EASTWARD WINDOW Competition set I

EASTWARD WINDOW Competition set I (111′), 16+

6.12.2024, 17:00
Centrum im. Ludwika Zamenhofa, ul. Warszawska 19
admission free

The competition for the best independent film from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Slovakia, etc. – it’s directed to filmmakers from former socialist countries – independent artists, students and amateurs. The very name of the contest refers to charming windows of Podlasie region as well as to the fact that our city uniquely “hangs” between the East and West.

LAIMINGŲ KITŲ!
HAPPY NEXT YEAR!
director: Lukas Kacinauskas
director of photography: Vytautas Katkus
Lithuania 2023, 17’48”

On New Year’s morning, Sharunas wakes up next to the charming guy Martin, while his girlfriend Iveta is in the shower. Sharunas can’t help but wonder if things will ever be the same again. Meantime, Martin wishes him a Happy Next Year.

ALDI
director: Giorgi Arabuli
director of photography: Temo Macharadze
music: Nika Paniashvili
Georgia 2024, 18’11”

Aldi is the only and last inhabitant of the village. He has to keep on his life and perform rituals in order to tend his soul surrounded by the strange visions.

I DIED IN IRPIN
director: Anastasiia Falileieva
director of photography: Anastasiia Falileieva
music: Petr Marek
Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine 2024, 11’30”

24 February 2022 my boyfriend and I fled from Kyiv to Irpin. We spent 10 days in blockaded city and managed to escape with the last evacuation convoy. Time passed, but the feeling that I died in Irpin never left me since then. The film reconstructs this true story of survival through a personal and subjective lens.

GRITTY EYES
director: Juraj Janiš
director of photography: Filip Marek
music: Jonatán Pastirčák
Slovakia 2023, 30’

When a 15-year-old boy from a broken home gets sucked into a burglary that goes terribly wrong, he is brutally forced to reconsider just whom he can really trust before it is too late.

THE GHOSTS YOU DRAW ON MY BACK
director: Nikola Stojanović
director of photography: Mladen Teofilović
Serbia 2023, 14’

Teenage Sara travels to a small provincial town to attend the memorial service of her grandmother. The usually quiet village is being disrupted by the construction of the new railway. While fighting her fears, Sara finds shelter in a worker from the construction site.

VEGAN MAYO
director: Luca Tóth
music: József Iszlai
Hungary 2024, 4’30”

She is all that: A super empath, a justice warrior and your favourite confidence queen… but then again maybe just a sausage.

RRUGËS
ON THE WAY
director: Samir Karahoda
director of photography: Samir Karahoda
music: Jonathan Bree
Kosovo 2024, 15’

Father and son are on their way to the airport to pick up a gift sent from abroad by the boy’s godfather. Amid bureaucratic hurdles, with little or no hope for real political and social changes in the country, they find comfort and strength in their shared optimism for the future.