15/10/2013 - On October 23 the EFP will launch the first pan-European Film Showcase in the Russian capital

Westwind, the first pan-European Film Showcase in Moscow, will be launched by the European Film Promotion (EFP) from October 23 to 27. The event will include a diverse programme of public screenings, panel discussions and business meetings. Aimed both at public and industry professionals, Westwind is intended to take advantage of the huge developing Russian market and its potential for the diversity of films coming from Europe.

The main highlight of the brand new initiative is the hand-picked selection of films from all over Europe. Moscow’s audiences will have the opportunity to watch recent films from eleven different European countries, to be presented by their lead actors or filmmakers.

The showcase will open with French filmmaker Jérôme Bonnell’s Just a Sigh [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the charming meeting of a French actress and a mysterious Englishman during a business trip. It will be followed with films such as Italian filmmaker Uberto Pasolini’s award-winning Still Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Uberto Pasolini
film profile], Spanish director Jesús Monllaó Plana’s thriller Son of Cain [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Dutch filmmaker Diederik Ebbinge’s crowd-pleaser Matterhorn [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Irish director Brendan Muldowney’s black comedy Love Eternal, and feel-good comedies Sex, Drugs and Taxation by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Boe (which is currently taking the Danish box office by storm – read the article), and Life is Good by Polish director Maziej Pieprzyca.

There is also a place for more cutting-edge films, such as German filmmaker David Wnendt’s teenage tale Wetlands [+see also:
trailer
interview: David Wnendt
film profile], Belgian director Vincent Lannoo’s blunt In the Name of the Son [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (recent winner of the Golden Méliès - news), Austrian experimental artist Gustav Deutsch’s Edward Hopper-inspired Shirley: Visions of Reality [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Swiss filmmaker Sophie Huber’s documentary on American actor Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The showcase will also include an Industry Talk about the current Russian market situation, a public panel discussion entitled "The Power of Stars. Can Actors Drive the Success of Films?"; as well as one-on-one-meetings and events with international film professionals.