First Film Highlights

In this year’s program selection you will find many CROSSING EUROPE guests and award winners from the previous editions who will be returning to Linz with their current productions – significant films in this year’s edition made by directors who have been connected to the festival for many years, thereby also shaping the festival.

Joanna Hogg (Tribute guest in 2014) puts the focus on a young, up-and-coming artist in THE SOUVENIR. Next to the shining Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke and Tilda Swinton are also a part of the feature film that had its world premiere at Sundance and contains autobiographical streaks of Hogg herself.

Two previous award winners are represented this year: the Spanish director Carlos Marques-Marcet concludes his trilogy on love and relationships with THE DAYS TO COME, both previous films (10 000 KM / LONG DISTANCE and ANCHOR AND HOPE) were shown in Linz. The new documentary by Vitaly Mansky is familiarly political; after RODNYE / CLOSE RELATIONS he once again turns to the east. In his Latvian exile he compiled a piece of Russian contemporary history from his own archive material with PUTIN’S WITNESSES – a shockingly personal portrait of Vladimir Putin during the time of his political rise around the turn of the millennia that was awarded at the renowned film festival Karlovy Vary. Contemporary history is also the key word for the newest work by Thomas Heise, a director who has been as guest at CROSSING EUROPE multiple times. His “opus magnum” HEIMAT IS A SPACE IN TIME shows a multi-layered image of Germany in the last century through his own family history. At the Berlinale the documentary was awarded the Caligari film prize.

In the center of the newest feature films by the Swiss director Simon Jaquemet (2015: CHRIEG) and the Greek Syllas Tzoumerkas (2015: A BLAST) are women on the brink. Jaquemet’s protagonist in THE INNOCENT meanders through her day-to-day life characterized by religion, family, and trust in technology. A crime puts two women on the crossroads to the test in Tzoumerkas’ THE MIRACLE OF THE SARGASSO SEA.
 

ELS DIES QUE VINDRAN / THE DAYS TO COME (ES 2019) – Austrian Premiere
Director: Carlos Marques-Marcet
Program section: European Panorama Fiction; Length: 97 min. | Feature Film
Guest: Sergi Moreno (Producer)

THE SOUVENIR (UK 2019) – Austrian Premiere
Director: Joanna Hogg
Program section: European Panorama Fiction; Length: 115 min. | Feature Film
Guest: Joanna Hogg (to be confirmed)

TO THÁVMA TIS THÁLASSAS TON SARGASSÓN / THE MIRACLE OF THE SARGASSO SEA (GR/DE/NL/SE 2019) – Austrian Premiere
Director: Syllas Tzoumerkas
Program section: European Panorama Fiction; Length: 121 min. | Feature Film
Guest: Syllas Tzoumerkas

DER UNSCHULDIGE / THE INNOCENT (CH/DE 2018) – Austrian Premiere
Director: Simon Jaquemet
Program section: Competition Fiction; Length: 114 min. | Feature Film
Guest: Simon Jaquemet

HEIMAT IST EIN RAUM AUS ZEIT / HEIMAT IS A SPACE IN TIME (DE/AT 2019) – Austrian Premiere
Director: Thomas Heise
Program section: Competition Documentary; Length: 218 min. | Documentary
Production: Navigator Film; Distributor in Austria: Filmgarten; Cinema Release in Austria: November 8, 2019
Guest: Thomas Heise

SVIDETELI PUTINA / PUTIN’S WITNESSES (LV/CH/CZ 2018) – Austrian Premiere
Director: Vitaly Mansky
Program section: Competition Documentary; Length: 102 min. | Documentary
Guest: Vitaly Mansky