Friday with horrors of war and growing up

This Friday at ZFF will be marked by the last film from the feature film competition program, Our Mothers by César Díaz. This year’s Belgian Oscar contender deals with the consequences of a long civil war in Guatemala which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the native population. The film will be screened in Tuškanac Cinema at 9.30 AM and 8 PM.

In the same cinema, from 2 PM, in the PLUS program we will screen the Croatian premiere of the film Don’t Forget to Breathe by Martin Turk. This intimate drama about growing up, jealousy and inevitability of change was filmed in a Slovenian-Italian-Croatian co-production. At 5 PM, in Tuškanac Cinema, we have a German hit from the Great 5 program. Lara is an intriguing study of a relationship between mother and son, directed by Jan-Ole Gerster.

The My First Film: In Memoriam program continues in KIC Hall at 7 PM with a cult classic Night of The Living Dead by George A. Romero, a pioneer of horror who made a lasting impact on this sub-genre by his satirical depiction of a zombie apocalypse. At the same time, in the Cultural Centre Travno in the Together Again program, we can see Ema by the well-known Chilean director Pablo Larraín.

The Festivals in the Spotlight brings us two treats from the Locarno festival at 9 PM in KIC Hall. Godless, a brave and provocative debut film by a young Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova won a number of awards in Locarno, including Best Film. We are also screening Nimic, the lastest short film by the always innovative and provocative Yorgos Lanthimos in the form of a thriller with Matt Dillon in the lead role.

The last chance to see short films at the 17th ZFF is 10.30 PM in Tuškanac Cinema. As a part of the Checkers program we are screening Sedra by Judita Gamulin and Letters by Bojan Radanović, while in the international competition we have The Last Image of Father, by the Serbian director Stefan Đorđević, which won the Best Short Film Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The program will end with The Last Picture Show by Jasmina Beširević about Joža, the guardian angel of Europa Cinema, on the eve of closing that cult meeting point of cinephiles. We can witness the end of not just a long-lasting career, but also an era of classic cinemas.