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Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2023

View other Thessaloniki International Film Festival Films by strand: Fantasmas, Film Forward, International Competition, Meet The Neighbours+, NextGen, Open Horizons, Out Of Competition, Round Midnight, Smart7, Survey Expanded: Reflections of Topos

The Holdovers The Holdovers
The Holdovers and Fallen Leaves
Afire (Roter Himmel) (Country: Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold; Stars: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, Matthias Brandt)
Tensions and desire bloom among five people at a holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
Full Review See: Thomas Schubert on imposter syndrome and tonal ambiguity in Afire
, Christian Petzold in conversation on Afire (Roter Himmel), An Affair To Remember, summers, and pronouncing Walter Benjamin and Uwe Johnson
, Christian Petzold in conversation on Afire (Roter Himmel) and summer movies
La Chimera (Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello, Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Alba Rohrwacher, Lecu Chikovani, Carol Duate)
The story of a group of archaeologists and the black market in historical artefacts.
Full Review See: Alice Rohrwacher on fairy tales and La Chimera
Close Your Eyes (Cerrar Los Ojos) (Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Victor Erice; Writer: Víctor Erice, Michel Gaztambide; Stars: Jose Coronado, Ana Torrent, María León, Soledad Villamil)
A TV show looking into the mysterious disappearance of an actor leads a director on a journey into his own past while making discoveries in the present.
Full Review
Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End of the World (Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii, Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World) (Country: Romania, Luxembourg, France, Croatia; Year: 2023; Director: Radu Jude; Writer: Radu Jude; Stars: Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Nina Hoss, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu)
Overworked and underpaid, Angela drives around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a 'safety at work video' commissioned by a multinational company. When one of the interviewees reveals the company’s liability in his accident, a scandal erupts.
Full Review
Eureka (Country: Argentina, France, Portugal; Year: 2023; Director: Lisandro Alonso; Writer: Lisandro Alonso, Martín Caamaño, Fabian Casas; Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Chiara Mastroianni, Alianna Clifford)
Three stories set in wildly different terrain reflect lives haunted by the spectre of colonialist violence.
Full Review See: Lisandro Alonso in conversation on Eureka, John Ford, Alice Rohrwacher and Apichatpong Weerasethakul
La Chimera La Chimera
La Chimera and The New Boy
Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet) (Country: Finland; Year: 2023; Director: Aki Kaurismäki; Writer: Aki Kaurismäki; Stars: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen)
The course of potential love does not run smooth for a shelf-stacker and a metal worker.
Full Review
Four Daughters (Les Filles D'Olfa) (Country: Tunisia, France; Year: 2021; Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Stars: Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui, Nour Karoui, Ichrak Matar, Majd Mastoura, Hind Sabri)
A creative documentary following ten years in the life of a fortysomething Tunisian mother, a cleaning lady from a poor environment, who sees her two teenage daughters become radicalised, run away and join the terrorist organisation Daesh in Libya.
Full Review See: Kaouther Ben Hania in conversation on Tunisia’s Oscar shortlisted Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa), three natural-born storytellers, loving clichés and colours
, Kaouther Ben Hania in conversation on Tunisia’s Oscar submission Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa)
The Holdovers (Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Alexander Payne; Writer: David Hemingson; Stars: Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Tate Donovan, Carrie Preston)
An unpopular teacher, a talented but badly behaved student and a cook who recently lost her son in Vietnam spend Christmas together in an otherwise empty boarding school.
Full Review See: Alexander Payne’s graphic designer Nate Carlson in conversation on Election and more on The Holdovers
, Nate Carlson, graphic designer, in conversation on Alexander Payne’s multiple Oscar-nominated The Holdovers
, Wendy Chuck in conversation on Alexander Payne’s multiple Golden Globe-winning The Holdovers
, Alexander Payne in conversation on The Holdovers composer Mark Orton, Marcel Pagnol’s Merlusse, W.C. Fields, Artie Shaw, and what’s coming up
, Alexander Payne in conversation on The Holdovers team, Paul Giamatti, Carrie Preston and Westward The Women
, Wendy Chuck in conversation on Alexander Payne’s multiple Golden Globe-nominated The Holdovers
In Our Day (Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Hong Sangsoo; Writer: Hong Sangsoo)
Details coming soon...
Io Capitano (Country: Italy, Belgium, France; Year: 2023; Director: Matteo Garrone; Writer: Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini, Andrea Tagliaferri, Nicola Di Robilant, Chiara Leonardi; Stars: Affif Ben Badra, Hichem Yacoubi, Joseph Beddelem, Bamar Kane, Oumar Diaw, Mariam Kaba, Princess Erika, Taha Benaim, Seydou Sarr, Flaure B.B. Kabore, Beatrice Gnonko, Jackie Zappa, Emilie Adams, Bidar Abdelahad, Observateur Ebène)
Two Senegalese teenagers try to realise their dream of a new life in Europe.
Full Review See: Matteo Garrone in conversation on Italy’s Oscar submission Io Capitano and fairy tales
Malena Malena
Malena and The Peasants
Kidnapped (Rapito) (Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Marco Bellocchio; Writer: Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Edoardo Albinati; Stars: Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo Timi)
In 1858, a six-year-old Jewish boy is forcibly seized from his family by the Catholic church.
Full Review
Life (Hayat) (Country: Turkey, Bulgaria; Year: 2023; Director: Zeki Demirkubuz; Writer: Zeki Demirkubuz; Stars: Miray Daner, Burak Dakak, Cem Davran, Umut Kurt, Melis Birkan, Osman Alkas, Ozan Dagara, Dogu Demirkol, Kayhan Acikgoz, Muttalip Mujdeci, Seyit Nizam Yilmaz, Berfun Basel, Hande Ozen, Ozlem Turkad, Caner Cindoruk)
Young Hikran is forced by her father to marry Riza. Refusing to comply, she flees to Constantinople. Shamed, Riza sets out to find her in the metropolis.
Malena (Malèna) (Country: Italy US; Year: 2000; Director: Giuseppe Tornatore; Writer: Giuseppe Tornatore, based on a story by Luciano Vincenzoni; Stars: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana, Pietro Natarianni)
An adolescent boy stalks beautiful woman in small Sicilian town during the war.
Full Review
Maria Callas: Letters And Memoirs (Maria Callas: Lettere e memorie) (Country: France, Italy, Greece; Year: 2023; Director: Tom Volf, Yannis Dimolitsas; Writer: Tom Volf; Stars: Monica Bellucci)
Consideration of the opera star.
MMXX (Country: Romania; Year: 2023; Director: Cristi Puiu; Writer: Cristi Puiu; Stars: Igor Babiac, Dorian Boguta, Laur Bondarenco, Dragos Bucur, Bianca Cuculici, Roxana Ogrendil, Otilia Panaite, Adelaida Perjoiu, Florin Tibre)
Oana Pfifer, a young therapist, gradually slips into the net of the questionnaire she submits to her patient. Mihai, Oana’s brother, worrying about his birthday, is stuck in a story far bigger than he can handle. Septimiu, Oana’s husband, concerned about his health, vaguely listens to a strange story his colleague was caught up in a while ago. Narcis Patranescu, an organided crime detective, deals with an unsettling dark story while interrogating a young woman at a funeral.
Eureka Eureka
Eureka and Afire
Monster (Kaibutsu) (Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Yûji Sakamoto; Stars: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiragi)
A mother is shocked when she learns what a teacher has said to her son, but the truth is more complicated.
Full Review
The New Boy (Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Warwick Thornton; Writer: Warwick Thornton; Stars: Cate Blanchett, Mezi Atwood, Deborah Mailman)
The story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun, where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world.
Full Review See: Warwick Thornton on working with children, animals and just one camera on the New Boy
, Warwick Thornton on the evolution of The New Boy
The Old Oak (Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Debbie Honeywood, Andy Dawson, Reuben Bainbridge, Col Tait, Rob Kirtley)
A musing on the future of The Old Oak, the last remaining pub in a village in Northeast England, where people are leaving the land as the mines are closed. Houses are cheap and available, thus making it an ideal location for Syrian refugees.
Full Review
Passages (Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos)
A married man cheats on his husband with a woman... then tells him about it.
Full Review
The Peasants (Country: Poland, Serbia, Lithuania; Year: 2023; Director: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman; Writer: Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman; Stars: Kamila Urzedowska, Robert Gulaczyk, Miroslaw Baka, Sonia Mietielica)
A hand-painted animated film about an early 20th Century Polish peasant woman who creates havoc by marrying an older rich man.
Full Review
Close Your Eyes Close Your Eyes
Close Your Eyes and Monster
Shoshana (Country: UK, Italy; Year: 2023; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Laurence Coriat, Paul Viragh, Michael Winterbottom; Stars: Irina Starshenbaum, Harry Melling, Aury Alby, Ofer Seker)
Two UK police officers hunt for a charismatic poet and Zionist fighter who has been plotting to evict UK authorities.
The Survival Of Kindness (Das Überleben der Freundlichkeit) (Country: Australia; Year: 2022; Director: Rolf de Heer; Stars: Mwajemi Hussein, Deepthi Sharma, Darsan Sharma)
BlackWoman is abandoned in a cage in the middle of the desert and left to die. But she is not ready to give up all hope. She escapes, and walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to mountain to city, to find those who left her to die.
The Taste Of Things (La Passion De Dodin Bouffant, The Pot-au-Feu) (Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Trân Anh Hùng; Writer: Trần Anh Hùng; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Pierre Gagnaire)
The story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet she has been working for over the last 20 years.
Full Review See: Director of The Taste of Things on Binoche, Magimel and the row around the Oscars
, Juliette Binoche on being reunited with Benoît Magimel onscreen
Woman Of (Kobieta Z...) (Country: Poland, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Michal Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska; Stars: Joanna Kulig, Mateusz Wieclawek, Malgorzata Hajewska, Jacek Braciak, Bogumila Bajor)
A man begins to feel increasingly uncomfortable with his gender identity.
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