EXHILARATING’’

ART FILM FEST
Reclusive Roden
Steps Out for Laurels
JUNE 14, 2016 VARIETY.COM
94
New Fest Setting One
Tokaj Over the Lıne
Shift from spa town to Slovakian city venue
brings world cinema to young film fans
By WILL TIZARD
Slovakia’s Art Film
Fest, with a 23-year
history as a flagship
of the post-Velvet Revolution
cultural world, is in an
expansive mood these days.
It’s settling comfortably
into the quickly transforming
city of Kosice, a former
industrial center near the
fragrant Tokaj vineyards
that border Hungary, where
it will unspool June 17-25.
Operating since 1993, the
year of Slovakia’s split from
Czechoslovakia, the fest
built its rep for rebellious
programming in its previous
home, Trencianske Teplice,
a more placid setting
in the mountainous western
end of the White Carpathains
range. But the festival
has packed up for the
southeast, banking on a
number of newly kitted-out
screening spaces and a
crowd of thousands of university
students who will
ensure Art Film maintains
its youthful spirit.
As the event’s new general
manger Rudolf Biermann
puts it, the “wonderful
venues” of Kosice,
which have concentrated
Tipsheet
What: Art Film Fest
When: June 17-25
Where: Kosice, Slovakia
web: artfilmfest.sk
Domestic Drama
Cannes entry “Sieranevada,” from
Romanian director Cristi Puiu, is
among the films on tap at the Art
Film Fest.
the attractions into a hub
of converted factory spaces,
multi-use bars, cinemas
and art venues, fit perfectly
into its new focus. “A festival
should be fun, accessible
and people should have
freedom of movement.”
The fest’s founding role
was to keep Slovak film
alive during the challenging
years of the transition
to liberal democracy when
Slovakia witnessed the closure
of Koliba Film Studios,
which had formed the
heart of production.
Now, after expanding
more than 25-fold in attendance,
having hosted everyone
from Peter Greenaway
for its first edition to
Roman Polanski, Isabelle
Huppert and Emir Kusturica
in later years, Art Film is
focused on honoring exceptional
performances via its
Actor’s Mission award and
outstanding professionalism
for filmmakers of any
age with its Golden Camera
honor.
Meanwhile, Art Film programmers
have scheduled
a survey of global indie
cinema.
Among its new additions,
the Be2Can Starter
section will screen picks
from the Berlin, Venice
and Cannes fests while
the Variety Art Film Choice
is programmed by critics
with a background in European
cinema.
There’s no shortage of star
wattage at fests in Central
and Eastern Europe
these days, with Hollywood
A-listers flown in regularly
to increasingly rustic locations.
But Art Film Fest
prefers to focus on actors’
actors, as it has since
launching the Actor’s Mission
honor in 1995.
This year’s honoree,
Czech film and stage veteran
Karel Roden, is a
Czech Lion-winning performer
at Prague’s National
Theater who has also
branched out in to international
thrillers including
Robert De Niro starrer
“15 Minutes” in 2001. His
recent role as the raging
Czechoslovak avant-garde
photographer Jan Saudek
in “The Photograph” is particularly
apt for the Kosice
fest’s focus on “films concerning
art and artists.”
Roden’s portrayal of
the hard-living Bohemian
lensman was a sensation
among critics and audiences
in the region, but
only the most recent character
role for an actor
whose range spans Russian
mafia figures to Grigori
Rasputin in “Hellboy.”
He’s played Viktor in midnight
movie “Frankenstein’s
Army” and the studied
intellectual hero of the
Czech adaptation of HBO
series “In Therapy.”
Famously press-shy
Roden usually refuses such
fest honors, but after three
years of wooing by Art
Film, aided by Rudolf Biermann,
producer of Roden’s
upcoming historic thriller
“Masaryk,” the deal was
sealed. — Will Tizard
Karel
Roden
RODEN: VACLAV SALEK/CTK/AP