News

God Exists And Her Name Is Petrunya’s opening shot is a camera look-zoom facing protagonist Petrunya (Zorica Nusheva), thus breaking the fourth wall. She’s standing still, with her feet touching a straight line, in a drained pool - an indicator of how she’s, externally, trying to conform. On the other hand, there’s the music, an aggressive rock paradoxically speaking of her need to transgress. Teona Strugar Mitevska’s Macedonian hyperbolic feminist drama, winner of the Ecumenical Jury prize at Berlinale, follows the true story of a woman who, in 2014, disrupted a masculine ritual.

Every year, on Epiphany Day, several Balkan countries still follow a somewhat barbaric Christian ritual, where the brave men of the village venture into icy waters in search of a cross thrown in by the local priest. The fortunate bearer will not only receive social and televisual recognition, but he will get a whole year of luck.

Berlinale title is back in international spotlight after winning two awards in recent days.

Paris-based sales company Pyramide International has secured major international deals on on North Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska’s award-winning drama God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya.

The film has just won the European Parliament’s Lux Prize on Wednesday and the new Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films over the weekend. It premired at the Berlinale.

European deals include to Austria (Polyfilm), Belgium (Cinema Palace), Denmark (Ost For Paradis), Germany (Jip Film), Greece (Ama Films), Hungary (Cirko), Italy (Teodora), Poland (Aurora Films), Romania (Bad Unicorn...

The Intl. Casting Directors Network (Icdn) and the Sarajevo Film Festival are joining forces to turn the popular Bosnian film fest into a springboard for regional actors looking to launch international careers.

After kicking off with a pilot version last year, the initiative expanded to include a series of masterclasses with leading casting directors and a range of programs intended to boost exposure for the emerging talents. The Icdn’s Timka Grin says the platform will not only build a bridge between foreign casting directors and new talent from the region, but offer valuable skills for actors not used to the Western method of casting.

“Casting here does not have decades of tradition. It is something that is quite new,” says Grin. “If there is a certain technique to present yourself, to audition—actors here don’t know it well, and it’s really useful to have a casting director...

Watching a woman take control of her destiny after being told she’s worthless can make for one of cinema’s more empowering moments, but how satisfying is it really when her struggle for self-esteem takes a back seat to the happiness of being validated by a handsome man? “God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya” positions itself as a feminist cry against a patriarchal Macedonia in the grips of bullying machismo and hidebound religion, yet the genial rushed ending undercuts its gender-equality thrust by presenting Petrunya’s emotional savior as a mustachioed guy in uniform.

Teona Strugar Mitevska (“I Am from Titov Veles”) delivers her most focused film to date, with a concentrated plot mined — at times over-mined — for opportunities reinforcing the ways ignorant tradition traps women in subservient roles, yet her finale panders to audiences wanting their bitter draft to finish with a sweetened aftertaste. The film undoubtedly has...

Despite a fine lead performance, this promising satire about religion and society in Macedonia fails to carry through on its interesting setup

What begins as a sprightly, shrewd, visually striking satire from Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska deflates in its second act into something unconvincing, sophomoric and dramatically redundant. It simply runs out of ideas. A shame - because there was an interesting idea there, inspired by a true story with the makings of a good performance from Zorica Nusheva in the lead role. Sadly, she is given little in the way of script or direction to develop the role.

Nusheva plays Petrunya, a woman in her 30s, still humiliatingly living at home with her mum and dad in the eastern Macedonian town of Štip - unemployed despite a good college degree in history. Her preferred subject is the Chinese revolution, not – as a law officer later pointedly asks – Alexander the Great,...

New films by Agnieszka Holland, Agnes Varda and Isabel Coixet have been added to the official lineup of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, along with special screenings of directorial debuts by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and “Narcos” star Wagner Moura of Brazil.

The Berlinale added 11 titles to its competition slate Thursday, representing countries such as China, Norway, Mongolia and Israel. Of the 18 competition titles selected so far, eight are directed by women, including festival opener “The Kindness of Strangers,” by Danish director Lone Scherfig.

Holland’s eagerly anticipated “Mr. Jones,” starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, will have its world premiere in Potsdamer Platz. The politically charged film centers on the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (Norton), whose reporting uncovered a deadly famine in Ukraine in the 1930s.

Another famine-themed film heading to Berlin is Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which was recently acquired by Netflix and...

The Berlin Film Festival has added movies by Agnès Varda, Agnieszka Holland, Hans Petter Moland, Isabel Coixet and Wang Quan’an to its competition programme. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind will play in the Berlinale Special strand. Scroll down for the full list of additions to the batch of films already announced for the competition.

Coixet’s (The Bookshop) black-and-white feature Elisa & Marcela, the true-story of two women who got married in Spain in 1901 after one adopted a male identity, will likely receive an extra dose of media attention given that it is a Netflix acquisition, marking the streaming giant’s first film to screen in competition in Berlin. Festival director Dieter Kosslick has previously said that competition films must have a theatrical release.

Among other highlights announced today are James Norton and Vanessa Kirby starrer Mr. Jones from Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Italian mafia pic Piranhas,...

God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija

Macedonia’s Teona Strugar Mitevska fifth feature is the intriguingly titled God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija. Produced by Labina Mitevska through Sisters and Brother Mitesvski Production, and co-produced by Entre Chien et Loup, Vertigo Productions and Spiritus Movens, Mitevska employs her I Am From Titov Veles Belgium cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin. Newcomer Zorica Nusheva makes her debut as Petrunija. Mitesvka’s 2004 debut How I Killed a Saint went to Rotterdam and her 2007 title I Am From Titov Veles won a Special Jury Prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival and was programmed in Berlin’s 2008 Panorama Program.…...