These are just some of the attractions of the 16th edition of the International Film Festival T-Mobile New Horizons, which kicks off on July 21. The festival passes are sold out, but you can buy single tickets for screenings (from 13 July, 12 o'clock) and operas (from 1 June).
The festival hits
Although the exact program of the festival won't be announced until July 6 at noon, the organizers reveal a few surprises even today. One of them is the new films of Pedro Almodóvar ("Juliet" will be the opening film), Ken Loach ("I, Daniel Blake") and Cristian Mungiu ("Exam") - straight from Cannes. The first is a 90-minute life story of the protagonist we see, when she takes a decision key to the life of herself and her family to raise a ghost of the past. In the second, Golden Palm-winning film, we follow the fate of a man after a heart attack, who fights callous bureaucracy for a disability benefit.
The third, awarded for directing, is a moving portrait of a father who would do anything for his daughter to pass an important exam, which could pave the way for her future career. The problem is that the day before the crucial date the girl was raped, and it would be hard for her to take the exam. The father would even go so far as to bribe to ensure the child a better future.
The competition films
This year, films from around the world will compete for prizes in competitions: International Competition New Horizons, Films On Art, Polish Short Films, European Short Film and Zoom. Even now we know a few titles submitted for the competition. In the main competition, we can expect the moving "Dark Beasts" by Felipe Guerrero, a sensation of the festival in Rotterdam, about women in the shadow of conflict and male violence in Colombia.
In the competition Films On Art, an interesting one should also be the docu-fiction "Waiting for B" by Paul Cesar Toledo, featuring fans of the American singer Beyonce. They are not traditional Brazilians - they come from the LGBT community.
Retrospective of Nanni Moretti
But that's not all. Coming up is more retrospectives, of another Italian director Pippo Delbono and Basque masters, including Victor Erice. There's no denying, however, that the biggest star coming to Wroclaw will be Nanni Moretti, perhaps the most important Italian director of the decade (but also a thinker), winner of the Palme d'Or for "The Son's Room". The retrospective will be an opportunity to get to know his films better, and at the same time to recall some titles. It's worth it, if even for the great Jerzy Stuhr, who starred in "Habemus Papam"
Cinema lessons with the masters
Nanni Moretti, Carlos Saura, Andrei Konchalovsky, Cristian Mungiu, Petr Zelenka and Agnieszka Holland are famous directors, who are coming to the festival and, importantly, who will run special master classes in film. They will show and tell not only about their own films (at least two, and in the case of Nanni Moretti, much more, because a retrospective of the director is being prepared), but also will present films from the world canon, which inspired their work.
Film opera at the NFM
David Lynch won't be a guest of the festival, but the National Forum of Music will present the opera "Lost Highway" by Olga Neuwirth, with a libretto by Elfriede Jelinek. Both ladies (the composer and the Nobel Prize-winning writer) became so fascinated by the dark film of the American director, that they translated it into the language of theatre. In Wroclaw, the Polish première (and the third realization worldwide) is directed by Natalia Korczakowska (who directed "Smycz" [Leash] - a monodrama by Bartek Porczyk on the stage of the Polski Theatre). On the stage of the Grand Hall of the NFM will play a chamber orchestra under the baton of Marzena Diakun and will perform soloists, among others, Holger Falk (in a dual role of Fred/Pete) and Barbara Kinga Majewska (Alice/Renee). Let's not expect a classical opera, however. 'The acoustic instruments are electronically amplified, and the voices will be processed by special effects,' says Natalia Korczakowska and stresses that the libretto of "Lost Highway", largely based on Lynch's film (and even on songs, even Lou Reed "This magic moment"), and the National Forum of Music, the effects will have to be arranged in a completely new way.
The original work of David Lynch is a story of a couple (Fred and Renee), who are video taped every step of their way. When a crime is recorded, and the tape clearly shows that the culprit is Renee, Fred's partner, the situation becomes more and more complicated, and the protagonists turns out not to be not who we thought them to be, as usual in Lynch's works.
The audience of New Horizons can expect yet another film feast - a six-hour opera film "River of Foundation" by Matthew Barney, an American artist, filmmaker, performer and experimentalist, loosely based on the main themes of the novel "Ancient Evenings" by Norman Mailer, about a special pilgrimage - a reverse journey - from death to life. As usual with Barney, he dazzles with the philosophical layer, but also the visual one.
