Balkan Film Week 2023

from 11 April 2023 | UT Connewitz | Free admission
#bfw23 #traduki #utconnewitz

 

Introduction

Marija Katalinić

Credits: private

Emigration and immigration imply the gestures of relocation. These acts of movement are about personal politics and the reasons that (literally and symbolically) move us; pains, desires, aspirations, and hopes that manage to transform one ordinary life into a new one. To move is never a simple act. Change implies leaving people and matters behind and shedding one’s familiarity for what is to come. Emigration and immigration require courage to confront what is unknown, for all that is new is saturated with connotations of unsettledness. Conditions of survival mark the histories that these movements create. Bodies that move across borders bear in them the potential to create and shape new (hi)stories by layering old and new aspects of identity, belonging, and culture. However, newly imagined realities that are on the move are as fragile as the bodies that articulate these hopes. Their emerging corporeality, the influx of agencies into spaces from which they were previously absent, often provoke feelings of scarcity and fear. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that migrations are a historical constant that persists even in the face of hard obstacles such as wires, rivers, and mountains, or soft ones, such as bureaucracy, money, and language. One of those symbolical barriers is the process of forgetting. This seems to be a political methodology for a certain type of politicized history: forgetting about all the previous psycho-geographies by those who searched for a better life for themselves and their families. How and why does one become included, or expelled, within a society, a group, or a state? Maybe we should remind ourselves of ‘the ethics of hospitality’ that J. Derrida articulated in his essay “Cosmopolitanism[1]”. Culture is borrowed, edited, appropriated, and adjusted by and to the needs of those who shape and live it. Raymond Williams famously described culture as one of the more complex words to define, precisely because of the inherited tension between those who think they own culture. Therefore, processes of migration are a testament to the layers that create culture, while at the same time generating contention in the public discourse. As such, emigration and immigration need to be welcomed as they stand for the history of human perseverance.

Previously, Balkan Film Week presented films that discussed questions of diversity, belonging, borders, origins, family, and memory. Emigration and immigration feed into these narratives as the region’s histories have been marked for centuries by movements between borders; it is an inherent part of its cultural code. This year´s Balkan Film Week programme welcomes Austria into its collective fold: as its neighbour, friend, and partaker of its shared history. The gaze is still set on the Southeastern space, while the perspective remains transnational. The selected films aim to depict methodologies used to ‘cross over’ borders; monetary endeavours (‘Cash & Marry’), failed attempts to become accepted (‘Exile’, ‘The Most Beautiful Country in the World’), lost familiar ordinaries (‘Acasă, My Home’), deliberate collective acts of forgetting (‘Verschwinden/Izginjanje’), or the moving forces that seek to recollect and uphold the memories of those who migrated before us (´The Paper Bridge´). ‘Bosnian Broadway’ shows how the possibility for emigration is being formed in the first place, and how its imagined reality can become almost tangible, yet remain elusive. On the other hand, there are those who do manage to leave, yet keep on returning to (for) those who remained behind. Led by love, these travellers move between time and place, striving to gather that and those who hold them safe in their own personal space, such as the film ´Dida´ showcases.

The question of migration is the question of responsibility towards one’s own life while acknowledging the historical narrative that created the precarious conditions of survival in the first place. Ultimately, the politics of migration stem from the questions of power and inequality. They remind us of the past, and of humanity’s ability to survive; they evoke what strives to be forgotten. When Derrida suggests we ‘transform and reform the modalities of membership[2]’, he asks us to re-examine the privileged conditions of those who do not need to move. In this year’s Balkan Film Week, we will encounter heroes attempting to improve their circumstances, walking towards unknown terrains, yet guided by faith in that what is to come.

[1] Derrida, Jacques, “On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness”, Routledge, London and New York, 2005.

[2] Derrida, Jacques, “On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness”, Routledge, London and New York, 2005; p. 4.

This year’s – now already fifth – Balkan Film Week will take place from 11 April to 14 April 2023.

The Balkan Film Week is part of the TRADUKI project and a cinematic introduction to the diverse literary programme at the Leipzig Book Fair. In 2023, TRADUKI partner Austria will be guest of honour at the Leipzig Book Fair and so this year’s film programme also has a light Austrian touch.

The Balkan Film Week will take place in mid-April, exclusively at the UT Connewitz. All screenings are free of charge.

Introduction by Marija Katalinić

11 April 2023

12 April 2023

13 April 2023

14 April 2023

Tuesday 11 April

  • 19:00
    The Most Beautiful Country in the World
    UT Connewitz

    Želimir Žilnik | 2018 | 101' | A/SLO/HR/RS | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

    December 2016, a demonstration in front of the parliament in Vienna. Two men on the fringes of the mass of people begin talking – about the destruction of Aleppo, the Taliban, the few supporters of war who establish their claim to truth violently against the lives of the many who are uninvolved. The brief exchange is shaped by interest and understanding. Appearing here in front of the camera are people whose lives did not begin in Austria in this generation or the past one. But here they go through both dramatic experiences as well as scenes from everyday life.

    The screening will be followed by talk with director Želimir Žilnik

  • Q&A with Želimir Žilnik
    UT Connewitz

    Following the screening of The Most Beautiful Country in the World there will be a discussion with director Želimir Žilnik.

Wednesday 12 April

  • 19:00
    DOUBLE BILL

    Bosanski Brodvej
    Cash & Marry
    UT Connewitz

    Bosanski Brodvej
    Jasmina Beširević | 2021 | 30' | HR | Short | Original with English subtitles

    Cash & Marry
    Atanas Georgiev | 2009 | 76‘| A/HR/MK | Documentary | Original with German Subtitles

    Bosanski Brodvej

    Sixteen young actors have been selected to participate in a Broadway musical that established American artists are putting on in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of them are dreaming about a career outside this region and all of them begin rehearsals with great enthusiasm and expectations. But closer to the premiere the mood changes as the actors realise that soon, they will have to return to their old lives.

    Cash & Marry

    Marko and Atanas are two friends whose lives would be sweet as strudel but for an annoying little problem with their papers. They need a European passport and they are prepared to do almost anything to get one, including buying a wife. With nothing but their brass necks and 7,000 EUR, they set out to find the woman of their dreams – one who will walk them down the aisle and then hang around for a bit before the eventual divorce. An odyssey through Vienna’s immigrant netherworld, this real-life Green Card odyssey is an hilarious and touching insight into what it takes to jump the barriers of Fortress Europe.

  • 21:00
    Acasă, My Home
    UT Connewitz

    Radu Ciorniciuc | 2020 | 86´ | D/FI/RO | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

    Gică and Niculina live with their children surrounded by nature and far from modern society. When the Bucharest delta is designated a nature reserve, their alternative life in the wilderness comes to an end. In the city, they must find themselves again.

Thursday 13 April

  • 19:00
    Verschwinden/Izginjanje
    UT Connewitz

    Andrina Mračnikar | 2022 | 99‘| A/SLO | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

    Loud bangs cut through the spring air. At Easter, firecracker noises are a familiar soundscape in southern Carinthia. The Slovenian language is not – not anymore. Before 1910, about ninety percent of all inhabitants in southern Carinthia spoke Slovene, today it is on average a single-digit percentage. In her essayistic documentary, Andrina Mračnikar formulates a highly political urgency in a personal way: What happens when one’s mother tongue is taken away in everyday life? What must politicians do to counteract the disappearance of a language whose protection is enshrined in the constitution?

  • 21:00
    The Paper Bridge
    UT Connewitz

    Ruth Beckermann | 1987 | 91‘| A | Documentary | Original version

    Beckermann’s parents met in Vienna after the Holocaust. Tracing the migratory paths of her family before World War II, Beckerman returns to the European Jewish communities which inspired her childhood stories.

Friday 14 April

  • 19:00
    Dida
    UT Connewitz

    Nikola Ilić & Corina Schwingruber Ilić | 2021 | 87´ | CH | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

    Swiss documentary filmmaker Nikola Ilić and his wife Corina Schwingruber Ilić talk about their life with Dida, Nikola’s mother, who lives in Serbia and is dependent on help because of her learning difficulties. When Dida can no longer be taken care of by her mother in Serbia, Nikola steps in. Despite the physical distance, he and his mother get to know each other and themselves anew.

     

  • 21:00
    Exile
    UT Connewitz

    Visar Morina | 2020 | 121´ | D/BE/Kosovo | Feature film | Original version

    First, there’s a dead rat hanging on the door of the house where Xhafer lives with his wife and children. Then the emails he sends are ‘accidentally’ no longer being received. The signs that this pharmaceutical engineer is being bullied and harassed in his workplace are increasing. Even if neither his wife nor his colleagues seem to believe him, this man, who is originally from Kosovo but who has been well integrated for years, feels more and more outcast from his (German) community. Or is he losing touch with reality?

Trailers

The Most Beautiful Country in the World

Želimir Žilnik | 2018
101' | A/SLO/HR/RS | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

Bosanski Brodvej

Jasmina Beširević | 2021
30' | HR | Short | Original with English subtitles

Cash & Marry

Atanas Georgiev | 2009
76‘| A/HR/MK | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

Acasă, My Home

Radu Ciorniciuc | 2020
86´ | D/FI/RO | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

Verschwinden/Izginjanje

Andrina Mračnikar | 2022
99‘| A/SLO | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

The Paper Bridge

Ruth Beckermann | 1987
91‘| A | Documentary | Original version

Dida

Nikola Ilić & Corina Schwingruber Ilić | 2021
87´ | CH | Documentary | Original with German subtitles

Exile

Visar Morina | 2020
121´ | D/BE/Kosovo | Feature film | Original version

Common Ground 2020-2022

Want to find out more about past Balkan Film Week events? Check out the links below:

Balkan Film Week 2022 Balkan Film Week 2021 Balkan Film Week 2020