The 14th Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival opened with a grand ceremony in the Amphitheater in front of the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade on Thursday, September 9th, at 8 p.m. Mara Prohaska Marković, director of the festival, Gordan Matić, director of Film Center Serbia, Marko Grba Singh, artistic director of the festival, and Faith and Branko Ristić, the protagonists of the opening film, addressed the audience.
Mara Prohaska Markovic, director of the festival, said on the occasion of the opening: “We are looking forward to Beldocs, this year, for the 14th time in a row, continuing to act as a vibrant hub and a network of numerous relations linked by the need to critically view, decode and creatively reshape reality.” “Reality check”, the creative concept and visual identity of the 14th Beldocs, emphasizes more than that. “Reality check calls for urgency in recognizing the truth about a certain real life situation, sobriety and real confrontation.”
Regarding the concept of this year’s edition of the festival, Mara Prohaska Markovic added: “Elements of a warm but strong confrontation shape the narrative of this year’s Beldocs. The new colors of the festival evoke tender and positive feelings, while at the same time they function at the level of symbols, alarming of the necessity of dealing with the burning topics that permeate many films from the festival program. We detected four dominant themes that we put under the Reality check magnifying glass: ecology-planet, health-life, love-people, technology-evolution. The protagonists of the films that we will show in these 8 days, as well as their authors, are the bearers of stories about struggle, justice, dreams, search, life, belonging, self-knowledge, victory, love “.
Mara Prohaska.
Gordan Matić, director of Film Center Serbia, which has supported the festival, said at the opening ceremony: “It is a great honor and pleasure to be the head of Film Center, especially this year, which is certainly one of the most successful in terms of cinema. Congratulations to the organizers, selectors and all volunteers at this wonderful festival, which is very important for the infrastructure of a national film industry. “
Gordan Matić.
Marko Grba Singh, artistic director of the festival, said on the occasion: “I am very happy that this year we managed to hold the festival without major compromises, despite the pandemic. We have seven festival days ahead of us, 107 films in 16 program units. I hope you enjoy what we have prepared for you. Beldocs has always been and will always be a place where you are free to watch movies and exchange views. May this 14th edition remain in your fond memory. “
After the opening ceremony, the film Faith and Branko by director Catherine Hart was shown, which is in the Special Screenin selection at this year’s festival. Filmed over seven years, this intimate documentary follows the relationship between two musicians, Faith Elliot and Branko Ristic. Feith arrived in Serbia ten years ago to learn to play the accordion in the Roma way. Then she met the Roma violinist Branko and, despite the language barrier, the two of them, united by a common passion for music, fell in love with each other. Their love is put to the test when they realize their own differences, and when they realize that music may be the only thing they have in common.
Faith Ellioted talked about how much the film had influenced her and Branko as persons. “We changed a lot, we were young when we met. It was much easier for me because I was used to traveling. I like to see a new city, a new life, new cultures, it’s something easy for me. It’s different for Branko. As an Englishwoman, when I come here, they see me as a queen, and I fought in England for 10 years, and only a week ago, Branko finally got a visa. He is, being Roma, exotic in England. ”
Branko Ristić had this to say about the experience of making the film: “We met Catherine in 2009. Of course, Faith was there, we met earlier at my cousin’s in Valjevo, when she came to study Roma music. By some chance, Catherine started filming it, and she has been filming it all these years. In Serbia, in England, wherever we were. At some point, I felt like an actor. But I had a vision in my head, as a signal from God, that it all has its own reason and is not accidental. Faith and I had a hard time, but she didn’t give up. “
On the second day of the festival, September 10, the film St. Clair Cemin, Psyche directed by Svetlana Cemin is on the program within the Serbian competition selection at8 pm in the Amphitheater in front of the Museum of Yugoslavia, and it will be followed at 9:30 pm by a screening of the film Bird (or – Clown Marty) directed by Oliver Ćirić. After both films, a Q&A session with the authors will be organized.
As part of the international competition program, at 7 pm in the Cultural Center of Belgrade, the film In Search of Horses about a friendship between a director and a fisherman retreated to the lake to live in solitude, directed by Stefan Pavlović (with a conversation with the author) will be screened. In the same selection, at 2130h, the audience will have a chance to see Middle Country, directed by Juliet Guignard, about a woman who choses to live in the countryside and then comes into increasing conflict with the agricultural standards that govern her production.
The guest of the festival will also be the musician Hogni Egilsson, the protagonist of the film The Path of Heroes to the Third Sex which will be shown at the Cultural Center of Belgrade at 5 pm, in the eleMental selection.