To all lovers of European film: ArteKino is back for the 6th consecutive year, with yet another incredible selection of 12 European films entirely free to watch (up from 10 movies in the previous years). The online Festival is aimed at cinephiles from all over Europe who are seeking original, innovative and thought-provoking European productions. You can watch films on ArteKino’s dedicated website and also on ArteKino iOS and Android app (developed in conjunction with Festival Scope). Subtitles are available in various different languages.
And what’s more: not only you can watch great European cinema from the comfort of your home, but you can also win one of the three incredible prizes below simply by voting for your favourite movie (for the ArteKino European Audience Award).
A trip to the Cannes Film Festival;
A trip to the Berlin Film Festival; or
An Angell/S smart bike.
The Cannes Film Festival takes place in May 2022. The Berlin International Film Festival takes place in February 2022. The prize includes transport by plane, train, bus, etc. from the place of residence, accreditation and accommodation for two nights on site, for one person. This stay will be organised by the BLEU BUSINESS agency in Clermont-Ferrand.
Winners of the competition will be chosen by a random draw from among the persons who have correctly completed the entry form. The draw will take place on 7/01/2021 and will be carried out by ARTE GEIE. The draw will be carried out by ARTE G.E.I.E. manually. ARTE France will inform the Winners by e-mail no later than 17/01/2022, using the information that they provided in their entry form.
We are delight to announce that the sixth edition of the ArteKino Festival will take place throughout the month of December, from the very first day of the month until the very last day of the year. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy the 12 films carefully selected exclusively for you. This is the fifth year that DMovies has teamed up with ArteKino in order to promote and bring to you 12 dirty gems of European cinema (up from 10 film in the previous years).
The online Festival is aimed at cinephiles from all over Europe who are seeking original, innovative and thought-provoking European productions. You can watch films on ArteKino’s dedicated website and also on ArteKino iOS and Android app (developed in conjunction with Festival Scope). Subtitles are available in various different languages.
Karolina Bielawska’s first feature-length documentary, Call Me Marianna, delves into the life of a middle-aged and attractive woman who previously used to be a man. This is not a regular story of a transsexual but rather one about loneliness, hope, and the price one has to pay for being ‘different’. What we see early on in the film is that Marianna lives alone with her cat and is confined to a wheelchair, and working on a theatre play with two actors.
Alienated by her mother who still calls her by her male name, even Marianna’s ex-wife and children have distanced themselves from her. Polish law requires Marianna to sue her parents in order to undergo gender reassignment, and so she begins the legal battle of self-determination.
As Inner Wars reminds us in its final post-script, Ukraine has been at war with pro-Russian separatists since 2014. It is a war without end, without resolution and without many resources; occurring in a far corner of Europe that is easy for people in the West to forget about. The Donbass region has experienced endless death, squalor and misery, with at least 13,000 people dead.
Many images of this war paint it as a male endeavour – think the unforgettably bleak images of Sergey Loznitsa’s Donbass(2018) – but hundreds of women have also made their way to the front lines. Once there, they face two enemies: the pro-Russian separatists and the patriarchal structure of the Ukrainian army.
This quietly moving drama from Swedish/Turkish director Süheyla Shwenk follows Hayat (Halima Ilter), a pregnant woman who moves to Berlin from Syria with her husband Harun (Baran Sükrü Babacan). The film finds the two struggling with their new life as Hayat’s horrific past rears its head.
Jiyan is at its best when it deals with Hayat’s background. Schwenk wisely employs a show-don’t-tell approach to the horror she witnessed by opening with a found footage explosion and then continuing to reveal brief flashbacks throughout the narrative. We experience Hayat’s nightmares as she does – sparsely and suddenly. It is clear that these events haunt her but they do not require expository explanation. Her past is always conspicuous despite the present setting.
There is a sense of deja vu. Indeed, it feels like a giallo piece, a genre of cinema popularised in the ’70s that married the more ponderous elements of detective fiction with the out and out scares of horror. And it’s quickly established that this film will be both, as the opening credits tell audiences that the parents of the Durati children were found murdered. What follows is a gripping tale that attempts to piece together an answer, but for all the prolonged silhouettes and chilling moments of introspection, the film never loses focus on the family themselves.
Indeed, many of the film’s more touching moments centre on the family themselves . Cooking pasta for dinner, they wonder how much sugar is needed for their food. Then there’s Mateo Durati (Pasquale Lioi) who masquerades like the adolescent he is, aching for escapism beyond the prism of the windows of his house. Then there’s the mother, waking from her troubled sleep to bathe in the crisp Italian air. If it reads like a Michael Apted documentary, then you’re not far off.
Happiness doesn’t appear to belong in the coastal town of director Nathalie Biancheri’s British début feature Nocturnal, originally released in 2019 and playing the 2021 edition of the ArteKino Festival. Set in Yorkshire, Painter and decorator Pete (Cosmo Jarvis) scrapes by, an isolated figure outside of his doomed relationship with Suzanne (Amy Griffiths) and casual hook-ups. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old track athlete Laurie (Lauren Coe), who has moved from Dublin struggles to fit in. Neither Pete nor Laurie have any power or influence, so it’s unsurprising that their paths should cross. Their combined status is akin to the conventional sombre tones of marginalised figures, lending the story a distinct British air.
Difficult to find a level of comfort, Nocturnal is a film tailored to appreciation instead of entertainment. Biancheri, like other British directors, including Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, understands that it’s not the directors place to entertain their audience, but to provoke their interest. She achieves this in phases – first the fear of where their relationship could lead, before a revelatory moment firmly decides the story’s intent.
Although teenage films were all the rage in the ’80s, it’s hard to find a genuine dissertation of angst amongst the films produced in the 21st century. Lomo changes all that, presenting a probing depiction of alienation, as Karl (Jonas Dassler) demonstrates rebellion through an online blog that gives the film its name. His parents don’t understand it – why should they? – and he finds himself lost in a world of suburban gateways and school exams. He’s withdrawn (he could be read as a possible Asperger’s candidate), but seems largely likeable, although the film shows a predilection for vengeance, not least when he leaks a sex tape of a fellow student on his blog.
Filmed in 2017, the film seems more prescient than ever, considering how detailed the loneliness feels, and just how frustrating it must be for this central character trapped in an eternal bubble of ennui. It all comes together in one telling scene, as Karl sits between his parents at a dinner table, their eyes focused on the bottle of wine that stands as a metaphor for their depleting relationship.
The image at the top of this article is a still from LOMO.
Get prepared for probing essay about overcoming disability to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. Filmed in Serbia, it shows three unlikely characters coming to terms with their feelings for one another. Oasis demonstrates a fondness for the little victories that can occur should our hearts be open to them.
Serbian director Ivan Ikić focuses on real-life patients, each of them living in a building for people with various disabilities. No, it’s not breaking any new ground, but there’s something strangely poetic about the film, as actors/patients peer into windows, locked in their own thoughts and imagination. It takes great courage to spend so much time inside one building (Covid has made this too great a reality for everyone in Britain), but the patients show great restraint, and take up hobbies that help the day pass quicker.
Sons have been arguing with their mothers since the beginning of time, but Paloma Sermon-Daï’s documentary shows an argument that holds greater pathos than you might think. Damien Samedi (of the film title) is asked what he would do if his mother were to die. He refuses to answer her question, which leads his mother Ysma to tell him his reticence will give her cancer. Thus the camera projects his worried face, as he comes to realise a boy’s worst fear, that his first teacher and most reliable companion may not answer him the next time he calls.
But Damien isn’t like most other boys-au contraire, he’s a 43-year-old man battling addiction. Unable to face reality, he locks himself away from the world, with only the prospect of his mother’s appearance to comfort him. In his mother, he has a best friend and a worst enemy, someone to pick him up, but there to tell him the hard truths. Like many people on this planet, he struggles to bring his internal reality outside his front gates, yet the film showcases his loneliness with gentle lyricism and infinite respect.
The “I” in the title refers to Leyla, one of three friends who have finished school, and are ready to seize their first summer of freedom. Director Karin Heberlein’s Swiss coming-of-age drama, Sami, Joe and I (Sami Joe Und Ich), opens with the evocative words of Leyla’s late mother: “Always keep more dreams in your soul than reality can destroy.” This sentiment haunts the story, as Sami (Anja Gada), Joe (Rabea Lüthi) and Leyla (Jana Sekulovska) become deflated by harsh reality.
It’s Heberlein’s intent to show the difficulties of young adulthood, that contrasts to the hopeful enthusiasm of her characters. The trio are filled with naïve and abstract notions about the future, as they should be. There is a time to dream, to feel empowered, and the prospect of escaping institutional control fuels such hopes. The director however, is not narrow-minded, and she does not lose herself in the romanticisation of youth.
Two films in one. In the former, we learn of Romanian Mugur Călinescu, who, upon listening to messages from Radio Free Europe in 1981, writes pro-democracy messages on walls in chalk. In the second, Radu Jude presents archival footage from the time. The propaganda scenes, however staged, are exciting and filled with life; the reality, however true, is artificially staged and alienating. They form a curious dialectic: Romania as it really was, and Romania as it presented itself on television.
It starts with a quote by Michel Foucault: “the resonance I feel when I happen to encounter these small lives, reduced to ashes in the few sentences that struck them down.” Starting mid-sentence, it is typical for the Romanian director, who likes to present things to you piecemeal, expecting the viewer to fill in their own details.
Part gritty, part fairytale, When The Trees Fall is a promising feature debut from director Marysia Nikitiuk. It centres on Larysa (Anastasiya Pustovit) and her little cousin Vitka (Sofia Halaimova), both of whom live with their grandmother following the death of Larysa’s father. Larysa is madly in love with troublesome heartthrob Scar (Maksym Samchyk), but their relationship is tested when his life of crime intensifies.
Right from the opening sequence When The Trees Fall reveals its greatest strength – the cinematography by Michel Englert and Mateusz Wichlacz. The opening vistas are sublime, and they continue to be throughout – the forest surrounding Larysa’s village looks fantastical without the need for visual effects. Much like Picnic At Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975), the rural landscape feels like an enchanting force. Low-budget films tend to struggle the more visually ambitious they are, but When The Trees Fall impressively avoids this for most of its runtime.
Director Jonas Bak’s German drama Wood and Water is either blessed or cursed by its stoicism. I say either because this is a particular type of film for a particular cinematic taste. Executed with patience, the director’s observational camera is as interested in the spatial as it is observing its character. The most effective description of Wood and Water may be as an amalgamation of art, story and character, however, its backbone is more plot than it is story.
As one chapter closes, another opens for Anke (Anke Bak), as she begins her retirement. Bak wastes no time in establishing the observational aesthetic that will drive his film, watching from a distance Anke pray, then depart the church where she’s worked as an administrator. She cycles home, the camera watching from its birds eye view as she disappears into the distance, among the rooftops of rural German homes.
We are now halfway through ArteKino. The Festival takes places during the entire month of December, bringing to you 10 European dirty gems entirely free to watch online, plus a number of exciting goodies (including a trip to Switzerland).
The online Festival is aimed at cinephiles from all over Europe who are seeking original, innovative and thought-provoking European productions. You can watch films on ArteKino’s dedicated website and also on ArteKino iOS and Android app (developed in conjunction with Festival Scope). Subtitles are available in ten different languages: English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
And you can win prizes: one stay at the Locarno Film Festival, (accreditation, transport from their place of residence and accommodation on site) for one spectator, drawn at random from all those registered on the site who viewed and voted for at least 7 of the 10 films in the competition of the Festival; and 50 Google connected objects for 50 spectators, drawn at random from all those registered on the site who viewed and voted for at least 3 of the 10 films in the Festival competition.
Find out what Olivier Père, the Festival’s artistic director (who is also the director of Arte France Cinéma), has to say about the ArteKino film selection, the pandemic, the future of movie theatres and more:
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Victor Fraga – Please share with us the dirty secrets of ArteKino’s curating procedure!
Olivier Père – When selecting films, we don’t proceed like other festivals. There are no submissions and no committee selection. The selection process is unique, just like the festival. We choose the films from among the large number of new European films presented in various festivals and available in our 45 territories, in collaboration with international film sales companies. Sometimes the sales companies suggest titles from their catalogues, but most of the time we choose films from the competition or sidebar sections of Locarno, Berlin, Venice, Cannes, Sundance, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, etc.
VF – What is the film didn’t make it to one of those festivals?
OP – When we haven’t seen a given film during a festival, we ask the producer or the sale agent for a screening link. The purpose of the ArteKino Festival is not to show new films in the world or international premieres, as it is for most festivals, but to give films larger audiences and recognition in Europe, ultimately promoting films in territories where they have never been shown before.
VF – What qualities do you look for in a film?
OP – Our challenge is to show the versatility and creativity of new European cinema today. We value gender parity and we are happy to say female directors are well represented and active in Europe among the new generation of filmmakers. We seek out cinema in every country because we also value the diversity of languages and cultures. Each film comes from a different country.
VF – Do any geographies stand out?
OP – There are new exciting films in Eastern Europe, as well as in Scandinavian countries. We also pay a lot of attention to Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc. The four previous editions were limited to 50,000 spectators (5,000 per film) and the success of 2019 has led us to de-scale the number of possible viewings.
VF – How has Covid-19 impacted ArteKino?
OP – Most of the films in the selection were first discovered during festivals in 2019 or early 2020, before the Covid-19 crisis. So, the crisis did not have a strong impact on the selection of the Arte Kino Festival this year. However, we could notice the growing number of good arthouse films that can’t find theatrical release anymore, even in countries with a solid cinephile tradition like France. It is a pity, but it helps our festival to show better films across many territories.
VF – Do you think people will stop going to the cinema in 2021?
OP – We don’t pretend to be a substitute for arthouse theaters, but rather a complement. The new and difficult environment gives us the opportunity to help films exist outside physical festivals (when they occur) and to introduce them to an eager community of film lovers.
We are delight to announce that the fifth edition of the ArteKino Festival will take place throughout the month of December, from the very first day of the month until the very last day of the year. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy the 10 films carefully selected exclusively for you. This is the fourth year that DMovies has teamed up with ArteKino in order to promote and bring to you 10 dirty gems of European cinema.
The online Festival is aimed at cinephiles from all over Europe who are seeking original, innovative and thought-provoking European productions. You can watch films on ArteKino’s dedicated website and also on ArteKino iOS and Android app (developed in conjunction with Festival Scope). Subtitles are available in ten different languages: English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
Once you have finished watching your favourite movies, you can rate them on a scale 1 to 5. The film with the highest score will receive the European Audience Award of €20,000. In addition, a jury of six to 10 young Europeans, aged between 18 and 25, will select a movie to win an award of €10,000. The young Europeans will be invited to Paris for the European Audience Award and the Young Public Award Ceremony in January.
There will also audience awards: one stay at the Locarno Film Festival, (accreditation, transport from their place of residence and accommodation on site) for one spectator, drawn at random from all those registered on the site who viewed and voted for at least 7 of the 10 films in the competition of the Festival; and 50 Google connected objects for 50 spectators, drawn at random from all those registered on the site who viewed and voted for at least 3 of the 10 films in the Festival competition.
Documentarist duo Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova have switched from the confines of archival footage to a different style of storytelling. Bridging the gap between family comedy and drama, Mileva and Kazakova’s first fiction feature follows a Bulgarian single parent called Irina (Irina Atanasova). She is a mother eager to keep her son from the realities of a country that has voted to stop immigrants such as them. Surrounding her son with a select group of children, the diversity of race which educates her son feels at odds with the lifestyle their more affluent neighbours uphold. One family aches for universality, the other individuality, but both clash over the wonders a wandering cat brings to their homes.
For most people an airport is a transitory place. It is where they spend a few hours when they travel. Some might even stay overnight, if you miss your flight and are forced to sleep in the terminal (like it one happened to me once, and I wouldn’t recommend the experience to anyone). For refugees in Tempelhof Airport of Berlin, the transit is far more extensive. They can spend weeks, months or even years living in the hangars before their future is determined by German authorities. They come from places as varied as Syria, Afghanistan and the Donetsk region of the Ukraine.
Tempeholf is a magnificently ugly, oppressively calm and yet strangely liberating place. Central Airport THF quickly delves into the building history in the beginning of the film. Some sort of tour guide shows the gigantic building to attentive visitors. We learn that the Airport was originally built in the 1920s, and it was intended to become the world’s biggest and most impressive, had Hitler won the War. We are then abruptly brought back into the present, where the building is used as shelter for refugees.
This Dutch-Croatian film concerns the ethics of drone strikes and the toll it takes on those who operate them. Our focaliser is Ivan (Gregoire Colin), a French drone pilot working for the US military whose job calls for him to kill people on the other side of the world. Despite his remoteness, Ivan feels their presence on an acutely personal level. He wants to know their names and how to pronounce them. He traces his drone activity on Google Maps too, locating the buildings he’s destroyed. All of this, of course, results in self-flagellation.
Italy, the country of renaissance, religion and rhetoric, is the subject of Chiara Campara’s quietly beautiful Lessons of Love, a story steeped in culture and contradiction. At the centre of this story is Yuri (Leonardo Lidi), a rural farmer searching for a meaning beyond the mouths of the cows who have fended him, much as he has fended them. At 30 years of age, Yuri is seasoned enough to have mastered the craft of farming, but still seems young enough to find love in a city even wilder than the animals he and his father hold. There, he meets Agata, a striptease artist anxious to open up his body to pleasures emanating beyond the physical.
In this Swiss dramedy, Seconda (Barbara Giordano) is in the depths of agoraphobia, living in a cramped apartment with her mother and father, both of them dejected by her presence. We see only a glimpse of how they interact, but it seems that Seconda spends her time either sleeping or prancing excitedly as part of some hyperactive exercise regimen.
She has no qualms about her presentation either, darting around in only knickers and a leotard, which she adjusts – her right leg hoisted on an armchair – in full view of the camera. We also see her floss her teeth and smell the gunk afterwards. Then there’s the moment Seconda picks her nose as she receives a phone call from Henry (Gilles Privat), a demented admirer who professes his love for her ‘swan like elegant gestures’, such is the film’s dry, earthy sense of humour.
The picture at the top of this article is from Love Me Tender.
Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, a woman returns to her native Lithuania to reclaim her family home. It has been 20 years since Viktorija (Severija Janusauskaite) fled, escaping to America where she married and began a new life. Now weary from her divorce and driven by nostalgic memories, she returns with her American-born son, Kovas (Matas Metlevski), who naively believes they’ll soon be returning to the U.S. In spite of her family’s scepticism, she trusts that Romas (Darius Gumauskas), an old friend and romantic acquaintance can help her. Their plans however are complicated when they find a poor Russian family living out of the run down estate.
Ivana is perfectly healthy. Multiple trips to the doctor make sure that there’s absolutely nothing physically wrong with her. But she’s convinced of her own sickness. Constantly claiming her hair is falling out while complaining of dizziness, she might be the most memorable hypochondriac since Woody Allen’s Mickey in Hannah and her Sisters. Played with perfect irascibility by director Ivana Mladenovic, she lashes out at friend and family alike, providing a bristly portrait of a returning expat who really doesn’t enjoy being home.
Based on a true summer in 2017 of the Serbian-born, Romania-based director, when she returned to the border town of Kladovo, Ivana the Terrible provides the metafictional director with plenty of space for self-reflection and insight. It comments on the relations between the two Balkan nations with tenderness and acuity. There’s a lot to absorb that might goes over the head of those not well-versed in inter-Balkan relations.
Drawing on nearly five years of material, Beria showcases a vision of prison life far removed from the “hotels” Manny Ray promised his boss in Scarface (Brian de Palma, 1983). Instead, Beria opens our eyes to a Georgian hovel, underfunded and overcrowded, crowbarring more and more criminals into the detention centre. It’s here that we come across a pair of professional rugby players, eager to demonstrate a love of craft in a building where violence, vitriol and venom bring challenges unheard of on a rugby pitch. From somewhere between the prison bars and shadow shapes that amuse these men in their lonesome surroundings, comes a quietly beautiful tribute to a sport that unites millions around the world.
Crumbling beneath the weight of a fallen Soviet Union, the characters capture the fire that built the spiralling union by igniting a prison riot within the shelters of confinement.
In the eternally recycled world of rockumentary, the artist in question – from the biting John Lydon to the wiry Robbie Robertson – aches to present themselves as the provocateur they spent a legion of fans persuading. Sebastien Tellier offers no such pretence, but revels in a confidence that crackles in a presence of dazzling ingenuity. Steeped in the mysticism of a ’70s Pink Floyd record, Tellier walked the tightrope between succinct and suicidal in a stage set that made headlines as much for its ambition as it did for the material.
The year is 2004. The Olympic Games are finally returning to their birthplace of Greece. Along with the Russian Olympic team, Misha (Victor Khomut) arrives in Athens for the first time to be reunited with his mother. He is a true little Russian boy, with a Gera the Krokodil t-shirt and a Cheburashka doll affixed to his backpack, a reference to the two stars of the classic Soviet animation. Nervous to be in a new country, things turn worse when his mother Sofia (Valery Tscheplanowa) introduces him to his father-in-law Mr Nikos (Thanasis Papageorgiou).
Using the familial conflict genre while refracting it through dark fairy tales that reference both Greek and Russian traditions, Son of Sofia is a reflection on matters both domestic and national. The first sense we get that this relationship is somewhat transactional is reflected through Sofia’s marriage to Mr Nikos, who didn’t really marry him for love but in order to secure financial stability and as a means to get her son across to Greece.
Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, a woman returns to her native Lithuania to reclaim her family home. It has been 20 years since Viktorija (Severija Janusauskaite) fled, escaping to America where she married and began a new life. Now weary from her divorce and driven by nostalgic memories, she returns with her American-born son, Kovas (Matas Metlevski), who naively believes they’ll soon be returning to the U.S. In spite of her family’s scepticism, she trusts that Romas (Darius Gumauskas), an old friend and romantic acquaintance can help her. Their plans however are complicated when they find a poor Russian family living out of the run down estate.
We feel sympathy for Viktorija, who is compelled by the simple desire to reconnect with her heritage. She no longer wishes to remember her homeland, but wants to unite her spiritual ethnicity with the physical space. She’s a fascinating character because the home she seeks to reclaim is one she would often run away from when she was a child. The urgency of her intent however is undeniable.
Details of her younger self and relationship she shared with her parents, who were disappeared by the Soviets, are left in the dark. As to the reason she is compelled to reclaim her family estate, she offers the ambiguous insight of a sudden fear that she would never see her home again.
The director appreciates that fragments and not the complete version of a character should be onscreen. He’s content to leave it to his audience to not necessarily fill in the blanks, but to question the finer details of the persona. Is she someone who through childhood and adulthood has found it impossible to be content, to feel settled? Answers aside, what contributes to our sympathy is that she’s a victim of a life forcibly taken from her, that defines her childhood and ends her marriage.
Motherland is Viktorija’s story, but with shades of a coming-of-age drama. At the airport, Kovas sneakily buys a pornographic magazine, and his mother will later scold him when she discovers it. The drama represses the coming-of-age angle, instead local girls are framed with his sexual gaze, and he discreetly watches his mother and Romas have sex.
This summer is Kovas’ final breath of the innocence and simplicity of youth. He offers gum to local kids, hangs out with them as they drink and smoke, and Romas’ daughter Marija (Barbora Bareikyte) teaches him how to drive. What lies ahead of him are the complicated realities of adulthood, but this last breath is missing the joy – he knows that this will be remembered as a troubling time.
The filmmaker skilfully balances intimacy and distance by positioning us so that we don’t always see the adults meet to discuss resolving the dispute. Instead we only hear parts of what’s planned, spending time with the youngsters or observing interactions from a distance. And yet, the music creates a feeling of Viktorija’s yearning for this spiritual and spatial reconnection. It conveys her nostalgia and by casting a dreamlike impression on moments, we can sense her inner thoughts and feelings.
There’s much to like here in Vengris’ Lithuanian drama about two tragic souls who try to belong, but whose futures remain uncertain. If there’s a deeper reflection, then it’s the mistake that she tries to fix the past, failing to realise that she has resolved it by moving on and forging a new life in Boston. But the past refuses to let go of her, or is it she that will not let go of the past?
The story Viktorija remembers from her youth in her narration is a simple touch that reveals the filmmakers sensitivity. It adds a layer that impresses the merit of Motherland, effectively juxtaposing a childish fantasy with adulthood reality. It suggests that the monsters in fairy tales and a child’s imagination pale in comparison to the real hurt that people inflict on one another.
You can watch Motherland during the entire month of December (along with nine further European dirty movies) entirely for free – just click here.
We are delight to announce that the fourth edition of the ArteKino Festival will take place throughout the month of December, from the very first day of the month until the end of the year. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy the 10 films carefully selected exclusively for you!
The online Festival is aimed at cinephiles from all over Europe who are seeking original, innovative and thought-provoking European productions. You can watch films on ArteKino’s dedicated website and also on ArteKino iOS and Android app (developed in conjunction with Festival Scope). Subtitles are available in ten different languages: English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
Once you have finished watching your favourite movies, you can rate them on a scale 1 to 5. The film with the highest score will receive the European Audience Award of €20,000. The sum will be shared between the director, the producer and the international distributor, thereby encouraging a wider geographical distribution of the film. In addition, a jury of six to 10 young Europeans, aged between 18 and 25, will select a movie to win an award of €10,000. The young Europeans will be invited to Paris for the European Audience Award and the Young Public Award Ceremony in January.
They say that children are the gifts that keep on giving, yet for many couples out there, their Christmases, birthdays and anniversaries seem empty of gifts. So it is for Frank (Guido Pollemans) and Maud (Rifka Lodeizen), both now past 40, eager to put a decade of miscarriages and false starts behind them. Flying to the Andes, an awaited rebirth is marred by another miscarriage, the following argument causes Maud to abandon her husband for the barren countryside. Only through a chance encounter with 8-year-old Messi (Cristobol Farias), does Maud re-discover the value of life.
Lodeizen delivers an extraordinarily well put together performance, even if the story sounds very conventional. Twelve minutes into the film and Lodeizen clothes herself in funereal black robes, wailing at the failures her blond body holds. She holds the contrived moments with an elegiac loneliness, aching for a child of her own to carry and hold. Her travel companion is the very thing she’ll never bear, a sprightly child, fervent, feverish and full of life.
Messi and Maud is also pictured at the top of this article.
An unsettling visual journey through gender norms in contemporary society. Immersed in a kaleidoscopic mosaic of visually powerful scenes, viewers experience the ritualised performance of femininity and masculinity hidden in ordinary interactions, from birth to adulthood.
Isolating the slightly grotesque, uncanny elements surrounding our everyday life, NORMAL meditates on what remains imperceptible about it – its governing norms, its inner mechanisms. The result is that what counts as ‘normal’ does not feel so reassuring, anymore.
Fifteen-year-old Frida assumes to be the class outsider. In this world of the “Generation Perfect”, the other kids at school agree: Frida is so weird. Marius does pretty much everything he can to be exemplary. When the two are paired up as study buddies, he sees it as another opportunity to show everyone what a great guy he is. But Frida has no intention of being “fixed” by the class golden boy.
Their study sessions become the catalyst for a turbulent relationship. Yet in his fights with Frida, Marius also experiences something exciting, challenging and completely new.
Ruth is about football, but, apart from a brief sequence at the end, there are no scenes of the great game being played. Instead, this movieuses sport as a means to explore Portugal’s colonial legacy, delivering a tale of a changing nation.
The year is 1958, the country is Portuguese Mozambique and the city is Lourenço Marques (now called Maputo), introduced in an opening montage as the “Jewel of the Indian Ocean”. Our protagonist Eusébio (Igor Regalla) is a young black lad from the streets, impressing everyone he meets with his devastating footballing skills. Playing for Sporting de Lourenço Marques, he is noticed by white Portuguese scouts for Benfica, who regularly travel to Mozambique to find players who can play for clubs back home.
The artist must look in many places in order to find their muse. For Fonnard, capturing the untamed spirit of the wandering refugee brought wasn’t a mere altruistic gesture. Captured under the slanted camera angles, Fonnard cuts vegetables with Ahmad, sharing a community of comradeship and love. Exchanging lyrics of a poetic and musical nature, the intertwined art forms form the basis for a concert that might prove Fonnard’s purest work. With Ahmad at her side, Fonnard has a new muse, a new mirror and, most importantly, a dear friend.
This is one of the more compelling documentaries of the year, detailing the companionship that close quarters can both bring and inhibit. For a generation of viewers versed in Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, this might not come across as something entirely original, but Narboni’s piece feels genuinely organic, instead of tediously automated.
Alessandro and Pietro are 16 years-old and live in Naples, district of Traiano where, in the summer of 2014, Davide Bifolco, also 16, was shot by a policeman who mistook him for a fugitive. They are inseparable friends, Alessandro works as a waiter in a bar, Pietro dreams to become a hairdresser. Alessandro and Pietro accept the director’s proposal to shoot themselves with an iPhone, commenting live on their own daily experiences, their close friendship, their neighbourhood – now empty, in the middle of summer – and the tragedy that ended Davide’s life.
Shakespeare famously proclaims in Hamlet: “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark”. In Sons of Denmark something is indeed very rotten in the Scandinavian country. Forget nice social democrat Denmark, the land of hygge, Danish pastries and the Little Mermaid. This is a country where migrants live in fear of vicious, xenophobic gangs, where pigs’ heads are deposited where Muslims gather, and random acid attacks are made on innocent foreigners. This film is an impressive debut by its director and writer Ulaa Salim. Made by the migrant community in Denmark, mainly Syrian and Iraqi, and their sympathisers, it portrays a country of cruel disdain for those who seem just a bit different.
Based on true events, Stitches takes place in contemporary Belgrade, 18 years after a young seamstress was coldly informed of her newborn’s sudden death. She still believes the infant was stolen from her. Dismissed by others as paranoid and with a mother’s determination she summons the strength for one last battle against the police, the hospital bureaucracy and even her own family to uncover the truth.
A couple and their teenage son live on a hilltop, doing the laundry for local hotels, despite the intermittent water supply. Their simple life is overturned by the arrival of a father-and-daughter team of diviner and well-digger, who promise to bring an end to this precarious existence by finding a source on their arid hill. But ultimately, these newcomers quench a thirst that is much stronger than that for mere water.
This somewhat millennial take on the midlife crisis follows a bunch of friends in a hip Berlin neighbourhood for 24 hours while they celebrate – or at least attempt – the birthday of one of them. The German drama, which premiered in Rotterdam earlier this year and is available online throughout December as part of the ArteKino Festival, is a snapshot of the existential ennui of the 30-somethings.
The writer Övünç (Övünç Güvenisik) turns 30 and calls upon his mates to party, all the while coping with a severe creative block. His friend Pascal (Pascal Houdus) is coming to terms with a bad breakup with Raha (Raha Emami Khansari), a struggling actress with bouts of depression. Other members of the group – such as Henner (Henner Borchers) and Kara (Kara Schröder) – also deal with insecurities. Together, they venture outside in order to enjoy life, although internally, they have no clue how to begin.
ArteKino is back this month only. Until December 31st, you can watch 10 dirty gems* of European cinema entirely for free and without budging from the comfort of your sofa, chair, desk or bed! the selection includes five films made by women directors. Film-lovers from 45 European countries will be able to explore a rich selection of films by established directors and also nascent filmmakers, along with outstanding performances by a new generation of on-screen talent.
*Only eight films are available to view in the UK, and there are restrictions in other countries, too.
Image at the top by Bertrand Noel. Images below from Flemish Heaven and L’Animale, respectively.
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DMovies – When and how did Artekino begin? Where did the idea come from? What are the aims and objectives of the initiative?
Olivier Pere – The idea behind the ArteKino Festival was born three years ago, when ARTE was looking to increase its support for European cinema in an innovative way. We came up with a completely digital festival that would be free for internet users all across Europe. Over the course of three editions, we have refined the way in which the festival operates, but the initial principle and goals remain the same: promoting the distribution and recognition of independent European cinema by selecting 10 remarkable arthouse films from major international festivals that have not found their way into theatres outside of their home country.
DM – Tell us about the curatorship. How do you view and select the films each year?
OP – I am in charge of the artistic direction of the festival. I identify films at festivals and in international sales agents’ catalogues. I see some of the films at festivals, and most of the time sales agents send me links to films that I ask for in order to make my selection.
DM – You describe your selection as “10 bold films”. What’s your definition of “bold” and of “art cinema”, and what are the selection criteria for your films?
OP – I choose films according to their quality, their originality, and of course their availability. We try to offer a balanced selection that can include films of various genres, from fiction to documentary, while remaining very attentive to the diversity of European languages and cultures represented (generally one film per country) and to the gender balance of the directors. Artistic boldness can come from a film’s aesthetics or from its subject matter, and how those things relate to contemporary themes.
DM – According to an industry player, only 37% of European films are seen outside their home market. Does this reflect your experience? And what should we do in order to improve this figure?
OP – Yes, and that is why we have developed the ArteKino Festival. We look for films that have low visibility outside of their country of origin and the festival circuit. Some of these films enjoy success in their home country but have difficulty travelling beyond national borders. This is true of comedies, but also of other films. Our festival is a way of crossing borders while staying in the comfort of one’s home.
DM – What’s your message for aspiring filmmakers everywhere who’d like to see their film on ArteKino?
OP – Young directors often need international festivals to receive critical acclaim and to enable their films to travel, as well as to be sold. With the ArteKino Festival, we offer them a way of reaching new audiences by inviting viewers who don’t have easy access to new European arthouse films.
DM – What’s your message to film lovers everywhere overwhelmed by the vast choice of VoD everywhere? Why should they watch films on ArteKino?
OP – We should specify that we are campaigning for movie lovers to continue discovering films in their original birthplace – the movie theatre. ArteKino Festival acts as a complement, not a substitution. Unfortunately, due to their location, some people do not have access to movie theatres that screen arthouse cinema. And it is no longer possible to assume that all films can be distributed in theatres – there are simply too many films being made, and there is a lack of diversity in a number of countries. That is why we invite them to discover new films free of charge in this new festival format.
We are delight to announce that the third edition of the ArteKino Festival will take place throughout the month of December, from the very first day until the end of the year. This means more time to enjoy 10 films for free online (eight in the UK).
Just like in the past two years, each title has been carefully selected from the most prestigious festivals to ensure you get a taste of Europe’s exciting cinema. This year, however, ArteKino Festival has improved the accessibility of its titles by making films available in 10 languages. Audiences will have the ability to watch this year’s selection with subtitles in ARTE’s official languages (French, German, English, Italian, Spanish and Polish), and in Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian and Portuguese.
This year, the selection includes five films made by women directors. This represents a snapshot of the diverse and eclectic nature of contemporary European cinema. Viewers from 45 European countries will be able to explore a rich selection of films by established directors and also nascent filmmakers, along with outstanding performances by a new generation of on-screen talent.
Online viewers will vote to determine the winner of the ArteKino Audience Award. The award gives a shared prize of €30,000 to the filmmakers and the sales agent of the winning film. Voters will also be entered into a contest where they can win a trip to the 2019 edition of the Locarno Festival in Switzerland.
ArteKino is supported of the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union. Below is a list of the qo films (click on the title in order to accede to our dirty review, where available).
German film investigates the difficult decision that a woman has to be between having a dirty abortion and a “disgusting” severely sick and disabled child.
Hungarian film reminiscent of Michel Gondry deals with the existential realities of youth, and it’s also infused with political flavours and a heartfelt tribute to Budapest.
Call centre worker Alice begins scamming elderly women, and the interwoven consequences of her deeds could be serious.
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8. Crater (Luca Bellino and Silvia Luzzi, 2017)
Rosario works as a street seller on the fairgrounds of the suburbs of Naples. His dream to escape poverty latches onto the musical talent of his daughter Sharon.
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9. Pin Cushion (Deborah Haywood, 2017):
NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UK
Super close Mother Lyn and daughter Iona are excited for their new life in a new town.
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10. Flesh Memory (Jack Goldberg, 2018)
Finley Blake is a cam girl: she does sexual exhibition on Internet, in front of her webcam, for a living. She is 33 years old, lives alone in an isolated house in Austin, Texas.
Have you ever dreamt of attending the largest film festival in the world and witnessing all the dirty action on the red carpet and inside the cinema with your very own eyes? Well, your dream could be about to come true, as ArteKino is giving away a flight, accommodation and accreditation for the next Berlinale, which is taking place between February 15th and 25th, 2018.
All you have to do is register with ArteKino and watch their films online before December 17th, entirely free. The difficult part is that you will have to select from 10 dirtylicious and precious gems of European cinema, and you won’t know where to start. And then you have to vote. Such hard work! The amazing selection includes a Bulgarian story of lovelessness, corruption and addiction, with a twist, a Portuguese tale of sorrow and nostalgia, the life of controversial Polish surrealist painter ZdzisławBeksiński, before he rose to fame, and also a very dysfunctional macho game in Greece, plus much much more.
Click here for the full terms and conditions, including which films you can see, where and who’s eligible for the promotion.
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A little about the Berlinale
The German capital is an exciting, cosmopolitan cultural hub that never ceases to attract artists from around the world. A diverse cultural scene, a critical public and an audience of film-lovers characterise the city. In the middle of it all, the Berlinale: a great cultural event and one of the most important dates for the international film industry. More than 334,000 sold tickets, more than 21,000 professional visitors from 127 countries, including more than 3,700 journalists: art, glamour, parties and business are all inseparably linked at the Berlinale.
The public programme of the Berlin International Film Festival shows about 400 films per year, mostly international or European premieres. Films of every genre, length and format find their place in the various sections. Click here for more information on the Festival’s website.
DMovies will be at the Berlinale digging up the dirt under the red carpet. Two of our journalists, Victor Fraga and Tiago Di Mauro will attend the event. So if you are not fortunate enough to win this amazing promo, panic not. Our coverage will bring the dirtiest event highlights to you on this website.
This December you have an extra reason to stay at home. Even better: you have 10 reasons to stay at home. As if you needed yet more encouragement to trade the freezing temperatures outside for the comfort of your sofa and the company of dirty European film. The online platform for independent films Festival Scope has teamed up with the European culture channel ARTE and come up with ArteKino, a unique online film festival featuring 10 carefully selected films not available anywhere else for a limited period only. And it’s entirely free: there are to hidden catches and credit card numbers to be given out!
Each film can be viewed by 5,000 people between December 1st and December 17th on a first-come-first-saved basis, and they are available everywhere in Europe unless stated otherwise (see exceptions below). All films area available in the UK and Ireland, except for Chevalier.
These gems were carefully handpicked by Olivier Père, Director of Film at ARTE France and Artistic Director at ArteKino Festival. He explains “ArteKino is designed to be a 100% free digital event, the festival was born out of ARTE’s desire to strengthen its support for modern European arthouse films in an original manner by giving yet them greater visibility and wider distribution.”
He went on to explain how the event is curated: ” we have selected 10 films that represent the eclectic and daring trend sweeping across modern European film productions. Alongside the latest work from renowned filmmakers, we have decided to showcase new talent, with some directors’ first ambitious feature-length films that demonstrate the outstanding creative ability of the new generation from countries such as Romania, Greece and Poland.”
The amazing selection includes a Bulgarian story of lovelessness, corruption and addiction, with a twist, a Portuguese tale of sorrow and nostalgia, the life of controversial Polish surrealist painter ZdzisławBeksiński, before he rose to fame, and also a very dysfunctional macho game in Greece (pictured above), plus much much more. Check the full list just below, and visit ArteKino’s portal in order to view them RIGHT NOW!
Berlin-based engineer Michael must travel to Norway for his father‘s funeral. His sister is unwilling to go, and Michael is left alone with his 14-year-old son Luis, with whom he has always had minimal contact. Michael tries to bond with Luis while exploring the remote region of northern Norway for a few days. But their first trip together is much more difficult than expected. Daily interaction is unfamiliar territory to both, and Luis obviously holds a grudge because of his father‘s negligence. But during these longest days of summer, Michael is determined to break a bittersweet father-son pattern.
The film showed at the following festivals (and it took home the prize between brackets): Berlin (Silver Bear for Best Actor), Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and Taipei Golden Horse. It is not available for viewing in the following countries:Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Austria and Norway.
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2. Scarred Hearts (Radu Jude, Romania/ Germany):
During the summer of 1937, Emanuel, a young man in his early 20s, is committed to a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast for treatment of his bone tuberculosis. The treatment consists of painful spine punctures that confine him to a plaster on a stretcher-bed. Little by little, as Emanuel gets accustomed to the sadness of his new life, he discovers that inside the sanatorium there is still a life to be lived to the fullest. He makes friends and engages in conversations, he reads, he writes, he smokes and drinks, interacts with doctors, nurses and stretcher-bearers. Meanwhile, outside Romania doesn‘t have much to offer him, as it turn into an extreme right-wing society.
It showed at the following festivals (having snatched the accolades between brackets): Locarno Festival (Special Jury Prize), BFI London, Hamburg (Hamburg Producers Award), Haifa (Special Mention), Busan, Gothenburg and 11 more. Not available in: Romania, France, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg.
The image at the top of the article was taken from Scarred Hearts.
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3. Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece):
In the middle of the Aegean Sea, on a luxury yacht, six men on a fishing trip decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. But at the end of the voyage, when the game is over, the man who wins will be the best man. And he will wear upon his little finger the victorious signet ring: the “Chevalier.”
The movie showed at nearly 50 festivals (having won the following prizes), including: Locarno Festival, Toronto, IFF Rotterdam, SXSW, BFI London (Best Film), Sarajevo (Best Film), Gothenburg, Cartagena (Best Film), Thessaloniki (Audience Award), Goteborg, New York, Hamburg, San Francisco and 30 more. Not available for viewing in: Greece, United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Poland, Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Estonia and Lithuania.
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4. Frost (SharunasBartas, Lithuania/Ukraine):
Rokas and Inga, a couple of young Lithuanians, volunteer to drive a cargo van of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. When plans change and they find themselves left to their own devices, they cross the vast snowy lands of the Donbass region in search of allies and shelter, drifting into the lives of those affected by the war. They approach the frontline in spite of the danger, all the while growing closer to each other as they begin to understand life during wartime.
Festivals where the movie showed include (having won the following prize between brackets): Cannes (Director’s Fortnight), Locarno Festival, Transylvania, Odessa, New Horizons, Haifa, Busan. Not available for viewing in: France, Portugal, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania.
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5. Colo (Teresa Villaverde, Portugal):
Struggling against the crisis in Portugal a mother doubles up jobs to pay the bills since her husband is unemployed. Their teenage daughter tries to keep living her everyday life even if the money’s running short and makes everything uneasy. Escaping from their common reality, they slowly become strangers to one another, as the tension grows in silence and in guilt.
This Portuguese film showed at the following festivals (having won the following prize between brackets): Berlin, Uruguay, Hong Kong, Indie Lisbon, Melbourne, Scanorama Vilnius and the BildrauschFilmfest Basel (Best Film). It is not available for viewing in the following countries: Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Portugal and France.
In a remote Bulgarian town, Gana looks after the elderly with dementia, while trafficking their ID cards on the black market of identity theft. At home, she provides for her jobless mother, with whom she hardly speaks. Her relationship with her car-mechanic boyfriend is no shelter for love either – with sexual attraction vanished, intimacy is reduced to an addiction to morphine. Things start to shake up, when Gana hears the music of Yoan, a new patient, whose ID card she has trafficked. A growing empathy for the old man unlocks Gana’s conscience. But when Yoan is arrested for fraud, she learns that doing ‘the right thing’ comes at a high price.
It showed at the following festivals (having snatched the accolades between brackets): Locarno (Best Film, Best Actress), Sarajevo IFF (Special Jury Prize), CPH PIX (Best Film), Reykjavik (Best Film), Toronto, Turin, Black Nights, Hamburg FF and 14 more. Not available for viewing in the following countries: Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway.
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7. Living and Other Fictions (Jo Sol, Spain):
The desire to have a full sex life becomes a vital, political option when Antonio, a tetraplegic writer, decides to set up a space offering sexual assistance in his own home. He who wants to live ends up having problems with life.
The Spanish drama Living and Other Fictions showed at the following film festivals (and won the following prizes): San Sebastian, Gothenburg, Munich, D’A Film Festival, Queer Lisbon (Jury Prize) and also Toulouse Cinespaña (Violette d’Or).
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8. The Last Family (Jan P. Matuszyński, Poland):
ZdzisławBeksiński, a Polish surrealist painter, is a cult artist who has portrayed decaying bodies and fantasised of hard core sadomasochistic sexual experiences. Known for his keen sense of humour, he is also scared of spiders and tending to his sick mother. His neurotic, suicidal son, Tomasz, is a cult radio DJ and translator, responsible for the Polish versions of Monty Python films. His wife, ZofiaBeksińska, a devout Catholic, endures these two eccentrics and glues the family together. As the parents try to prevent their son from hurting himself, their lives are defined by painting, a series of near-death experiences, funerals and changing trends in dance music.
The Last Family showed at the following festivals (having snatched the following prizes, between brackets): Cameraimage (Best Film), Locarno Festival (Best Actor), Molodist IFF (Best Fim), Sofia (Special try Award), CPH PIX, Reykjavik IFF (Best Film), Black Nights, Hamburg and 10 more. It’s not available for viewing in Poland, France and Monaco.
9. Soleil Battant (Clara and Laura Laperrousaz, France/ Portugal):
For the holidays, Gabriel and Iris return to a family house in Portugal with their daughters Emma and Zoe, irresistible six-year-old twins. In the heart of a solar landscape, between bathing in the river and their kids’ laughter, the couple’s past resurfaces.
The festivals where Soleil Battant showed include: Black Nights, Bordeaux, Arras FF, GardanneAutumn and the Auch Festival. The film is available for viewing everywhere except France and Portugal.
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10. The Giant (Johannes Nyholm, Sweden/ Denmark):
Rikard is an autistic and severely deformed man who tries to find his way back to his long lost mother through the game of pétanque (a form of boules) and using the help of a 200 foot giant. His fragile physique and a harsh judging environment makes everyday life tough for him. Convinced that his mum will take him back if only he wins the Nordic championship of petanque, Rikard tries to do the impossible.
The Swedish-Danish production showed at the following fests (and won the following prizes): San Sebastian (Special Jury Prize), Reykjavik (Special Mention), Warsaw (Free Spirit Award), Rotterdam, BFI London, CPH PIX and GardenCity. The movie is nort available for viewing in the following countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
