27th Festroia International Film Festival

The 2011 edition of Festroia is important in the history of the festival which has been organized for 27 years. Since the festival’s budget has suffered a cut due to the economic crisis in Portugal, keeping the show going on this year means a lot for its organizers, but also for the cinema industry and the cinephiles in Portugal. Fernanda Silva, the director of the festival, is quiet decisive in keeping the good spirits, “Our goal is to keep on making this festival, even it involves great sacrifices” she says in an interview published in festival’s daily journal and adds that it is essential to preserve the programming quality of the festival, against all odds.

This year’s program proves to be in line with her ambitions, with 12 films in the official competition, an homage to Turkish cinema which does not only include recent titles but also classics from the 80s and 90s such as Motherland Hotel (Anayurt Oteli, 1987) by Ömer Kavur and Yol (1982) by Serif Gören, a special selection of films which relate with the theme of food and love; and also next to the main competition, two more sections with competitions, the “First Works” which showcases the first features, and “Man and His Environment” which includes ecology theme films.

Festroia, namely The International Film Festival of Setúbal, opened with a delightful concert by the Violin Orchestra “Os Paganinos” composed of children from the Setúbal Region Conservatory followed by the screening of Guillaume Canet’s feature film Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs). Two great actors of recent Turkish cinema, Derya Alabora and Taner Birsel, were present in the opening, and also the legendary actor Tuncel Kurtiz who entertained the audience by ending the ceremony singing a Turkish song on stage. We were also delighted to see most of the directors of the main competition films presenting their films in Setúbal and also Lisbon, in which the festival had two venues this year.

Last but not least, in this year’s edition two Career Achievement Dolphins were handed to Portuguese artist Maria de Medeiros and Dutch director Jos Stelling, who had an extensive retrospective in the program devoted to his cinema. (Firat Yücel)

Festroia International Film Festival: www.festroia.pt