FEST is introducing a new competition programme this year - FEST Focus, whose premiere screenings will be held at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade. FEST Focus arose from the Festival's need to further draw attention to the films, which with their bold expression and choice of theme deserve it. Therefore, it is not surprising that the best film of the programme will be decided by those whose work is described in the same way, Momir Milosevic and Dusan Zoric, directors whose films you discovered at FEST, as well as writer and publicist Damir Sehanovic. As part of the FEST Focus programme section, audiences will have the opportunity to watch nineteen different films this year, including one Oscar-nominated film.
Polish film Corpus Christi (Boże Ciało), directed by Jan Komasa, has been nominated by the Academy for Best International Film, and has won more than thirty awards at numerous international festivals so far, having been watched by around 1.4 million viewers in Poland alone. The film follows a young man, Daniel, who is undergoing spiritual transformation while serving his sentence in a youth detention centre. Although the crime he commited prevents him from becoming a Christian priest, he does not give up his dream and goes to a small town to try his luck in what he truly loves.
French film Deerskin (Le Daim), directed by Quentin Dupieux, is about a man who is obsessed with the deerskin jacket of his dreams. Because of that obsession, he turns his back on a monotonous life in the suburbs, wastes his life savings and even turns to crime. This film is genreally referred to as horror / comedy, and it is not the only hybrid film in this programme.
Extracurricular, directed by Ivan-Goran Vitez, follows a man who is mad for not being able to celebrate his daughter’s ninth birthday together with her. A recently divorced father interrupts her class to give her a gift, a cake and a shotgun. The incumbent mayor decides to take advantage of the hostage crisis, and he is ready to do anything to find a solution. Ivan-Goran Vitez's third feature is a tense hostage thriller, imbued with dark humor, but also a film with sharp political commentary built in.
Director Ivan-Goran Vitez, as well as the cast of Extracurricular Djordje Kukuljica and Janko Popovic-Volaric will be guests at this year's FEST. Among guests will also be the cast and crew of the film Easy Land - director and screenwriter Sanja Zivkovic, as well as actresses Nina Kiri and Mirjana Jokovic.
The film Easy Land is about Jasna, a talented and aspiring architect from Serbia who lives in Toronto, where she wants to create a better future for her teenage daughter Nina. However, the mental illness she suffers from is a big problem in their relationship. With the help of medicines, Jasna manages to work - she has a job in a store. She suddenly gets the chance to prove herself and do the project of her dreams, but in order to do that, she has to risk her stability and fragile relationship with her daughter. When Nina finds a job in a theatre, she begins to believe in new opportunities. Soon, she faces a difficult decision - to create her own future or stay and help her mother build the better life they have dreamed of.
