30th FilmFestival Cottbus

Festival of East European Cinema
08.12.2020 to 13.12.2020
Cottbus
Beanpole (Dylda) by Kantemir Balagov

In the section "Close Up WWII": "Beanpole" (Dylda) by Kantemir Balagov

The 30th FilmFestival Cottbus was postponed to December and took place only online. Winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and of the Special Prize for the Best Direction is "Jak najdalej stad" (I Never Cry) by Piotr Domalewski. The main prize of the festival, endowed with € 25.000, was awarded to "Konferentsiya" (Conference, Russia, Estonia, Italy, United Kingdom, 2020) by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy. The FIPRESCI Jury awarded its prize to "Oasis" (Serbia, Slovenia, Netherlands, France, Bosnia-Hercegovina, 2020) by Ivan Ikić, the DIALOGUE Prize for Intercultural Communication by the German Federal Foreign Office went to "Krajina vestínu" (Shadow Country, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2020) by Bohdan Sláma.

The Ecumenical Jury watched and discussed the films in the feature film competition, 12 productions in total.

In addition to the competition sections, the festival showed also films in several specials and special series, among them the series "Frust und Freiheit" (Frustration and Freedom) with films about the aftermath of German unification after 30 years and the series "Close Up WWII" about the end of World War II 75 years later. The festival programme comprised a total of 201 films. A considerable part of it can be viewed online until December 31st.

Link: Festival-Website

Awards

I Never Cry
Directed by:
2020

Seventeen-year-old Ola is sent from Poland to Dublin to arrange the transfer of her father’s body, after he died in a container port. Initially interested in finding the money that her father had promised her, she instead encounters a deplorable state of affairs and a number of administrative irregularities in European labour migration.

In a moving film, lead actress Zofia Stafiej shows tremendous poise and presence in portraying the inner transformation of Ola amid remarkable hardship.

Well written and subtly acted and staged, the film ably balances the personal narrative of its protagonist longing for change with a powerful portrait of a society marked by social imbalance.