Meeting Point Europe 2015

European film critics have put together a selection of the most representative and most interesting films released over the last year for Cinematik. Eleven pictures will be screened within the Meeting Point Europe competitive section in Piešťany. The festival visitors will have a chance to see several Slovak premieres of important movies that have been excessively debated on festival circuit.

One of such films is romantic sci-fi thriller The Lobster by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. Viewers can probably remember his original drama Dogtooth (2009) which was screened at Cinematik in 2010. Lanthimos belongs to the most inventive European directors, and The Lobster only proves that. The story is set in an Orwellian future, where single people are persecuted. The film was competing for the Cannes’ Palm d’Or, and won the Jury Prize.

Audience will also have a chance to see Wim Wenders’s latest document The Salt of the Earth. It’s a portrait of well-known photographer Sebastião Salgado, who captures not only wonderful places of Earth, but is also a witness to wars, famines, international conflicts… A significant photographer himself, Wim Wenders tells the story as a tribute to a great artist, and tells often tragical stories of the photos in a chilling way. In addition to the Academy Award nomination, The Salt of the Earth received also Un Certain Regard Special Prize in Cannes last year.

Another exceptional picture competing for the Meeting Point Europe Award is Eden, a drama about the beginnings of French house scene. Director Mia Hansen-Løve tells a story about rise and fall of a French DJ during riveting 1990s. Daft Punk, who have supported the shooting and provided their compositions for a symbolic fee, makes their appearance in the film as well.

Prestigious Cahiers du Cinéma film of the year will also appear in the competition – beloved and hated Bruno Dumont and his L’il Quinquin (P’tit Quinquin). Both mysterious and easygoing crime story set to an environment of French summer countryside will for sure be pleasant and interesting, as Dumont for the first time in his career made a comedy.

The selection also includes festival darlings such as a new film by Ulrich Seidl In the Basement; a French drama Girlhood nominated for the LUX prize; or a documentary The Look of Silence, a winner of five awards from last year’s Venice film festival including the Grand Jury Prize.