The WHEN EAST MEETS WEST co-production market in Trieste is always a great start to the new year. Everyone is still fresh, Trieste is beautiful, the films and projects are good. The first major meeting place for the European film scene took place from January 19-22 for the 15th time, parallel to the Trieste Film Festival, which turned 36 this year. In search of good films for the next FFC, program director Bernd Buder and program consultant Joshua Jádi were on site.
Among many others, Buder met Czech director Dužan Duong. Duong, the son of Vietnamese contract workers, received the Cottbus Script Development Award at the FFC in 2017. At that time, his two short films MAT GOC and BO HAI were shown in the focus section “Việt Nam ở châu Âu | Vietnam in Europe”, which dealt with the Vietnamese diaspora in Eastern Central Europe. Now his feature film debut SUMMER SCHOOL, 2001 is nearing completion. The project was one of almost 50 projects that were presented at WHEN EAST MEETS WEST to numerous expert guests - festival representatives, distributors, producers - and which will find their way into cinemas over the next few years.
The Trieste Film Festival is dedicated to cinema from Eastern Central Europe. The extensive program also included several FFC films: TOXIC, OUR LOVELY PIG SLAUGHTER, MY LATE SUMMER, UNDER THE VOLCANO, HYMN OF THE PLAGUE, THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT, ON THE WAY, WHEN THE PHONE RANG and 78 DAYS. The FFC is linked to the Trieste Film Festival through its joint membership of the European film festival networkMIOB (Moving Images, Open Borders).