Most of the films being screened are eagerly anticipated, being shown between November 6th and 13th: American-Polish Shoulder the Lion, Portugal’s Suddenly My Thoughts Halt and Hanna Polak’s Something Better to Come. By the time the festival launches, the latter will have gathered awards on almost every continent.
Ms. Polak’s film has been nominated for an Oscar and continues its festival voyage with a Minsk screening, following 14 years in the life of a girl who resides besides Europe’s biggest landfill, 20km from Moscow. As the years pass, we watch her endeavours to study and change her life for the better. In November, audiences will learn whether her life has changed by visiting one of Minsk’s cinemas.
Jorge Pelicano’s Suddenly My Thoughts Halt tells of life in a mental hospital. From the outside world, an actor arrives, wishing to research his character for a theatre play. He lives with the patients, trying to build trust and understand their struggle with lucidity, where ‘madness’ co-exists.
As the Director of Listapad’s out-of-contest programme, Irina Demyanova, explains, “Life in the mental hospital mirrors that outside, not in brutality, but in moments of kindness and tolerance. The film is vivid in its portrayals. Mr. Pelicano will be attending the festival to present his work.”
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This year, Listapad will open with French Guillaume Nicloux’s Valley of Love. In fact, 35 years have passed since Lulu was screened (in 1980), starring Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu. The film was recently screened within the Cannes Festival’s main competition and, in Minsk, will be screened on November 6th, at Moskva cinema.
By Yulia Obolenskaya
