Editor

The program part ‘Competitions' will bring two novelties during this year`s festival. Besides the Competition of Feature Films the festival will also offer Competition of Documentary Films and Competition of Short Films. The aim of the festival is to fill up the empty space in Slovak distribution, to present the best of the international documentary works, and also give space to young talents.

The 11th IFF Bratislava enriches its program by two competitive sections - Competition of Documentary Films and Competition of Short Films. Each of the three competitive sections has its own jury who will assess twelve films selected. The shorts will be screened before the full-length films in the Competition of Feature Films, which will bring another film experience every time.

The Competition of Feature Films is dedicated to new talents. It contains many strong stories from various corners of the world, and also Slovakia is represented in the competition. The film Foxes by Mira Fornay will have its exclusive premiere at the festival (in Slovak distribution from December 10, 2009).

Some of the competing feature films already won prizes at prestigious festivals - The Day God Went Away (Philippe van Leeuw) in San Sebastian, and Eastern Plays (Kamen Kalev) in Tokyo. The Day God Went Away goes back to 1994 when genocide took place in Rwanda. The director succeeded to capture something extraordinary of the events that happened during the genocide. A Mexican film Northless by Rigoberto Pérezcano deals with illegal immigration. It`s not just another one of many similar stories, Pérezcano succeeded to find new interesting way how to tell it. 7 Minutes in Heaven by director Omri Givon brings a powerful portrait of a woman. Galia survives a bomb attack in Jerusalem, but her fiancé loses his life. The film intensively deals with the sense of guilt which the main heroine experiences after she eluded death. The heroine of Tale in the Darkness by Nikolai Khomeriki can`t come to terms with similar feelings when she looks for somebody who would love her in a world full of brutality. Optical Illusions (Cristian Jiménez) and Nothing Personal (Mathias Gokalp) give an entomologic look at groups of people: the community of changing city of Valdivia in Chile for one, a French company for the other. Transmission (Roland Vranik) shows how our world would look like without television. Vranik doesn`t depict an apocalypse, his end of the world lies in an apocalypse of human relations.

Whisper with the Wind by Shahram Alidi offers the story of a legendary postman; Mam Baldar has been travelling around mountain villages for many years in Iraqi Kurdistan where he records and delivers the vocal messages of people. One day a partisan commander asks him to record the first cry of his newborn baby, so Baldar sets out on another trek across Kurdistan.

The Competition of Documentary Films offers many intimate stories, but also films with much broader socio-political reach. Bassidji by Mehran Tamadon take viewers to the desert where people are devoted to Iraqi-Iranian war. Encirclement - Neo-Liberalism Ensnares Democracy by Richard Brouillette tries to unveil the real nature of neo-liberalism. Constantin and Elena (Andrei Dascalescu) brings a look at a life of two people who lives in a small house; they provide everything they need for themselves, breed animals and grow vegetables. Dascalescu depicts his grandparents so softly and gently as if composing a melancholy song about them. Director Regev Contes aimed the camera at his family, too. In The Worst Company in the World stars his father, a manager of a firm facing bankruptcy.  The Windmill Movie by Alexander Olch is also an intimate portrait composing fragments from the life of director Richard P. Rogers. Rogers decided to make his own autobiography, a film as a course of his life, and left 200 hours of film recordings. Henri-Georges Clouzot`s Inferno (Serge Bromberg and Roxana Medrea) is a reconstruction of another story about an unfinished film of director Henri-Georges Clouzot starring Romy Schneider.

The Competition of Documentary Films will take place in Košice on December 1-3, in Cinemax Multiplex, with participation of international jury.

The Competition of Short Films gives space to ideas and experiments, and half of the screened films will have their international premiere at IFF Bratislava. Genre variety of selected films offers romantic stories, social dramas, comedies, and provocative stories, too. The viewers will hardly forget bloodstained bunny-shaped slippers in the unpredictable, sexy, and exceptionally funny film Dirty Bitch by Singapore director Sun Koh, or animated film Yellow Belly End by Philip Bacon about a man living on a high cliff who observes suicide jumpers. Fabiano Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza`s Rita, a film about a strange meeting of a blind girl and hurt criminal, will have its world premiere at the festival.

The Competition of Short Films will take place with participation of the international jury in Banská Bystrica on November 28-30, in Europa Cinemas Theatre.

Audience competition will choose the best film of the whole festival program as a winner of audience vote, and voters will have a chance to win prizes.

Advance sale of the tickets will begin on November 23, 2009, in Bratislava in Palace Cinemas Aupark`s box offices. Ticket price for evening screenings (18:00-22:00 p.m.) is 3,30 €, price for all other screenings is 2,50 €, and price in Mladosť Cinema is 2,50 € for all screenings. Festival`s season tickets can be bought at the box office on the day of the screening, ticket price is 2,50 €.  In Banská Bystrica and Košice is ticket price 2,50 € for screening.

More information about the festival continuously at http://www.iffbratislava.sk/