Festivalblog: Friday

Der 4. Tag des 34. FilmFestival Cottbus ist gestartet. Hier gibt es alle News, Infos und Updates rund ums Festival.

The festival Friday begins with a hit at 10 a.m. in the Obenkino: in the thriller GUARDIANS OF THE FORMULA(Dragan Bjelogrlić RS, SI, MK, ME, 2023, 120 min), four Yugoslavian researchers are irradiated during a secret nuclear experiment in 1958 - their last hope lies in a previously untested bone marrow transplant in Paris.

The film SHAMAN'S TALE (Beata Bubenets, Mikhail Bashkirov CZ/FR/US, 2024, 74 min) will be shown in the Kammerbühne at 13:00: The documentary follows Alexander Gabyshev, a shaman who made a pilgrimage from Yakutsk to Moscow in 2019 to ‘exorcise the devil from Putin’. At 3 pm, WHEN WE RETURN (Vladimir Nepevny IL, 2023, 84 min) will follow in the Kammerbühne, showing a Russian filmmaker's conflict between war propaganda and family cohesion. From 16:30, the panel ‘Between Chairs’ will discuss Russia and its contrasts as well as filmmakers in exile. The panel is being organised in cooperation with the German Sakharov Society and supported by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

A panel (in cooperation with Civil Society Forum e.V.) in the Glad House at 8 pm will discuss the future of industrial landscapes in the Baltic States and Brandenburg. BURIAL (Emilija Škarnulytė LT/NO, 2022, 60 min), an impressive documentary about resource extraction, will be shown beforehand.

The Scandale invites you to a mixture of disco and concert in the evening from 8 pm, and for night owls, the world premiere OLIARA(Tamás Tóth KAZ, 2022, 91 min) from the MIDNIGHT MADNESS section starts at 10 pm in the Stadthalle. Also from Midnight Madness: the chainsaw musical CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING (Sander Maran EE, 2024, 118 min) from 9 pm in the Kammerbühne!

Zum Start ein paar Impressionen zum gestrigen Tag:

Star unseres Eröffnungsfilmes und Jurymitglied, in der Internationalen Festivaljury, Anja Matković  gibt Autogramme.

Jurymitglied, in der internationalen Festivaljury, Inna Sahakyan im Gespräch mit FFC-Programmdirektor Bernd Buder, bei der Vorstellung ihrer zwei Filme MEL und AURORAS SUNRISE, aus dem Länderschwerpunkt Armenien.

Das Schülerprojekt rund um den Film FRANZ KAFKA - LOST IN FAME, geht bis zum Freitag und lädt Schulklassen dazu ein, über den berühmten Schriftsteller mehr zu erfahren. Eine tschechische Klasse ist aktuell in Cottbus, um bei dem Projekt mitzuwirken und obendrein stellen sie 2 Schülerinnen, die in der U18-Jury mitwirken.

For information: The exhibition ‘Ukraine - Everyday Life in War’ can be found in the Stadthalle until the end of the festival. In keeping with this, Saturday is also ‘Ukrainian Day’, when more Ukrainian films will be shown. Special: All people with a Ukrainian identity document get free entry.

This article will be updated throughout the day.