About the courage to be yourself, why the dog became the main visual element of the festival, what the opening film is this year, which films were awarded, and how to find that piece close to your heart – we talk with Giedre Krikščiūnaite, the head and program curator of “Bear, Lion and Twig”.
– This year’s festival slogan is “The courage to be yourself”. How was it born and how does it reflect the theme of the films?
– The slogan was born from the films themselves. Watching them, I realized that very different stories are united by the courage to be yourself – even if it is uncomfortable, does not meet others’ expectations, or means the need to change something in your life. I think today it is a kind of luxury: to remain yourself and have the freedom to live your life.
– This year the festival features 14 films, of which 12 are the latest cinema works. From which film did the program start, and what theme did it inspire?
– The foundations of the festival began to take shape back in February at the Berlin Film Festival with İlker Çatak’s drama “Yellow Letters,” which won the main award – the Golden Bear. The story set in Turkey was filmed in Germany, and the creators did not try to hide it. On the contrary, they made fiction a visible part of the film. It was this tension between what we see and what we accept as reality that dictated the first theme “Fiction and Reality”.
Watching films at Berlinale, I also realized that one thematic direction would be about different families. There I saw the heart-grabbing melodrama “We Are Not Strangers” by Anthony Chen, where people are connected not by blood ties, and Karim Aïnouz’s film “Pruning the Rosebush,” featuring an eccentric family played by the brightest film stars, including Pamela Anderson. Thus, the program “Familiar-Strangers” was born: different family models and the question of what family really is.
The boundaries between documentary and fiction were blurred by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s “The Loneliest Man in Town,” which dictated the direction of the program “Silent Life”: stories about loneliness and people living at a slower, personal rhythm of life.
– Films from Berlin make up almost half of the festival films, and what came from the prestigious Cannes Festival, and what themes did they cover?
– At Cannes, the program “Youth at Lightning Speed” was formed – all three films came from there. It is a sensitive story about friendship by Clio Barnard, “I See How Houses Fall at Lightning Speed,” which we chose as the festival’s opening film. After seeing this film, viewers will understand why it was chosen. I watched it twice and both times my fingers trembled.
The other two films are Katharina Rivilis’s “I Won’t Be Here in June,” one of whose producers is the well-known director Wim Wenders, and Marine Atlan’s “Gradiva,” which won the main award at Cannes Critics’ Week. They are united by youth, self-discovery, and that life stage when everything changes at lightning speed.
Read more World Cup star announces farewell to the national team
Cannes also supplemented other festival programs. The duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, also known as Los Javis, with “Black Bullet,” which won the Best Director award at Cannes, and Lukas Dhont’s “Coward,” whose lead actors won Best Actor awards, were included in the program “Fiction and Reality”.
The emotional drama “Beloved Person” by Rodrigo Sorogoyen with Javier Bardem was included in the program “Familiar-Strangers,” and “Silent Lives” was enriched by Valeska Grisebach’s “Dreamy Adventure,” which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and the gentle story “Kale” by Dominga Sotomayor. Thus, Cannes became a very important part of the entire festival program puzzle this year.
– Which director’s film retrospective will be featured at the festival this year?
– We continue our tradition of presenting the path of young creators. This year, the retrospective is dedicated to the young Belgian director L. Dhont, and we will show all three of his films: “Girl” (2018), “Close” (2022), and the latest – “Coward”. I am interested not only in discovering the director but also in observing how he grows and how his style changes with each film. Shown together, these films naturally speak about the main festival theme – the courage to be yourself.
– Who inspired this year’s visual design and the main character? What is his story?
– The dog became this year’s main visual element not by chance. At Cannes, both main “Palm Dog” awards were won by films from “Bear, Lion and Twig”: the main prize went to Yuri from “Kale,” and the Grand Jury Prize to Lola from “I See How Houses Fall at Lightning Speed.” After such Cannes, it seemed that the festival hero simply had to be a dog: free, a bit mischievous, and living by its own rules.
– Who created this year’s visual part and the festival’s musical track?
– For several years now, the festival visuals have been painted by artist Elena Maya, and the original festival music is created by DJ and music producer Rafael Mamedov. Their work has already become an integral part of the festival’s identity.
– Most festival directors are new, rising names. How can viewers find their films, and what will help them choose?
– The five festival programs are a kind of map for the viewer and allow choosing according to the theme or mood closest to them at the moment. We want people to come not only for a name they already know but also to discover a film they knew nothing about yesterday.
This year, the festival website will also have a place for the viewers’ voice. “My Film” is an opportunity to mark the film or films that touched them the most. We are interested not in choosing the best but in understanding which stories move our viewers and stay with them after the screening.
Read more Paramedic Mantas Sadauskas’ suspected murderer spouse remains detained for another month
