Days of European Film 2009

The 16th annual Days of European Film festival will take place at Prague cinemas Světozor and Lucerna from April 16th to the 23, before moving to Brno and Olomouc from the 25th to the 30th. A smaller event than the likes of the recent FebioFest, some 30+ well-chosen films from around Europe are presented, mostly semi-recent, lower-profile flicks that have been touring the festival circuit for the past year(s). Bonus for native English-speaking auds: most of the foreign-language films will be screening with English subtitles.

For full details & a schedule of screenings, head on over to www.eurofilmfest.cz.

–    Pere Portabella´s The Silence Before Bach, an experimental melding of cinema and Bach that spans a variety of times and countries, which recently screened as part of Febio Fest.

–    Paul Kieffer´s Arabian Nights, a Luxembourg/Austria/Belgium co-production that Variety´s Alissa Simon calls “first-rate fest material.”

–    Radu Muntean´s Boogie, which opens the fest on Thursday the 16th and comes from a burgeoning Romanian film industry and the director of The Paper Will be Blue.

–    Natasha Arthy’s Fighter, a Danish kung fu drama with martial arts choreography by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s Xian Gao.

–    Doris Doerrie’s Cherry Blossoms: Hanami, one of the fest’s higher-profile offerings, a story of a grieving widower that has been widely praised on the festival circuit (and has also recently received a limited theatrical run in the US.)

–    Leo, a low-budget revenge drama from Swedish director Josef Fares.

–    Dutch rom-com Love is All, which was a hit in its home country, directed by Joram Lürsen and starring Carice van Houten (Verhoeven’s Black Book).

–    Mataharis, from Spanish director Icíar Bollaín, following up 2003’s impressive Take My Eyes.

Two English-language films also screen at the fest, both from Ireland: Niall Heery’s Small Engine Repair, which stars Iain Glen as an aspiring country musician, and Marian Quinn’s feature debut 32A, a coming-of-age story that stars the director’s brother, Aidan.

Other notables include Zrinko Ogresta´s Behind the Glass, Grigoris Karantinakis’ Chariton’s Choir, Semih Kaplanoglu’s Egg, Antonin Svoboda’s Forever Never Anywhere, Yvan Le Moine’s Robinson Crusoe variation Friday or Another Day, Martin Gypkens’s Nothing But Ghosts, Finnish director Mari Rantasila’s Ricky Rapper, and Marko Nabersnik’s Rooster’s Breakfast, from Slovenia.

Among four documentaries that center on the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, only one is screening with English subs: Jürgen Böttcher´s 1991 documentary The Wall, a visual look at Berlin after the fall of the wall. Also included in this section (but not screening with English subs) are Polish doc One Day in People´s Poland, Karel Prokop´s Memories of a Border Guard-Dog, and Miroslav Janek and Pavel Koutecký´s excellent Citizen Havel (you can find my review for that one here).

On Saturday the 18th, Kabaret Caligula presents a new revue of songs inspired by pulp films alongside improvisers Radio Ivo at Kino Světozor. Afterwards, there will be a screening of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tickets are 100 CZK, the event starts at 23:00.

Pictured: up top, Doris Doerrie’s Cherry Blossoms: Hanami; above, Mari Rantasila’s Ricky Rapper.