Cyprus Film Days returns for 15th year

After 15 years of Cyprus Film Days, we’ve now reached the stage (we don’t mind; it’s a good stage) where certain points just get repeated from year to year, with the understanding that you already know them. Here they are in note form, to save time:

1. Cyprus Film Days – jointly organised by the Ministry of Education & Culture and Rialto Theatre – is our only world-class film festival, at least when it comes to new fiction. The Lemesos Documentary Festival in August does a comparable job in the field of non-fiction, while Images and Views of Alternative Cinema has a (sometimes) top-class slate in the esoteric field of older experimental cinema.
2. All films are shown with Greek AND ENGLISH subtitles.
3. Each film is shown exactly once – or more accurately twice, once in Nicosia and once in Limassol. This is not necessarily the best system if you want to see a specific movie, since you’ll have to go on a specific day and time (films start at 8 and 10pm, with some screenings at 6pm). It is, however, an excellent system if you want to immerse yourself in nine days of cinema. CFD is a festival that works best if you just turn up, watch whatever’s screening, then do the same thing the following night.

Having said this, of course, a few more details should be offered on this year’s edition – which starts on Thursday (April 27), a day earlier than in previous years, and ends on Friday May 5 in Nicosia (Limassol has one more film on Saturday, followed by the awards ceremony). There are 18 movies in the main selection, with two more in a special tribute to Chilean director Pablo Larrain (whose Neruda opens the Fest in Nicosia). There will also be a Cinematography Masterclass in Nicosia on Saturday April 29, presumably given by Phil Meheux who happens to be (a) the president of the Jury for films in competition, and (b) a top cinematographer whose CV includes two Bond films – GoldenEye and Casino Royale – among other achievements.

And what of the actual films? Here are five representative highlights:

The Salesman (Nicosia 29/4, 10pm; Limassol 3/5, 10pm). This year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film comes with an asterisk: how many Hollywood types voted for this Iranian drama in order to protest Trump’s visa ban (which threatened to engulf its director, Asghar Farhadi), and not for artistic reasons? The question should be moot because The Salesman is a wonderful film, showing Farhadi’s talent for mapping out confrontations and negotiations at its most precise and ferocious. Not entirely sure what it has to do with Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (which features in the plot), but that’s just me.

Godless (Nicosia 5/5, 8pm; Limassol 4/5, 8pm). CFD veterans know that the festival is comprised of two sections: Viewfinder (seven films this year), made up of well-known titles, and Glocal Images (11 films), viz. the titles in competition which are often more obscure. This gritty-sounding Bulgarian drama is by far the biggest name in the Glocal line-up, having won top prize at Locarno among many other awards. Haven’t seen it (yet), and I’m not saying it’s the best film on offer – part of the fun in CFD is making your own discoveries – but it clearly demands to be checked out.

All that said, local audiences may be more intrigued by the two Cypriot films taking part in Glocal, Rosemarieand Boy on the Bridge (directed by Adonis Florides and Petros Charalambous, respectively). Both are coming out commercially soon, but there’s nothing like a big-screen premiere in the presence of the cast and director. Rosemarie is also the opening film in Limassol on Thursday.

Manchester by the Sea (Nicosia 28/4, 10pm; Limassol 2/5, 10pm). ‘But… it’s American!’ cries the arthouse snob. ‘It even won Oscars!’. True enough – but the gulf between quality American cinema and multiplex fare has never been wider, and this beautifully balanced film about guilt and redemption is unlikely to appear on the big screen in Cyprus any time soon. Casey Affleck’s performance as a man weighed down by self-loathing deserves every accolade.

Bad Taste: So Bad It’s Good. We have a problem in Cyprus, and the problem is a lack of young cinephiles. Older people go to screenings and film societies but students are far more likely to be found in cafés, or at home playing video games – hence perhaps this conscious effort to create something hip and youthful. For three nights, starting at midnight, CFD will be wallowing in the dubious pleasures of so-bad-it’s-good, films “which often appear on Best Worst Films of all time lists”. No further details supplied (I suspect the infamous Troll 2 will be one of the three) – but the point here isn’t the films per se, it’s encountering like-minded people and starting a community. Which brings us to…

Raw (Nicosia 30/4, 10pm; Limassol 5/5, 10pm). Kudos to the festival’s Artistic Committee for pushing the envelope, trying to make clear that ‘arthouse’ doesn’t have to mean middle-aged people cutting their toenails in real time – but this? Be warned that this French psychological horror features cannibalism, bone-dry humour and intense situations – though viewers who stay the course (I hope some do) will find something wild and stylish, and pointedly feminine. Only Cyprus Film Days can do this.

Full details of the 15th annual CFD – including plot synopses and screening times – may be found at the festival website, www.cyprusfilmdays.com, or call the Rialto Theatre on 77777745.