25th Fribourg International Film Festival

The 25th edition was very special for the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF), not only because it was its first quarter of a century, but also because it was the last year of its artistic director, the French film critic Edouard Waintrop. Everyone found nice and enthusiastic words to remembering how good a director he had been. At the closing ceremony the hommages included the live performance of the famous song “Le Tourbillon de la vie” from Waintrop’s favorite film, Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, and a special discourse from his successor, the Swiss film critic Thierry Jobin. It was a very nice and suitable ending of a week of international cinema in this small and charming Swiss city.

The International Critics’ Prize went to Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry, from South Korea. Same time this film won the “Regard d’Or”, the main award of the festival. Lee Chang-dong was not able to travel to the festival, but at least he sent a very kind and warm salute on video with his thanks for both awards.

FIFF included a wide selection of films from Asia, Africa, Europe, USA and Latin America, with sections focusing on films about the different kinds of black music, with a retrospective of Georgian cinema, a tribute to the Argentinean producer Lita Stantic, a panorama of the Malaysian “New Wave” through the Da Huang Network company, a selection of films centered on terrorists, and “The Woman who Knew Too Much”, an attractive view on the female presence in film noir, or films that may be considered as relatives of the film noir (from classics of Hitchcock, Cukor, Ophüls and Cassavetes to the Mother of Bong Joon-ho). (Joel Poblete)

Fribourg International Film Festival: www.fiff.ch