This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, directors of the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade.

A dramatic documentary exclusive insight into the world behind the facades of top art, the author who amazed us with a saga about the reconstruction of one of the largest museums in Europe.

Through masterful direction, Oeke Hoogendijk tells a story about a sensation roaring through the world, the discovery of a new and previously unknown painting of the greatest of the greatest masters, Rembrandt, and transforms it to an exciting thriller that leaves us breathless. This film shows us the world behind the art, the world of collectors, art historians, authenticity experts, those possessed by both true passion and prestige, with discrete dark shades of basic greed. This is a fascinating story about a detective search from the sensing of vague outlines in the shadows and secrets of time, to the brutal penetration of x-rays and flashes in the hunt for the unseen. Balancing between fascination with the subtlest ups and downs of genius and the need to possess or profit, the heroes of this film are constantly torn, revealing the face of the modern world driven by ambition to ceaselessly produce newer and newer things and to raise values on a pedestal which simultaneously degrades and questions them.

A film that truly ‘touches’ for you the original works of masters and leads you into the space of their complex and turbulent existence.

The Netherlands 2019 95 minutes 

This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, directors of the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade.

The celebrated author of the film about saunas, one of the greatest documentary hits in Finland, reveals in his latest work the world of unrecognized emotions of Finnish men. Talking, above all, about the deep longing for intimacy, made with a virtuoso authorial procedure, this is a film of exceptional strength and beauty.

Starting from the surprising conclusion of the research, according to which Finns are declared the happiest people in the modern world, the author documents a different, exciting, extremely emotional and colorful world of Finland, through the story of several men who reveal their sorrows, disappointments, sufferings and hopelessness. Colored with harsh humor, this film of stunning camera and photography takes us through mysterious and at times surreal landscapes. With complete openness, and as the protagonist of the story, the author masterfully intertwines individual currents, building a broad and complex image without stereotypes about the unusual mentality, misunderstanding, rejection and conflict, but also the universality of the deep sensitivity of Finnish men.

A top representative of always especially inspiring Finnish documentaries.

Finland 2019 85 minutes 

This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, directors of the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade.

Buenos Aires nights echo with the sounds of the bandoneon, with stories of love, and with the unique and unmatchable beauty of tango. During such nights one of the greatest dancers in the history of tango, Maria Nieves, and her legendary partner, Juan Carlos Copes, share their memories with a group of young dancers and choreographers, who in turn convert their stories into breath-taking choreographies. These are stunning in their execution, not only supremely sophisticated and masterful, but also powerful in the emotions they embody with their movements. Before our eyes the dances transform into stories of love and passion, of tenderness and pain, of vulnerability and strength imbued by harmony.

Masterful photography and camerawork, echoing unforgettable cinema cast a permanent spell with the scenes and images unfolding on the screen. Equally so, the close-ups of the two charismatic dancers, whose faces still radiate the fullness of emotion and dignity. Also extraordinary are the reconstructions of the milongas of Buenos Aires, those seminal events and places where energies crossed to create tango, where dancers’ steps wrote out its living history, whose essence the participants and authors of the film aim to reach. There is no doubt that German Kral is the ideal author of this documentary – Argentinian by birth, a European filmmaker by education and experience, and long-time collaborator of Wim Wenders, his professor at the Munich film school, whose influence extends beyond the role of executive producer on this film.

An exciting work which interweaves a dramatic love story with unforgettable inspired movements of tango’s finest dancers captured by fascinating and kinesthetic shots.

Germany, Argentina 2015, 85 minutes 

This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, directors of the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade.

A documentary that tells an equally exciting story about the colorful world and the music that fills and transforms it.

A poignant drama about a hero torn between his extraordinary talent and the dark abyss of mental illness. Discreet, simply recorded scenes of a psychiatric institution and urban spaces without splendor, scenes that are always on the verge of drama, reveal an unusual, charismatic hero in a constant struggle for dignity and preservation of his precious ability to express himself artistically. His contacts with other patients of the psychiatric clinic, or admirers of his virtuoso playing of the piano, reveal complex layers of a person in states of agitation or rare moments of calm. From restraint to victory and vice versa, we follow a story told without prejudice and with the deepest empathy that expands our understanding of the human psyche and condition.

Collisions of existential anguish with music that ennobles and liberates.

Czech Republic, France, Argentina, Austria 2019,  84 minutes

This text is written by Magnificent7 Festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic:

Awarded a special prize for artistic excellence at a major international festival in Moscow, this film by a young Danish director with its exceptional style is one of the few close to the works of some of the most important film artists. 

This unique documentary is an exclusive journey through the world of the Danish aristocracy as a privileged tour of estates and forests closed to ordinary people and pleasant walks through the rich, luxurious interiors of laird homes. This whole world, precisely determined by inherited protocol and captured by tradition, is presented to us by the author almost as a gallery of exceptional paintings by old masters, painted with modern digital means. A film that creates a view that does not exceed a precisely defined limit of respect, where we perceive the heroes and their dramas with a discreet presence and careful observation. As we enjoy discovering fascinating details, the author develops a story about the burden of birth. 

A documentary in which, in enchanting scenes, history and the modern world meet.

Denmark 2019 74 minutes  

Words from Svetlana and Zoran Popovic:Here we go again! After a delay due to the pandemic from which we all suffer, and from which we have learnt to take measures into consideration; Where we are, Whatever we are doing. Let’s continue to do so during the Magnificent7, 16th edition in Belgrade.

And words from me, selector together with the mentioned Popovic’s: Here we are to again enjoy to be together – respecting distance and wearing masks – in a cinema to see films on the big screen as they were meant to be seen, when they were made.

I have been to many festivals this year. Online. I have even been a juror. Online. Alone in front of my MacBook! So, like many of you in the audience, I look forward the moment when films come back to cinemas, come back to big screens…

And I say so that because we have chosen excellent films for you. Films that 

have important themes of our time, appealing to heart and brain. Emotional, informative, thought provoking. Taking you to countries like Argentina, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands and to Nature. Several of the films have already been awarded at other festivals, now the award given is to be screened at Magnificent7. Am I too overwhelming in my phrases? No, I am simply proud of being part of the selection team with Svetlana and Zoran Popovic.

And happy that we can start with „Gunda“ by the master Victor Kossakovsky. It has been to big festivals so far, on a big screen, as the director wants it solely to be shown in theatres. It features a mother sow, Gunda, two ingenious cows and a one-legged chicken…

Equally happy we are to welcome back – unfortunately not physically – Oeke Hoogendijk and Jerzy Sladkowski. Hoogendijk (who was here with “The New Rijksmuseum”) has again put herself behind the scene of art with “My Rembrandt” that invites us to experience – with humour and insight – how the best painter ever is being treated by art historians and sellers and buyers.

And Polish – living in Sweden – Jerzy Sladkowski  comes with “Bitter Love”, a visual cruising tour on a boat named Maxim Gorki, where he (as in “Don Juan”) with the help of – again – the magnificent cameraman (and director) Wojciech Staroń, catches love in all its Russian – Chekovian – aspects. It is a tour full of tears and smiles and music! 

Yes, music, piano music by Martìn Perino in the film “Solo” that takes place in Buenos Aires, mostly in a psychiatric hospital, where Perino is being treated for his mental disease. Get ready for a touching, superbly told story about the pain, the suffering, the joy, the introvert side of Martìn Perino, who is full of energy and comes out of the hospital to live on his own. “I have to get rid of the genius” he says to his therapist. The film was directed by French Artemio Benki, who tragically passed away in April this year. RIP.

And we stay in Buenos Aires to make a special screening, “Un Tango Mas” (Our Last Tango) by German Kral. Tango is thedance that always reminds us how important it is to stay close and understand the other. To stay close in a time where we at the same time are advised to keep distance…

From Buenos Aires to my home country Denmark, from where comes “Patrimonium” by Carl Olsson, who is born in Sweden, educated in Denmark, with quite an eye for a phenomenon that I as a Dane knew existed but had never seen so well depicted as here, “the noble landed gentry, constantly renegotiating the borders between history and modernity”. We wanted the film for the 2019 edition of the festival but the prestigious Moscow IFF saw its qualities as well and Olsson won a special award for its “artistic excellence”. No objections and here it is for the Belgrade audience.

Finally, the film that ends the festival takes us Further North, to Finland, country with a strong tradition for original documentaries – we have had several Finnish films at the festival – and “The Happiest Man on Earth” is no exception. Joonas Berghäll puts himself into the film together with 6 other men, who – like in his previous film “Steam of Life” – break the stereotypes that Finnish men are not able to express emotions and their wishes for a happy life, for love. It is touching and full of special humour as you could expect from Finland.

This is Magnificent7 2020!

Tue Steen Müller

Copenhagen, October 19 – December 15, 2020 

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