He directed one of the greatest films of recent years, the "Port of Le Havre" which achieved not only artistic but also commercial success. No introduction needed. For many years now, Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki is rightfully so, one of Europe's leading filmmakers. Along with the award-winning, of Kurdish origin Bahman Gobadi and the German Andreas Dresen, Karourismaki composes a very good triplet of guests for the upcoming 53rd Thessaloniki Film Festival, as announced on Tuesday at noon, has planned tributes to their work.
The humanistic, Kaurismaki's minimalist cinema began to be heard in his decade 1980 through the "proletariat trilogy" – "Shadows in Paradise" (1986), "Ariel" (1988) and "The Woman with the Matches" (1990)- where he spoke in a comic-tragic mood about the working class of his homeland. The trilogy of losers followed – "Clouds fly away" (1996), "The Man Without a Past" (2002), "Lights at Dusk" (2006)- where Kaurismaki found reserves of courage and solidarity through stories of misfortune and pain. And of course, at the "Port of Le Havre", his masterpiece, touched with his, abstract but so direct way the problem of illegal immigration.
Subtly combining realism and myth, the layered cinema of Bahman Ghobadi(former assistant to Abbas Kiarostami) it is a cry for justice and freedom. Gobadi made his feature debut with Drunken Horses (2000), the first Kurdish film in the history of Iranian cinema, which won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Four years later with "And turtles fly" he penetrated the daily life of a group of children living in a Kurdish refugee camp, on the border with Iraq and collect mines, playing a perpetual Russian roulette of death or dismemberment, while the music belonging to Gobadi's great loves, stars both in the movie 'Half Moon' (2006), as in "Who's Afraid of Persian Cats" (2009), which comments on the fact that even today Western music is banned in Iran.
End, the least known in our country but one of the most distinguished representatives of the new generation of German filmmakers, the East German Andreas Dresen always focuses on people through small everyday stories of interpersonal relationships that surprise with their strength and sensitivity. Characteristic films of the: «Cloud 9» (2008, "A Certain Look" category award at the Cannes Film Festival), "Whiskey with Vodka" (2009, directing award at the Karlovy Vary festival), «Grill Point» (2002) and his latest 'Stopped on Track' which won last year's award in the 'A Certain Look' category.