01/04/2019 - The German-based competitive gathering will focus primarily on “Cinema Tackling the Generation Gap”

Aiming to present a multi-faceted and sophisticated cross-section of Central and Eastern European filmmaking, the competition of the 19^th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, which will take place from 10-16 April in Wiesbaden, Germany, will feature a thematic focus zeroing in on “Cinema Tackling the Generation Gap”. “In addition to works tackling current political topics, there is a notable number of films in 2019 that deal with generational conflicts. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people expect different things from life, depending on which system they grew up in,” festival director Heleen Gerritsen states. The 2019 jury is headed up by multi-award-winning Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, who is also the woman behind this year's opening film, God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija [+see also:
film review
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interview: Labina Mitevska
interview: Teona Strugar Mitevska
film profile]. 

Sixteen films – ten fiction features and six documentaries – are vying for the €10,000 Golden Lily in the goEast Competition. Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s mafia tragicomedy The Gentle Indifference of the World [+see also:
film review
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interview: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
film profile] (Kazakhstan/France) tells the bittersweet story of a Kazakh family, while Ismet Sijarina’s Cold November [+see also:
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interview: Ismet Sijarina
film profile] (Kosovo/Albania/North Macedonia) deals with life and survival during the Yugoslav wars. An evocative drama about emancipation, Elmar Imanov's End of Season [+see also:
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film profile] (Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia) is set in a high-rise housing estate in Baku. With Jan Palach [+see also:
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film profile] (Czech Republic/Slovakia), director Robert Sedláček sets about exploring one of the most important figures in Czech cultural memory, while cult director Györgi Pálfi delivers an unorthodox and quirky Stanisław Lem adaptation with his science-fiction drama His Master’s Voice [+see also:
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film profile] (Hungary/Canada). An ambiguous noir thriller, Anca Damian’s Moon Hotel Kabul [+see also:
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film profile] (Romania/France), tells the story of a journalist travelling on an assignment between Kabul and Bucharest.

Four debut features are also participating in the competition: Ena Sendijarević’s Take Me Somewhere Nice [+see also:
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interview: Ena Sendijarević
film profile] (Netherlands/Bosnia and Herzegovina), which shows Bosnia through the eyes of a young woman discovering her roots for the first time; Alexander Gorchilin’s coming-of-age drama Acid [+see also:
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film profile]; Kaur Kokk’s The Riddle of Jaan Niemand (Estonia), a film set in 18^th-century Estonia; and Beata Parkanová’s Moments [+see also:
trailer
interview: Beata Parkanová
interview: Beata Parkanová
film profile] (Czech Republic/Slovakia), which revolves around a young woman who has to deal with the high expectations and demands of her family.

In terms of documentaries, the selection includes White Mama [+see also:
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interview: Zosya Rodkevich
film profile] (Russia) by Zosya Rodkevich and Evgeniya Ostanina, which shows what happens when a mother's emotional reserves gradually dry up; Hungary 2018 [+see also:
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film profile] (Hungary/Portugal) by Eszter Hajdú, a political documentary that offers a look behind the scenes of last year's parliamentary election in Hungary; Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė’s experimental nature film Acid Forest [+see also:
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film profile] (Lithuania); Igor Drljača's The Stone Speakers [+see also:
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film profile] (Canada/Bosnia and Herzegovina), which examines what remains of multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina in the wake of state disintegration, system change and war; Alisa Kovalenko’s Home Games [+see also:
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film profile] (Ukraine/France/Poland), which focuses on a young professional footballer who struggles to reconcile her career with her family life; and Strip and Wa [+see also:
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film profile]r [+see also:
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film profile] (Belarus/Poland) by East-West Talent Lab alumnus Andrei Kutsila, which will be celebrating its world premiere at goEast, and depicts a generational clash between a war veteran and his exotic-dancer grandson.

In addition, Krzysztof Zanussi will be the subject of this year's homage, while multi-award-winning director Sergei Loznitsa will be giving a master class open to the general public. The festival will also be paying tribute and saying farewell to recently departed Lithuanian-American avant-garde legend Jonas Mekas and Yugoslavian-Serbian filmmaker Dušan Makavejev.

Furthermore, a series of films and talks entitled “Everything Remains Different? – The Wild 90s” will examine what the fall of the Iron Curtain meant for the former socialist countries. The goEast Symposium will focus on “Constructions of the Other – Roma and the Cinema of Central and Eastern Europe”, while the panel discussion “Survival Kit for Filmmakers – Risks and Dangers” will examine the ways in which investigative film projects can place filmmakers in dangerous situations during the shooting and research phases.

Finally, at the Open Frame Award, young filmmakers from CEE countries will be vying for the Virtual Reality Prize, while in the context of the East-West Talent Lab, 15 projects by emerging filmmakers will be presented during a pitching session and will be competing for two prizes. Two additional brand-new prizes granted by the East-West Talent Lab are intended to enable up-and-coming filmmakers to realise their innovative project ideas, and will be handed to the winners of the newly established short-film competition.