17th edition of International Film Festival Bratislava will open its gates on Thursday with the Slovak premiere of Steve Jobs, an eagerly-expected biopic starring Michael Fassbender. Besides a heavy load of top-notch films, discussions with filmmakers and a unique “warm-up” projection, festival-goers can look forward to a great multitude of side events – ranging from nostalgic screenings of VHS classics directly off videocassettes, to a special programme for youngest cinema buffs, to concerts and stylish DJ shows, to the ever-popular Slippers Night. The Bratislava Film Festival will take place between from November 12 – 17, in three popular municipal theatres – three cinemas of Kino Lumière as well as in Kino Mladosť and Kino Nostalgia.
The upcoming edition of Bratislava IFF will kick off with Steve Jobs (2015), an anxiously-awaited biographical motion picture by acclaimed British director Danny Boyle. The film takes the viewer behind the scenes of the digital revolution, painting an intimate portrait of the greatest computer visionary of our time. Besides the attractive topic, the picture is carried by stellar performances, with Michael Fassbender in particular throwing a glove to all Academy Award contenders and Jeff Daniels and Kate Winslet being equally convincing in supporting roles. For the first time ever, the launching of the Bratislava Film Festival will be open to the general public; it is scheduled for Thursday night at 19.00 in Kino Nostalgia.
For the keenest cinemagoers who can’t wait until the official opening, we have planned a truly unique festival “warm-up” at Kino Mladosť even a day earlier, Wednesday November 11. A feature debut by Italian-American director Jonas Carpignano, Mediterranea authentically captures one of the most pressing problems of our time – migration. Its documentary filmmaking style pulls the viewer inexorably into the story of two friends, Ayiva and Abas, who endure a sorrowful voyage from Burkina Faso to Italian Rosarno with a bunch of African migrants in pursuit of a happier life, only to find hostile atmosphere and labour exploitation. The film will be projected simultaneously in a number of participating cinemas around Europe. Once finished, they will connect via internet with the Bozar cinema in Belgium where a 30-40 minutes Q&A session with director Jonas Carpignano will start. The audiences will have the possibility to intervene via Twitter wall, visible on the screen. This one-of-a-kind interactive cinema experience starts at 19.30 and the entry is free for everybody.
The “Cinema Now” section will present the latest picture by versatile Thomas McCarthy whom Slovak cinemagoers know as scriptwriter of Up (2009), director of Win Win (2011) and The Visitor (2008), or actor in Meet the Parents (2000) or The Wire TV series (2008). Starring Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Liev Schreiber, Spotlight (2015) tells a riveting true story of The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into child abuse within the Catholic Church that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. Nearly 14 years since the Globe’s Spotlight team first delved into the allegations, disturbing disclosures continue to appear and have caused a crisis of conscience in the Catholic Church worldwide.
On Wednesday, the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica will host the first of two master classes tutored by Mišo Suchý, Slovak-American filmmaker with a penchant for painting motion picture portraits his own family. The festival’s “Retrospective” section will present
to Bratislava cinemagoers a detailed overview of Suchý’s work that often reflects on the issues of home,
identity and life in emigration, including the world premiere of his latest short film, Prysia’s Garden, as the work in progress.
Another venue to check out festival screenings is Gorila.sk Urban Space, which will also accommodate the festival’s official lounge this year. Besides pleasant atmosphere, the lounge will offer special projections and host the festival’s side events. Festival-goers can look forward to every day after-parties but also thematic shows featuring intelligent dance electronic music by Bulp, foxtrot, swing or tango of the interwar era played from old shellac records by Gramophon Brothers, or an eclectic DJ-set by Stroon.
On Friday, November 13, the club will host Film Striptease, a stand-up cabaret by Peter Gärtner, a projectionist whose blood still boils at the sight of a bad film. Serving his scoffs with an ample side dish of irony and enthusiasm, Gärtner combines impressive cinema knowledge with often hard-to-swallow detachment that will mercilessly grind every slush, schmaltz and smooch of the silver screen. As far as film screenings go, festival-goers can enjoy two pictures from the “Nostalgia: VHS Stories” section in the club, namely Ninja III: The Domination (1984, November 13) and Breakin’ (1984, November 16). In between, on November 14, the club will host VHS Karaoke Battle, a competition in improvised dubbing of most notorious B-movies of the 1980s.
The ever-popular Slippers Night, which will also be dedicated to the “Nostalgia: VHS Stories” section, is scheduled to start one minute before midnight on Saturday, November 14. The nocturnal projection will kick off with a hilarious documentary by Mark Hartley, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014), and continue with two films produced by that very notorious studio, namely The Delta Force (1986) and Breakin’ (1984); for the sake of authenticity, both films will be screened from original VHS videocassettes.
For the second consecutive year, Bratislava IFF will present a charity projection aimed at raising extra funds for RED NOSE Clowndoctors, a civic association that operates a network of health clowns who support mental well-being of hospitalised children and senior citizens through humour and personal approach. This year, the festival will screen He Named Me Malala (2015), the latest film by American-Academy-Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim inspired by the powerful life story of Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani teenager and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, her admirable enthusiasm and endeavour aimed at helping others.
As usually, the Bratislava Film Festival looks to sum up the most remarkable artworks the world cinema has produced over the past year. Like every year, all festival-goers are encouraged to cast their votes in favour of motion pictures of their choice and decide which one of them will take home the Viewers’ Choice Award.
For latest updates on the programme of International Film Festival Bratislava, please visit our official website at www.iffbratislava.sk or our official Facebook account at www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff.
