It has been over two and half years since Eden cinemas launched their Side Street Films venture, dedicated to films that do not bask in the spotlight of the Hollywood mainstream. Giving a platform to independent, arthouse, ‘foreign’ language titles has resulted in a niche market for the more discerning cinephiles.

And, Eden Cinemas is showing its determination to carry on this tradition with their European Film Festival, which was launched a couple of weeks ago and will run until December 15, offering audiences an eclectic list of films from the continent.

From Hungary comes the highly-acclaimed and multi-award winning drama Son of Saul, directed by László Nemes and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer. The film recounts two days in the life of Saul Auslander (Géza Röhrig) a Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando (work units made up of Nazi death camp prisoners) at Auschwitz. In order to bury the corpse of a boy he takes for his son, Saul tries to carry out his impossible deed: salvage the body and find a rabbi to bury it. The film won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, the first Hungarian film to do so.

Billion Star Hotel comes from Romania and is written and directed by Alecs Nastoiu. “Every day, we’re faced with the following exercise: to give the world around us a certain cue,” we’re told. “To smile, to take everything as a joke, to laugh out loud, or to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by reality.

To be painfully aware of the distance between us and our dreams, of the obstacles, and the fact that we are alone all the time. Some choose to escape, to build their own world, with its own rules, with the memories of fairy tales and dreams that really come to be.

A world where three friends are brought together by the same destination. Or maybe, it all comes down to daydreaming. And feeling the empty spaces with music. It all depends on how you choose to see things. In black, in white, or in sync with the beat.”

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En eclectic list of films from the continent

Kolekcja Sukienek is from Poland. Directed by Marzena Wiecek and written by Wiecek and Jacek Kasprzycki, the film charts the journey of eight women of different ages – their love and loneliness and their fears. The women at the centre of the film become the subject of a strange experiment

Pastry-shop worker Verica and opera singers Brankica and Martin are the protagonists of Sve Najbolje (All the Best), a Christmas story from Croatia about loneliness and search for love.

The film also features two nurses who think a lot about men; a farmer with strange farming talents; a gravely ill woman of unusual sexual orientation; and a handyman who adores all ‘pretty women’. An accidental series of events entwines their destinies and makes unsolvable situations solvable.

The Here After is a 2015 Sweden/Poland/France co-production written and directed by Magnus von Horn. On returning home to his father and younger brother after serving time in prison, teenager John (Ulrik Munther) is looking forward to starting new life again. However, members of the local community can’t forgive him killing his ex-girlfriend.

John’s presence brings out the worst in everyone around him and a lynch-mob atmosphere slowly takes shape. Feeling abandoned by his former friends and the people he loves, John loses hope and the same aggression that previously sent him to prison starts building up again. Unable to leave the past behind, he decides to confront it.

The Polar Boy is a coming-of-age movie from Estonia, in which we meet Mattias (Roland Laos), a young talented photographer in his final year of secondary school who dreams of becoming a student of the Berlin Arts Academy.

He unexpectedly falls in love with a wild red-haired beauty Hanna (Jaanika Arum) who doesn’t seem to take him seriously unless he proves to be just as adventurous and unpredictable as she is. Mattias risks his whole future by breaking the law together with Hanna, but ends up destroying the girl he loves.

And finally, Victoria is a 2015 German drama film directed by Sebastian Schipper, starring Laia Costa and Frederick Lau. It is notable for having being shot in a single continuous take. The titular Victoria is a young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin but finds her flirtation with a local guy turns potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.

The Eden Euro Film Fest runs until December 15. Tickets are available online.

www.edencinemas.com.mt

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