CinEast 2020 – the beginning
by Maddy on 15.10.2020
Last week, the 13th edition of the CinEast festival has started. As always, the opening took place at Neimënster and it was as full of energy as it could have been in these troubled times. Although the room was not as packed as in the previous years due to the social distancing regulations, there were still people rooting for the festival and for a sense of normality.
Everyone that had a speech for the opening of the festival had only words of appreciation and respect for the CinEast team, for having the courage to continue with their work and not depriving us from such an important cultural event in our life.
Since this year’s country star is Hungary, in the first night of the festival we had the pleasure to hear a few words about what CinEast represents in the eastern and central European community in Luxembourg from the Hungarian ambassador in Brussels, Tamás Iván KOVÁCS. He also brought Hungary with him through specific Hungarian chocolate, that those present at the ceremony could enjoy after the movie.
The first screening of the festival was, as expected, a Hungarian movie – Comrade Drakulich. This black comedy of director Márk Bodzár is something that needs to be seen at all costs. It is a movie that not only shows how communist secret services worked in a playful way, but also keeps the spectators in on the edge of their seats. Are the spy couple going to find out the reason behind the youth of the Hungarian hero of the Cuban revolution? You have to go see the film and be as impressed as I was about it. You can still catch the movie on the 16th and 18th October at Kinepolis and Neimënster, respectively, and it goes online on the 17th October. I recommend you go now online and reserve your tickets, plus if there are still available places on the 16th, you can also grab a bag of popcorn, which goes amazingly well with this movie.
As I couldn’t stay away for long from the festival, the next night I went and saw the biopic/drama by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland – Charlatan. It is the loosely based biopic of herbalist Jan Mikolášek who used unorthodox methods to diagnosticate and cure different diseases. It is a film that shows the struggles a dedicated healer had to go through, both in his personal and professional life, in order to continue helping his patients. Charlatan is one of the films in the competition, and it was just nominated to the Oscars as the Czech candidate. Hurry up, maybe there are still some seats left for the screening on the 19th October at Cinematheque.
I finished the week with the Short Fiction Films marathon, with a selection of 6 short-films from Esotnia, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia and Belarus. I can honestly say that I enjoyed Sticker for its relevance to parenthood and Virago for the funny way of showing to the world what sinister thing or coincidence happens in a small Estonian village. I found Lake of Happiness to express so well the sadness that must be felt by a child after being abandoned and after loosing her/his mom.
That’s it for the first week of CinEast. I plan in seeing another Hungarian movie, Eden, on Wednesday 14th October at Ciné Utopia, that will also have a screening on the 20th Oct and will be available online from 15th October. Then, this weekend I will also try the online platform to watch the Belarusian film Crystal Swan. I plan on seeing another Hungarian comedy, Neither with you, this one in online version as well. By the end of the festival I also will see the Romanian documentary Collective and of course, I will be present at the awards ceremony.
Get your tickets while you still can and don’t miss one of the few cultural events we can safely enjoy.