Competition: FeKK BAL

This year’s programme includes so many Croatian films, mostly supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), that we could have created a mini-section of Croatian filmmakers and added to it some other films that didn’t make the cut. The fact that all of the major genres (which mostly interlace) are represented, including fiction, animation, experimental, and documentary, demonstrates diversity and quality dispersion. In addition, Croatia is the only country in the selection that is represented in all of the genres mentioned.
Of course, we should mention that several filmmakers in the selection work outside of their home country, either as film school students or as part of a foreign country production. Furthermore, we must not overlook co-productions, which are another important factor in the context of the European film industry. Because of this, the concept of nationality and national placement becomes less obvious. Films that make it to FeKK BAL come from production houses or academies in the Balkans, or from filmmakers who are from those countries but work on behalf of other national productions (it is worth noting that films from underrepresented countries are typically made by these filmmakers).
As a result, FeKK BAL 2023 strives to strike a balance between the representation of countries and genres, while also presenting regional highlights and intriguing poetics that play with forms, re-establish the known approaches of film schools, present surprising genre combinations, merge counterintuitive tones and images, assimilate the film to other forms (such as postcards, theatre, and performances), and introduce fresh viewpoints to multiperspectivity. In short, these films attempt to discover and imagine new perspectives for everything we encounter in our daily lives while living within a specific historical moment, and thus defamiliarize the automation of our being.
Let such defamiliarization abound during this year’s FeKK BAL!