The Ninth Ravno Selo Film Festival from June 25 to 28

This year as well, under the slogan “Film Stories Circle Through the Village” from June 25 to 28, Ravno Selo, near Vrbas, will host the ninth Ravno Selo Film Festival, an international festival of first or second films.

 

The festival, created from the idea of bringing film back to audiences and communities outside major cultural centers, once again brings a rich, diverse, and carefully curated program primarily intended for young authors, new cinematic voices, and audiences who enjoy discovering different, fresh, and authentic film stories.

 

The main program of this year’s festival will feature 12 feature-length films selected by guest curator Andrej Klemenčić. The program brings together authors from Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Italy, Germany, Australia, Russia, the United States, the Czech Republic, and other countries, confirming the festival’s international character and its openness to different poetics, generations, and cinematic sensibilities.

 

In addition to the main feature film selection, audiences can also expect a short documentary program, as well as a student selection dedicated to the youngest filmmakers and their first professional steps. It is precisely within these program segments that the Ravno Selo Film Festival further confirms its mission to be a space for encounters, support, and visibility for new authors.

 

A special part of the festival will also be the accompanying program, conversations with authors, meetings between filmmakers and audiences, as well as content intended for young people, through which the festival continues to develop its educational character and bring film closer to new generations of viewers.

 

As tradition dictates, the official opening of the festival will be marked by a performance of film music, creating the recognizable atmosphere of Ravno Selo, ceremonial, warm, and cinematic.

 

“As we approach this year’s festival, I am excited about everything that awaits us, and honestly, I am already thinking a little about the tenth, jubilee festival. I hope that is not immodest, but my satisfaction is truly immense as we approach that important anniversary. We are promoters of new cinematic thought. We are a small community and a small festival, but a festival that grows together with the authors who come here with their films and later become stars in the global film sky. Hospitable hosts await you, ready to open the doors of their homes. And besides a celebration of film, we are preparing a celebration for the other senses as well: music, homemade food, and valuable awards for the winners,” emphasizes Lazar Ristovski, the festival’s founder.

 

The main festival program will open on Thursday, June 25 at 9 PM with the film “Nuremberg,” directed by James Vanderbilt, a psychological thriller starring Russell Crowe as Nazi criminal Hermann Göring, following one of the greatest war crimes trials. Rami Malek plays an American military psychiatrist tasked with assessing the mental state of Göring and the other criminals on trial.

 

In addition to this cinematic treat, Klemenčić’s selection for this year’s main festival program also includes the following works:

“South Wind” (“Južina”), the debut feature film by director Ante Marin. The burden of the southern wind awakens suppressed conflicts among five residents of a four-story apartment building in Split, who, pressured by humidity and wind, dance through the film in the famous Dalmatian dialect and with an even more famous temperament.

 

“Pavilion” (“Paviljon”), directed by Dino Mustafić, featuring an impressive cast including Rade Šerbedžija, Mirjana Karanović, Zijah Sokolović, and Meto Jovanovski. After years of humiliation, the residents of the “Pavilion” retirement home take justice into their own hands and stage a rebellion. Former caregivers become hostages, and the struggle expands beyond the institution into the media sphere.

 

“The Poet” (“Un Poeta”), signed by Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto, follows the possibility of rebirth for a lonely obsessive poet, Oscar. Until yesterday surrounded only by loneliness and alcohol, Oscar finds inspiration in a young poet named Yurlady, whose talent gives him strength but also pushes him to resolve his life dilemmas.

 

The drama “One More Round Before Bed” (“La città di pianura”), directed by Francesco Sossai, is a true treat for lovers of the genre. Two broke fifty-year-olds obsessed with “one last drink before bed” meet a naive architecture student. Taking him under their wing, these mentors completely change his perspective on love and life.

 

The Australian feature documentary “The Raftsmen,” directed by Chadden Hunter, presents the longest raft journey in the world from Ecuador to Australia.

 

“How To Make A Killing,” directed by Jon Patton Ford, is a blend of black comedy and thriller inspired by the 1949 film “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” Beckett, masterfully played by Glen Powell, is the illegitimate child of a teenage mother whom a wealthy family rejected. Determined to reclaim the fortune that rightfully belongs to him, Beckett begins eliminating the arrogant family members one by one.

 

Actors Dustin Hoffman and Jean Reno are the best recommendation for the film “Tone of Crime” (“Tuner”), directed by Daniel Roher. The story of piano tuner Nick, who accidentally discovers a method for opening safes and slowly slips into crime, only to be interrupted by falling in love with talented pianist Ruthie, will certainly be interesting to audiences in Ravno Selo.

 

“Accomplices” (“Saučesnici”), directed by Marko Novaković, follows the fate of an apparently perfect married couple, Branko and Sofija. Branko decides to cover up the truth about an accident they were involved in, while Sofija succumbs to the pressure of conscience, discovering how deeply the social structures around her are soaked in hypocrisy and fear.

“DJ Ahmet,” by Macedonian director Georgi M. Unkovski, deals with the life of a fifteen-year-old village boy who dreams of becoming a DJ, winning over a girl promised to another man, and freeing himself from the limitations imposed by his rural and conservative environment.

 

“Bird Boy” (“Dečak-ptica”), directed by Savely Osadsky, is based on the story of eighteen-year-old orphan Vanya, whose voice has not yet changed. Facing difficulties in socializing with others, especially with his adoptive family and the girl he falls in love with, Vanya must decide whether he will sound like a child forever or attempt to change his voice and his destiny.

 

“A Real Man” (“Un hombre de verdad”), by Spanish director Liteo Pedregal. Guillermo, an eighty-year-old neurosurgeon, has spent his entire life accustomed to being served by his wife Maria. After her sudden death, he faces new challenges and the task of becoming “a real man” in his later years.

 

Over the course of four festival days, Ravno Selo will once again become a meeting place for film, authors, and audiences a small village of great film stories.

 

The Ravno Selo Film Festival is held with the support of the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the City of Vrbas, and the production company Zillion Film.

 

Source: nedeljnik.rs – “Ninth Ravno Selo Film Festival from June 25 to 28”