Official Selection of Feature Films

Ivo Trajkov, SK/MK/CZ, 100’

n the spring of 1939, the news was transmitted that in the small mountain village of Piargy, buried by an avalanche of snow just a few days ago, the Antichrist was born. The bishop demands that the statements of Ioanka, the only survivor of the disaster, be properly investigated in order to find out what really happened.

Love, passion, hope, sin, and punishment—these are the words that would best describe the atmosphere in Ivo Trajkov's latest film, a symbol of modern Sodom and Gomorrah. A visually sumptuous story based on a short story by Slovak writer František Švantner, the film impresses with its originality and rarity in its approach to the subject. Through his brilliant black and white photography, he subtly and non-trendily captures an atmosphere of historical drama and is a mirror of the hypocrisy of morality, religion, and patriarchal tradition in society—equally relevant today as in the period immediately before the Second World War.

The Slovak-Macedonian-Czech co-production film "Ballad of Piargy" has participated in a number of international film festivals and won several awards, among others, at festivals in Buenos Aires, Brussels, the Montreal Independent Film Festival, etc.

Laura Mora, CO/LU/MX/FR/NO, 104'

Five boys from the streets of Medellin embark on a journey into the interior of Colombia in the hope of finding a property that one of them has inherited through a land restitution program. Fleeing the violence of arms (paramilitary groups, drug traffickers, the gold mafia, etc.), these "kings without a kingdom" enter a dangerous adventure generated by the marginalization and discrimination of the little man. In an attempt to get a piece of life, they fight for a piece of space and shelter from their desires and hopes, conveying to us the idea of a world without borders in which all people are equal.

Filmed in the manner of a road movie, "Kings of the World" by Colombian director Laura Mora Ortega is a film about disobedience, friendship, and dignity, about the tragic growth and self-knowledge of a young man in a world full of beauty but also violence. A subversive story that transits between harsh reality and dreamy surreality, through a poetic journey in search of the Promised Land, where freedom, equality, and justice will finally reign.

The film won the "Golden Shell" award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the "Silver Hugo" in Chicago, and also took part in festivals in Warsaw, Zurich, Sao Paulo, Toronto, Thessaloniki, etc.

Chie Hayakawa, JP, 112'

What makes life worth living is the central question in Chie Hayakawa's film, based on her 2017 short film with the same name, which was part of the anthology "10 Years of Japan" produced by Hirokazu Koreda.

In the not-so-distant future, the government of Japan is enacting a special program, touted as a "humane solution," encouraging people over the age of 75 to be euthanized voluntarily in order to solve the problem of an "aging society" and give them a brighter future for their children and younger generations in Japan.

Set in a dystopian atmosphere and through the prism of conflicting moral dilemmas, the debutant "Plan 75", among other things, talks about the problem of aging and the dignity of human life, as well as the treatment of older people in today's society with the emergence of ageism and the marginalization of the people of the third age. The main protagonist in the film, 78-year-old Michi, is in a dilemma: should she continue her life or simply be obedient to society through her self-sacrifice?

"Plan 75" participates in several film festivals and has won awards at the film festivals in Cannes (Special Recognition in the "The Un Certain Regard" program) and Thessaloniki (Critics' Award "Fipresci").

Amirhossein Asgari, IR, 119'

Yusuf, a successful veterinarian in an isolated, picturesque mountain area, has suffered severe burns in a fire caused by a pack of wolves. This event completely changes his life, and his hatred for wolves grows into a true obsession until one day a female environmentalist enters his life and everything begins to change. Meanwhile, Halil, Yusuf's friend and colleague, is searching for his recently missing daughter. All the villagers are looking for her until the enigma slowly unravels.

The winter coldness and the omnipresence of silence permeate almost every frame in Amir Hossain Asghari's film, which abounds with beautiful cinematography. "The Last Snow" is a realistic film narrative in the spirit of the Iranian film tradition, a story about a lonely middle-aged man in the heart of nature, but also about his encounter with love and suffering through continuous moral questioning and resolution of dilemmas.

This is Asgari's second film production, after the successful Borderless (2014), also shown in the FFF Showcase Program in 2018, a film that won the Best Asian Feature Award at the 27th Tokyo Film Festival. His second film, The Last Snow, has participated in several festivals and won several awards at one of the most important film festivals in Iran, the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran.

Krzysztof Zanussi, IR, 119'

What to choose between reason, love, and faith? This dilemma is faced by the main characters in the latest film by the world-famous and acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi ("The Structure of Crystal", "The Illumination", "Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease", "A Year of the Quiet Sun", "The Constant Factor" , "Camouflage", etc.).

Joakim (Andrzej Seweryn) is a rich man in years who no longer has to prove anything to anyone, and who is nearing the end of his life. On the other side, there is a young mathematical genius, David, who leaves a promising business career abroad and seeks an opportunity to show his talent in Poland.

Is life the result of conscious choice, chance, or fate? Does God interfere in our lives? And if so, why is there so much evil in the world? Does the Creator leave everything for the Last Judgment?

In "The Perfect Number" Zanussi returns to some of the most significant themes of his film work so far, the connections between science, life, and faith, this time presenting them in the unexpected form of an intellectual thriller. The director himself describes his film as a film "about mathematics and about God".

"Perfect Number" has so far participated in the Camerimage Film Festival in Torun (Poland) and the International Film Festival in India, and Zanusi, who, in addition to directing, has also completed philosophy and physics, will be a guest in Macedonia for the second time, exactly on the 13th. Philosophical film festival.

Manuela Martelli, CL/AR, 95'

Carmen, wife of an upper-class doctor and former Red Cross activist, is called by a priest to take care of a young resistance fighter. Carmen bravely and selflessly takes care of and tries to offer medical help to the wounded boy, but at the same time, a civil and political awakening takes place in her, realizing her privileged but at the same time alienated status in the Chilean society.

Inspired by the family history of director Manuela Martelli, the debut feature "1976" is a study of the paranoia during the early phase of the Pinochet regime in Chile that makes a renewed attempt to document the dictatorship as a form of government. All authoritarian regimes point to the destruction of the individual in a society, and in them, the preservation of the soul and the authentic self is in itself an audacious act of political resistance.

The film is a participant in the film festivals in Cannes, San Sebastian, and Tokyo; it is nominated for the prestigious Goya Awards, and the extraordinary Aline Kuppenheim, for the main role in "1976", receives the Best Actress award at IFF Tokyo 2022.