The International Film Festival Febiofest in Bratislava, Slovakia, is one of the events that have been severely disrupted by the pandemic. The 29^th, on-site edition (16-22 March) picks up where the festival left off in 2020 in terms of its programming structure. The short-film competition section, In the Heart of Europe, will show works from promising young directors from Central Europe, including a host of emerging talents from the Czech Republic – namely, the award-festooned Anatomy of a Czech Afternoon by Adam Martinec, David Semler’s Must Be Painful and the Cannes-premiered Red Shoes, a dark folk fable by Anna Podskalská, created by painting oil on glass. Peter Hoferica’s even darker comedy Greetings from Nigeria will fly the flag for Slovakian cinema, along with Kristián Grupač’s Leporello of My Paltriness. The competition also includes works from Poland (Natalia Krawczuk’s Metro and Maryia Yakimovich’s Papa) and Hungary (Peter Strickland’s Cold Meridian and Levente Kolcsey’s Break), among others.

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The original Slovak Film Country section has been transformed into the In the Heart of Europe – Out of Competition section, and will screen a host of recent domestic (co-)productions, such as Zdenek Jirasky's period drama Kryštof [+lire aussi :
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interview : Václav Kadrnka
fiche film] and films from neighbouring countries, including the Polish period drama Leave No Traces [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jan P. Matuszyński
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interview : Kornél Mundruczó et Kata W…
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interview : Kateryna Gornostai
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The Film+ section will offer a clutch of recent arthouse works, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s sonic mystery Memoria [+lire aussi :
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interview : Peter Strickland
fiche film]. The Planet Dark sidebar, dedicated to genre output and midnight movies, will screen the Spanish black comedy Advantages of Travelling by Train [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Aritz Moreno and Bertrand Bonello’s Zombi Child [+lire aussi :
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interview : Bertrand Bonello
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In light of recent events, the festival has prepared a special section devoted to Ukraine. “Just at the time when we were closing the programme, Putin's army invaded the territory of Ukraine. We had to react to this event, and we thus decided to put together a special section of films that, we believe, will reveal at least a little of the context of this tragic event – whether it's movies that are directly related to contemporary Russia and Ukraine, and violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, or documents that more broadly reflect the subject of the occupation,” said artistic director Ondrej Starinský. Admission fees from the films in this section, which features Vitaly Mansky’s Close Relations [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], Sergei Loznitsa’s Donbass [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sergei Loznitsa
fiche film], and Vera Krichevskaya’s F@ck This Job, will be donated to support Ukraine.

For the sixth time, the festival will have an industry sidebar, which will present Slovak projects in the making within the Work in Progress showcase for domestic and international film professionals. The industry event will be held in hybrid form.

The 29^th edition of the International Film Festival Febiofest will unspool from 16-22 March. The full line-up is available here.