BERLIN:Russian director Alexei Popogrebsky's film How I Ended the Summer has a cast of just two actors who are isolated at a remote meteorological station in the far north. But the real protagonist of the film is the beautiful and dangerous landscape of this polar island in the Russian Arctic where the film was shot.

BERLIN: Romanian director Florin Serban has brought an uncompromising realism to his debut feature If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle a hard hitting drama based on a stage play by Romanian author Andreea Valean. Set in a reformatory the film is a powerful story of young delinquents and the violence that shapes their lives.

BERLIN: The third film in Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu's poetic trilogy ,Honey is a quiet, beautiful film about the relationship between man and nature. Set in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey, an area of untouched nature where man lives in harmony with his surroundings the film shows us poetic scenes of everyday life.

{mosimage}MOSCOW: Films from Central and Eastern Europe has a major presence at the 32nd Moscow International Film Festival (www.moscowfimfestival.ru) held from 17 to 26 June. Jan Kidawa-Blonski's Little Rose took home the best director's prize in the main competition while Reverse directed by Borys Lankosz won the prize for best film in the Perspectives Competition. Festival selectors will have their eyes on the annual Festival of Polish Film in Gdynia as both films were winners of the top prize there in 2009 and 2010. The Czech film An Earthly Paradise for the Eyes directed by Irena Pavlaskova garnered a Silver George for best actress for Czech star VIlma Cibulkova.

MOSCOW: The 32 edition of the Moscow International Film Festival (www.moscowfilmfestival.ru) will be dominated by films from neighbouring central European countries with six films from CEE in the main competition and another film in the Perspectives competition.

KRAKOW: The Krakow International Film Festival (http://www.kff.com.pl/), celebrated its 50^th anniversary well attended gala where top awards in the international doc competition went to the Kaleo La Belle's Beyond This Place and Andrei Gryazev's Sanya and Sparrow. This year's Dragon of Dragons for lifetime achievement went to Jonas Medas legend of New York Avant-garde.

ISTANBUL: Celebrated Turkish photo artist Selim Gunes is in production on his first feature film Snow White produced by Istanbul based Agustos Film (http://www.agustos.com/). The film was one of nine feature film projects selected to be funded by the Turkish Ministry of Culture this year.

CANNES: Jakubisko Films (http://www.jakubiskofilm.com/) is considering further self-releasing in other territories after their successful distribution of Bathory in Hungary topped 35 000 admissions during Cannes. Self releasing has become a buzz word among independent filmmakers in the USA but Prague based Jakubisko Films is one of the first producers in central Europe to go it alone in a foreign market without a distributor.

CANNES: Budapest based Hungaricom (http://www.hungaricom.com/) has acquired world rights for the Kecskemetfilm (http://www.kecskemetfilm.hu/) animation catalogue with over 300 short films and 10 animated features. Hungarian animation studio Kecskemetfilm, founded in 1977, is one of the world's best know producers of children's animation. Hungaricom is offering the catalogue in the Cannes film market this year.

CANNES: New concept sales outfit Yellow Affair has picket Estonian feature Red Mercury for world sales. The crime thriller set in 1990's Estonia is directed by Andres Puustusmaa and produced by Taska Film (www.taska.ee). Czech, Slovak, German Coproduction 3 Seasons in Hell directed by Tomas Masin and produced by Dawson Productions (http://www.dawsonproduction.com/) which is screening in the main competition at Karlovy Vary IFF (http://www.kviff.com/) this year is another pre-Cannes acquisition.