Autumn Memories opens Dream City Film Festival in Rivne
The Film Festival Will Be Opened by “Autumn Memories”
04 August 2016, 14:09
The opening of the first international film festival “City of Dreams” in Rivne will take place on August 24 at the Era cinema centre, and the jury together with the audience will evaluate the competition program in the Ukraine cinepalace.
Viktor Vilhelm, Czech producer at Wilhelm Creative Center and jury member of the festival, said:
“This film was co-produced by Iran, Czechia, and Ukraine. I won’t tell the entire plot of Autumn Memories, but the action takes place in Western Ukraine, where a soldier wounded in Donbass comes to rehabilitate. He meets a blind Iraqi refugee who had tried to reach Europe but was left behind at the border by her translator.”
One of the lead roles is played by Dmytro Linartovych, who at that time was mobilized to the ATO and underwent training at the Rivne training ground. To allow him to take part in filming, negotiations had to be held with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Defense.
They thought it interesting to cast an actor who had actually experienced war. In Rivne there will be a pre-premiere showing of this film, as the official world premiere is scheduled for autumn.
Andriy Babik, President of the Guild of Screenwriters of Ukraine and member of the festival jury, said:
“Why are film festivals important? Because they are places where filmmakers meet, where new trends and ideas emerge, contacts are forged. City of Dreams is all the more important because Ukraine lacks such festivals — we do not have a cinematographic environment, only parties and posturing. There must be created a kind of ‘location bank’ of the country, where interesting shoots can be carried out. In the Rivne region there are enough such places: Tarakaniv Fort, nuclear power plants, Polissya villages.”
Viktor Buliha, director of the City of Dreams festival, says:
“From two hundred works from 40 countries that came to casting, we allowed 68 films from 18 countries to participate in the festival. Among them are feature, documentary and animated films. Making the choice was not easy.”
He recalls that there was hesitation about one film by a Canadian female director, but once they decided to include it in the competition, they found out she has Ukrainian origin and all her life had dreamed of coming to Ukraine. Thus someone’s dream began to be fulfilled.
The best film will receive a statuette in the shape of a film camera. The festival closing will be on August 28, on City Day.
Also covered by:
• Dream City Film Festival 2016 official page — Dreamcity.org.ua (Ukrainian)
• Press conference dedicated to Dream City Film Festival in Rivne — 0362.ua (Ukrainian)
• Dream City International Film Festival to launch on Independence Day — Rivne1.tv (Ukrainian)