It starts with a family drama and ends with a young girl fleeing a violent cult. It’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival—a week-long showcase for independent filmmakers that opens today.

The family drama is Alexander Payne’s newest film, The Descendants, starring George Clooney and it’s being screened outside competition; Sean Durkin’s debut feature Martha Mercy May Marlene, which won the Sundance Directing Award, is the psychological thriller chosen by organizers to close the festival. In between, some ninety films will highlight a variety of themes, with special focus on the Balkans.

For the 18th consecutive year, the Balkan Survey section of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), programmed by Dimitri Kerkinos, showcases a selection of the most important Balkan films of the year.
Indeed, the Balkan Survey is one of the festival’s most popular sections and this year’s films reveal a trend among Balkan filmmakers for using their respective countries as the backdrop for exploring more universal themes.
In addition to these eight feature-length films—Gabriel Achim’s Adalbert’s Dream, Konstantin Bojanov Ave, Adrian Sitaru’s Best Intentions, Catalin Mitulescu’s Loverboy, Sedat Yilmaz’s Press, Vladimir Blazevski’s Punk’s Not Dead, Dejan Zecevic’s The Enemy, and Kamen Kalev’s The Island—the Balkan Survey program includes a section of four short films, a special screening of Joshua Marston’s The Forgiveness of Blood and a tribute to Turkish director Erdan Kiral.

Finally, this year’s festibal also marks the launch of the Michael Cacoyannis Award in memory of the director who passed away earlier this year.