By Aura Imbarus

The end of April was marked by five days of cultural expose and awareness seen through the world of movies. Stories of people living across religious, ethnic, and cultural divides from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey came together in celebrating harmony and the thriving spirit of humanity.

Hollywood was also prominently represented by internationally recognized movie producers, directors, and actors like Mace Neufeld, Ron Yerxa, William Wilson III, Gary Cradle, and Richard Soames among others.

From the opening night at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeeles to the closing night at UCLA Bridges Theatre, the South East European Film Festival offered a great film marathon and attracted the largest audiences to date. The American documentary The Wall, courtesy of legendary designer and Oscar-winning documentary director Arnold Schwartzman paid a witty little tribute to the people chipping away at the Berlin Wall while Goodbye, How Are You? from Serbia comprised darkly satirical aphorisms and commentary on the lives and times of the Serbian people in the last two decades. The subversive genius of Balkan humor was in abundant evidence, matched with images of daily existence that are both funny and nihilistic. Alive from Albania brought a powerful story about a blood feud that entangled a young student in a web of complicated relationships stemming from an antiquated tribal code. In Ploha from Bosnia Herzegovina, the driving force behind the film was the director’s need to confront the identity issues that she and her family faced in being part of a Diaspora, and, throughout the course of the film, we saw the director’s struggle to bridge the cultural and emotional gaps between her and her children and her homeland.

In Secret Years, Hungarian lesbians reflect on their experiences living through Communism. Ranging in age from 45 to 70 years old, these women vividly remembered the repression of the 1960s and 70s, when they were forced to hide their true identities and could only “be themselves” at secret clubs and picnics. In this powerful documentary, these courageous women proudly reminisced at the methods used to get through some of the toughest times of their lives. The Blacks from Croatia unveiled a city under siege and a truce that was signed, and the special ops squad known as “The Blacks” about to be disbanded. Albania the Country Across covered the history of Albania in the 20th century, with a special focus on the troubled relationship with Italy, its neighbor across the Adriatic Sea.

Turkey was represented by What Your Grandfather Left Is Safe Here, Voices Unveiled: Turkish Women Who Dare, and A Step IntoThe Darkness, while Greece brought to SEE Film Fest: Bells, Threads and Miracles. Bulgaria enchanted the viewers with A Farewell to Hemingway and Apostol Karamitev. Slovenia in 9:06, the first-rate psychological drama, directed with masterful precision, took us to Ljubljana, where police inspector Dusan (in a terrific performance by Igor Samobor) investigated an unusual suicide case.

Serbia was Rapresented by an orphan in his late teens living on the streets of Belgrade, for whom graffiti art provided an escape from the harsh realities of homelessness and drug addiction.
Hungary, on one hand, created a cynical mosaic of alienating relationships that came together in 20 days of improvisation by the filmmakers and nine amateur actors in one of director György Pálfi’s most provocative films. Romania, on the other hand, decoded the message of The Other Irene in which (Andi Vasluianu) and Irina (Simona Popescu) are a young couple from the countryside who move to Bucharest in hopes of a better life. But after Irina commits suicide on a business trip to Cairo, Aurel is confronted with the image of a woman he apparently never knew and the bureaucracy of two difficult countries. The denial of his wife’s death propels him on a ceaseless search for the truth, and becomes his biggest obstacle to finding it.

The SEE Film Fest also brought the Kiosk Program, a parallel program reserved for trailers, experimental and short film.

On May 3, 2010, in the morning, at UCLA Anderson School of Management the South-East European Film Festival unveiled its 2nd Business Conference with the challenges and opportunities on studio production, independent film, and location filming. The three fantastic panels were moderated by Vera Mijojlic, the Founder and the powerhouse behind the SEE Film Fest, by Rebecca Keegan, author and entertainment journalist, and Rob Aft, Founder, Compliance Consulting.

On the same May 3, 2010, at nigh the South East European Film Festival, SEE Fest 2010 concluded with A Step into the Darkness directed by Atil Inac who won the festival’s Critics Award for Best Film, presented by Cinema Without Borders founder, Bijan Tehrani and director of the SEE Fest Vera Mijojlic. Audience vote went to two films, tied with the highest voting score: Bulgarian feature A Farewell to Hemingway by Svetoslav Ovtcharov, a Chekhovian chamber drama about a stationmaster’s daughter and her fictitious rendez-vous with Ernest Hemingway during his real-life daylong passage through Bulgaria in 1922; and Turkish documentary powerhouse, Voices Unveiled – Turkish Women Who Dare by Binnur Karaevli, about three courageous women – an artist, an activist, and a dancer, who challenge the familiar stereotypes of Muslim women. SEE Fest Filmmakers Circle presented the inaugural Best First Feature Film Award for The Other Irene, director Andrei Gruzsniczki to film’s lead actor Andi Vasluianu.

While the curtains slowly were closing up on the SEE Film Fest, its 5th edition, the audience had tears in their eyes, for the importance of this festival was not only to bring former communist countries on the cultural map of Los Angeles, but to remind us of the beauty, the talents, the unique films which gave us a walk back down the memory lane in the countries we grew up in.
I am so looking forward to SEEing you at the 6th edition, in 2011!