Europa 61 - European Film Week is back to the city of Porto. Between September 23 and 29, the second edition of the showcase of European cinema will occupy the cinemas of the Cinema Trindade. A selection of 13 films, from 13 different countries, aims to reflect not only the immediate concerns of an Europe in pandemic context, but also all its basic transformations, whether political, economic or social.
In 2019, the first edition of Europa 61 started from the question "do we truly exist as Europeans?". Two years and one pandemic later, the question remains timely. On the continent, many things are different, but nothing essential has changed. If, on the one hand, the idea of an open and progressive Europe offers us opportunities, encounters and discoveries, on the other, tensions and social conflicts are on the rise, often associated with a growing narrative of estrangement towards the other. We face the same economic challenges, the successive issues related to immigration and cultural diversity, the gentrification caused by internal migration, the lack of perspectives that prevails within the younger population, or the evident difficulty in discussing the traumas of a still recent historical past. Themes that, in one way or another, are present in many of the 13 films selected for this year's programme, curated by Carlos Nogueira.
From Spanish director Jonás Trueba, "The Virgin of August" marks the opening of the showcase, on 23 September, at 21:30. The work, which made the list of 10 Best Films of 2020 for Cahiers du Cinéma and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Césars of the same year, is an intimate film-diary about a woman in search of revelations, who lets herself be carried away by the encounters and reunions that a city like Madrid - here filmed by Trueba with a clear devotion - provides her with. In the closing session, at 21:30 on 29 September, "It Will Not Snow Again", by the Polish duo Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, will be screened. Having passed through several European festivals such as Venice and Seville, the film explores some fears and ghosts of today's Europe, confronting us with the imminence of an apocalypse that, thanks to the imagination, fantasy and humour with which the directors sprinkle the film, ends up never arriving. So be it.
The II European Film Week is organised by the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal, by EUNIC-Portugal, a network made up of the national institutes of culture and some embassies of the European Union, and by the British Embassy in Lisbon.
The show runs from 23 to 29 September 2021, at the Trindade Cinema, in Porto. Films from 13 different countries will be screened - Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India (guest country), Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom. All screenings are free of charge with ticket collection.
PROGRAM
THE PREMIERE, BY ALEJANDRO FERNÁNDEZ ALMENDRAS
Chéquia, 2019, fiction, 93'.
THE FOX IN THE BURROW, BY ARMAN T. RIAHI
Austria, 2020, fiction, 103'.
THE SHADOW OF VIOLENCE, BY NICK ROWLAND
Ireland, 2019, fiction, 100'.
THE VIRGIN OF AUGUST, BY JONÁS TRUEBA
Spain, 2019, fiction, 125'.
THE THINGS WE SAY, THE THINGS WE DO, BY EMMANUEL MOURET
France, 2020, fiction, 122'
COMRADE DRAKULICH, BY MÁRK BODZSÁR
Hungary, 2019, fiction, 95'.
TALES FROM THE RIVER, BY JULIE SCHROELL
Luxembourg, 2020, documentary, 82'
GHOST TROPIC, BY BAS DEVOS
Belgium, 2019, fiction, 85'.
BAIT, BY MARK JENKIN
United Kingdom, 2019, fiction, 89'.
IT WON'T SNOW AGAIN, BY MAŁGORZATA SZUMOWSKA AND MICHAŁ ENGLERT
Poland, 2020, fiction, 113'.
NASIR, BY ARUN KARTHICK
India, 2020, Fiction, 85'.
SOLE, BY CARLO SIRONI
Italy, 2019, fiction, 102'
A YEAR OF VOLUNTEERING, BY ULRICH KÖHLER AND HENNER WINCKLER
Germany, 2019, fiction, 86'.
