Children Film Festival

Vienna [ENA] The 33 th children film festival took place in various locations in Vienna including Cine Center, Cinemagic and Votiv kino, during the period between the 13th and the 22nd of November 2021. As every year (except the last year affected by the covid pandemic) children in Vienna had a chance to enjoy carefully selected movies from various countries and on various topics.

The movies were reflecting various issues important for children in such countries as Australia, Austria, France, Netherlands, Mongolia, and many others. Three movies left with me an especially strong impression. The first one is “The veins of the world” which is a joint Mongolia and German production from 2020 by Byambasuren Davaa and Martina Lassacher with fantastic play of Bat-Ireedui Betmunkh, Enerel Tumen, Yalalt Namsrai and Algirchamin Baatatsuren. The movie has all elements to make it an unforgettable cinema experience. It includes fantastic Mongolian landscape with endless steps, the policy actual plot about impacts of mining industry, the story of fairness and heroism.

The movie portrayed local community of nomadic people being affecting and struggling against negative impacts of mining companies on the landscape, environment, and human health of people in their community. It also has the story of love, devotion, and family bonding of a family with two children which is striking to make their living between traditional values and challenges of modern society.

The second movie is called “Club of ugly children” which was produced in the Netherlands in 2019 by Jonathan Elbers and Anna Hofmann. The main protagonists of the movie played by Sem Hulsmann, Faye Kimmijser, Narek Awanesyan, Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, Jelka van Houten, Roeland Fernhout and Katja Schuurman show struggling of children in the dystopic world of total dictatorship dedicated to the goals of cleanness, medicine, and beauty. In this totally controlled world the surfaces and houses are perfectly clean; the cloths are boringly grey and unisex and news shows are dedicated to success of the government to fight any kinds of unproper behavior.

One day the government is deciding that to make life even more beautiful they should get read of all ugly children. The story interwoven with elements of fantastic realist shows realities of life during a dictatorship, with the lack of personal development, privacy and right for self-expression. The third movie “Jackie and Oopjen” was also produced in the Netherlands in 2020 by Annemarie van Mond and Anna Hofmann with the play of Frouke Verheijde, Sarah Bannier, Karina Smulders, Bert Hana, Leny Breederveld and Saar van Aken. The movie aims to raise interest and love of children to culture, arts and museums while showing a story of a lady from the ancient painting which came to the modern Amsterdam.

The movie also aims to raise questions about tolerance while showing modern Amsterdam with the eyes of a person who lived 400 years ago. The 33rd Children Fertival was (as in previous years) great. The concept of the festival consists, on the one hand of showing children the complexity and diversity of other cultures in a playful way with the help of international films. Another aspect of the festival is that it signals to children that they have rights (which is why the film that best deals with these is awarded the UNICEF prize). All in all, I can recommend visiting the festival (also for adults) if you feel like immersing yourself in other times and cultures.