AT A GALLOP ACROSS EUROPE…

European cinema could today be described as an elite art form. It was Europe that gave the world many intellectual films, unique approaches to film-making and unconventional directors with daring ideas. European cinema could also be described as a "spiritual kitchen", seething with the destinies of sensitive, creative individuals who, in spite of difficulties, trials and emotional crises, have created works of real quality. Innovations in concept, originality, sensitivity, incitement to deep thinking and reflections on the meaning of life - these are the things that make up the cinema today. It also clearly speaks in many tongues and may be regarded as academic.

The European Movie Festival, which was held at the Park Cinema in Baku from 6 to 10 October, was a splendid gift for the people of Baku and an opportunity for them to learn more about the art of the cinema. "We want the people of Europe and of Azerbaijan to draw closer together and the best way to do that is through the arts and culture," Roland Kobia, the head of the European Commission's office in Azerbaijan, said at the opening of this important event.

Kobia said that the European Movie Festival was a very important cultural event, whose main aim was to acquaint the people of Azerbaijan with European culture through the latest films by leading directors. In choosing the films the organizers took into account, first and foremost, their quality. Most of the films submitted had received various awards at many international film festivals. Over the five days of the festival the audiences saw 11 films by leading directors from 12 countries. Among the visitors to the festival were the directors Olivier Horlait (France), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Marek Lechki (Poland), Inesa Kurklietyte (Lithuania), the German documentary film makers Stefan Kolbe and Chris Wright, the Greek actor Gennadios Patsis, and others.

The festival opened with a showing of the film Erratum by the Polish director Marek Lechki, which in 2010 won the nomination for the best screenplay at the 51st International Film Festival in Saloniki (Greece). This was the story of a family, a classic tale of the relationship between a father and his son. Erratum is all about moral-ethical problems and human conscience. The hero of the film, Michal, is a perfectly good person who accidentally runs someone down in his car. He escapes responsibility because the man is a lone tramp. But his conscience tells him to find out everything about this man. He arranges the tramp's funeral and even places a large cross on his grave. Marek Lechki is not only the film's director but also the producer and he wrote the screenplay.

Films from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy and other countries at the festival catered for every taste. For example, Kooky Returns (Czech Republic) and Horrid Henry (Great Britain) are aimed at a younger audience. The former combines live action and puppet animation. Everything starts in the real world where little Ondro lives and suffers from an allergy. As far as his mother is concerned Kooky's red teddy bear is only a shaggy bag of sawdust, a harmful collector of dust, and she throws it onto a rubbish dump. The sequences where the toy finds itself under the wheels of a bulldozer are really terrifying. But Ondro's prayers resuscitate the big-eyed teddy-bear and he escapes from the terrible rubbish dump, protected by stifling rubbish bags, to the woods where his real adventures begin.

The second picture particularly caught the hearts of the youngest in the audience. Horrid Henry is the story of a young tearaway who is the main troublemaker at school. Not only his brothers and peers, but the teachers, too, complain about his antics. And at odd times he even manages to cause trouble in his own music group. But when the insidious teacher Vic van Wrinkle comes into town his fun-and-games come to an end. He tries all he can to close down Henry's school. And then the young troublemaker decides to show the uninvited guest who the main "leader" is and to save his good old school at the same time. This, incidentally, is a very instructive film for children of any ethnic group…

All the films shown at the festival are worthy of particular attention and we will merely note the brightest works of the European directors. One of the best films in the festival was by the French director Olivier Horlait, Nicostratos the Pelican. This is a fine story about the friendship between a Greek boy, Yanis, and a pelican, Nicostratos, and the beneficial effect this friendship has on the adults around them. The part of the grumpy, but forgiving father is played by Emir Kusturica, a great expert of the animal world, and the music also conforms to the perceived stereotype of "Balkan colour". Pelican is a staunchly traditional film, only Greek in its material, and it is based on a book by the French writer Eric Boisset, Nicostratos. Unfortunately, Emir Kusturica, one of the film's main heroes, was unable to get to Baku. So, the director Olivier Horlait himself came and he was pleased to learn about Azerbaijani culture. Horlait himself said he was impressed by Baku's modern architecture and European way of life. 

As part of the festival, as well as being able to watch contemporary European films free of charge, audiences were also able to meet world renowned directors and actors. The German director Chris Wright, in an interview for Region+, lamented the fact that European audiences were not acquainted with Azerbaijani films and film makers. He said that there was interest in the Azerbaijani cinema in Europe, and the European film market was open for our films. And Ronald Kobia noted that the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism was currently discussing the development of cooperation with EU representatives. The possibility of showing Azerbaijani films on European markets is also being discussed. Kobia said the main objective is to bring the cultures of Azerbaijan and the countries of the European Union together through the cinema. The festival was organized by the European Union's office in Azerbaijan and the embassies of the EU member-countries, together with the Park Cinema.