Horror Film The Chernobyl Diaries Released in UK

Staring Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Devin Kelley and Olivia Dudley, The Chernobyl Diaries hits cinemas in the UK this June (22nd). The film follows six travellers who take an extreme tour to the abandonned city of Pripyat, the former home to workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The travellers find themselves stranded, and then discover they aren’t alone…

As someone who has visited the town and knows a great deal about the history, the plot of the film is rather comical. I mean, for one thing, many former workers returned to the town despite the government forbidding it and sealing off the area. When you walk and drive around the area, you see them. Plus there’s lots of scientists working there, investigating the impact of radiation on the local environment in the hope to learn valuable information for the future.

However, it’s a horror film… reality was not at the heart of the writer, producer or director. So I’ll forgive it the misled plot and allow them their creative license. Check out the trailer below, and for those who want to really know more about visiting Chernobyl read my account here: Chernobyl – Eco Tourism in Ukraine.

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Croatia’s 58th Pula Film Festival in July 2011

The International Programme of the 58th Pula Film Festival will open at Kastel on 9th and finish on 23rd July 2011 with evening open-air screenings daily at 9.30 pm.  During the first part of the festival (until 15th July), films from the International Programme will be presented at the Valli Cinema during the festival.  While during the second part of the Festival (from the 16th to the 23rd of July), films from the PoPular Programme can be  watched in the Arena.

Pula

The festival was first held in 1954 and is the oldest and most popular Croatian film festival with an impressive 73,000 visitors last year.  This year’s programme is anticipated to include, Lead and Daria by Branko Ivanda, Kotlovina by Tomislav Radic, Koko and the Ghosts by Daniel Kusan, The Little Gypsy Witch by Tomislav Zaja and The Translator by Biljana Cakic-Veselic.  Several other independent productions will also be screened.

For more information visit www.pulafilmfestival.hr

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Transilvania International Film Festival 2011

Transilvania International Film Festival

Founded in 2002, the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) was the first international feature film festival to take place in Romania.  Over the last nine years, TIFF has become a well-known brand in Romania, not only due to the outstanding films screened every year, but also for the effective organization, sparkling atmosphere and density of events, from seminars, workshops and panels, to fabulous concerts and crazy night-long parties.

Transilvania International Film Festival 2011

This year’s festival will take place between 3rd and 12th of June 2011 in Cluj and 15th to 19th of June in Sibiu.

The programme is yet to be announced but visit www.tiff.ro for more information.

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Lecture-Screening Boris Godunov Opera at Pushkin House

On Wednesday 17th November there will be a lecture-screening of Boris Godunov Opera with an introduction by Julian Gallant at Pushkin House as part of the Nikolai Dvigubsky Series.  The Royal Opera House Production by Andrei Tarkovsky (as transferred to the Mariinsky Theatre, St.Petersburg, in April 1990) features the orchestra and chorus of the Kirov Opera and stage set design by Nikolai Dvigubsky.  The cast is as follows:

Boris Godunov – Robert Lloyd
Marina – Olga Borodina
Dmitri – Alexei Steblianko
Rangoni – Sergei Leiferkus
Pimen – Alexander Morosov
Shuisky – Yevgeny Boitsev

Boris Godunov Lecture-Screening at Pushkin House, London

6.30pm, 17th November 2010

In Russian with English subtitles

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Sibiriade – Nikolai Dvigubsky Series at Pushkin House

On 4th November Russophiles can enjoy a lecture screening of epic film, Sibiriade, in four parts as part of the Nikolai Dvigubsky Series at Pushkin House. Hidden deep in Siberia is a village of Yelan. Two families live here from the time immemorial: the Solomins – wealthy, well-established people; and the Ustyuzhanins – rebels, poets, jovial persons, though as hard-working as the former. In 1917, a revolution took place in Russia, which had radically changed the lives of many Russians, including those living in Yelan. But the well-to-do Solomins would not recognise the Soviet regime.  Years will pass before the young generation of Solomins’ and Ustyuzhanins’ children and grand-children put an end to the senseless hostility and build a new life on Siberia’s rich and fertile land.

6.30pm, Thursday 4 November 2010
Lecture-Screening “Sibiriade”, Nikolai Dvigubsky Series
1978 | USSR, Mosfilm | colour | 100 mins + 99 mins
In Russian with English subtitles
Tickets: £7.00, concessions £5.00, FREE for Friends of Pushkin House

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London’s Russian Film Festival 2010

This October The Russian Film Festival returns to London and as anticipated this season will  packed with a great programme showcasing the latest award-winning Russian films. The most highly commended recently produced Russian films to hit the big screen will be presented at the Apollo Piccadilly.  The best bit? Each film will be introduced by the creators themselves.

The main programme features this year’s ten best Russian films, all acclaimed at major international and Russian film festivals including:  the controversial ‘One War’ by Vera Glagoleva, Svetlana Proscurina’s latest thought provoking film ‘The Truce’, the applauded ‘Another Sky’, by Dmitry Mamulya, ‘Gastarbeiter’ by Yusup Razykov and ‘Reverse Motion’ by Andrey Stempkovsky.

While the documentary programme encapsulates the last decade in Russia, offering a window into the real Russia, with screenings of the ten finest Russian documentary films, one for each year. This definitive selection is presented by the great director and documentary maker, Vitaly Mansky, president of Russia’s ArtDocFest.

In addition to the main programme and documentaries, the Russian Film Festival is showing a comprehensive and diverse programme of animation ready to enchant adults and children alike with its charm and imagination. Among the feature length animations, the festival is proud to include the captivating ‘Little Tragedies’, based on Alexander Pushkin’s verses and master animator Garri Bardin’s ‘The Ugly Duckling’, a children’s stop-motion animated film with Orwellian overtones deemed so politically subversive it was banned from showing on Russian television.

This year’s film festival will showcase a retrospective of the great actor and director Sergei Bondarchuk’s films and the works of Leo Tolstoy on film, as well as a retrospective of masters of Soviet and Russian animation.

The Russian Film Festival will be held at the Apollo Piccadilly from the 29th October to 7 November 2010. All films are shown with English subtitles. The Russian Film Festival is organised with the support of the Russian Embassy. Check out the Academia Rossica Russian Film Festival 2010 Facebook page HERE!

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14th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

The 14th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival will takes place from 19th November to 5th December 2010.  This is a particularly unique event combining a feature film festival with the sub-festivals of animated films, student films and children/youth films. The festival aims to present Estonian audiences a comprehensive selection of world cinema in all its diversity with the emphasis on European films, providing a friendly atmosphere for interaction between the audience, Estonian filmmakers and their colleagues from abroad.  Alongside this festival there will be a number of others taking place in the Baltics this winter. Check out the programme below…

The Programme:

Black Nights Film Festival main programme (24 November – 5 December) – International competition programme EurAsia and Tridens Baltic feature film competition.

Student and Short Film Festival Sleepwalkers (20 – 24 November) – International competition of student films from previous 2 years.

Animation Film Festival Animated Dreams (19 – 23 November) – Competition of short animations from previous 2 years.

Children and Youth Film Festival Just Film (19 – 28 November) – Competition of children’s films and youth films.

Nokia Mobile Phone Film Festival MOFF (1 September – 3 December) – Competition of short films made with mobile phones.

Black Market Industry Screenings (1-3 December) – regional cinema and audiovisual market focusing on the new films from the neighbouring regions and smaller film industry countries.

During the festival Baltic Event film and co-production market (1- 4 December) takes place, which screens the newest feature films from the Baltic countries along with a co-production market open for projects from the Baltics, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia.

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Days of Austrian Films at the Belgrade Cultural Centre

Between the 14th and 20th of October, in the Cinema Hall of the Belgrade Cultural Centre, 12 Austrian films will be shown.  The goal of the selection is to present the overview of the current situation in the Austrian cinematography, to indicate the thematic and genre diversity, as well as the multiculturalism, both in the Austrian film and in the everyday life of the country.

The motto of this event is, “The Others – That’s Who We Are” and was created as a result of the selected films, and not as a criterion for selection. The essence of what connects all the films is the willingness to take responsibility for the lives of those with whom we live with, and with whom we live next to, because this is the best way to defend our own integrity and thus we have a right to expect the others to help us, too.

Check out the programme below…

Thursday 14th October
21.00 The Counterfeiters / Die Fälscher, dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky, 99 min

Friday 15th October
19.00 UNIVERSALOVE, dir. Thomas Woschitz, 83 min
21.00 All the Invisible Things / Heile Welt, dir. Jakob M. Erwa, 89 min

Saturday 16th October
19.00 The First Day / Der erste Tag, dir. Andreas Prohaska, 88 min
21.00 The Bone Man / Der Knochenmann, dir. Wolfgang Murnberger, 117 min

Sunday 17th October
19.00 La Pivellina / The Little One, dir. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, 100 min
21.00 Mr. Kuka`s Advice / Herrn Kukas Empfehlungen, dir. Darius Gajewski, 85 min

Monday 18th October
19.00 Small Fish / Kleine Fische, dir. Marco Antoniazzi, 85 min
21.00 For a Moment, Freedom / Ein Augenblick Freiheit, dir. Arash T. Riahi, 110 min

Tuesday 19th October
19.00 RIMINI, dir. Peter Jaitz, 83 min
21.00 Reclaim Yor Brain! / Free Reiner – Dein Fernseher lügt, dir. Hans Weingartner, 130 min

Wednesday 20th October
21.00 The Robber / Der Räuber, dir. Benjamin Heisenberg, 90 min

For more information visit www.kcb.org.rs

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Kaunas International Film Festival

Taking place between the 1st and 17th of October, 2010, Kaunas International Film Festival is one of Lithuania’s most appreciated film festivals and the main film event in Kaunas, the country’s second largest city. It presents films that have been acclaimed worldwide and also showcases new talent.  The main priority of Kaunas IFF is a combination of the artistic and social statements in film. In the ‘Wide Angle’ section, acclaimed films are screened that reflect both modern tendencies in film art and social issues relevant to the global context. Kaunas IFF is the only film festival in the region to present a special section on music films with ‘Music Moves the World’ and films about art in the ‘All the Muses’ section. These are the three main sections in the festival, with additional retrospective programmes and theme sections each year.

Kaunas IFF invites all cineastes and film professionals to see the most interesting and noteworthy films created over the past few years and to use Kaunas IFF as a mean of communication by participating in discussions, lectures and meetings with film professionals.

For more information visit www.kinofestivalis.lt

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Festival 25 FPS in Zagreb

Festival 25 FPS is organised by the Association for Audio-visual Research 25 FPS. This year’s Festival takes place at Student’s Centre in Zagreb, Savska 25 between the 21 and 26 of September.  25 FPS denotes the number of full video frames per second as used in the European PAL video system, in contrast to film’s 24 or NTSC video system’s 30 frames per second.  The festival is supported by the Office of Culture City of Zagreb, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Ministry of Culture Republic of Croatia and Student Centre University of Zagreb.

This year’s program is as follows:
Abrahams Anna, Desert 79: 3 Journeys Beyond The Know World, 2010, Netherlands
Aroonpheng Phuttiphong, A Tale of Heaven, 2010, Thailand
Barić Dalibor,  Pain so Light that Appears as Tickle, 2010, Croatia
Bizri Hisham, A Film, 2010, USA
Boord Sophie, Fur, 2010, Australia
Brehm Dietmar, Verdrehte Augen – 2. Videoversion, 2002-2008, Austria
Cailleau Guillaume, H(i)J, 2009, Germany
Clark Mary Helena, Sound over Water, 2009, USA
Cornelissen Robbie, The Labyrinth Runner, 2009, Netherlands
De Clercq Anouk, Oops Wrong Planet, 2009, Belgium
Diop Mati, Atlantiques, 2009/10,Senegal / France
Dufour-Laperrière Félix, M, 2009, Canada
Dumora Pierre Edouard, What the Blind See, 2009, France
Epcar Zachary, The Salariat in Parts, 2009, USA
Gerhardt Joe, Jarman Ruth, Heliocentric, 2010, United Kingdom
Gierke Milena, Kröten, 1997-2008, Germany
Gonzalez-Foerster Dominique, Noreturn, 2009, France
Goshima Kazuhiro, Aliquot Light, 2009, Japan
Grecu Mihai, Centipede Sun, 2010, France
Hansen Inger Lise, Travelling Fields, 2009, Norway
Hayama Rei, Kodomo ga Mushi no Shigai wo Umeni Iku, 2009, Japan
Herzog Werner, La bohème, 2009, United Kingdom
Horan Devin, Boundary, 2009, USA
Huang Ya-Li, Dai Yi Ming Zhi De Shi Wu, 2010, Taiwan
Jamie Cameron, Massage the History, 2009, USA
Jiwarangsan Chaisiri, Small Village and Its Remains, 2009, Thailand
Johann Lurf, Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Victor quer über den großen Sylter Deich 140 9, 2009, Austria
Julier Pauline, Noé, 2010, Switzerland
Klahr Lewis, Wednesday Morning Two A.M., 2009, United Kingdom
Knapp Manuel, information of decay, 2009, Austria
Lee Hee Won, Phone Tapping, 2009, South Korea
Lefrant Emmanuel, Parties visible et invisible d’un ensemble sous tension, 2009, France
Lemieux Karl, Mamori, 2010, Canada
Marte Sabine, b-star, untötbar!, 2009, Austria
Meštrović Marko, Nespavanje ne ubija, 2010, Croatia
Miller Peter, Portrait, 2009, USA
Oyama Kei, Hand Soap, 2008, Japan
Prouvost Laure, Monolog, 2009, United Kingdom / France
Robinson Michael, If There Be Thorns, 2009, USA
Sakalauskas Rimas, Synchronisation, 2009, Lithuania
Sanvincenti Davor, Rijeka, 2009, Croatia
Smith John, Flag Mountain, 2010, United Kingdom
Stewart Alexander, The Battle of the Stand-Stills, 2010, USA
Todd Robert, Groundplay, 2009, USA
Wada Atsushi, Wakaranai buta, 2010, Japan
Wiebe Richard, Aliki, 2010, USA
Woloshen Steven, The Homestead Act, 2009, Canada
Wood Sarah, For Cultural Purposes Only, 2009, United Kingdom

For more information visit 25fps.hr/2010

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