The most successful annual festival CINEMA MUNDI so far has ended. Within eight screening days, it achieved a record of thirteen thousand spectators, which is about one third more than last year. Among the most attractive movies according to the viewers, was the film Silver Linings Playbook that started the festival. Apart from that, other movies like the winner of the Czech Lion Award called In the Spot or the winner of the whole festival Blood of My Blood by the Portuguese director João Canijo had their place in the sun as well. The visitors had also a chance to meet more than twenty of Czech and foreign guests, participate in discussion panels and taste specialties of foreign cuisines.

“In the four years of its existence we managed to make CINEMA MUNDI an event which is not only the biggest of its kind in Brno, but it’s starting to have a big name in Czech Republic and maybe also abroad,” says Josef Čadík, the president of the festival. Lukáš Skupa, the dramaturg of the festival, comments on that: “I think that compared to last year we’ve managed to get to a whole new level. Provided we find the resources, we’ll expand the side movie sections and supporting program even further. And I’m also pleased about the winning film, because it was among my favourites from the start.”

This year’s festival offered to the spectators seventy two movies in hundred and four screenings in total, that took place in seven cinemas. The fourth annual festival expanded to three new screening venues: the Art Cinema, Bolek Polívka Theatre and Šanson Theatre and there were also the traditional venues such as Lucerna and Velký Špalíček. “I’m grateful that there are emerging and supported festivals that feature films that you won’t see elsewhere. They are elite pieces that are worth watching,” commented the guest director Jan Hřebejk on the program choice. Bolek Polívka, who supported CINEMA MUNDI for the fourth time as its patron, praises it the same way.

“I’ve seen two movies, one of them was the historic drama A Royal Affair, which impressed me very much. The other one, eventually the winning movie Blood of My Blood, left a deep, but inconsistent feeling,” confessed a viewer Lenka Secká. “On the whole, though, I’m very excited about the festival and I can’t wait for the next year,” she added. Apart from movies she gives credit to the supporting program and to the chance to meet foreign makers. This year, there was the director of the winning movie João Canijo, the actress Ivanna Illjenko and directors Jiří Menzel or Jiří Chlumský among them.

One of this year’s rare guests was also the Turkish producer Baran Seyhan who got very excited because of the festival atmosphere. “Among other things, I was surprised by the management of the event that is much more professional than you could expect from such a young festival,” he said and added that he is looking forward to the next year.

Next year will be even better

CINEMA MUNDI has a preliminary date set for its fifth volume on 26 February to 5 March 2014. The main section will remain unchanged by the dramaturgy, the festival will again present fifty movies nominated on Oscars in the category of the Best Foreign Language Film. The side movies section will aim on Balkan and Australia this time and the supporting program will follow this direction. “Brno deserves a festival that will become one of the essential symbols of the city and we’re going to do maximum for that,” promised the head of CINEMA MUNDI Josef Čadík.

Author: Adéla Beranová

After seven days filled with top-class films from all over the world the student committee of the CINEMA MUNDI festival chose the best movie of the year. The winner was announced to be the motion picture Blood of My Blood by Portuguese director João Canijo, who anchored the movie in Brno. The committee’s eyes were gasped mostly because of excellent composition of the camerawork, sound and insertion of melodramatic elements into the scope of the whole film. “It was a clear winner. However, we were tied down between this one and Lore, to which we subsequently gave an honorary mention,” the committee came to a decision under Jana Glocarová, a student of a film science.

When filming the movie that tells the story of an uneasy life at a poor suburb in Lisabon, the director João Canijo used nontraditional methods. The movie had a great success with the committee, but with the audience as well – it was one of the top five most visited movies of this year’s festival.

The honorary mention was left for Lore, where the committee liked the story from the second world war from the view of children of Nazi notables. Their long way from Bavaria through war-devastated Germany was filmed by Australian director Cate Shortland.

For the first time, the awards were not symbolic this year, but the committee will sent a statue of a Brno’s crocodile to the author of the best motion picture. The statue is a creation of the artist Roman Vencl. The gala evening where the awards were announced was also attended by the director Jiří Menzel and a patron of the festival Bolek Polívka. The conclusion of the festival in Bolek Polívka Theatre was anchored by Marcela Vandrová.

Author. Kateřina Špičáková

The fourth year of the festival CINEMA MUNDI got to an end. The film festival was ceremonially concluded by director Jiří Menzel who symbolically awarded the student jury prize to the film The Blood of My Blood. In Brno, this film was introduced by its director João Canija in person. The certificate of merit of the jury was given to Australian director Cate Shortland for her movie called Lore. Also Bolek Polívka, patron of the festival, did not miss the ceremonial evening.

The festival had something to offer till the last minute. On Wednesday, Slovak director Iveta Grófová joined the audience in Lucerna and after the screening of her film Made of Ash she led a discussion.

Another of the honoured guests was Peruvian ambassador María Susana Landaveri Porturas who introduced her drama called The Bad Intentions in Velký Špalíček. The screening was preceded by tasting of Peruvian cuisine. A specialty of the last day was the screening of short animated films in Lucerna.

Author: Jolana Rumanová

The last but one day of the festival was chucked-full with influential guests. The screening of Estonian movie Mushrooming was accompanied by a discussion with an Estonian ambassador Lembite Uibo. He was very much looking forward to seeing the movie combining thriller, horror and dark Baltic humor. “I think that the film we saw is very convincing with a very good humor and breathtaking nature, and simultaneously supplied by a menace as well,” Uibo stated. He also said that he came here for the third time and every time he saw magnificent movies. Following the screening, there was brief Estonian refreshment provided.

Tuesday was also the day of previewing the new Czech comedy Martin and Venus. The delegation of the director Jiří Chlumský in the lead, actresses Kristýna Boková-Lišková and Nikol Moravcová and the producer Tomáš Vican attended the screening. “I prefer small festivals to the big ones. It’s like in a family circle,” said the actress Kristýna Liška Boková. The evening program in Mersey Club comprised of CINEMA MUNDI party with a tasting of Brazilian sweets or typical bread and of performance of Brazilian martial art capoeira.

Author: Barbora Sittova

The sixth day of the festival brought southern atmosphere to Brno. In the morning, students of Portuguese already gathered at the Faculty of Arts in order to have a discussion with the director João Canijo. „The movie was filmed in Lisabon which is portrayed in accordance with reality. The city is different from the one you can see in pictures. That one is unknown even to the Portuguese,” reminded the director. He introduced his film also at the screening in Art Cinema in the evening.

The evening program included the Latin American party in Mersey club. The program attracted mainly couples that came to learn some basic steps of salsa from a professional dancer. „I am glad I will be finally able to move a bit on the dance floor,“ says one of excited dancers Alena Strohá. In her words, she is grateful to the festival for unconventional experiences.

Author: Adéla Beranová

Cinema Mundi festival, which is well underway, was not put in jeopardy by Sunday’s siesta. The film Blood of My Blood was presented by its director himself, João Canijo. His film offered the audience a raw drama from the environment of Lisabon’s streets. “The film was a long time in production. First, I spoke to the actors about their experience and then I started writing the screenplay. Even the most brutal scenes were not my invention, but theirs,” explained the Portuguese director the origins of his film to the audience in Kino Art, which he describes to be his most sensitive film about love. “Even Stevenson once said, that if you want to be a good writer, you have to learn how to imitate others perfectly. From the beginning, I did not get the inspiration from other films. I copied them,” he added.

Ivana Illienko explored the origin of the film Firecrosser from different perspective. “The main character had an incredibly interesting destiny. However, as we know, some places of his life remained blank. Therefore, I did not have any problem in playing his real Indian wife. I knew nothing about her, and so I could approach her as I wished,“ thinks Illienko. It was her second attendance on our festival, she had already attended the first screening of her father’s film on Friday.

Author: Kateřina Špičáková

Boring Saturday night? Not at all. The festival’s mood was as bright as the weather outside and both the cinema and its program was as charged with great films as always. The film Argo in Lucerna was the biggest success of the day. Again, the audience was so numerous that the capacity of the cinema was not enough.

The highlight of the fourth day was definitely the attendance of the Turkish delegation on their film Where the Fire Burns. “We are very pleased that we can participate on Cinema Mundi festival, because the festival team is great and the people are wonderful. Our film depicts violence on women, which is sadly enough quite a common thing everywhere in the world. If a woman is financially independent, she has the chance to defend her rights. However, if she is dependent on her family, she has to give in,” says the actress Yeşim Ceren Bozoğlu, who plays the part of mother in Where the Fire Burns.

The supporting program in Kavárna Trojka heads for even more exotic destinations than Turkey. “People there are always smiling, far more smiling than at ours. They are all jokes, despite their poverty, they are not bothered. Simply, they enjoy their lives. The children were constantly laughing at us,” David Svejnoha describes the South-American humor, when talking about Venezuelan culture in Kavarna Trojka. His experiences from his uncommon travels were followed by a culinary corner, where our chef prepared a degustation of crickets in butter and grasshoppers.

Author: Kateřina Špičáková

The fact that the festival CINEMA MUNDI is on was proven right by the large interest in the movies and raging dance floors on Friday. Dozens of spectators came to see the Italian drama Caesar Must Die in Bolek Polívka Theatre. The film won at the Berlinale festival and had a great success in Brno as well. Josef Čadík, the head of the organizing team, came to taste the atmosphere in the cinema, too.

The climax of the evening was the screening of the biography movie Firecrosser. The film that took five years to make because of funding problems, was introduced by a famous Ukrainian ballet-dancer and simultaineously one of the main actresses in the movie, Ivanna Illijenko.

Those who got hungry from watching all the films or those who simply like to try out new things got together at 8.30 in Šanson Theatre. The specialist on Spanish cuisine Robert Janíček prepared for them a traditional paella. It was gone within minutes. After that, it was time for Brazilian fighters. Group from Brno comprised mostly of students was performimg breathtaking somersaults that were accompanied by a hand-crafted Brazilian percussive instrument.

Author: Jolana Rumanová

CINEMA MUNDI started on Thursday with a workshop on crafting creative movie badges. The visitors were making various pins, with a comic book characters for instance. “I was surprised how easy it is,” Vojta Nix cheered because of his new thingy.
The workshop was followed by a projection of a Hungarian film Just the Wind in Velký Špalíček. The Slovakian drama Made in Ash was being screened half an hour later. The intense story of a Hungarian girl, who ended up living rough and getting money to buy food by selling her body, attracted mostly the male population. “I’m very interested in the topic, everyone knows something about it, but thanks to this movie you could see more, the things you won’t normally get to see,” said Roman Kubát, a visitor of the Art Cinema.

However, the most crowded house was Lucerna, where an Oscar movie Django Unchained directed by Quentin Tarantino was shown. Literally unending queue at the entrance got people thinking that not all of them would be able to get in – the house actually stayed shut for some of them. The evening program finished with Brno’s five-guys band Plum Dumplings in Mersey Club. The five-year-old band sings mostly in French.

And Friday? It will have an atmosphere of Ukrainian fire with a Spanish taste

Ukrainian movie Firecrosser will be kicked off by one of its main actresses Ivanna Illjenko, well-known Ukrainian ballet-dancer. By the same mail, you should not miss out on a tasting of Spanish cuisine in Šanson Theatre that will offer not only the traditional specialties but some unknown newies as well.

Author: Barbora Sittová

The opening ceremony of CINEMA MUNDI in Velký Špalíček was presented by world-rank movie stars Jan Hřebejk and Bolek Polívka and was followed by a preview of an Oscar film called Silver Linings Playbook. The screening preceded an opening at the Square of Liberty where an indie-rock’n'roll band Indienami warmed up the freezing audience, which was the first official event of the festival. After that, CINEMA MUNDI started in a spectacular way. „I am enthusiastic about every event which promotes high-quality movies,” said a director Jan Hřebejk who came to launch the festival. Together with Bolek Polívka, they wished the festival a glittering future.

The first film, which could have been seen at the festival, was the preview of the movie Silver Linings Playbook. „I am really looking forward to watching it today,” mentioned a spectator Kateřina Vejvodová. This film, directed by David O’ Russel, got the prestigious Film Independent Spirit Award 2013 and an actress Jennifer Lawrence achieved the biggest aim of actors in here – the Oscar Award for the Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Author: Adéla Beranová