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LOCAL ATTRACTIONS AND FEST<br />
EVENTS MAKE ALLURING COMBO<br />
Resurgent industrial city offers creature comforts to<br />
complement Art Film Festival’s numerous screenings<br />
By WILL TIZARD<br />
with a classic plum<br />
brandy but clubby Maraton’s<br />
the place for tender<br />
beef and dumplings.<br />
the same night as the<br />
big Slovakia-U.K. match<br />
June 20.<br />
DALDRY: CAMILLA MORANDI/SHUTTERSTOCK; KOSICE: ISIFA IMAGE SERVICE SRO/SHUTTERSTOCK; PARKER: MATT BARON/BEI/SHUTTERSTOCK; OUTINEN: LEHTIKUVA OY/SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
SLOVAKS DISCOVERING<br />
BRIT HONOREE DALDRY<br />
Director’s 16-year film, TV, and stage work<br />
recognized with Golden Camera prize<br />
By WILL TIZARD<br />
The immersive worlds<br />
created by British<br />
helmer and producer<br />
Stephen Daldry are<br />
feted at Kosice this year,<br />
where he will receive the<br />
Golden Camera prize for<br />
work of outstanding quality<br />
and professionalism<br />
behind the camera. Since<br />
the trophy was launched in<br />
2001, the roster of honorees<br />
has included such unconventional<br />
filmmakers as<br />
Ulrich Seidl, Andrzej Wajda,<br />
and Slovak auteur Juraj<br />
Jakubisko.<br />
Daldry’s international<br />
reputation and work with<br />
top stars make him a major<br />
score for Art Film Fest, says<br />
artistic director Peter Nagel.<br />
Daldry’s three Oscar<br />
nominations [“Billy Elliot,”<br />
“The Hours,” and “The<br />
Reader”] are “clear evidence<br />
of his exceptional<br />
talent,” Nagel adds. In a<br />
recent stage production,<br />
Daldry cast refugees from<br />
the French “Jungle” camp in<br />
Calais to play themselves.<br />
Nagel notes that exposing<br />
Introduced to a Nation<br />
Many Slovaks are unfamiliar with<br />
Stephen Daldry’s work, but the<br />
Art Film Festival Golden Camera<br />
prize will provide a showcase.<br />
Slovak auds to the filmmaker’s<br />
work fits in with<br />
the educational mission<br />
of Art Film Fest.<br />
“I think it will be very<br />
good showcase,” Nagel<br />
says. He adds that Daldry’s<br />
work is unknown<br />
to some residents of the<br />
small nation. But a growing<br />
number of Slovaks<br />
are now well-versed in<br />
Daldry’s dramatic productions,<br />
spanning five<br />
features plus TV work<br />
over a 16-year career.<br />
Daldry inspires<br />
emerging filmmakers<br />
with his gift for drawing<br />
out moving performances,<br />
says Art Film’s<br />
Fest’s Peter Nagel, adding<br />
that his frequent focus<br />
on strong female characters<br />
is also of interest to<br />
Slovak audiences.<br />
EXPLORE THE CITY<br />
A two-hour train trip<br />
from Budapest and an<br />
overnight ride from<br />
Prague, Kosice is the<br />
biggest city in eastern<br />
Slovakia, near Hungary’s<br />
border. Once a<br />
smoke-belching, Soviet-built<br />
ironworks center,<br />
it rapidly declined after<br />
the Velvet Revolution.<br />
But the city of 240,000<br />
is reboundingwith new<br />
public spaces and converted<br />
old ones, including<br />
the hopping Tabacka,<br />
once a humming cigarette<br />
factory and now<br />
a restaurant and music<br />
venue. Most fest sights<br />
are concentrated in the<br />
historic center or easily<br />
reached by tram.<br />
SAVOR A MEAL<br />
The historic, high-ceilinged<br />
Cafe Slavia is a<br />
surprisingly affordable<br />
brush with old European<br />
elegance, while Carpano,<br />
one of Kosice’s most venerated<br />
old-school dining<br />
rooms, serves Mitteleuropa<br />
classics and<br />
Camelot excels in “Westworld”-style<br />
medieval<br />
kitsch. Villa Regia is the<br />
rustic, Slovak home-style<br />
place to ply a producer<br />
RAISE A GLASS<br />
The quaint, atmospheric<br />
Cuba Libre Rum & Cigar<br />
House revives the old fraternal<br />
East Bloc relations<br />
with Fidel Castro, while<br />
Casablanca serves the<br />
small vintage cafe needs<br />
for an indie production<br />
meeting. For evening<br />
drinks there’s Jazz Club,<br />
a fave meeting point<br />
in the historic city center.<br />
It delivers just what<br />
the name suggests, amid<br />
modish decor retrofitted<br />
into an arched, coffeehouse<br />
space.<br />
CATCH A SPECIAL<br />
SCREENING<br />
Kosice’s Amphitheater,<br />
once declared a Unesco<br />
Heritage site and capable<br />
of hosting 6,000 spectators<br />
(if half sit on the<br />
grass, as is common), is<br />
the place to catch classics<br />
in the open air, beer<br />
in hand, on a balmy<br />
June evening. A mustsee<br />
is the doc “Ronaldo,”<br />
on the Portuguese soccer<br />
god Cristiano Ronaldo<br />
SALUTE THE HONOREES<br />
Alan Parker, who will<br />
host a master class<br />
June 24, will receive the<br />
Golden Camera the following<br />
day, as will Stephen<br />
Daldry, who gets<br />
the prize June 18 and<br />
will conduct a master<br />
class that day — an<br />
event bound to fill fast.<br />
Serbian thriller actor<br />
Lazar Ristovski (“Casino<br />
Royale,” “November<br />
Man”) will take home<br />
the Actor’s Mission prize<br />
June 22, an honor he<br />
shares with Czech counterpart<br />
Karel Roden.<br />
POLL THE JURORS<br />
Prizes at Art Film Fest<br />
are mulled this year by a<br />
panel comprising: Finnish<br />
actress Kati Outinen,<br />
known for her subtle<br />
roles in Aki Kaurismaki’s<br />
films; Venezuelan<br />
helmer-scribe Lorenzo<br />
Vigas; Slovak actress Vica<br />
Kerekes; screenwriter<br />
and dramatist Petr<br />
Kolecko; and Variety<br />
executive editor Steven<br />
Gaydos.<br />
JUNE 14, 2016 VARIETY.COM<br />
95
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