Febio Fest 2009

Febio Fest, Prague´s largest film festival, is decidedly a fest for the people: while it doesn´t have the international premieres that larger fests provide, it offers a great number of films at affordable (and available) ticket prices, with more manageable crowds at the comfy confines of (mostly) Village Cinemas Anděl. The festival focuses on public screenings, and does not provide journalists or industry members with accreditation or special passes – a good thing, as far as I´m concerned. The more relaxed atmosphere provides a nice contrast to the often maddening KVIFF.

Featuring films from across the continent, highlights in the Asian Panorama include: Flower in the Pocket, from Malaysia and director Liew Seng Tat, a comedy that looks at a pair of mischievous brothers; former J-horror stalwart Kiyoshi Kurosawa´s Tokyo Sonata, which has notched a positive response despite a title that welcomes comparison to Ozu´s Tokyo Story; Tetsuo director Shinya Tsukamoto´s two Nightmare Detective films, which have received muted appreciation; Service, from prolific Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, which gained notoriety at Cannes for a scene in which a man bursts a boil on his ass with a soda bottle; and The Drummer, a Hong Kong drama starring Jaycee Chan, son of Jackie.

With some of the highest-profile current international releases at the fest, highlights of the World Cinema Panorama section include: Adoration, the latest from director Atom Egoyan; Guy Ritchie´s RocknRolla; Uli Edel´s The Baader Meinhof Complex, which was nominated for the Foreign Film Oscar; Nic Balthazar´s excellent Ben X, an examination of teenage anxiety from Belgium; Declan Recks´ well-received Irish drama Eden; JCVD, a supposed comeback for Jean-Claude Van Damme; Tengri, a Kyrgyzstan-set love story from director Marie-Jaoul de Poncheville; The Dust of Time, the latest from prolific Greek director Theo Angelopoulos starring Willem Defoe and Bruno Ganz; and Sergej Dvorcevoj´s Tulpan, which won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes last year.

German New Wave director Wim Wenders also receives a tribute here, which showcases some of his best films, including critic favorites The American Friend and Paris, Texas. Also on display is his one big worldwide hit, Wings of Desire (screening – as it does consistently in Prague´s arthouse cinemas – without English subtitles) and his most recent, Palermo Shooting, which re-teams him with American Friend star Dennis Hopper. Not to be missed: a rare screening of Wenders´ 1982 film The State of Things, which follows a strapped-for-cash Roger Corman film crew in Portugal, and has been little-seen on home video over the years (note: the fest guide lists the language as German, but it´s mostly in English).