FEST International Film Festival opens in Belgrade

BELGRADE. The 43rd FEST International Film Festival solemnly opened its doors on the evening of February 27 in the Belgrade center of Sava. The opening ceremony was held by the mayor of Belgrade, Sinis Mali. In his speech, he emphasized that the organizers of the film festival intend to restore his prestige in the international cinema.

So, during 10 festival days (from February 27 to March 8), 133 films will be shown at six movie venues of the city, 90 of which are premieres. 15 films from Turkey, Italy, Greece, Germany, Georgia, Chile, Great Britain, Jordan, Hungary, France, Croatia and Russia will take part in the main competition program. Russia will be represented in the competition by the film "Fool" by Yuri Bykov (2014).

This year, Russian cinema is in the focus of special attention of FEST. It is worth noting that the opening ceremony for Russia was marked by the presentation of the award “Belgrade Winner”, awarded for outstanding contribution to cinema, to Russian director Alexander Sokurov. As part of the film forum, he will give a master class, as well as a retrospective of his film works. The films “Days of the Sign” (1988), “Mother and Son” (1997), “Conscription” (1998), “Russian Ark” (2002), “Father and Son” (2003), “Alexandra” (2007) will be shown and Faust (2011).

In the framework of the non-competitive FEST program from Russia, such films as “Mary’s Lovers”, “White Nights of the Postman Alexei Tryapitsin” by director Andrei Konchalovsky and “It is Hard to Be a God” by Alexei German will also be presented.

On the last day of the film festival and on International Women’s Day on March 8, the organizers prepared a special surprise. At the closing ceremony of the FEST and the award ceremony, the European premiere of the Russian film "Battalion" directed by Dmitry Meskhiev will be held. This film tells about a special women’s battalion, created in 1917 during the First World War.

Svetlana Korableva © Gallerix.ru