I am back in Copenhagen after another unforgettable version of the Magnificent7 Festival, number 12 it was and of course there is reason for the organizers to be proud of what they have achieved with a festival of 7 films, one film per night, non-competitive, focus on the makers of the films, excellent picture and sound, Q&A sessions with the makers of around 1 hour, a workshop every day lasting 2 hours for young filmmakers – and for us invited guests a hospitality that is second to none.

Statistics: 6200 sold tickets, 2500 free tickets – for seven screenings – all together 8700. A record in the history of the festival.

The production team of the festival to be honoured, filmmakers themselves all of them: Jelena Stankovic, Sonja Dekic, Mila Turejlic, Andrijana Stojkovic, Iva Plemic Divjak. Press was done by Milica Novkovic. Nevena Djonlic was the programme coordinator, Svetlana and Zoran Popovic festival directors and selectors together with me (Serbian spelling) Tue Stin Mileric. Many more helped, check the website.

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/index.ph

Wojciech and Malgorzata Staron were in the vip room yesterday after the screening of their masterpiece ”Brothers” that was shown in the big hall of the Sava Center in Belgrade at the Magnificent7 festival. Almost 1000 viewers attended and I can not recall such a almost sacred silence of total attention in many of the sequences. To mention one: the older brother is putting on a sock with the help of pliers. The focus is on the foot and the action, the director/cameraman dares to let the camera watch – not a sound is heard in the cinema hall. Noone is checking emails, noone is chatting with the neighbour, it’s magic, because the film is magic! Because every image is composed beauty.

We were all the time during he years trying to find a balance, not to give a lot of information, we were searching for a language. We wanted to make a film in the present, not about the past.

Especially the older brother, the one who had done filming himself, was interested in our filming, also because we used several different digital cameras during the years we were filming.

The problem was that many times they were more interested in talking to us than to each other, when we came. So we were waiting for situations to come up.

Alfons, the painter, thought that the film would be about him as an artist!

One is an Artist of Life, he worked as a cartographer, the other is a dreamer. We met them in 1994, we were 20, they were 70, we became friends and kind of part of their family in Poland. They had to re-learn Polish, when they came home – and Russian when they wanted to speak about something that we should not hear!

A love story, one in the audience asked the couple. Yes, I was searching for the love between them, Wojciech Staron said. I think I found it… Oh, yes, you did indeed!

Photo: the Staron’s behind the brothers.

Jerzy Sladkowski’s ”Don Juan” was shown here in Belgrade the other night and his Q&A meeting with the audience in the vip room of the Sava Center lasted for more an hour in a packed room, where many were sitting or lying on the floor.

Sladkowski talked so well about the film, assisted by his cameraman Wojciech Staron, that I decided to quote him (almost) word by word, of course in an edited version.

JS: Earlier it was called Gorki, now it is Nizhny Novgorod and I wanted to make a ”feeling good/ feeling better” film on how therapists in a clinic there were healing people with traumas. Through humour. It’s Russia and Chekhov, and I wanted to work in the field between humour and sadness. We went there for research but there was no humour. We woke up in deep shit, so to say. But then Wojciech (Staron) came. To observe. He moved the camera around and said that it always stopped at this boy, Oleg. It would not have been my first choice. But then I heard him

quarrelling with his mother. We shot the first day, their being together. Not enough for a film. But the mother got the idea to get him into a theatre and dance school. And then the story with him and Tanya evolved. Tanya studied medicine before, psychology.

I was worried that she would make him believe she was interested in him, but she said always ”stay cool”, ”I know what I am doing”. I can balance it. We understood that Oleg changed a little bit. When he is under stress, he can not control, he is an idiot. But if not… Today he is a taxman and he is a pain in the neck for the taxpayers!

I want to make a third film from Russia (the one before ”Don Juan” was ”Vodka Factory”) and it has to be a humorous one. I have actually made 25-26 films in Russia. Instead of describing the differences I want to say what combines us.

This is not an easy film to watch, it is slow and mostly it is what happens in the faces, which constitutes the film.

We asked Oleg, what he was doing tomorrow – therapy, ok then we will go with you. He wanted to help us with the film but he acted when he was under stress. The best shots, are when he is natural. We gave him the camera but it did not work. He was kind of acting all the time. Wojciech had a hard time…

Wojciech Staron: The first duty of the cameraman is to have fun, to create the spirit and joy – when I had done so, I used my professional skills. I liked to work with him, we got closer each day. A process but quite quick. We shot 3 times 2 weeks. The job of a director is to convince the character that the camera does not hurt you!

JS: It was a game, reading him and then push forward instead of devastating him! Again, we could not foresee the consequences of being there and I did not have control over Tanya and Oleg. She just wanted to help as a friend. Don’t go too far, I said to her, ”don’t worry”, she said. She was flirting, also with me, but she is an actress.

WS: It was a strange mix of empathy and acting.

JS ended by declaring himself ”a true documentarian”, always on the hunt for the real.

catndocs.com/index.php/categories/human-interest/744-don-juan

Taken from the site of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade (http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/) this text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic about the film to be shown tonight at the Sava Center in Belgrade:

For centuries, one of the most beautiful old city-republics in Italy, Siena, two times a year becomes divided with conflicts, when all residents, from the youngest to the elderly live for Palio – one of the oldest horse races in the world. It is a specific time machine that magically revives Renaissance costumes, flags, coats of arms and trumpets, ceases everything with its primordial force and completely enchants both observers and participants. This is a real battle for prestige turned into a symbolic competition of horses and riders held in a surprising place – in the very center of Siena, on the largest city square. Old ritual lives its intense life even today with never reduced passions without scruples – turbulent Mediterranean mentality and dark tradition of political intrigues of the past times haunt freely, like a ghost, all the citizens, and no one is spared, not even the players or horses.

The director of the film, Cosima Spender, who grew up in Siena, develops this visually attractive, lavish spectacle, showing us Palio from the perspective of four generations of the best, most important race winners; from those who made the most brilliant recent history to the newest and youngest one who is preparing for a relentless battle to realize his biggest dream. The author of “Palio” conceived and developed a real exciting, cinematic film, with extraordinary photography, carefully interwoven dramaturgical flows, which achieves its dramatic climax in the events that really take your breath away! Exceptionally credited with the most attractive moments in the film, especially during the racing scenes, is the brilliant editor Valerio Bonelli, awarded for his superb work at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

“Palio” is a great and memorable cinematic feast!

Director’s Word: I grew up with the Palio so I was uniquely placed to gain the trust of everyone involved in the film and our narrator character was able to open doors which are normally closed to outsiders. Yet as a foreigner (I work out of London and my parentage is Anglo-American), I shared the jockeys’ ambiguous relationship with Siena, and that is what I wanted to capture in this film.

us.thepalio.com/film 

Review on Filmkommentaren by Sara Thelle: link

Great Britain, 2015, 92 mins.

Taken from the site of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade (http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/) this text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic about the film to be shown tonight at the Sava Center in Belgrade:

From the very first moment of the film, from the first wonderful scene, an unusual and poetic story unfolds in front of us, a story about two brothers and their still unsettled life history that surrounds them. This documentary takes you on the small country roads lined with meadows, in beautiful, blossoming fields, in the dark forests where two old charismatic men are walking through – a painter, constantly in search of what excites his creative spirit, and the other one, who looks like his reflection in the mirror, and who managed, like in fairy tales, to get rid of the physical connection with the character and to become its opposite – a silent, reliable companion and protector. And whatever happens, from wandering through the landscapes full of colors and impressions, riding with no apparent purpose and reason, to everyday situations

in which they are talking and being silent at the same time, between the two brothers runs continuous and exciting current which outlines some of the deep secrets of life and human communication. All this is linked by magical scenes of family films, which as a leitmotif of the film testify to the metaphysical sphere in the existences of our heroes.

Wojciech Staroń is the author of the stories of the unseen, documenting and building, above all, an atmosphere of space and events. Staroń is a painter and a poet, when as a cameraman reveals the protagonists in many different settings or when approaches their striking portraits. As a director, he develops a complex structure and story from a seemingly simple scenes and situations, where he successfully plunges deep beneath the tangible manifestations of the real. Finally, he adds to all of this a new, very special visual impression that is created by the use of archival footage of amateur films.

The winner of the festival in Leipzig, film “Brothers” will mesmerize you with its carefully designed visuals, with poetic scenes and portraits, speaking strongly about the relationships that pervade man, about love, wandering and searching.

Director’s Word: For a long time I was looking for the answer what is this film about, what will be its main motive and its structure. However I knew from the very beginning that it will be a film about brotherhood. The final structure of the film appeared as a result of a year-long process of editing. I had to eliminate many plots to achieve as kind of universal and clear story.

www.staronfilm.pl/movies-b/2015/7/9/brothers

The review on “Brothers” on Filmkommentaren: link

Poland 2015, 68 minutes.

I just said goodbye to him, the director of ”Twilight of a Life”, who has played an important role in this 12th edition of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade. He came with his film about which I wrote – before the premiere in Nyon – ”…emotional it is, long time ago that I have watched a film with a smile on my face the whole way through and a tear in my eyes…”.

I had the same reaction, when I watched it here in Belgrade with the more than added value to experience the charismatic director as one who wants to follow his film, whereever he can, doing (as he did here) a masterclass, a Q&A session and a workshop.

A few words about the workshop: Sylvain Biegeleisen was together with a small group of young people from morning till afternoon. He told them that he was there to realise his ”One Day One Film” with the theme ”Memories”, with the participants being invited to bring a photo or an object to talk about what that means for them. ”My part was to be their humble servant”, Biegeleisen said, when he

presented the final result, a 10 minutes long, sweet and charming film with clever and innovative narratives. I can only recommend other festivals warmly to bring in the director to do this workshop.

In his masterclass Biegeleisen talked interestingly about ”Twilight of a Life” and showed clips with sequences that did not end up in the film as well as clips from his first film with his mother, ”The Last Card” shot in 2007. ”I am a man of spontaneity”, he said several times, when he was asked about how much he had planned in beforehand at the same time as he praised the collaboration with the editor Joëlle Alexis. Pedagogically it was a scoop when he showed the scene, where the mother says that ”I will not live long”, in two versions, one edited by himself and one by the editor.

2 years of shooting. And then the editing and the premiere in Nyon, where everyone, including the director of this festival, expected him to have an award. It did not happen… He was disappointed but ”I’m learning”, he said, ”the real award was that the film was made…, we made it, my mother and I” and ”the real power is not only to open the eyes of an audience but also the hearts”.

Biegeleisen told us that in Belgium there is a plan to make a book to accompany the film, that he is to attend a screening of the film in the presence of representatives from WHO, who could maybe use the film one way or the other, he has plans to establish a film festival with ”Ageing” as the theme… at the same time as he told us that the film is difficult to sell (done by the company Cats and Docs) to television, even if he has a version of one hour, in colours… at the same time as the film has been a huge success in Israel where the cinematheques announce the film with title and ”to be shown in the presence of the director and his guitar”. Wonderful to experience Jacques Brel performed by multi-gifted artist Sylvain Biegeleisen.

www.twilightofalife.com

Taken from the site of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade (http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/) this text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic about the film to be shown tonight at the Sava Center in Belgrade:

This year’s winner of Europe’s largest documentary film festival in Amsterdam, IDFA, without a doubt is one of the best documentaries produced in recent years. The initial idea of the author was to make a film about psychiatric institutions and patients in Russia, and even during the first researches suddenly appeared Oleg, a young man trapped by autism, and his mother convinced that her son can and should do more to improve his life. Especially when it comes to women. And Oleg begins long battles to learn how to become Don Juan, to pierce even a little the armor that safely shields him from the world and girls. The camera begins to follow his therapies that slowly multiply and start turning into an interesting odyssey – from conventional conversation, to shocking, grotesque procedures, and finally to making the theater.

Following his hero, Jerzy Slatkovski with his team, in which an

important role has brilliant cinematographer Wojciech Staron, manages to be present in moments of crisis, debates and quarrels, to capture moments of opening and closing of the main character, to capture his emotions and blockades, without ever endangering the intimacy of the situation, nor to exceed the invisible boundaries of participants’ dignity. While shooting this superb study of the human condition, the author and his film crew managed to achieve the ideal, unattainable request for filmmakers – they have become invisible.

The documentary by one of the masters of European documentary, directed intelligently and focused, with extremely subtle images of warm colors, with the camera that is always in pace with the events, with perfectly constructed internal rhythms, this Film, starting with the always interesting and intriguing view of the “Rain Man”, develops a deep, warm and touching story about the person, creating the true, brilliant and convincing film hero!

Director’s Word: The best stories usually result from coincidences, accidental meetings and good luck.
The first shooting period was a deep unprepared dive into the world of Russian psychiatric care, with no great expectations.
Russian producer Elena Petlarskaya and I happened to hear Oleg and his mother quarreling in a psychiatric clinic in Nizhny Novgorod about Oleg’s inability to fix up a date with a girl. We introduced ourselves and I shared some memories of my own romantic misfortunes – it was the beginning of a long-lasting friendship.

catndocs.com/index.php/categories/human-interest/744-don-juan

A comment on “Don Juan” on this site.

Sweden, Finland 2015, 92 minutes

They got up from their chairs but did not leave right away, they stayed to honour the filmmaker, whose ”Mallory” had just ended. Helena Třeštíková received standing ovations for her film at the screening at the Sava Center, where it was number 3 of the 7 films selected for the Magnificent7 festival.

… and maybe also for her work in total – her unique method of long term observational documentary filmmaking that she talked so well about this morning at the masterclass for young filmmakers. Třeštíková brought clips from her films – to mention some: ”René”, ”Katka”, ”Marcela” – and raised the questions of ethical nature and basically how she establishes a contact/ an agreement with her protagonists. I have seen all three previous films mentioned before but the clips made me want to come back to them – they are all available on DocAlliance, link below, price for a film 2€!

Especially ”René”, about this intelligent young man, who goes in and out of prison, robs the home of the director at one point, tells her that in the beginning of their filming relationship (that has lasted 20 years!), he was a bit in love with her, that he has seen her more during the years than he has seen his mother… He is now out of prison, lives with a dancer and her child, a film star after he has been on television several times. (Czech television broadcasts her works in primetime).

Třeštíková is now working on 15 projects! Wow, what a filmmaker!

http://dafilms.com/search/?q=helena+trestikova

Taken from the site of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade (http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/) this text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic about the film to be shown tonight at the Sava Center in Belgrade:

Is there anything emptier than idyllic summer resorts in the wintertime? Jakob Brossman arrives with his crew, at such a moment of calm and low tide, when all small local problems become big events, and their main protagonists begin to resemble characters of Fellini films. On Lampedusa this is all tinged by the big, unwanted looming shadow, the drama and present of the People from the Boats, rescued in dramatic operations from storms and high seas, sometimes successfully, often not, but always at great risk. And to top it all off – discussions recalling the spirited traditions of the debate forums of the ancient world – can the fisherman survive, will Lampedusa get a ferry, what are the Africans doing in front of the church? With humor and conviviality of the Mediterranean spirit, with a lot of sound and fury, but with empathy and true understanding for the human condition. A story told in rich layers, of the clash of worlds – of Africa v. Europe, the island v. the mainland, provincial outposts v. the center, and inescapably poor v. rich.

It is certain that suffering and victims often cloud our view of the

saviors and those who welcome them, and Jakob Brossman chose to focus this documentary, about one of the greatest problems Europe is facing, through the unexpected prism of an inverted lens. Ironically showing us where the cameras “of the eyes of the world” are pointed and all the things this “all-seeing” gaze misses, the authors of the film observe carefully, analyzing even more carefully, and building a complex dramaturgical structure and composition. This specific and subtle approach allows for a unique insight into a phenomenon that has been dealt with countless time, leading towards a true culmination – an exceptionally exciting documented dramatic rescue operation in which for the first time we experience concern for all involved, for the equally endangered rescuers and drowning wretched of the sea.

A fantastic documentary of a developed spirited Mediterranean story which involves us deeper as we watch – we fear, we are entertained, we get angry, we scold and shout, we suffer and finally, all together we discover that behind it all stands a cold and distant, untouchable figure of power!

Director’s Word: Lampedusa is a beautiful place, a fantastic holiday destination; there are people there who understand life, even though at times they have to struggle with the very basics.

There are lots of camera crews on Lampedusa, especially in the period immediately after any tragedy. They generally adopt the same approach and ask the same questions. In our case, people noticed that we came in winter, and that we stayed – and if I asked any questions at all, they were not the usual ones. I had a fantastic interpreter; without her I wouldn’t have been able to overcome the language barrier. People came to appreciate the fact that we really wanted to understand the situation and the people.

www.lampedusaimwinter.derfilm.at

Austria, Italy, Switzerland 2015, 93 minutes

Last night. Look at the photo – Sylvain Biegeleisen, director of ”Twilight of a Life”, is on stage with festival director Zoran Popovic in Belgrade before the screening of his film at the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade. Biegeleisen is about to sing a Jacques Brel chanson to put the more than 1500 Belgraders present in the mood to be in the company with himself and first of all his mother for 71 minutes. He sings for her in the film that was received with applause for minutes. The well placed comment from my Serbian filmmaking friend next to me was like this, ”we are all crying”, right she was, from watching a woman at the end of her life full of wisdom and humour! There were noone rushing out of the cinema.

Biegeleisen had afterwards a packed Q&A session in the vip room of the Sava Center and this afternoon, in one hour, he will hold a masterclass for young and older filmmakers at the same place. I will report tomorrow about the many interesting comments that the director has conveyed and will come up with concerning his making of this wonderful work.

PS. A Sunday in Belgrade is not ”only” films… I started this morning being greeted by a young hotel receptionist, who said she had seen me several times on Serbien television. Proud I was, ”was it ok what I said”… until the answer came ”I don’t know, I watch tv without sound having music in my ears…”

PPS. And a tradition has grown: We go to the home of festival team colleague Nevena Donlic, an expert of tennis and admirer of – I am that as well now – Novak Djokovic, who played the Australian Open final against Scottish Murray, who as last year was beaten pretty easily by the Serbian phenomenon. Serbian brunch and television hospitality at its best, thanks.

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/index.php