Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, 8-14 November

The name Mezipatra translates as “mezzanine”, or the space between floors, a metaphor the organizers hope represents this annual eclectic meeting of people of all kinds. The event was first launched in 2000 in Brno under the title ‘Duha nad Brnem’ (Rainbow over Brno) with a modest programme of 8 films, 3 theatre performances, and 3 fine art exhibitions. Since then, the festival has expanded in location and content and now receives hundreds of submissions each year including feature films, documentaries, experimental, and short films, as well as hits from the key international film festivals such as Toronto or Cannes. The event currently attracts audiences of around 10,000 people annually.

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Festival director Aleš Rumpel explained the choice of this year’s three event themes: ‘Power’, ‘Manipulation’, and ‘Madness’: “we chose the themes because the clash of an individual with an institution is not unique, and we experience it regularly, no matter if we are members of a minority or not.” He added that “the word ‘queer’ in the title of the festival symbolizes colourfulness, diversification and freedom from the traditional perception of sexual and gender identities.”

The Prague programme will open with an impressionable film ‘Cloudburst’, which is a combination of a comedy, romance, and road movie. “In the unbelievable story of two pensioners who come to Canada to affirm their 31-year relationship, the audience won’t know if they are crying from laughter or emotion,” says Kajánková. The screening will be presented by the film’s director, Thom Fitzgerald, whose other film The Hanging Garden will be the third and last piece of the retrospective section.

‘Laurence Anyways’ is the new, eagerly anticipated creation from audience and critical, favourite, the ‘enfant terrible’ of world cinema, Xavier Dolan. The 23-year-old ‘wonder boy’, with his unusual hairstyles and idiosyncratic filmmaking methods, was introduced to Mezipatra with his previous films ‘J’ai tué ma mère’ and ‘Les amours Imaginaires’. Dolan´s third film is a top tribute to love, the nineties, and the performance of Melvill Poupaud in the role of a man who views himself as a woman. Kajánková predicts it will be a very popular screening “The film is quite long, it lasts three hours, but it is impossible to leave before the end comes.”