Sofia 2007

"Four Minutes" by Chris Kraus

Headed by Stefan Kitanov, the Sofia Film Festival has made, in last years, a good career. This is the result of a clever and reasoned politics. The festival does not try to make a small version of a 'big event', but takes advantage from its geographical location and focuses on Balkan cinemas and, of course, the new Bulgarian production. The competition adds a few international independent films to the Balkan ones. Tributes were dedicated to Wim Wenders, Hirokazu Koreeda and Lyudmil Staikov, the Bulgarian filmmaker. A retrospective presented 25 films of Federico Fellini. As well. Germany's young filmmakers got a focus (unfortunately without the very new films shown at Berlinale in February). Needless to say that this interesting selection was well accepted by the local public.

The FIPRESCI Prize went to the German film Four Minutes (Vier Minuten) by Chris Kraus.
Sofia International Film Festival, Bulgaria, March 1-11, 2007, www.sofiaiff.com

Reports

Women in Cages with Prizes. Leif Joley reviews the German movie Four Minutes (by Chris Kraus), which broke the chains of genre to claim the FIPRESCI prize at Sofia.
The Belgrade Tragedy. Tadeusz Szczepański admires Sofia's Grand-Prize winner, The Trap — "a rare example of a film whose thrilling plot not only serves as vacuous entertainment, but also leads us to the depths of human soul and becomes the drama of consciousness."
The Invisible Secrets of the Soul. Liudmila Hristozova-Diakova reviews the Bulgarian film Investigation by Iglika Triffonova, "a penetrating study of the motives of a fratricide — motives which are not social or psychological, but reach the depths of the unconscious, the primary and biblical concepts of love and hate."

top