The European Film Festival (EFF) - one of the earliest film festivals to launch in T&T - this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, with an exciting line-up of films and a chance to win great door prizes. The Festival will be held at MovieTowne Port-of-Spain from May 11–24 and MovieTowne Tobago from May 18–24.
With screenings for children, students, foreign-language enthusiasts and lovers of independent film, there is something for everyone in this year’s offering of some of the best contemporary cinema from Europe, a release said.
The EFF is organised by the EU Member States with diplomatic missions in T&T—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom—and the EU Delegation. Envisioned as a gift of film to the people of T&T in 1996, the Festival has grown into a much-anticipated event on the national calendar, attracting in excess of 7,000 people over two weeks, every year.
According to Dutch ambassador Jules Bijl, “The role of culture in general and film in particular is both to enlighten and enrich our lives, but also to hold up a mirror to society that it might see itself and others more clearly. In this way, films are a powerful vehicle for cultural expression and education, uniquely capable of articulating the subtleties of human experience and breaking stereotypes. Cinema contributes to an understanding of time, place and social movements, providing food for thought. From that perspective, the European Film Festival offers great insight to, and understand of, contemporary Europe and what is happening there.”
To commemorate 20 years of EFF, patrons will have the opportunity over the two-week run of the festival to win spectacular door prizes, including food and drink hampers, dinners and mobile phones, thanks to generous sponsors including TSTT, AS Bryden and Brauhaus Restaurant. There will also be hampers of Europe-themed memorabilia and special prizes for the schools that attend.
With a strong programme of dramas, thrillers, comedies, documentaries and animation, the Festival also provides an opportunity for foreign-language students to sharpen their skills and learn about European culture. Indeed, films selected for the 11.00am weekday slots often support the CXC and CAPE language curriculum, and provide tertiary-level students with a great opportunity to test their proficiency.
The selection of EFF 2016 films include:
TWIN SISTERS
Director: Ben Sombogaart
2002, Dutch, German, English and French, with English subtitles
Drama/137 minutes/14+
Two six-year-old sisters face life's challenges in the 1920s on the death of their only parent, and the changes that come when they are torn apart. Lotte experiences life with her aunt in Holland, whilst Anna is sent to work on her German uncle’s farm. Can their differences be reconciled even through the impact of World War II?
May 13, 1.15pm, MT POS
May 18, 8.30pm, MT POS
May 23, 3.30pm, MT POS
TRUE FRIENDS
Directors: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie
2012, French, with English subtitles
Comedy / 104 minutes / 15+
Traumatised in his youth because his father did not tell him the truth about his mother’s death, middle-aged Walter never lies. And he expects his two best friends, Jacques and Paul, and his 20-year-old daughter, Clémence, to be completely truthful as well. But Walter's high standards are about to be severely tested when his friends prefer to hide certain facts of their personal lives from him: Jacques' homosexuality and Paul's love affair with…Clémence.
May 13, 6.30pm, MovieTowne POS
May 16, 3.30pm, MovieTowne POS
May 20, 4 pm, MovieTowne POS
SUCK ME SHAKESPEER
Director: Bora Dagtekin
2013, German, with English subtitles
Comedy / 119 minutes / 14+
Ex-convict Zeki is itching to get his hands on money he stole in a robbery years ago. The problem: the once-empty lot where the loot was buried is now a school gymnasium. Zeki applies to be a janitor at the school but is mistaken for a substitute teacher. Now Zeki must take charge of the unruly rabble in class 10B while he tries to find time to burrow for the stash of cash.
May 13, 4 pm, MT POS | May 19, 5.30pm, MT Tob
May 17, 6 pm, MT POS | May 21, 3 pm, MT Tob
May 23, 9.15pm, MT POS | May 24, 8 pm, MT Tob
THE LIVING FOREST
Directors: Ángel de la Cruz, Manolo Gómez
2001, Spanish, with English subtitles
Animation / 83 minutes / GA
Every day when the humans leave Cecebre Forest, it becomes a magical place where plants and animals transform in wonderful ways. Trouble strikes when men in hard hats plant a telephone pole in the middle of the forest and it is thrown into disarray. Worse comes when Furi the mole finds that his friend Linda is missing along with an entire mole colony! The forest creatures join Furi in his quest to find Linda and the others.
May 13, 11 am, MT POS | May 20, 11 am, MT Tob
May 17, 11 am, MT POS | May 22, 3.30pm, MT Tob
May 19, 11 am, MT POS | May 24, 11 am, MT Tob
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Director: James Marsh
2015, English
Drama / 123 minutes / PG13
The Theory of Everything tells the story of famed physicist, Stephen Hawking, and his wife, Jane Wilde. Given just two years to live following the diagnosis of a fatal illness at 21, he became galvanised by Jane’s support and went on to be father to their three children. As Stephen's body collapsed and his academic renown soared, fault lines were exposed that tested the lineaments of their relationship and dramatically altered the course of both of their lives.
May 12, 6 pm, MT POS
May 15, 8.15pm, MT POS
May 20, 6.15pm, MT POS
COME AS YOU ARE
Director: Geoffrey Enthoven
2011, Dutch, Flemish, French, English and Spanish, with English subtitles
Comedy-drama / 115 minutes / 16+
Jozef, Philip and Lars are all friends in their twenties. Jozef is blind, Philip is paralysed from the neck down and Lars is in a wheelchair with a brain tumour. Under the guise of embarking on a wine tour, the three men leave their families and take a road trip to Spain. Their real motive: to visit a brothel that caters to people with special needs so that they can all lose their virginity.
May 22, 1.15pm, MT POS
SIMSHAR
Director: Rebecca Cremona
2014, Maltese and English, with English subtitles
Drama / 101 minutes / PG13
Young Theo is sent on his first trip with his Maltese seafaring family, but things go terribly wrong when their boat, the ‘Simshar', sinks, leaving the crew stranded in the Mediterranean. Simultaneously, Alex—a medic reluctantly dispatched onto a Turkish merchant vessel which has rescued a group of stranded African migrants between Malta and Italy—gets stuck on the boat as the countries wage a bureaucratic war over who should take in the migrants.
May 17, 8.15pm, MT POS
INFO
Tickets for the EFF are $30 for adults, and $20 for children 12 years and under, students in uniform or with tertiary-level ID. Brochures with the full line-up and schedule of films are available, free of charge, at MovieTowne and other locations. Check the European Film Festival–Trinidad and Tobago page on Facebook for a list of these locations and for additional, up-to-the-minute information.