2006 Program

Thursday, May 18

Opening night: Musical trip around Balkans

6.30 pm
WHOSE IS THIS SONG (Chia e tazi pesen?) (70 min)
Director: Adela Peeva / Bulgaria and Pan-European co-production
In her search for the true origins of a haunting melody, the filmmaker travels to Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria. The trip is filled with humor, suspense, tragedy and surprise as each country’s citizens passionately claim the song to be their own and can even furnish elaborate histories of its origins.

8.30 pm
CONTACT (KONTAKT) (95 min)
Director: Sergej Stanojkovski / German-Macedonian production
Forty-year old Janko is released from prison into the care of his half-brother Novak, owner of the Hotel “Titanic” in Skopje. The same day Novak picks up his wife’s sister, Zana, from the psychiatric hospital. Since the mental home has begun to serve as a hide-out for war criminals, there is no longer any room for the real patients.

Friday, May 19
Albanian double bill, with short from Kosovo
6.30 pm
KOSOVA 9/11 (13 min)
Director: Burbuqe Berisha / Kosovo/UN
Hearing the news of 9/11 attacks the local people are quickly led to believe that Serbs are the culprits. At first humorous, this dark comedy of errors quickly turns into an absurdist tale about information era musical chairs fueled by prejudice and gross misrepresentation of news.

DEAR ENEMY (I dashur armik) (90 min)
Director: Gjergj Xhuvani / Albania
Dear Enemy tells the true story of the Director’s grandfather who became friends with a German officer during the WWII German occupation of Albania while hiding a partisan, an Italian soldier and a Jewish watchmaker in his cellar.

8.30 pm
TIRANA YEAR ZERO (89 min)
Director: Fatmir Koci / Albania
The film tells the story of a young couple in post-communist Albania, at a time when many Albanians left the country in search for a better life abroad. In the crime-riddled, rundown city of Tirana a young man lives with his parents in a dilapidated apartment complex. His beautiful, smart, resourceful girlfriend wants to move to Paris and be a model. Escape seems imminent for these hopeful youths.

Saturday, May 20
Imagine there are no countries
3.30 pm
THE WAY WE PLAYED (Kako smo se igrali) (13 min)
Director: Samir Mehanovic / Scotland-Bosnian production
Filmed entirely on location in Bosnia, the film tells the story of two young boys, a Muslim and a Serb, playing together on the eve of a war that will make their friendship impossible. Beautifully shot beneath brooding skies against the canvas of a ruined 14th-century castle, this 13 minute short is a powerful statement about children trapped in violent conflicts.

PRETTY DYANA: A Gypsy recycling saga (Dijana) (45 min)
Director: Boris Mitic / Serbia
A cheerful and intimate look at Gypsy (Roma) refugees from Kosovo in a Belgrade suburb who make a living by transforming Citroen’s classic 2cv and “Dyana” cars into Mad Max-like recycling vehicles, which they use to collect cardboard, bottles and scrap metal.

5:15 pm
BORDERLINE LOVERS (Ljubav na granici) (84 min)
Director: Miroslav Mandic / Bosnia Herzegovina
Only a decade ago these borders were frontlines. Today, three young couples struggle against prejudice and lingering hatreds to create lives together. "Borderline Lovers" is a sharply observed study of mixed marriage today between Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

Sunday, May 21
Modern émigrés ….and the Great Man of Science

3.30 pm
PAPERBOAT (18 min)
Director: Daphne Lambrinou / USA-Greece
Shot entirely on location on the Greek island of Crete, “Paperboat” follows Melanie, a young Greek journalist from New York as she goes back home to a small village to attend her grandmother’s funeral. She reconnects with her childhood friend, Jason, with whom she has maintained a lively correspondence fashioned as ‘paperboat’ letters.

100% SLOVENIAN (Americanke) (50 min)
Director: Hanna AW Slak / Slovenia
This film portrays little known Slovenian emigrants in the United State through open and intimate voices of women of different generations of Slovenian emigrant communities, who consider themselves “100% Slovenian.” Examining what is Slovenian identity –childhood memories, grandmother’s songs, knowing the language or something else, impossible to put into words, these personal and moving stories are woven into a witty and fun movie about real-life urban women.

Tribute to Nikola Tesla, the legendary scientist
5.30 pm
TESLA, MASTER OF LIGHTNING (90 min)
Director: Robert Uth / USA
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), one of the most fascinating scientists of the 20th century. He invented, developed or imagined the technology that brought us electricity, remote control, neon and florescent lighting, radio transmission and much more…all the basic inventions that now connect the world with power and information.

Closing Night Gala at the Fine Arts in Beverly Hills
Wednesday, May 24th
7.30 pm
BUZZ
Director: Spiro N. Taraviras
BUZZ is a memorable, absorbing and illuminating profile of the legendary Hollywood scriptwriter (and acclaimed novelist) A I 'Buzz' Bezzerides, whose most notable credits include Robert Aldrich's timeless Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway (1942) and Raoul Walsh's They Drive By Night (1940).