New Talents Competition
words by Stefan Pavlović, NTC Programmer
The New Talents Competition is back with our sixth edition! We invited filmmakers from Eastern and Southern Europe to send us their graduating, debut or second films to compete for an Audience Award.
We proudly present another incredible selection of films, filled with curiosity and sensitivity towards our world. The risks that our filmmakers took, in using the camera, their bodies and their personal film languages, reveal the dedication they have towards better worlds. These artists question their surroundings, reflect on their past and present lives, and dream about what can and should be different. Themes of identity and body, healing and violence, memory and community stand out when watching these important visual works.
We received a record of submissions this year, which made our selection even more difficult. We chose eight films from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.
In “Towards White”, the filmmaker uses still photography and sound as an attempt to come to terms with experiences of harassment. At a mud-healing centre in a Georgian village, five-year-old Tako waits for her grandmother to finish her work in the endearing “What Does the Mud Whisper”. In “Dance With Me, Dad”, the filmmaker uses the camera to connect with her father, refusing to walk away from conflict past and present, bravely choosing intimacy. How do we heal from war, and how can we take out from our body the violent images we’ve seen? Through body and prayer, “Bosnian War Movie” documents such an important and scary attempt. From the Yugoslav wars to the racism of new nationalisms, Sabina Talović’s voice bears witness to how acts of solidarity are always completely different while remaining fundamentally unchanged in the humbly caring and sharp “Completely Different, Exactly the Same”. The animated musical “Stone of Destiny” explores the beauty of finding your path, even when it’s fraught with uncertainty. The auto-fiction “Scales” moves between fantasy, reality and memory, using fragmentation and repetition in order to reveal the inner life of its heroine, exploring the entangled relationship between trauma and pleasure. “Dog and Wolf” shows us how our memories are stored in our bodies, ready to surface at unexpected moments. Through its raw images and patient rhythm, a sense of loss and longing and the impossible present moment are subtly presented.
See you all at the festival at Filmhuis Den Haag. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite film, and join us for the award ceremony on the closing night.
The New Talents Competition segment is divided to two slots. You can see which films belong to which slot, and purchase tickets for each of them below:
NEW TALENTS COMPETITION 1
Q&A with the directors Anna Scherbyna (Scales)
and Dea Tcholokava (What Does the Mud Whsiper)
Saturday, 8 November – 16:00h
NEW TALENTS COMPETITION 2
Q&A with the directors Letiţia Popa (Towards White), Marko Lončarević (Bosnian War Movie), and Marianna Giorgia Marchesini and activist Sabina Talović (Completely Different, Exactly the Same)
Sunday, 9 November – 16:15h
