Sunday | 13. July. 2014

61st PULA INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION LAUNCHED

The 61st Pula Film Festival was launched on Saturday evening at Kastel. The film Jimmy’s Hall by director Ken Loach had the privilege of opening this year’s international programme presenting a total of 45 films, out of which 17 in the competition programme. The presentation of films from the international competition programme at Kastel is a traditional warm-up for the showcase of films in the Arena and at other festival venues. The Kastel programme was opened by Pula Film Festival director Gordana Restović and Artistic Board members Tanja Miličić and Hrvoje Pukšec.

Apart from presenting films, this year’s Festival will host a number of well-known film professionals who will actively participate in the programmes. For instance, Gyorgy Palfi and his film Free Fall are visiting us from Hungary. After opening this year’s Karlovy Vary fest with his film I Origins, Mike Cahill will present himself to Croatian audience too. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, one of the most important filmmakers from Northern Europe, will sit on this year’s International Programme Jury together with Variety film critic Leo Barraclough and Croatian director Stanislav Tomić. In addition, Fridriksson is the subject of this year’s retrospective.

Jessica Hausner will present her most recent film Amour Fou which premiered at this year’s Cannes. The Pula fest will also host Roger Michell, the director of the internationally famous Notting Hill, and his film Le Week-End written by Hanif Kureishi. Producers Mirsad Purivatra and Jovan Marjanović will present Bridges of Sarajevo, lead actor Jari Virman the Finnish film Concrete Night, and actress Pollyana McIntosh and producer Conor Barry the intriguing drama Love Eternal. Director Milko Lazarov and producer Veselka Kiryakova come to Pula from Bulgaria with their film Alienation, the winner of a number of awards at last year’s Mostra and Krakow. Slovenian film Class Enemy will be presented in Pula by Rok Biček, its director.