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Karlovy Vary International Film Festival · 2023

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2023

Proxima Competition

Programme

12 films · 2 reviews

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Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife (Arsenie. Viața de apoi)

Arsenie Boca, a priest, theologian, and mystic persecuted by the communist regime, is considered holy by many believers, although he has yet to be canonised. Documentary filmmaker Alexandru Solomon and a group of selected believers set out on a pilgrimage in his footsteps.

(Country: Romania, Luxembourg; Year: 2023; Director: Alexandru Solomon)

International premiere

Birth

A couple's lives are thrown off course by unplanned pregnancy.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2022; Director: Ji-young Yoo; Writer: Ji-young Yoo; Stars: Hae-in Han, Han-ju Lee , Man-seok Oh, Mi-hyun Park, Hee-jin Choi)

International premiere

Brutal Heat (Brutální vedro)

A massive segment of the Sun has broken off and is heading for Earth, whose surface is slowly heating up to an unbearable level... against this backdrop a teen gets stranded.

(Country: Czech Republic, Slovak Republic; Year: 2023; Director: Albert Hospodářský; Writer: Albert Hospodářský; Stars: Vincent Hospodářský, Zdeňka Petrová, Milan Mikulčík, Václav Kopelec, Ivana Uhlířová, Tereza Dočkalová, Marta Bačíková, Anežka Kalivodová, Marta Vítů, Petr Motl)

World premiere

Dark Matter (Maade Tarik)

An actor and actress are brought together during a casting for a mainstream film. They don’t get the roles, so they decide to make their own film instead... one which defies censorship rules.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2023; Director: Karim Lakzadeh; Writer: Karim Lakzadeh; Stars: Mahdis "Shaadab" Mahdiyar, Iman Sayyadborhani, Keivan Parmar, Raha Soleimani)

World premiere

Embryo Lava Butterfly

Penelope and Isidoros live in a world where today they are lovers but the following day they scarcely know one another - a place where time doesn’t flow.

(Country: Cyprus, Greece; Year: 2023; Director: Kyros Papavassiliou; Writer: Kyros Papavassiliou; Stars: Maria Apostolakea, Hristos Sougaris, Makis Papadimitriou, Stephania Sotiropoulou, Yiannis Niarros)

World premiere

Guras

A little girl goes on an odyssey looking for her lost dog.

(Country: India, Nepal; Year: 2023; Director: Saurav Rai; Writer: Saurav Rai; Stars: Tulsi Khawas, Menuka Pradhan)

World premiere

Imago

Review preview for Imago

The band’s music, written by rock star Andrzej Smolik is well-realised by the cast and generates a combative emotional undercurrent although whether quite so much of it is needed is debatable.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Portrait of a woman living in late-Eighties Poland.

(Country: Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic; Year: 2023; Director: Olga Chajdas; Writer: Lena Góra, Olga Chajdas; Stars: Lena Góra, Bogusława Schubert, Wojciech Brzeziński, Mateusz Więcławek, Wacław Warchoł, Łukasz Orbitowski, Justyna Wasilewska)

Full review

World premiere

In Camera

Review preview for In Camera

By the end you might not only ask yourself if someone is losing their marbles but whose marbles, in fact, are the ones that are being lost.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An actor struggles with the various roles he is juggling in life.

(Year: 2022; Director: Naqqash Kahlid; Writer: Naqqash Khalid; Stars: Nabhaan Rizwan, Amir El-Masry, Rory Fleck Byrne)

Full review See: Naqqash Khalid on modern masculinity and 'anti-acting' in his debut In Camera

World premiere

Keeping Mum (Maman Déchire)

Documentary about the director's relationship with her mother.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Emilie Brisavoine)

World premiere

The Lost Children

Four children find themselves having to take care of each other after they are abandoned in an old house.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2023; Director: Michèle Jacob; Writer: Michèle Jacob)

World premiere

Say God Bye

Diary about the directors attempts to persuade Godard to film him.

(Year: 2023; Director: Thomas Imbach)

World premiere

The Song of the Auricanturi (El canto del Auricanturi)

A woman struggles to find a way to communicate with her traumatised mother.

(Country: Colombia, Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Camila Rodríguez Triana)

World premiere