This year, the 31st FilmFestival Cottbus is once again letting it rip with some films. They mix genres and bring exciting entertainment to the audience. Between breakneck shootouts, pointed jokes, adventurous liaisons and surreal communities of destiny reflect thoroughly contemporary social contrasts. From laughter to tears to fear, there is something for everyone.
Highly topical themes can be found, such as the forest fire inferno blockbuster FIRE (RU). In the Russian action thriller full of drama and humor by Alexey Nuzhny from the Hits section, which stands out for its particularly high production value, a group of firefighters fights their way through the burning forests of Siberia to save the inhabitants of a remote village, although they don't even want to be saved out of sheer stubbornness. From Bulgaria comes ESCAPE (BG) by Victor Bojinov, which will have its world premiere at the FFC and sums up urban-rural antagonisms in thriller form. A rural commune in an abandoned mountain village meets a boot camp for junkies when one of the clients from the rehab center takes refuge in the dropout idyll and subsequently causes a lot of trouble. In the Spectrum section, romantic sci-fi dramedy meets a feel-good musical in GARBAGE THEORY (HU) by Ákos Badits and the autistic scientist Panna meets Boy, a clumsy alien in Beatles look. Together they must defend the Earth against aliens who want to wipe out humanity because of their destructive instincts towards other worlds. In the same section, the bill collector Munir shoots his way through the steppe landscape of the northern Serbian Vojvodina in LOAN SHARK (RS) by Nemanja Ćeranić, a groovy film noir with Western motifs, while entertainingly crazy fable madness meets social media criticism in Rasmus Merivoo's KRATT (EE). A group of children sells their own grandma's soul to the devil during smartphone withdrawal in the countryside, thereby summoning an Estonian leprechaun called Kratt, who causes a lot of action.
The Hits section is rounded off by daring chases and politically incorrect jokes in the Serbian box-office hit SOUTH WIND 2: SPEED UP (RS) by Miloš Avramović and the ultimate firework of brute humor in NIMBY (FI) by director Teemu Nikki, notorious for offbeat comedies, whose previous film bears the provocative title THE EUTHANIZER. Young Mervi's coming out to her parents turns into a shootout of prejudices and soon it's hetero versus homo, polygamous versus monogamous, cosmopolitan versus provincial, vegan versus alcoholic, Christian versus Muslim, Finnish versus German, while underneath the hullabaloo surface countless lines of thought unfold around questions of social conscience, once again underlining the positive ambivalence of this year's genre diversity.
Advance ticket sales are on now at filmfestivalcottbus.de and at all Reservix advance sales points. Tickets for the 31st FFC cost between 4.00 EUR and 7.50 EUR. For FFC lovers there are 5-ticket passes and festival passes once again. For the first time, the FFC also offers an online FestivalPass.