The global commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the birth, and, paradoxically, the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka, pioneer of literary modernism, has prompted the audacious borrowing of the title of one of his most famous works, "The Metamorphosis", and turning it into the curatorial axis of this year's Scanorama, which has led to a number of changes in the festival's inner structure.
This has affected the arrangement of the programme sections, seeking not only to meet the promised number of films, but also to motivate the balance across the programmes, conceptual completeness of the Main Competition, evolution of the catalogue, as well as the festival's trajectory from the beginning to the end.
Our team has been joined by Annina Wettstein, an experienced Swiss programmer. This has led to an increased focus on emerging film trends, a more radical approach to commercial cinema, a search for original means of expression, and an attention to the voices of young and talented European female directors. We have strengthened and expanded the Crossing Europe programme to include feature-length documentaries and family films, both previously screened in separate minor sections. This year, the diverse bouqet of Scanorama programmes will be complemented by Goethe Salon as well as the first-time programme, Autumn Screens, dedicated to French film. Our industry event, Scanorama Directions, will have a wider reach with its discussions, masterclasses, lectures and workshops for selected groups of film professionals. Instead of our traditional catalogue, we will offer a digital version on our website plus a publication that will reveal the contexts of the programme films, to be distributed together with the relaunched Literatūra ir Menas magazine. So, there will be novelties in different segments of Scanorama.
This year's edition revives a forgotten Waiting for Scanorama programme and on the eve of the festival, 6-7 November, will present the globally acclaimed extended cinema project Vertical Cinema at the popular art space Kablys. On 7 November, the festival will open in its seven cities with the Cannes opening film, Quentin Dupieux's Second Act, symbolically invoking the spirit of the opening of the great festival. Continuing the tradition to close the festival with a film by a Lithuanian filmmaker, Scanorama will conclude with Linas Mikuta's documentary Paradise Not Lost.
Kafkaesque Metamorphoses
Years ago, Kafka’s works painted the portrait of our modern life, full of confusion, forced busyness, shattered interpersonal relationships, and suffering. Whereas today, sociologists are seriously looking into the Acceleration Society paradox, when normal aspects of life have become luxury and deficit. The modern man does not have time to pause and think or simply walk a portion of the road, be it in the direct or metaphorical sense. He is engulfed in the Kafkaesque process, forcing him into unnatural behaviour, doing, running, achieving, focusing on the results rather than contents. Is there a possibility to stop? A possibility of a metamorphosis that would bring one back to the world of empathy and natural feelings? It is this world of suffering, created by Kafka, that becomes today’s great inspiration to change, look back at alternative existence, life without overestimating the impetus of television, social media, influencers as well as the omnipotence of artificial intelligence, replacing the bustle with a slow and meaningful search for one’s own way. The festival’s another novelty will be the readings of Kafka’s works (actors Rasa Samuolytė, Dalia Michelevičiūtė, Dainius Gavenonis, Darius Gumauskas) before the screening of Peter Capaldi’s short film Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, an original adaptation of Metamorphosis, part of our ongoing collaboration with the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, which will host the event on its Small Stage.
We would be hard pressed to find a serious film director who has not had a go at Kafka. The plethora of American names alone makes one wish to see how they understood Kafka: David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese. Directors were drawn not only to the author’s oeuvre, albeit it often serve as impulse to add to the number of existing adaptations of The Trial and Metamorphosis. Kafka himself, who never saw cinema as an art form and did not want to be interpreted, received a great deal of filmmakers’ attention to his personality as well as his work. Directors were mostly inspired by Kafka’s world, inexhaustible to this day. It is no coincidence that we will kickstart our Kafka retrospective with Orson Welles’ adaptation of The Trial, shot in Europe by the American classic and relevant among film lovers to this day. Next, we will show Agnieszka Holland’s adaptation of the same piece made for television over 40 years ago, as well as one by the Lithuanian director Algimantas Puipa, who at the time understood the choice of this work as his destiny. Further down the line will be Michael Haneke’s The Castle, Peter Capaldi’s Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life accompanied by live readings, and films inspired by the Kafkaesque universe. Film visionaries Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, who often made films based on unfinished literary works, turned to Kafka’s first, unfinished novel America for their Class Relations; Terry Giliam was inspired to make Brasil by timeless samba tunes that play throughout the film while turning into a nightmarish vision of the future. The macabre dark comedy, horror and political satire masterpiece, The Cremator, by Juraj Herz of the Czech New Wave fame, was finished immediately after the Prague Spring and banned by Moscow in 1969. The retrospective will end with Georg Maas and Judith Kaufman’s The Glory of Life, dedicated to Kafka’s final years and his last love.
Vertical Cinema: Challenging the Horizontal Format
Recently, there has been a growing debate on the influence of technology and media on cinema. Its traditional forms are moving to television, avant-garde and experimental works are entering art galleries, and the history and present of cinema can now be followed on home cinema platforms. Alongside consumer habits, the traditional screen format is also changing, with vertical images captured on mobile devices increasingly threatening the horizontal format. In response to these processes and moods, we are going to invite festival-goers to remember that it is an integral part of cinema culture to reflect on ordinary cinematic experiences and the processes of cinema's development.
Vertical Cinema is a project initiated by the Dutch curatorial collective, Sonic Arts, first introduced at the 2013 Kontraste festival in Krems. Austria. Within its framework, a number of renowned experimental filmmakers and visual artists were invited to produce ten audiovisual works for a specially designed 35mm film projector turned 90 degrees. The result was an impressive collection of abstract films, formal experiments, found footage, processed films, and a live laser show. Since its debut, the project has been presented at prestigious festivals and museums worldwide and has become one of the best known experimental film events of the decade. Complimented by four new works, it is set to become a thought-provoking intro to Scanorama.
Focus on the North
One of the fundamental Scanorama pillars, News from the North programme presents a selection of films from the Nordic countries. Two of them, The Girl with the Needle by Swedish director Magnus von Horn, well known among our festival’s audience, and Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks, made quite a splash at Cannes. Von Horn continues the Bergmanesque tradition of tensions between sexes in a gothic thriller based on true events from the previous century that left an indelible mark on the Danish history. On the other hand, Rúnarsson’s film’s appeal lies in its subtle simplicity that is ever harder to come by in the effect-loving cinema world – perhaps that is the reason for its recognition and appreciation in prestigious film forums.
The last several years have been outstanding for Norwegian cinema, which does not cease to amaze with new names and films. Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s impressive debut feature Loveable won as much as 5 awards at the Karlovy Vary Festival: Special Jury Prize for Best Debut, Best Actress Award, the prestigious Fipresci Award, the Ecumenical Jury Award, and Europa Cinemas Label Jury Award. What is special about this story of shattered love and crumbling family? It is the incredible artistic maturity, a rather rare quality in debut films. The director convincingly reminds us that difficult matters can be spoken about plainly – without embellishments, simplifications, or lies. Not a lot, seemingly, yet so important.
Sex and Love, part 1 and 2 of Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud’s trilogy, explore contemporary human relationships, revealing the actors’ unbelievable chemistry and dense cinematic atmosphere. It turns out that by rejecting external effects, cinema is capable of producing a powerful cinematic effect of human interaction and personal relationships that is astonishing in its simple and consistently exposed authenticity. Meanwhile, the script of Finish director Tiina Lymi’s Stormskerry Maja is reminiscent of Žemaitė’s short stories as so much is similar: the era, the rural life, the St John’s wizardry, the fears and dreams of a naive village girl, and the forced obedience to parents’ will. Except that Maja is nothing like Žemaitė’s poor Katrė, who perishes in the household of Vingių Jonas and his mother. The end of the story is also different, as if foreseeing the upcoming of the future women’s emancipation.
The Wide Europe: Masterful Directing and Acting
Crossing Europe traditionally includes acclaimed European films from the Berlin, Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Locarno and Venice film festivals. Those are the latest works by the most prominent European filmmakers, forming the backbone of the programme and festival. It has also been affected by the winds of metamorphosis as we have introduced highlights that programming for an expanded number of cities required. Therefore we have chosen the reference Crossing Europe Special to mark the films dedicated for Klaipėda: French classic Agnes Varda's Le Pointe Courte and British Mark Jenkin's Bait or the exclusive 35mm film The Afterlight, an original work by British director Charlie Shackleton, shown from a single existing print that is disintegrating with each screening, to be screened only at the Skalvija cinema centre in Vilnius and the Romuva Cinema in Kaunas. In addition, the Klaipėda audience will be treated with an exclusive film and live music experience, the 1911 adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy by Italian directors Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovano and Giuseppe de Liguoro, which will unfold the rarely seen pages of silent film history.
Scanorama audiences will meet the talented actors of two great Isabelle Huppert films – André Téchiné's My New Friends and Patricia Mazuy's Visiting Hours. It has become a tradition at Scanorama to see Lea Seydoux, Louis Garrel and Vincent Lindon, who will appear this year in The Second Act. We will also invite you to discover the great Norwegian actress Helga Guren in a memorable role in Loveable, as well as the talented young filmmakers from the Main Competition – Oksana Karpovych (Intercepted), Vita Maria Drygas (Danger Zone), Maja Novaković (Who Will Come Knocking), and Sara Suma (Arthur & Diana).
Banzo, presented in the Karlovy Vary Competition, is a shocking film that explains the horrific colonial experiences of Portugal and other territories. Director Margarida Cardoso explored these phenomena in her documentaries before she decided to translate them into a documentary-style fiction film. Alongside this film, the inventive colonial Asian odyssey Grand Tour, by Portugal's most prominent director Miguel Gomes, awarded Best Director at Cannes, has a different, more sophisticated, register. Berlinale’s Silver Bear winning French director Bruno Dumont has made a European version of Star Wars in The Empire, offering not only a satirical vision of the cosmic apocalypse, but also an apt commentary on the contemporary human condition.
Main Competition: the Voice of Talented Women
This year's Main Competition may be called the Young and Talented European Women Programme. It features voices that have already been heard internationally and will only get louder in the future. In putting together this programme, which holds a special significance for us, we have tried to strike a balance between the uniqueness of the films and their appeal to audiences by offering thematic, stylistic and semantic diversity. Young female filmmakers speak boldly and uncompromisingly about life's sorrows and innermost feelings, trials and tribulations. From the subject of war to the analysis of interpersonal conflicts, from radical cinematic language innovations to beautiful traditional narratives, this is their enticingly interesting path to the big screen. It looks like the jury, headed by Matthijs Wouter Knoll, Director of the European Film Academy, will have a lot to debate when it comes to choosing the best film in competition.
Wild Cards, the programme for film nerds will offer intriguing debuts and works exploring cinematic forms. Nocturnal Creatures, dedicated to genre films, will be centred on Norwegian director Thea Hvistendahl’s conceptual zombie film Handling the Undead, which opened the Gothenburg Film Festival.
Past and Present of Lithuanian Cinema
This year’s Lithuanian premieres include Linas Mikuta’s moving film Paradise Not Lost, Lithuanian-Latvian co-production Juri’s 7 Rock’n’rolls (title may be changed in the future), Ukrainian-Lithuanian co-production Glyadyelov, directed by Ksenia Kravtsova, and, as part of the Klaipėda programme, Šarūnas Mikulskis’ Endangered species. We will remember Pepe Andreu and Rafael Molés’ timeless Lobster Soup, co-produced by Arūnas Matelis’ Studio Nominum.
As always, Lithuanian Cinema: An Open History brings back time-tested films, joyful and sad anniversaries, important facts from Lithuanian cinema. This year we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Devil’s Bride, Lithuania’s sole musical by late Arūnas Žebriūnas, as well as the centenary of Donatas Banionis, by showing Adam Wants to Be a Man, a landmark in his creative biography that marks his fateful encounter with director Vytautas Žalakevičius. In Klaipėda, we will hold a screening of Algimantas Puipa's timeless drama A Woman and Her Four Men, shot in the Curonian Spit. These films will be screened free of charge in libraries and other cultural venues throughout different towns.
We will continue to uncover the treasures of the "Lithuanian Cinema" archives, presenting works by the great Soviet-era Georgian filmmakers Tengiz Abuladze and Otar Iosseliani. In addition, we will remember another famous name of the time, that of 90-year-old Lana Gogoberidze, who presented her latest film Mother and Daughter, or the Night Is Never Complete at the last year’s edition of Berlinale. This film will serve as a cinematic link between the masterpieces of Soviet-Georgian cinema and artistic quests and achievements of the country’s contemporary directors in the world cinema today.
The Appeal of Small Form Cinema
The Short Film Competition is a common reminder for all filmmakers of their beginnings, the attempts to encapsulate thought and content in short stories. Cinema legend Jean Luc Goddard also made short films (screened at Scanorama), and the Norwegian director Anja Breien, famous for her feature-length films and TV series, has won her major awards for her wonderful shorts (e.g. To See a Boat in Sail, screened at Scanorama). The longevity of small film forms can be attested to by a number of feature filmmakers. The Lithuanian directors who have made a name for themselves internationally are mostly the winners of our early short film programme New Baltic Cinema (Kaupinis, Samulionytė, Mikuta, Kavtaradze). Today, the Short Film Competition has covers the whole of Europe, bringing our filmmakers into a much broader competitive space.
In this year's four short film programmes, emerging filmmakers from different European countries will present the latest generation's views on the world around them and cinema. How do the voices of our own filmmakers sound in the overall context of European small form cinema? Who will win Best Short Film and Best Lithuanian Short Film this year? What is interesting about the world of small form cinema today? We will hear the answers and the jury's verdict, and award the winners at a special event on the eve of the festival's closing ceremony. The jury of the Short Film Competition is headed by Ilija Tatić, an experienced Serbian film expert and executive producer of the European Film Festival Palić.
Autumn Talks and Discussions at Scanorama
Scanorama Directions, a programme dedicated to film industry matters, will invite film professionals and those interested in audiovisual culture to reflect on the complex relations between the Ukrainian film history and present, debate on the concept of authorship in film, delve into the professions of film critic and actor as well as the challenges they face, and to discuss the issue of the end of cinema, which has been foretold for decades.
Looking forward to seeing you in screening rooms. Beautiful autumn can make filmwatching even nicer.
Sincerely Yours,
Gražina Arlickaitė