The Great 5 – new films from the five biggest European cinemas at the Zagreb Film Festival

New films from five major European cinemas – French, Italian, German, British and Spanish – are again part of the secondary program The Great 5, which for many years ZFF has been organizing in collaboration with the network of National Institutes of Culture of the European Union (EUNIC Croatia).

Next to the British film After the SUN with Charlotte Wellsa sensual and moving cinematic meditation on summer, childhood, parenting and the fragmentation of memory starring one of Britain’s biggest young talents Paul Mescal (Normal People, The Lost Daughter) and the adaptation of an Italian contemporary literary classic about friendship, The Eight Mountains by managers Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeerschthe program also includes a film that Pedro Almodóvar called the best recent Spanish debut. Lullaby by Vasko director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa is an intimate family drama about a young couple and new parents, Amaia and Javi.

After the SUN

Since Javi is often away due to his work, Amaia takes the baby to her parents in a charming seaside town. The director found the impetus to make the film, shot in Bilbao, a region known for its tradition of strong matriarchs, in her own experience of becoming a mother and the sensitive, fragile period after birth. Almodóvar described the film as – “This cinematic portrait of women in the family is accurate, without sentimentality, but not without humor”.

The Eight Mountains

The German representative takes place in the dystopian future. Director Natalia Sinelnikova explores mechanisms of fear and collective paranoia. Social satire We might as well be dead, set in an isolated building at the edge of a forest that functions as one of the last refuges of a fallen civilization and seemingly offers its inhabitants an idyllic, holistic everyday life, shows the influence of the director’s role models such as George Lanthimos, David. Lynch and Luis Buñuel.

A clever Orwellian film in which horror and humor are skilfully interwoven is the author’s graduation film and premiered at the Berlinale.

Directed by Michael Hers, The Night Passengers takes us back in time in this upbeat film reminiscent of 1980s Paris. A detailed and multi-layered portrait of a Parisian family is a carefully crafted testament to the power of film storytelling. Spanning over a decade, the film brings a panoramic, almost romantic picture of a family headed by Elizabeth, a single mother who plays her with mastery and subtlety Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Lullaby

Films from The Great 5 program are screened in the late afternoon (5 and 6 pm) at the Museum of Modern Art and the Kinoteka Cinema. Presale tickets are available at kupiulaznicu.zff.hr until October 22 and then online or at the festival box office.

Almost all the films in the festival have English subtitles. Learn Moore at the link below: https://zff.hr/en/films-available-in-english-2/