Festivals 40th Jubilee Manaki Brothers International Film Festival, in Bitola-North Macedonia
Tell the Clouds. Say It Loud.
A Tribute to Cinematographers.
Call them Cameramen, call them Director’s-Dream-come-true, call them DoP’s or Cinematographers. Like lighthouses, they stay, tireless, in the middle of the cinematic archipelago, shedding light for safe routes towards aesthetics and new expression ports. Most of the logos in the Manaki festivals had the word LIGHT. Capturing the light. Light was the key word Yorgos Arvanitis insisted on, in his masterclass. Compared to other festivals, it is unique as it honors cinematographers from around the world for their devotion to bring us what the director has envisaged. Not as docile servants but as partners, especially those with long experience and intuition. Let us remember, they are the first viewers of what we are going to see on the screen.
Festival director Gena Teodosievska, Artistic director Blagoja Kunovski-Dore and a team of long experienced staff - Aneta Matovska, Aleksandra Bubevska, Ivo Baru, Tomi Velovski, Marija Apchevska, Ana Vasilevska and Slagjan Penev - supported by a great number of volunteers, prepared and sustained the program to the end with impeccable success. The program had everything; 140 films from 73 countries in 14 programs, master classes, open discussions to share personal stories, even disputed views, meetings between directors, actors, cinema students, producers, etc.
Jury: Ed Lachman, American director of many awarded films, Kaloyan Bozhilov, Bulgarian cinematographer, Dominique Velinski, French producer/distributer, Fejmi Daut, cinematographer from North Macedonia, and Nenad DUkic, Serbian producer and programmer.
Competition program candidates: Les Miserables(France), The Bull (Russia), Piranha, (Italy), Synonyms(France/Israel/Germany), The whistlers (Romania), Sorry we missed you (Ken Loach, UK/France/Belgium), The Wild Goose lake (China/France), Ayka, (Germany/Poland), The Invisable Life of Euridice Gusmao (Brazilian/German), Lara (German), White, White Day (Iceland), and Almodovar’s Pain and Glory, Cannes acting award-winner (Spain).
Awards. 1) For the Short program, Special Mention to the Albanian film ‘The Van’, cinematographer Guillaume Le Frontec (director Erenik Beqiri). Young fighter Ben hopes to make money and gain respect from his father. 2) Best Short Award to ‘Monster God’ , cinematographer Costanza Sandoval (director Agustina San Martin- Argentina). A teenager faces adulthood in S. America. 3) Special Mention for ‘Ayka’, dop Jolanta Dylewska (director Sergei Dvortsevoy-Germany/Poland). A young woman struggling to raise a child. 4)The Bronze Camera 300 went to ‘Piranhas’,dop Daniele Cipri (director Claudio Giovannesi-Italia). James Dean style teenagers risk dangerous races in Naples. 5) Silver Camera 300 received the ‘ Wild Goose Lake‘, dop Jinsong Dong (director Yinan Diao-China/France). A young man and a woman live dangerously by a lake refuge. 6) The Golden Camera 300 went to ‘The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao’, cinematographer Helene Louvart (director Karim Ainouz-
Brazil/Germany). Two sisters try to find their separate identities in Rio. On her behalf, popular Eric Gautier (last years’ Silver Camera 300 winner) received the award.
Honorary Golden Camera 300 awards for their lifetime achievement and contribution to cinema art went to Yorgos Arvanitis from Greece * - a self-taught camera man, humble, amazed audience in both the masterclass and the press conference about Angelopoulos’ film; and to Ed Lachman. Despite his physical disability, he stupefied everyone with his vigorous spirit and poignant statements during the masterclass. Special Guests, directors: a) Jim Sheridan (Irish). Films, In The Name of The Father, My Left Foot, Boxer, etc. b) Fatih Akin (German-Turk ), two times Camera 300 winner, with films Solino, The Edge of Heaven, Cut, Golden Glove, etc.
-Other participants: a) Rainer Klausmann (Swiss). 2018 Camera 300 winner b) Eleonora Veninova, N. Macedonian writer/director. c) Max Zaile, German director, and 4) Dubravka Turik, Croatian director/screenwriter.
Countries in focus this year were Georgia and Montenegro. -The International Association of Cinematographers (IMAGO) awarded Manaki Brothers FF exceptional contribution and promotion of the film art.
Aiming to see the new tendencies of both the short and the feature films, especially in the Balkan young cinematography, I saw some of the screened films: -From the European Perspectives program: 1) The Waiter, with a young talented cinematographer, Yorgos Karvelas. A lonely waiter’s life is upset by a sudden neighbor. Also screened in Istanbul, Sofia, Kluj and Thessaloniki festivals. 2) Stitches, awarded in Sarajevo, dop Damian Padovanovic (director Miroslav Terzic). A common story of abducting newborns for trade, and an obsessed mother fighting hospitals and doctors. 3) Lemonade, DoP Friede Klausz (director Ioanna Uricarru). Fighting for her Green Card, a young refuge woman is sexually abused. 4) Sorry We Missed You, with Robby Ryan (director Ken Loach). An English family tries to cope with economic crisis. 5) The Bull, with a very young DoP, Glep Filatov (director Boris Akorov).Very strong thriller depiction of Russia at Yeltsin’s time. 6) The Whistlers with Tudor Mircea (director Korneliu Porumboiu). Corrupted police officers investigate prostitutes and ‘whistle’ to mafia. From the Documentary program: 1) Female Pleasure . Four women talk about sexual abuse. 2) For Sama, a story of women in Aleppo, Syria. 3) When Tomatos Met Wagner Marianna Economou director and cinematographer. An example of villagers fight economic crisis collectively. 4) Hi Al, a very interesting research on advanced robotics and artificial intelligence. 5) Distant Barking of Dogs (Ukraine). A small boy and his grandmother in Eastern Ukraine face stoically the breath of the approaching war. 6) The Advocate. The struggle of Jewish lawyer, Lea Tsemel, to defend Arab children. 8) Marceline, the story of a legendary woman with strong political views. –From the Special Screenings: 1) Honeyland, Honey harvesting and an endangered society in a land of difficult terrain. The protagonist – uneducated, non-actress – amazed everybody. One of the best doc films I have seen. Awarded in 11 festivals, it is heading for Oscar. 2) Raju, by Max Zaile. Short film, thriller, about the disappearance of the adopted boy. 3) Last Coffee (N. Macedonia). Coffee leads to obsessions and inspires poetry. -In Honor: 1)Carol , by Ed Lachman and 2) The Beekeeper by Teo Angelopoulos
-Other events: On the way to Ohrid, a visit stop at the cemetery, not far from the center of the city, is always planned for the festival guests to pay tribute to Milton Manaki - and his wife Basiliki - grave. Apart from the historical disputes and discontent between the two countries that lasted more than 140 years, Greece, so far, has done very little about the legendary and pioneering contribution of the Manaki Brothers, both in photography and film recording of the history of the Balkans. I hope it can be done now.
City of Bitola. A combination of medium size city and a surrounding picturesque landscape. History: First Camera in the Balkans, seat of many consuls in the 19thcentury, preserved Ottoman architecture, friendly people, many of whom speak very good Greek and visit Greece very often. Many young people, either with studies in Thessaloniki or in some Erasmus program, speak fluent Greek.
Wishes for a successful 41st Manaki festival .
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*Yorgos Arvanitis. Low-key speaker, humble. Self-taught cameramen, with more than one hundreds feature films, from Finos Films to legendary director Teo Angelopoulos’ masterpieces and on with most of the directors and famous actors.
** Ed Lachman. Director and world traveler. Despite his severe disability - now always in a wheelchair and supported - he continues to direct films and participate in festivals, press conferences and masterclasses.
Kyriakos Peftitselis
