In less than two weeks, the 17th Mediterranean Film Festival Split begins, bringing us record 107 films from 41 countries through six different programmes, which will be shown in four locations. In the Mediterranean feature-length program showing solely Croatian premieres in competition, directors Omar Hilal (Egypt), Miguel Faus (Spain), Enrico Maria Artale (Italy) and Ardit Sadika (Albania) will personally present their films to the audience.
"Voy! Voy! Voy!" is a comedy based on a true story that sounds incredible. Director Omar Hilal tells the story of poor Hassan who escapes abroad and joins the blind and partially sighted football team pretending to be one of them. "Voy! Voy! Voy!" became the box office hit in Egypt and was their candidate for the Oscar award.
The programme also includes an Albanian candidate for the most important film award. Author Ardit Sadiku directed an excellent documentary about Alexander Gruda, who in 1990, during the fall of communism, hatched a plan to hijack a warship in order to escape the country together with a group of friends.
The Italian "El paraíso" is a dynamic family drama about the complex relationship between mother and son, for which Enrico Maria Artale won the award for best screenplay in Venice, and the film won the award for the best female role, as well as the youth jury award.
The wonderful Isabelle Huppert returns to FMFS in "Sidonie in Japan", where she portrays a French writer who receives an invitation to Japan to present a reprint of her book. This great humorous drama provides an interesting look at Japanese culture and diversity.
Palestine's "No Other Land" is a poignant documentary awarded at the Berlinale by both the jury and the audience. The story follows a Palestinian activist who spends years filming the destruction of his community by Israel. He meets an Israeli journalist and creates a strong alliance with him that results in a multi-year struggle for the truth.
"The Successor" is a tense psychological thriller by the award-winning director Xavier Legrand, in which we follow the artistic director of a large Parisian fashion house who after the death of his father discovers his great secret.
An atypical gangster drama "Enea" skilfully combines tension with melancholy, and the young director and screenwriter Pietro Castellitto is also in the lead role of a young man who, out of desire for a new adventure, accepts a mafia boss's offer to sell a large quantity of kilos of cocaine.
"Crossing" is a Turkish-Swedish-French co-production, an emotional road movie in which two strangers overcome ideological and emotional obstacles by uniting in a common mission.
The tense and realistic drama "Amal", in which Lubna Azabal plays the main role, is known to the Split audience for the winning film of the FMFS "Life Suits Me Well", and she was awarded for her latest role in Tallinn. It is interesting that it was Azabal who was the president of the jury for the short film programme in Cannes that awarded the "Palme D’Or" to Nebojša Slijepčević.
Outside of the competition programme, another the Croatian documentary film will be shown in Split: it is "Ship" by director from Pula, Elvis Lenić, who will personally present the film about the Uljanik shipyard, which has become an abandoned graveyard of workshops, cranes and shipwrecks.
It has already been announced earlier that FMFS' feature-length programme will open with "The Silent Maid", a dynamic and refreshing satirical drama, about which director Miguel Faus will talk to the audience of the Bačvice Open-air Cinema. The Italian cinema hit of the year "There's Still Tomorrow" by famous actress Paola Cortellesi was chosen as the closing film.
Tickets for the 17th FMFS are on sale, online and at the Bačvice Open-air Cinema box office.
