ISTANBUL: Development funding for a number of new feature film projects was announced at the Istanbul IFF (http://film.iksv.org/trrnfor ) Meetings on the Bridge industry event last night. The new Turkish German Development Fund backed jointly by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Film Fund, the Hamburg Film Fund and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism awarded development funding to seven projects out of 13 projects presented for a total of 100 000 Euros. This was the first round of funding to be awarded by the new fund which was a launched last year.
BERLIN: Polish cinematographer Wojciech Staron's lensing of competition entry The Prize (El Premio) with his extreme close-ups and somber images dominates this film and gives it a tension and a feeling of menace. Directed by Argentine born and Mexican based director Paula Markovitch the film is partly autobiographical.
BERLIN: Billed as Bela Tarr's last bow The Turin Horse seems to be a throwback to his eight hour epic Satantango in terms of pace and monotony. Though a mere two hours and twenty minutes-almost a short film by Tarr standards- the film will be an endurance test for audiences as they struggle to decipher the Hungarian master's meaning and unravel this apocalyptic allegory.
BERLIN: Escape from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster seems like an obvious topic for a fast moving action film with tension mounting as the clock ticks off the minutes. Russian director Alexander Mindadze in his second feature has given us a nail biting beginning as Valery Kabysh played by Anton Shagin arrives at Chernobyl just as the reactor blows up.
BERLIN: Turkish film director Seyfi Teoman follows his internantionally successful Summer Book with the light-hearted Our Grand Despair. While the film's story begins with Nihal (Gunes Sayin) a young woman who is trying to recover from her grief after her parents are killed in a traffic accident it is really about the relationship between Ender (Ilker Aksum) and Cetin (Fatih Al) two Turkish men in their thirties sharing a flat in Ankara.
BERLIN: Ralph Fiennes does not disappoint with his directorial debut of Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Indeed Fiennes' mastery of the Shakespearian material makes this look more like the work of an experienced director than a first-timer. The language has been updated by John Logan and set by Fiennes in the modern day Belgrade but the story has lost none of its Shakespearian power.
BERLIN: It was a Berlinale triumph for Polish and Hungarian talent with Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr winning the Grand Jury Prix for his The Turin Horse while the prize for Outstanding Artistic Achievement was shared ex aequo between Polish cinematographer Wojciech Staron and production designer Barbara Enriquez for their work on El premio (The Prize) directed by Paula markovitch a coproduction with Poland which h was supported by the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl).
This month we interview Ruta Boguzaite manager of the Vilnius cinema Kino Pasaka.
BERLIN: Hungarian born Hollywood producer Andrew G. Vajna announced that he would deliver the new strategy for the future of the Hungarian film industry in just 90 days. It was the first public statement Vajna has made since he was appointed Commissioner for the Film Industry by the Hungarian government just two weeks ago. Speaking at a hall packed with anxious Hungarian producers and directors during a roundtable organized by the Collegium Hungaricum at the Berlinale Vajna said he had come to Berlin mainly to reassure international partners. Vajna said he had been given a year by the government to evaluate the current situation in the Hungarian film industry after the collapse of Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation (MMK www.mmka.hu) last year but that he realizes the difficult situation of Hungarian film professionals and vowed to deliver the new strategy within 60 to 90 days.
BERLIN: German Ukrainina director Sergei Lotznitza has inked a deal with Lativan Rijafilms (www.rijafilms.lv) to shoot his new production In the Fog in Latvia in September.
