Astra Film Festival 2015
One film festival follows the other and the months of October and November is high season. Tonight the veteran Astra Film Festival in Sibiu Romania starts and runs for 7 days with an exciting programme that is both looking back and reflects what goes on in documentary filmmaking of today.
For the looking back enthusiasts, the film historical interested, there is a series called ”NeoRealism and New Realisms” with films by Visconti (La Terra Trema, of course) and de Sica as well as ”The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” by Romanian Cristi Puiu and Portuguese Teresa Villaverde’s ”Os Mutantes”, to mention a few titles.
The festival has four competitive programmes: International, CE (Central and Eastern Europe) Europe, Romania, Student – all together 48 films. In the international section of 10 films you find ”I am the People” by French Anna Rousillon – it has this description:
“January 2011 in Egypt was marked by anti-government demonstrations. While tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo, poor villagers in the country’s south followed the tense situation on Tahrir Square on their TV screens and in the daily newspapers. It is from their perspective that this documentary captures the political changes in Egypt, from the toppling of President Mubarak to the election and fall of Mohamed Morsi. The film reveals the villagers’ hopes and disappointments, and shows that despite the wild events, very little has actually changed in their lives, Anna Roussillon’s interviewees fretting more about their irrigation systems and pregnant wives than ideological struggles and political emancipation.”
And of course Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence” is there, as Nanau’s “Toto and his Sisters” is in the CE Europe category as is Tina Gudac’s Croatian “Naked Island” (PHOTO).
Take a look at the website and notice the many interesting side programmes, there is a lot of thought behind this programme.
http://astrafilm.ro/astra-film-festival-2015-starts-on-monday.aspx?theme=1