INDO CINE APPRECIATION FOUNDATION in association with The Delegation of the European Union to India, Alliance Française of Madras & Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai are organizing the 24th EUROPEAN UNION FILM FESTIVAL from 24 June 2019 – 4 July 2019.
The festival will be inaugurated by Mr. Mark Van de Vreken, Consul-General, Consulate General of the Kingdom of Belgium, Chennai. The other Distinguished Guests are Mr. Bruno Plasse (Director, Alliance Française of Madras), Mr. Helmut Schippert (Director, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai), Dr Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti (Industrialist & Philanthropist) and Dr. Susan Marthandan (Director, Hindustan College of Arts and Science). Mr Sivan Kannan, President – ICAF presides.
Venue : Alliance Francaise of Madras, Chennai & Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
Date : 24th June to 4th July 2019
1. Hope/France/2013/Dir.: Boris Lojkine/91 min/June 24/6.30 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
Deep in the Sahara desert, as they try to get to Europe, Léonard, a young man from Cameroon, rescues Hope, a Nigerian woman. In a fiercely hostile world where safety requires staying with one’s own people, these two try to find their way together, and to love each other.Wins: 4 Nominations: 1
2. Return of Sergeant Lapins/Latvia/2010/Dir.: Gatis Smits/90 min/June 24/8.00 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
After recovering from an overseas mission, Krists Lapins moves into a quiet neighbourhood in Riga. His hopes for a new, peaceful life are disrupted when an unexpected visitor arrives one night. Krists soon finds himself in a swirl of events. Wins: 1 Nominations: 6
3. King of the Belgians/Belgium/2016/Dir.: Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth/93 min/June 25/6.00 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
A dormant King gets lost in the Balkans and awakens to the real world. King Nicolas III is a lonely soul who has the distinct feeling he’s living the wrong life. He embarks on a state visit to Istanbul with a British filmmaker, Duncan Lloyd.Wins: 9 Nominations: 34
4. Bubblegum/Bulgaria/2017/Dir.: Stanislav Todorov/104 min/June 25/7.30 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
Bubblegum is a tribute to the generation of kids who grew up in Bulgaria during the 80s – collecting stickers from chewing gums and playing games outdoors. The story glimpses into the lives of two kids, now adults – Kalin (35) and Biliyana (35) who meet again after 25 years.Win: 1
5. Rosemarie/Cyprus/2016/Dir.: Adonis Florides/113 min/June 26/5.30 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
A burned out soap opera writer turns his gaze upon his dysfunctional neighbours, but gets more than the inspiration he bargained for… Costas, an uninspired soap opera writer struggling with writer’s block, is under pressure by his producer to deliver new episodes.
6. Styx/Austria/2018/Dir.: Wolfgang Fischer/94 min/June 26/7.15 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
Rike – 40, a doctor from Europe – embodies a typical Western model of happiness and success. She is educated, confident, determined and committed. We see Rike‘s everyday life, as an emergency doctor, before she fulfils a long-held dream and sails out to sea alone in her sailing boat.
7. Tender Waves/Czech Republic/Dir.: 2013/Dir.: Jirí Vejdelek/94 min/June 27/5.00 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
The movie “Tender Waves” by popular Czech filmmaker Jiri Vejdelek appears to combine a hit-making formula of romantic comedy and nostalgia. The shy protagonist Vojta is torn between a choleric father who wants him to become a professional swimmer and a mother who sees him as a talented pianist.
8. A Fortunate Man/Denmark/2018/Dir.: Bille August/168 min/June 27/6.30 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
On his quest for happiness, Per decides to leave Jutland and an upbringing in a strict religious home. He runs from his family and his patriarch father and sets sail towards Copenhagen to become an engineer. Parallel to his studies, he works on a visionary energy project, so much ahead of its time.Wins: 5 Nominations: 12
9. Laugh or Die/Finland/2018/Dir.: Heikki Kujanpää/103 min/June 28/7 pm | Alliance Francaise of Madras
1918, Finland after the Civil War. The famous actor of the Workers’ Theatre, Parikka, is caught and sent to a prison camp where his remaining comrades languish on the verge of death. All the red rebels at the camp are going to be executed. Parikka’s situation among his comrades is not comforting. Win: 1
“Little England” is an epic tale of lost love and a beautiful story of the love between sisters, set in the Greek island of Andros at the beginning of the 20th century. Mina is a matriarch, a woman who runs the lives of her daughters Orsa and Mosca. Orsa, elder of the two, is beautiful and in love with Spyros, but Mina makes her marry another man.Wins: 9 Nominations: 9
Each one in its path, travellers are together and are starting to interact. We’re strangers until something brings us together. If we open up, we notice that we have what to share with those around us. At the end of the journey, at the next station, each one comes out altered in its own way.
Ever since her mom died when she was 15, María has taken care of her father & siblings. Responsible and controlling, she has always been the strong pillar of her family, a role which she is proud of. When the father suddenly declares his love for his nurse Cahcita, María feels her life is falling apart.
13. The Troupe/Hungary/2018/Dir.: Pál Sándor/102 min/June 30/4.30 pm | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
When a handful of travelling actors perform a play, an angry fist fight erupts. A young soldier sides with them in the scuffle. After he is forced to flee, the troupe takes him in and together, they rattle in a cart from village to village, on their way to Budapest.
It’s 1847 and Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years. Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and reunite with his estranged family.Nomination: 1
Antonio is 25-year-old boy who grew up in a small Sicilian village. Today he’s living in Brussels and life’s expenses begin to bear heavily on him. Having no one to go home to, he decides to sell the property he inherited from his grandfather and cover his financial needs.
16. Ashes in the Snow/Lithuania/2018/Dir.: Marius A. Markevicius/98 min/July 1/6.00 pm | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
In 1941, an aspiring Lithuanian artist and her family are deported to Siberia amidst Stalin’s brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. In a seemingly hopeless place, love is the only means of survival. But will love be enough to keep them alive?
17. Of Time and the Sea/Malta/2018/Dir.: Pál Sándor/94 min/July 1/7.30 pm | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
Of Time and the Sea, Peter Sant’s debut feature, is a film about a stasis and slow change. On a three island archipelago, a crippled ageing king, whose kingdom has crumbled, lives in a mould-infested bunker with his two daughters.
18. Diamantino /Portugal/2018/Dirs.: Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt/92 min/July 2/6.00 pm | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
Diamantino, the world’s premiere soccer star loses his special touch and ends his career in disgrace. Searching for a new purpose, the international icon sets on a delirious odyssey where he confronts neo-fascism, the refugee crisis, genetic modification, and the hunt for the source of genius.
Backstage tells the story of a talented dance group from a small Slovak town, which strives for a breakthrough in the show business. But once they enter this crazy world and take part in a TV dance competition, their friendship, loves and outlooks on life are changed.
When street pusher Minna can’t pay her rent she cheats a few young criminals on a drug deal and takes the money. She happens to meet Katja, mother of a child who has been taken by the social authorities. The movie is about Minna’s struggle to survive in a society lacking solidarity and responsibility.Wins: 6 Nominations: 2
With incredible strength and positive energy, Deborah Feldman, Leyla Hussein, Rokudenashiko, Doris Wagner and Vithika Yadav are fighting for sexual liberation and autonomy for women, beyond religious rules and cultural barriers. But their victory comes at a high price.Wins: 6 Nominations: 5
22.Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle/Netherlands/2017/Dir.: Mike Van Diem/90 min/July 4/5.30 pm | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
Tulipani tells the story of a romantic Dutch farmer named Gauke (Gijs Naber) who after losing his farm during the floods of 1953 is determined to never ever have wet socks again. He cycles to the sizzling hot south of Italy to start a new life and ends up at the outskirts of a small village in Puglia.Wins: 7 Nominations: 2
23. Me and Kaminski/Germany/2015/Dir.: Wolfgang Becker/120 min/July 4/7.00 pm | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan | Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
Germany in the 90s: art critic Sebastian Zöllner is on the hunt for glory. He wants to write a tell-all book about Manuel Kaminski, a once prominent, now almost forgotten painter, pupil of Matisse and friend of Picasso, who’s retreated to a chalet in Graubünden and has long been blind.Nominations: 6
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