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We would like to invite you to the 6th International Poetry Festival Ars Poetica 2008, which will take place on October 7-12 both at the A4 Space for Contemporary Culture and the Nostalgia film theatre. Poetry by 30 authors coming from 15 world countries and translated by 20 Slovak translators will be performed by two actors, Jana Majeská and Marek Majeský, and accompanied by the VJ Zdeno Hlinka. The festival program will take place from Wednesday, October 8 to Saturday, October 11 at A4, each time starting at 7pm.
Bratislava / A4, Námestie SNP square
Nostalgia, Ul. I. Karvaša
Poetry, films, concerts, workshops, party
Reading actors: Jana Majeská & Marek Majeský
VJ Zdeno Hlinka
18.30 Kabinet doktora Caligariho / DE / film / Nostalgia
19.30 Andrej Rublev / RUS / film / Nostalgia
Wednesday 8.10
17.00 Chlieb náš každodenný / AT / film / A4
18.30 Kristove roky / SVK / film / Nostalgia
19.00 Poetry evening / A4
19.00 Večer poézie / A4
Jana Beňová / SVK
Johanna Venho / FIN
Ján Štrasser / SVK
Michal Jareš / CZ
Arne Rautenberg / DE
Rudolf Jurolek / SVK
Anja Utler / DE
Book inauguration - Ivan Štrpka Básne
20.30 Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni / SVK / FR / film / Nostalgia
21.30 Viktor Tóth / HU / koncert / A4
11.00 Creative Writing Workshop with Mila Haugová / FiF UK
15.00 European round table on publishing and translation of poetry / event / A4
17.00 Rumi - Islamic poetry / Elzina pieseň / AT / film / A4
18.30 Ty, ktorý žiješ / SWE / DE / FR / DEN / NOR / JAP / film / Nostalgia
19.00 Večer poézie / A4
Pamela Beasant / GB
Inge Hrubaničová / SVK
Tamás Filip / HU
Christian Futscher / AT
Yvonne Gray / GB
Robert Prosser / AT
John O´Donoghue / IR
Book inauguration - Tomasz Różycki Protivietor
20.30 Control / GB / film / Nostalgia
21.30 Home Made Mutant / SVK / koncert / A4
15.00 Creative Writing Workshop with Mila Haugova / workshop / A4
17.00 Ithaki / EG / film / A4
18.30 Svätá hora / MEX / USA / film / Nostalgia
19.00 Poetry evening / A4
Justyna Radczyńska / POL
Marcus Poettler / AT
Michele Zaffarano / IT
Martin Skýpala / CZ
Francesco Tomada / IT
Marzanna Kielar / POL
Katalin Ladik / HU
Book inauguration - Meta Kušar Ľubľana
20.30 Andalúzsky pes / Skrytý pôvab buržoázie / FR / film / Nostalgia
21.30 Marcin Świetlicki: Świetliki / POL / koncert / A4
17.00 Fest Anča Fičí / SVK / film / A4
18.30 Nežný barbar / CZ / film / Nostalgia
19.00 Večer poézie / A4
Andreas Neumeister / DE
Maria Galina / RUS
Andrej Hablák / SK
Arkadij Shtypel / RUS
Rãzvan Ţupa / RO
Ulrikka Gernes / DEN
Carolyn Forché / USA
20.30 Štyri / Slepé lásky / SVK / film / Nostalgia
21.30 RandaLucia / AT / DE / koncert / A4
17.00 Sylvia / USA / GB / film / A4
 Pamela Beasant (UK) was born and brought up in Glasgow. She read English at Oxford University then worked at Usborne publishing in London before moving to Orkney in 1986. Since then, she has been working freelance as a writer and editor. Pamela has been widely published as a poet, her latest collection is Running with a Snow Leopard (2008). In 2006, her play A Hamnavoe Man was commissioned by and performed at the St Magnus Festival. She published biographical study Stanley Cursiter: a life of the artist, in 2007, and seven information books for children. She wrote the libretto for a rock opera, Voice, with composer Gemma McGregor. Pamela is finishing her first novel, Making Angels, and has started a second. Pamela is listed by the Scottish Book Trust, and has been awarded writers' bursaries from the Scottish Arts Council and Hi-Arts. In 2007, Pam was awarded the first George Mackay Brown Writing Fellowship in Orkney. |
 Jana Beňová (SK) lives in Bratislava. She published three poetry books: Svetloplachý (1993), Lonochod and Nehota (1997). The love novel Parker was published in 2001. The book Twelve Short Stories and Ján Med came out in 2003. This year she published novel Good bye planing (Cafe Hyena). Beňová studied Theatre Dramaturgy at the Academy Of Theatre and Music in Bratislava and at present is working as reporter in daily SME. |
 Tamás Filip (H) was born in Budapest. He graduated from law school in 1984 and currently practises as a solicitor. He has been published in various literary periodicals since the 1980's. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies: Fékezett habzás (Decelerated Foaming, 1986), Függőhíd (Drawbridge, 1998), Amin most utazol (What Are You Riding on Now, 2001), A harmadik szem (The Third Eye, 2003), Mentés másképpen (Save Differently, 2005), Rejtett ikonok (Hidden Icons, 2006). His poems and essays have been broadcast by Hungarian radio. In 2004, he was awarded the Nizzai Kavics award, and in 2005 and 2006, he received the Jury's Honorary Commendation in the Salvatore Quasimodo competition. Filip is editor of the literary magazine Kortás. |
 Carolyn Forché (USA) was born in Detroit. She is the author of four books of poetry: Gathering The Tribes, which received the Yale Younger Poets Award, The Country Between Us, chosen as the Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets, The Angel of History, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and Blue Hour, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has translated Flowers from the Volcano and Sorrow by Claribel Alegria, The Selected Poems of Robert Desnos (with William Kulik), and Mahmoud Darwish's Unfortunately, It Was Paradise (with Munir Akash, Amira el-Zein and others). She compiled and edited Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness (1993). She has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship and other literary and teaching awards, including the Robert Creeley Award in 2005 and The Golden Rose from the New England Poetry Club in 2008. She has been a human rights activist for thirty years, and in 1998, was presented the Edita and Ira Morris Hiroshima Foundation Award for Peace and Culture in Stockholm for her work on behalf of human rights and the preservation of memory and culture. In 2004 she became a trustee of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry, Canada's premier poetry award. She serves as Executive Vice President of Cities of Refuge, North America. Forthcoming books include a memoir, The Horse On Our Balcony, (2009), a book of essays (2010) and a fifth collection of poems, In the Lateness of the World. She has taught poetry and literature for thirty-five years, and holder of the Lannan Chair of Poetry and Poetics at Georgetown University. |
 Christian Futscher (A) was born in Feldkirch and graduated in Germanic and Romance Studies from the University of Salzburg. In 1986, he moved to Vienna, and tried his hand at numerous occupations. He made his literary debut with the book of poems was mir die adler erzählt (What the Eagle Told Me), 1995. It was followed by a great number of books and appearances in anthologies. Futscher has received a number of literary awards and scholarships for his stories, poems and radio plays, recently he received Dresdner Lyrikpreis 2008. |
 Maria Galina (RUS) writes both literary and science fiction (with ten sci-fi books to her credit). She is also a poet, critic, and translator of English and American science fiction. She is a winner of many important prizes for her prose and poetry and her critical essays. A graduate from Odessa University majoring in sea biology she took part in several sea expeditions but in 1995 she gave up biology and took up writing professionally. Apart from numerous Russian publications she has three books published in Poland and her work has been included in various anthologies of Russian writing abroad (Russian Women Poets: Modern Poetry in Translation, 2002; Amerika. Russian Writers View the United States). Her literary fiction contains a strong element of magic realism while gender issues have always been the focus of her attention. As a poet she was awarded by some of the most prestigious Russian poetry awards – The Moscow Count (for the best poetry book published in Moscow) and Anthologia (for the highest achievements in the modern Russian Poetry). |
 Ulrikka S. Gernes (DK) was born in Sweden by Danish parents. She writes in Danish, her mother tongue. In 1984, Moth, her first collection of poetry was published. Since then she has published nine collections of poetry and two children's books as well as making frequent contributions to anthologies, magazines, newspapers and radio. During the 1990's Hong Kong was her base and starting point for extensive journeys around Asia where she earned her living by writing freelance journalism. She returned to Denmark in 1998 and lives in Copenhagen. A Sudden Sky, a collection of her selected poems was translated into English by Per Brask and Patrick Friesen and published by Brick Books, Canada 2001. Her poetry has been translated into German, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish and Slovenian in various anthologies and magazines. She has received several grants and stipends. In 2003 she was awarded the prestigious three-year stipend from the Danish Art Foundation. She has performed at numerous international literature festivals, amongst others in Canada, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Wales, Slovenia, etc. |
 Yvonne Gray (GB) was born in Scotland. She studied English Language and Literature at Edinburgh University. She moved to the Northern Isles in 1990 and settled in Orkney near the town of Stromness with her husband and three sons. She writes poetry and non-fiction and is a keen musician. Yvonne has been involved in several collaborations, including Rationed Air (with artist Carol Dunbar), a hand made limited editon of poems and prints; a screenplay for the film Between the Terminals; and the exhibition Flows and Traces (2004-2005). She compiled Out of Rubbish and Tinsel of War, a reading of poems and prose inspired by World War II in Orkney. Recently she has been involved in Mailboats, a project inspired by the St Kilda mailboat, with a group of poets and sculptors from Orkney and Shetland. She received a Scottish Arts Council Writers' Bursary in 2002 and Hi-Arts Writers' Development Awards in 2004 and 2008. Her poems and prose have been published widely in magazines, pamphlets and anthologies. Her first full collection of poems, In the Hanging Valley, was published in 2008. |
 Andrej Hablák (SK) a fresh graduate of high school in Námestovo (northern Slovakia) he published his first book of poems Váhavo postávam nepripravený odísť (1995), for which he received the premium of Ivan Krasko Prize for debut of the year. Then he left for the USA, staying there over two years. Upon return to Slovakia, he studied Slovak literature and language and Philosophy at Comenius University in Bratislava. During this study he published two books of poetry: Jazvyk (1999) and Tichorád (2002) and worked as an editor of literary reviews PULZ and Romboid. Then he worked two years with the Slovak Academy of Science. Today, he is working on his next poetry book Leknín, working as a teacher of Slovak and English in central Slovakia, nearby Banská Štiavnica. |
 Inge Hrubaničová (SK) graduated from the Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ, in Prešov. Since 1988, she has lived and worked in Bratislava. In 2007, she published Láska ide cez žalúďok (The way to a Man's Heart is through His Glans). |
 Michal Jareš (CZ), trained as a machinery and equipment mechanic at the LIAZ Vocational School in Jablonec nad Nisou and went on to study the theory and history of dramatic arts at the Faculty of Arts at Palacky University in Olomouc. Since 1999 he has worked at the Institute for Czech Literature at the Czech Academy of Sciences and is an editor of the literary bi-weekly Tvar. He made his literary debut in 1994, with a book of poetry Tanec v začínajícím létě (Dance at the Beginning of Summer) which was followed by books of poems: Definitivní dětství (Definitive Childhood, 1995), Plameny vody (Flames of Water), 1996, Prospal jsi hedvábí (You Slept Through Silk), 1998, a Brzo je k lásce Pozdě k řečem (Early for Love, Late for Talk), 2001. Some of his books were published in limited editions, short stories and collections of poems Zrosyvstání (Fromdewrising), 1999 and Výtěžek (Extract), 2000. In 2003, in collaboration with Pavel Janáček, he compiled an annotated list of dime novels from the 1930s and 1940s, published under the title of Svět rodokapsu (World of Dime Novels). In 2006 he published a book of poems Kdo dnům rozumí (Who Understands the Days). He is one of the co-authors of the four volumes of Dějiny české literatury 1945–1989 (History of Czech Literature 1945-1989). His name has appeared in a number of anthologies of poetry and his reviews, poems, comments, essays and papers are regularly published in a number of magazines. |
 Rudolf Jurolek (SK) was born in Zákamenné. He has published five books of poetry: Posunok (Gesture, 1987), Dobrovoľná samota (Voluntary Solitude, 1994), Putovanie Jakuba z Rána (Jakub's Voyage from the Morning, 1996), Hierografia (Hierography, 1999), and Život je možný (Life is Possible, 2007). He gained both a technical and a pedagogical education and has worked as technologist, secondary school teacher and journalist. Between 1991 – 2003 he headed his own publishing house of domestic poetry and fiction, Solitudo. Currently, he acts as a columnist with Oravské Noviny. He lives in Breza, Orava, Slovakia, and Baden near Vienna, Austria. |
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 Katalin Ladik (H) was born in Novi Sad (Yugoslavia). Her formal education was bilingual, in Hungarian and Serbian. From 1963 she works as an actress in the Radio Novi Sad and from 1975 in the theatre there. Recently she has settled in Budapest. She has published 16 collections of verse, but beside written verse she has done much in visual and phonic poetry, happenings and performance art, mail art and a number of other experimental fields. She is member of the Hungarian Writers' Association and the National Association of Hungarian Artists. She has received the Kassák Award in 1991, the Hungarian Literary Observer award (Magyar Irodalmi Figyelő) of the Hollandiai Mikes Kelemen Kör (Association for Hungarian Art, Literature and Science in the Netherlands) in 2000, and the Attila József Award in 2001. Her latest book is Élhetek az arcodon? (2007). |
 Andreas Neumeister (D) studied ethnology and now writes for the Suhrkamp publishing house. In 1996 he took part in the Poetry! Slam! Texte der Popfraktion project. His catalogue, In dubio pro disco, was published in Rome. He is the author of works of art, such as the sound installation Music for Fascist Architecture during the A3 week of architecture (House of Arts, Munich, 2006; Da Real World/Die wirkliche Welt (Munich, 2006); The gift/Das Gift (solo exhibition, Tranzit Gallery, Bratislava, 2008). He lives in Munich. |
 John O'Donoghue (GB) is the author of two pamphlets, Letter To Lord Rochester (2004) and The Beach Generation (2007). Brunch Poems is published in 2008. He was Chair of Survivors' Poetry, a national charity which exists to promote and publish the work of survivors' of mental distress, from 2000 – 2005, and currently lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Hertfordshire, the University of Westminster, and the Open University. His poetry, fiction, reviews, and journalism have been published in various magazines and newspapers. His memoir, Sectioned, was acquired at auction by John Murray and will be published in Spring 2009. |
 Marcus Poettler (A) was born in Hartberg and lives and works in Graz, Austria. He publishes in literary magazines (Lichtungen, manuskripte, Ostragehege), in anthologies and on radio. In 2005 he was awarded the literary scholarship of Graz and in 2007 he won the Styria Savings Bank Award. In 2007 he published his first book under the title fallen.gedichte. |
 Robert Prosser (A) graduated in comparative studies, cultural and social anthropology from Innsbruck and Vienna. He used to be a part of the hip-hop and graffiti scene. His poetry and fiction is mainly published in magazines, on the web and in anthologies. He collaborated with hip-hop and drum'n bass musicians, taking part in poetry slam events. Co-organizer of the Innsbruck literary scene, the Text ohne Reiter (Text Without a Rider). |
 Justyna Radczyńska (PL) works as an editor of the Nieszuflada vortal, the most popular site on poetry in Polish Internet, co-author of the www.literackie.pl, president of the Foundation on Literature in Internet; co-translator of modern Israeli poetry. She has graduated from astronomy and management faculties, lives in Warsaw. She is the author of the books: Podmiana Joli Gosz (2005) and Nawet (2007). She is working on her next book Kometa zawraca. |
 Arne Rautenberg (D) was born in Kiel, North Germany, where he still lives, working as a freelance writer and artist. His first novel, Der Sperrmüllkönig (The Refuse King), was published in 2002. He contributed poems, translations and an Afterword to the bilingual collection of football haiku The Season Sweetens / Die Saison Versüssend (2006). His most recent book is vermeeren (2006), a collection of 100 collages and 100 poems. |
 Martin Skýpala (CZ) was born in Valašské Meziříčí. After completing his studies in Czech literature at the Silesian University, Opava, he was awarded a scholarship in Peterborough, England (2005/6); he currently lives in Ostrava and works as an editor of the cultural revue Protimluv. His literary debut, Resuscitace (Resuscitation) came out in 1998 in a supplement to the Prague literary magazine, Tvar. In 2002 he came out top in the literary competition Hořovice Václava Hraběte. He has published the books of poetry Lžička Medu, Work and Travel (Spoonful of Honey, Work and Travel, 2007), and is currently preparing for publication his new book of poetry Ruční práce (Handwork, 2008), and a book of fairy tales O koťátku (About the Kitten). He writes reviews, poetry and translates from English. His poems have been translated into Polish and other Slavic languages. |
 Ján Štrasser (SK) was born in Košice. He studied Russian and Slovak languages and literatures at Comenius-University in Bratislava. In the mid-1960s, he started publishing poetry and criticism, and became editor of a magazine for young writers Mladá tvorba. In the 1972s, he worked as a theatre dramaturge. He was editor of the literary monthly Slovenské pohľady from 1987. Between 1990 and 1993, he worked as editor in chief of that periodical. He was deputy editor in chief of the weekly Domino forum from 1997 to 2004. He is a member of The Commune of Writers of Slovakia. He has published 9 collections of verse: Odriekanie (Renouncing, 1968), Podmet (Subject, 1980), Denne (Daily, 1981), Priamy prenos (Live Broadcast), Práca na ceste (Road Work, 1989), Myš dobrej nádeje (Mouse of Good Hope, 1992), Očné pozadie (Eye Background, 1999), Stala sa nám láska (Love Happened To Us, 2003), and Staré železo (Scrap Metal, 2007). He has also published four books of songs and three books of criticism and essays. He has translated Russian classical and modern literature. For his translation of Jevgenij Onegin, he received several awards. In collaboration with the researcher Peter Zajac, he has translated German poetry and drama. |
 Arkadij Štypeľ (RUS) was born in Samarkand. His childhood and adolescence was spent in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine). By training he was a theoretical physic, but at the third year of his education he was excluded from the University for trying to edit samisdat literature magazine. After army service he has been restored at the Institute but never worked as a specialist being black-listed. The same reason his first poetry book V Gostiah u Euklida (Visiting Euclid) was published only after USSR fall in 2002. The second published book, Stihi dlia golosa (The verses for a voice), was published at 2007 and was marked as the best poetry achievement of the year ("ExLibris" literature weekly magazine). Arkady Shtypel also is a well-known translator of Ukrainian and English poetry (Dylan Thomas, Shakespeare). He publishes poems and reviews in various magazines and newspapers. |
 Francesco Tomada (I) was born in Udine. He studied biology and biochemistry in Trieste, now he lives in Gorizia and works as high school teacher. He started writing in the early nineties, and since then he took part to several readings and live performances. His poems appeared in various literary magazines in Italy, Slovenia, France, Canada, in websites, and have been translated also in English, Chinese, and Romanian. His first book, titled L'infanzia vista da qui (Childhood from here), was published in 2006 and won the Literary Prize Beppe Manfredi for the best debut in 2007. |
 Răzvan Țupa (RO) is born at Braila (Romania). He studied History of Religions and Culture and worked as a journalist. Between 2005 and 2007 he was in charge with a new poetry magazine, Versus-Verso. Since 2006 he has been Editor en chief for Cuvantul, magazine but for the end of 2008 he leaves the Romanian cultural press. Since 1996 performed poetry in different places in Bucharest. He read poetry in Paris, Rome, Prague, New York and Berlin. His first collection of poetry was Fetish in 2001, awarded ex aequo the Mihai Eminescu National Award for first book of Poetry. In 2005 he published Romanian bodies a second book of poetry. His poems were selected for No Longer Poetry- New Romanian Poetry, an anthology published in UK. |
 Anja Utler (D) was born in Schwandorf, Germany. She studied Slavic languages and English. In 2003 she graduated in Russian lyric poetry from Regensburg and now lives as a free-lance poet in Vienna. Her most recent books of poetry were published under the titles münden – entzüngeln (mouthing – delinguation, 2004) and brinnen (2006). Among other prizes, she was awarded the Leonce-und-Lena-Preis (2003) and the Förderpreis der deutschen Schillerstiftung von 1859 prize (2006). |
 Johanna Venho (FIN) lives in Espoo, Finland. She has studied comparative literature and biology in the Universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä and worked as an editor in a broadcasting company Yleisradio. A former editor-in-chief at Tuli&Savu poetry journal and, she is now a full time writer. She has published three collections of poetry, four novels for children and a collection of nursery rhymes. She won the Kritiikin kannukset Prize for the best literary debut of 2000 and the Katri Vala Prize for her latest collection of poems in 2006. |
 Michele Zaffarano (I) was born in Milan. Raised in Merate and Lecco, he lived then in Milan and in Paris. Since 2004, he's living in Rome. His poetic texts were published in many magazines and in anthologies. He translates contemporary French poetry and organizes poetry event in Milan and Rome. Recently, he has published A New House (2008), a set of artistic postcards. |
Movies
An Andalusian Dog director: Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, France, 1929, 17 min. (silent film) This legendary short film created in a collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali is a surrealistic collage with erotic symbolism which still has the power to shock today, and not just with the shot of an eye being sliced. The film is characterised by its weird hallucinatory atmosphere which discords with the viewer's assumption tying the narrative into concentrated causal bonds.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie/ Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie director: Luis Buñuel, France, 1972, 102 min. / French language, Czech subtitles The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Luis Buñuel's absurd grotesque tale with surreal elements and satirical undertones parodies the life of bourgeois society. It tells the story of a group of friends who want to meet for dinner, but somebody or something keeps on preventing them from meeting. The masterful simile is not only a caricature of gangsterism and the mendacity of the church but also reveals the inconspicuous ugliness of the consumer society from which God has disappeared and where freedom has degenerated into a false illusion that everything is permitted at the expense of others. |
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20.30 Control / GB / film / Nostalgia Control, director: Anton Corbijn, Great Britain, 2007, 122 min. English language, Czech subtitles This, the debut of a successful clip maker, Anton Corbijn, tells the story of the last seven years of the life of Ian Curtis, singer of the legendary British band, Joy Division, who in the late 1970s, along with other Manchester bands, defined a new pop music genre. A black and white camera follows Curtis from his early experiments with drugs, through the formation of Joy Division, to his suicide in May 1980. |
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17.00 Fest Anča Fičí / SVK / film / A4 Fest Anča Fičí offers a selection of the best films from the international cartoon festival Fest Anča. It offers films which are crazy, intelligent, refined, perverted, tendentious, experimental, sarcastic but, above all, animated. The section also includes films that were awarded the Anca award at the international competition, where the third prize was awarded to the German film Our Beautiful Nature by Tomer Eshed, second prize was awarded to the Italian Street Art artist going under the sobriquet Blu and his film Muto, and the first prize remains at home and went to Ivana Šebestová and her cartoon Four. The films are intended for adults. |
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17.00 Our daily bread / AT / film / A4 Our Daily Bread, director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Rakúsko, 2005, 92 min. Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! OUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas. |
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17.00 Ithaki / EG / film / A4 Ithaki, director: Ibrahim El-Batout, Egypt, 2005, 70 min. Arabic language, English subtitles After the Trojan War, Ulysses, the legendary Greek warrior, sets off on a return journey to his native Ithaca. The journey which was to last days eventually extended over years. In 1922, Constantine P. Kavafi, an Alexandrian poet, composed the poem "Ithaki" which inspired the film. Ithaki offers a glimpse of life of 15 people whose lives were affected by war, illness and envy. The film is a unique mixture of a documentary and feature film which serves to highlight the thin line dividing reality and imagination. The plot is set in present day Cairo and the film captures merry, sad and frustrating moments of the characters whose fates are intertwined. |
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18.30 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / DE / film / Nostalgia The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari One of the earliest and most influential films of German Expressionism, the artistic movement which appeared between the wars. The film significantly transcends the period of its origin. Its artistic rendition and its symbolism directed towards the psychology of the characters brought to the film a poetic dimension which, at this historical moment of what was still early cinematography, represented an evolutionary step of revolutionary importance. As regards content, the horrific simile about the manipulation of an individual by the insane Dr. Caligari reflected the atmosphere of the period and Hitler's rise to power. |
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18.30 Crucial Years / SVK / film / Nostalgia Crucial Years, director: Juraj Jakubisko, Slovakia, 1967, 93 min. A richly structured narrative about the insistent need for a final decision on the part of a man at the crossroads of life. The protagonists are two brothers caught between youth and manhood. Juraj, an artistic painter living in Prague, realizes with some hidden helplessness that up to the present he has lived an empty life, wasting his energy on playful trifles, without acknowledging any obligations. Juraj's elder brother, Andrej, an aviation officer, starts to doubt whether he is fit for his occupation, and this uncertainty is the source of problems in his marriage. The story is predominantly set in bizarre Prague settings (a dilapidated building prior to demolition, tiny flats, pebble-dashed walls, worn-out furniture) which matches the visual rendition – a grainy black and white picture with a suggestion of being overexposed. |
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18.30 Tender Barbian / CZ / film / Nostalgia Tender Barbarian, director: Petr Koliha, Czech Republic, 1989, 88 min. A film debut based on the "fictitious monograph" about Vladimir Boudnik (1924-1968) by B. Hrabal. This fine art genius was considered a pioneer of Explosionism and the so-called active graphics. For those in the know, due to the authenticity of his being, he became the symbol of creative freedom and the invincibility of the human spirit. He continually provoked others with his opinions, attitudes, life and art. The film captures the extraordinary relationships and pure friendship between Vladimir and his two companions - Egon (Bondy) and Doktor (Hrabal), "beer-drinking cronies", protagonists of numerous bizarre episodes, poet-philosophers and social outcasts who, despite all the circumstances of the period, managed to maintain their authenticity. The stylised evocation of the period is often original, but the film is best remembered for its leading actors: Boleslav Polívka, Jiří Menzel and Arnošt Goldflam. |
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19.30 Andrej Rublev / RUS / film / Nostalgia Andrej Rublov, Russia, 1966, Director: Andrey Tarkovskij, 174 min b/w, Russian language, Czech subtitles This historical fresco about the icon painter Andrei Rublev is a character study of 15th century Russia – a politically and culturally strained, dogmatic and ascetic period which motivated Rublev's life, his religious and artistic contradictions, as well as his painful doubts. This narrative about spiritual power and springs of indestructible creative energy is characterised by the marked narrative nature of the plot. In numerous shots, the black and white picture evinces a powerful artistic stylisation. Naturalistic shots of wilderness, village huts, churches in towns, the apparently static description of the lives of muzhiks, monks and artists all go to complement the extremely evocative atmosphere of the period. A unique opus within the historical genre fulfils one of Tarkovsky's creeds: "Arts exist solely to put the world right." |
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17.00 Rumi – poetry of Islam AT / film / A4 Rumi – Poesie des Islam, director: Houchang & Dariusch Allahyari, Austria, 2007, 88 min. German language, English subtitles The film examines the life, philosophy and poetry of one the most important poets and mystics in the Islamic cultural sphere, Djalleledin Maulana Rumi (1207 to 1260). For centuries, he strongly influenced mysticism, poetry and music in the entire Eastern world. Else´s Song, director: Michael Pfeifenberger, Austria, 2007, 15 min. Dancer Wera Goldman and Young Israeli musician Daniel Sinaisky present Else Lasker-Schüler´s poem Jerusalem. They lead us on a dream-like walk through the old city. Schofar meets Israel-beat. |
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20.30 Four / Blind loves / SVK / film / Nostalgia Four, director: Ivana Šebestová, Slovakia, 2007, 16 min. (cartoon) The story of Four is set in the late spring of 1937. The afternoon exudes a nostalgic atmosphere, the island's inhabitants are walking on the quay awaiting a concert of a popular singer. The sea air blends with the steam from locomotives and the shrieking of gulls. In this time-space, the fates of Hana, a pilot, Eva, a postwoman, Lilith, a shop assistant and Ariel, a singer, intertwine. All four of them become part of one tragedy. Four times over, each time from the perspective of one of the women, we watch the accident and discover that the protagonists are linked by something much stronger than mere coincidence. Blind Loves, director: Juraj Lehotský, Slovakia, 2007, 77 min. To find the right place for fulfilment and joy in the world is frequently a difficult task for those with good vision and is all the more complicated for someone who is blind. In many aspects, their view of the world is essential and pure and often revealing "unseen dimensions" provide clues to what happiness is about. The film tells four stories about different demonstrations of love between people with impaired vision. |
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18.30 Holy Mountain / MEX / USA / film / Nostalgia La montaña sagrada. The Holy Mountain, Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico/USA, 1973, colour, 114' English language, Czech subtitles A representative of the decaying European society, (Coke-culture kid, or a Latin-American desperado?) Alejandro Jodorowsky sets off on a pilgrimage to Holy Mountain and breaks all the taboos along the way. At the same time, we are confronted with a sacred, initiating work which is a response to the author's theory of changing humankind through films. Films can be more effective than LSD, they will enlighten the audiences, and then there will be a new Big Bang. Meanwhile, the storyline of the film is relatively simple. A man, conspicuously resembling Jesus Christ, gets to a tower where he is received by a master alchemist and introduced to the seven lords of the solar system. In their company, he heads for the sacred mountain to wrest the secret of immortality from the seven sages who live there. |
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17.00 Sylvia / USA / GB / film / A4 Sylvia, director: Christine Jeffs, USA/UK, 2003, 109 min. Czech language The year is 1956. Sylvia Plath is a student at a prestigious English university, Cambridge, and is writing her literary juvenilia. Here she meets the poet, Ted Hughes, and the fateful love which accompanies Sylvia throughout her life, is born. At first, Ted also succumbs to the romantic affair with a woman who understands his work and admires it but after the wedding everything changes. Sylvia wants to visit her mother in the US. Ted prefers staying in England and falls back into his bachelor habits. Sylvia, who is mentally unstable, is unable to cope with her beloved husband's infidelities but at the same time she drives him into committing them. She seeks solace in poetry and her own writing. She writes Ariel, which is one of the most frequently read books of poetry today, but her dream of happiness fades away... The film, mixing romance and tragedy, discloses the myth of a legendary American author and recalls one of the most destructive love affairs of the past century. |
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18.30 You, the living / SWE / DE / FR / DEN / NOR / JAP / film / Nostalgia You, the Living, director: Roy Andersson, Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark/Norway/Japan, 2007, 92 min. Swedish language, Czech subtitles Much like the famous Songs from the Second Floor, another movie by this director, deals with a panoply of fates of assorted characters which are apparently unrelated. The fragmentary, deconstructed plot and an open dramaturgy of narration contravenes all the traditional rules of constructing a film narrative. In his latest film, Roy Andersson sticks to his authorial guns: decomposition, ironic, dry humour, static, artistically effective shots, minimalistic dialogues, emphasis on (non)histrionic expression. He fits banality into a stylised environment. You, the Living is the most entertaining film by Roy Andersson to date. |
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20.30 Birds, Orphans and Fools / SVK / FR / film / Nostalgia Birds, Orphans and Fools, director: Juraj Jakubisko, Slovakia/France, 1969, 78' A mosaic-like carnival conjuring up a playful simile with Jakubisko's famous imagination and eruptive imagery. The narrative is based on the image-association principle, with a loose episodic construction and with play as an authorial principle and life attitude of the characters. The protagonists are three orphans whose parents "killed one another". The three abandoned fools survive in the crazy and ugly world only thanks to their planned insanity (as a drug), thanks to the principle of play, their philosophy of joy and experience of the present moment, happening-like spontaneity and mischief. The images contain significant persiflages and paraphrases of assorted paintings. The director makes use of quotes, parodies lexicalised meanings and seeks to debunk authoritarian myths. |
Concerts
Home Made Mutant Home Made Mutant is an acoustic grouping of exceptional musicians (Marcel Buntaj, Martin Gašpar, Vlado Šarišský a Martin Hasák) concentrated around Maroš Hečko. Acoustic clubbing is probably the most applicable label for the music of this formation, which interprets feelings from the life of an individual submerged in the whirlpool of modern society in a subjective manner. From the very beginning, Home Made Mutant has been created by the three musicians, Maroš Hečko, Marcel Buntaj and Martin Gašpar. The Trilogy About Love and Cohabitation is an audio-visual item narrated by a man in an introverted state who, unseen and unheard, reflects from his virtual hideout on the relationships around him. Emotional planes, merely adumbrated, leave listeners in a space without any room for aggressive statements. Maroš Hečko, the project leader, comments on its essence, "It is, thereby, fully compliant with asylum laws in which the human individual, unthreatened by mass consumption, is released from any confrontation with the surrounding world". |
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RandaLucia /AT/ D / a concert Rupert Huber (piano, laptop, electronics) drum'n'bass and down-tempo pioneer. With Richard Dorfmeister, he founded the duo Tosca in Vienna in the late 1990s and the music from their album Suzuki went on to conquer the world. In addition to Tosca, he also appears in various solo projects. RandaLucia is predominantly about space. "Space is the right word for my music. The virtual space of recorded or created sounds transferred into real space. The combination of musical notation and expression in a given sound-space; the idea of loudspeakers, representing a real person in a room, speaking loudspeakers and the work with a tuned and well-tempered piano in real space. My work with voice and for the voice indicates my understanding of the Groove and, very often, the language as well." ML-Philippsen (singing, electronics, sound effects) is a German artist living in Berlin who is fond of moving at the edges of various genres and is a tireless experimenter and pioneer. Besides musical fragments, he also inserts in his performances theatrical elements, the results of sociological surveys, anthropology, artistic installations and, of course, poetry. |
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Świetliki The group Świetliki was formed in October 1992 in Kraków. They made their debut in December of the same year at the poets' session Aloud (Na Głos) and in their first audiences were Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska. In 1993 they recorded their first album Concentration Garden for the independent company Music Corner, which aroused great interest in both the media and public. Following on from this success, the band was invited to perform at the Opole festival, where they played live before the whole of Poland. In November 1996 the band recorded their second album "Cacy cacy fleischmaschine". The album was nominated for the Frederyka '96 award in the following categories: alternative music and poetic song. Also well received was their third album "Pearls Before Swine" (Perły przed wieprze), released in June 1999, which was recorded in collaboration with Mateusz Pospieszalski. Their next album "Bad Bears" (Zle Misie) appeared in 2001 and was produced in collaboration with Kasia Nosowska and Lech Janerka. In 2005, the band produced "Las putas melancólitas" introducing Bogusław Linda as a full member of the band. A track from this album, "Filandia", was recorded with the MoCarta string quartet and remained at the top of the play-list of Polish Radio 3 for thirty weeks. |
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Viktor Tóth Viktor Tóth is one of the most talented saxophone players of the new generation of Hungarian jazz. His unique voice is getting momentum and becomes more-and-more powerful. He is at home in the world of mainstream and standard jazz, but his attitude is more experimental, as he feels like home also along the border of the composed and free music, looking for his own voice. One of the great promises on the Hungarian jazz scene. This young alto-sax player with the warm tone blends the heritage of the great saxophonists of old from Charlie Parker to John Coltrane, with an individual voice of his own, and he does so with a great deal of infectious enjoyment. Viktor played at several European music festivals as a member of the Road Six Sax saxophone quartet and recorded an album with the Equinox Quartet. |
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