors have to present their film to an international audience.
In this category this year there were films with a broadly Mediterranean subject-matter, like the young Croatian director Igor Bezinović’s “A Brief Excursion”. A group of friends trek across rural Croatia searching for a monastery. The film was produced by the director himself and Studio Pangolin.
The film by the young Israeli director Hagar Ben-Asher The Burglar, a portrait of a teenage girl who, after the unexplained disappearance of her mother, creeps into people’s homes looking for something she no longer has.
Or, I Am Truly a Drop of Sun on Earth, by the Georgian director Elene Naveriani. The touching story of a young Nigerian refugee who finds himself in Tbilisi, Georgia, whereas he thought he was going to Georgia, USA. Lost, with no prospect of finding work, he meets April, a prostitute. A strong, loving bond forms between these two marginal characters, who believe that together they can survive.
A festival which opens a window on the Mediterranean, a Mediterranean at once mystical, dreamlike and touching.
Sources : IFFR, Cineuropa
