With renewed vision and a strong dedication to independent cinema, the festival will once more invite both film makers and the audience to a special celebration of films from all over the world, cinematic surprises, distinguished guests, tributes, masterclasses, round table discussions and parallel events. Once again, numerous Balkan films and co-productions, curated by festival director Dimitris Kerkinos, will be screened at the Balkan Survey section, showcasing the best samples of the Balkan area’s film production. The themes of family, violence, loss and youth figure prominently this year, as well as stories that deal with traumas from the past and the uncertainty of contemporary societies. This year’s selection tackle an important set of questions: How does one become part of a whole? How can a community accept individuality? Or diversity? And how is hope affected by social and financial collapse?
Fatih Akin
Balkan Survey Feature Films:
Fatih Akin will attend the festival with his latest The Cut, screened at the Open Horizons Section. Balkan Survey Shorts: 1000 by Danijel Zezelj, Croatia
It Can Pass Through the Wall by Radu Jude, Romania
Horsepower by Daniel Sandu, Romania
Ela, Panda & Madam by Andrei Stefan Rautu, Romania
Ice Cream by Serhat Karaaslan, Turkey  Zelimir ZilnikThis year’s Balkan Survey celebrates the work of Serbian auteur Zelimir Zilnik, whose films will be screened for the first time in Greece, while the director will be attending also. According to Zilnik, cinema is “a tool for knowing the people”. Characterized as one of the docudrama genre pioneers and with influences that range from Jean Rouch and Chris Marker to Glauber Rocha and Vittorio de Sica, Zilnik has discarded cinematic conventions and often sidestepped aesthetics in favour of content and authenticity, employing to that end amateur actors and location shooting.
Feature Films:
Shorts: Newsreel on Village Youth, in Winter, Yugoslavia, 1967 Little Pioneers, Yugoslavia, 1968 Black Film, Yugoslavia, 1971 Tito Among the Serbs, Yugoslavia, 1994 Kenedi, Lost and Found, Serbia & Montenegro, 2005 Pirika on Film, Serbia, 2013
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