Festroia – Year 25

The Festroia International Film Festival is unique with respect to international film festivals in that it focuses purely on films from countries that produce a maximum of 30 feature films annually. This restriction tends to immediately eliminate films from countries such as the U.K., Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan and the U.S. thus giving films from smaller countries an opportunity for greater international exposure.

The festival is situated in Setubal, Portugal, which is located some 60 kilometers from Lisbon. Traditionally held in June with film screenings taking place in several venues (particularly in the city’s Municipal Forum), the festival, like many other international festivals, worked hard to maintain its numerous corporate sponsors in this year’s tumultuous global economy. Festival director Fernanda Silva can be credited with finding a solution to the delayed refurbishment of the Municipal Forum by erecting a gigantic tent in the city center to showcase this year’s films.

The show must go on as they say and indeed it did from September 3rd through September 12th for this 25th celebration of Festroia. This year’s festival screened 181 films in a variety of competitive sections. Though a much smaller festival than Berlin, Cannes, or Venice, it is staffed by experienced professionals with big hearts who offer a friendly, courteous, and a much more personal festival experience.

Our SIGNIS Jury consisted of five members -- Alfred Jokesch (Austria), Maria Eugenia Van-Zeller (Portugal), Teresa Tunay (Philippines), Francisco Perestrello (Portugal) and myself – and we were tasked with choosing a film from the official competition which best represented our SIGNIS criteria. The critical lens through which we viewed the films specifically looked for a film of high artistic quality that was universal in nature, was inventive in expression, and offered a story of human progress, Christian responsibility, while portraying the message of the Gospel.

The thirteen films in the Official Section of this year’s festival represented productions from a wide range of countries. These films from Finland, Denmark, Israel, Iceland, Indonesia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway also presented a wide range of film genres for our jury to discuss.

The films in this year’s official competition lacked an overall unifying theme connecting them with one another. Instead a number of smaller themes became apparent as there were several films which highlighted some form of corruption in the modern world (Katia’s Sister, The Exchange, The Reason Why, Terribly Happy), two unique comedies (Out of the Blue, White Night Wedding), two historical dramas (Broken Promise, Guard No. 47), films about recapturing the past (The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner and The Storm in My Heart) and several films concerning children and adolescence (The Rainbow Troops, Mammoth, Forbidden Fruit).

After much deliberation our jury selected the Bulgarian film “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner” for this year’s SIGNIS award.

This is a tightly woven tale, which artfully transports the viewer on a non-linear journey between an escape from the repressive communism of the Bulgarian past and a two-wheeled spiritual European journey of the present.

Backgammon serves as the family and generational unifier that allows a grandson to heal from a tragic accident and once again place his feet firmly on the ground and fulfill his grandfather’s proclamation, “Destiny is the dice in your hand and what happens after that depends on your skill and luck.”

Based on a Bulgarian novel and directed by Stephan Komandarev, this is certainly a film about many things, especially life, loss, repression, freedom, the love of family, survival, and most of all – self-discovery.

A worthy and most enjoyable film that also took the top Audience prize and Best Director award at this year’s festival.

Our jury also chose to offer a Special Commendation to the film “Mammoth” for its unique portrayal of children and their needs in our increasing materialistic global economy.

The 26th edition of the Festroia festival will once again take place in its traditional June time period. Until then remember… the world is big… and salvation lurks around the corner…