FEST 2003: Belgrade's International Film Festival

Afterimage, May-June, 2003 by Radmila Djurica

Even if the most famous European international film festival is definitely Cannes Film Festival, and if there are many international film festivals in Europe, there is only one International Film Festival in Eastern Europe, and it is FEST, in Serbia. FEST, The International Film Festival in Belgrade, has a 31-years-old tradition. In the words of Mr. Goran Paskaljevic, Chairman of the FEST 2003 board, established Serbian film director:

   "We will do our best to explain to our guests that FEST has
   prevailed, despite tragedy and war, amid disasters and defeats,
   because its spirit is best summed up by its continued stance against
   xenophobia and isolation. This Festival is truly a place where the
   best in local and international cinema meet, it has been said, in a
   spirit of spiritual communication."

During its 30 years, this festival hosted some of the most famous participants in the cinema business. As a cultural event, FEST is meant to give Belgrade and Serbia a more prominent position in today's artistic world. "At the time when FEST was created, it was planned to be a festival designed for communication, a well-constructed intersection of ideas and experiences, a planned encounter with international film productions, a programmed space in which useful and productive coincidences would take place" [Mr. Dushan Makavejev].

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It is no surprise then, that ex and present Yugoslavia are a perfect place for an international film gathering on an outstanding level. At first, FEST was created to give a new political and artistic definition to the Serbian cinema industry. So far the festival has hosted celebrities such as: Roman Polanski, Victoria de Sike, Kirk Douglas, Milos Forman, Gina Lollobrigida, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Irma Flis, David Puttnam, Jim Jarmusch, Johnny Depp, Beatrice Dalle, Andrew Birkin, A. Goth, Hugo Weaving, and Catherine Deneuve. FEST 2003 featured 95 films from 40 countries. It comprised 12 films from the main program of the Berlin Film Festival. 2003 brought Ken Russell as FEST's honored guest. He received the prestigious Yugoslavian Zlatni Pechat Award for his contribution to the field with such films as Women in Love (1969) with Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates, and Oliver Reed, The Music Lovers (1970,) Savage Messiah (1972,) and, of course, Tommy (1974.)

The 2003 edition of FEST will be remembered for the visit of world famous French singer, and actor, Charles Aznavour, another honored guest of this year's festival. The festival opened with The Quiet American by Philip Noyce, and closed with the exceptional new Serbian film, Bare Ground, by Ljubisha Samarchic. The Jury of the Film Critics and Journalists chose the German film Goodbye Lenin by Wolfgang Becker as the best film of FEST 2003. On the second day of his stay in Belgrade, Charles Aznavour received the 17th Yugoslavian Cinema Zlatni Pechat Award for his lifetime achievements in cinema. Aznavour was invited to FEST for his role in the Canadian film Ararat directed by Atom Egoyan. This film is about the genocide perpetrated by the Turkish Army over Christian Armenians, on the territory of Russia. It is the tragic tale about the holocaust of million and half Armenians in the Ararat province, that tortured and slaughtered between 1915 and 1917. For the director of the film, just as for the Mr. Aznavour, this film has a deep personal meaning. This film is about historical facts and the lies that have been created for political reasons. It is combination of the past and the present story of Ann, a university professor of art history. Her son was sent to the province of Ararat to collect actual pictures and shoots of the countryside, the place where the genocide happened, so that a film can be made.

About his participation in the film, Charles Aznavour declared:

"The theme of the film is very close to me and to director of the film. For the first time in my life, I've been communicating with a film director in my own native language. We realized right away that this film was extremely serious for Armenia and its people. But, it is also important for the Turkish people. The Turkish people has been denied access to truth regarding the Armeian genocide. I've accepted to play in this film because I knew that the Turkish government wouldn't control it. On the other hand, I would never agree to participate in a film that would be against the Turkish people. I still naively believe that the Turkish government will eventually admit officially that the genocide happened. I'm always very careful with such subject. I personally think that the facts were even worse than what is shown in the film. I have gathered information about it from the books and archives written by the Germans and the French, not by the victims of the genocide. In France there was no promotion of this film. This is a consequence of diplomatic pressures from the Turkish government. [...]

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I'm not just an Armenian from France, I'm French with Armenian origins. We all owe something to our genetic roots. We all have to help when our country is in danger. In 1988 I helped my people with gathering funds to create a foundation."