FILM FROM NORTHERN MACEDONIA TO OPEN ARKHANGELSK OBLAST’S ARCTIC OPEN FF

Arctic Open’s competition program features 58 films made in Russia, Canada, Sweden, USA, Finland, among other countries.

 

ARKHANGELSK, October 31 /TASS/. The 3rd Arctic Countries Film Festival ARCTIC OPEN will open with Teona Strugar Mitevska’s film God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya (Northern Macedonia), festival director Tamara Statikova told TASS on Thursday.

 

“We are pleased to announce this year’s festival opener. It’s God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya by Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska. The film has earlier competed at Berlinale,” said Statikova.

In Arkhangelsk, God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya will be presented by its producer Vuk Mitevsky. The film follows Petrunya, 32, who wins in what has traditionally been a male competition where the high priest throws a cross into the local waters while hundreds of men charge for it. The orthodox Macedonian community feel they have every right to be furious.

“In selecting the festival opener we are guided by the word ‘open’. Arctic Open is a venue which is open to all those who are prepared to show and discuss the challenges that are faced by people in today’s world. And the issues that are raised in Macedonia’s God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya, we are not at all new to them. This film is a shrewd satire. It’s a portrait of us all,” said Statikova. She added that Arctic Open will be the first Russian venue to screen God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya.

 

Films to screen for the first time in Russia

Arctic Open’s competition program features 58 films made in Russia, Canada, Sweden, USA, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Norway. Especially contributive to this year’s short films schedule is Canada.

The non-competition program numbers some ten films. Among the headliners are Canada’s film director Denis Côté with Ghost Town Anthology on the competition program and Wilcox on the non-competition one.

One more film to premiere in Russia is Белый A White, White Day by Hlynur Pálmason, an Icelandic film director who is based in Denmark. His Winter Brothers won the Best Direction Award at ARCTIC OPEN 2018. A White, White Day is set in a remote Icelandic town. An off duty police chief begins to suspect a local man for having had an affair with his wife, who recently died in a car accident.

ARCTIC OPEN is set to take place December 4-8 in Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Novodvinsk, Severoonezhsk and Konosha. In 2018, ARCTIC OPEN had 53 films on its official selection and was attended by 5,000 people.

 

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