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Hungarian and Romanian films win at Vukovar

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Cineuropa

After winning the Best Debut Film award at the Hungarian Film Week, Bela Paczolaj’s The Adventurers won the Best Feature Film Award at the second Vukovar Film Festival of Danube Countries (Jul 9-13).

The jury composed of Croatian directors Kristijan Milic and Zvonimir Juric and critic Nenad Polimac had to choose from seven films, including Achim Bornhak’s Eight Miles High!

(Germany), Ivan Zivkovic’s Huddersfield (Serbia), Dejan Acimovic’s I Have to Sleep, My Angel, Janos Szasz’s Opium: Diary of a Mad Woman (Hungary), Nae Caranfil’s The Rest is Silence (Romania), and Jan Sverak’s Empties (Czech Republic).

The Best Short Film Award went to Radu Jude of Romania for Dimineata (“In the Morning”), while Reto Caffi’s On the Line (Switzerland/Germany) received a special mention.

Romanian director Adina Pintille’s Nu Te Supara Dar (“Don’t Get Me Wrong”) took the Best Documentary Award, and special mentions went to Kristina Kumis’s Welcome to Igrane (Croatia) and Agota Varga’s Szemunuk Fenye (“The Apple of Our Eyes”, Hungary).

The importance of this festival lies in the fact that Vukovar was one of the Croatian cities most ravaged by the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and that the event is one of the first attempts to enliven the city’s cultural life. It was started by Vukovar-born Igor Rakonic, founder of distribution company Discovery Film, which specializes in European and arthouse cinema. The evening screenings are held on a ferry on the Danube, creating a special atmosphere, in spite of mosquito attacks, and accommodation and hospitality are the best possible within the limited budget.

Vladan Petkovic