Korean Director Will Launch Karlovy Vary Festival With His Newest Film

24 May 2006, 10:53 - Culture
Film Time by one of the most popular Korean directors, Kim Ki-duk will open the 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF).

»The work of Kim Ki-duk has been discovered for public at large partly in previous Karlovy Vary festivals. The director has been our guest twice already and the screening of each of his films has been attended by great expectations on part of the audiences,« said Jiří Bartoška, festival president.

This year, Kim Ki-duk presents personally his latest film, a story of young couple deeply in love, testing their relationship with fatal methods, for example, by changing their own appearances to refresh their passion, in its world premiere in Karlovy Vary on June 30.

The programme of the festival has not been announced in full yet, but it is quite clear that film-goers can choose from a wide variety of more than 200 shows. Apart of the competition in regular categories, feature-length and documentary films, they can be inspired by the new - last year added - section East of the West, in which the best new production from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc are projected. That makes the festival even more unique.

Czech Republic will be represented in the main competition section with the new film by Jan Hřebejk Beauty in Troubles (Kráska v nesnázích), which will be screened in its world premiere. Screenwriter Petr Jarchovský says that the film »describes the eternal conflict between reason and emotion, it tells of two kinds of love, spiritual and physical, of the friendship between a man and a woman.«

This year also offers special categories that broaden the spectator's Horizons. As the name of the section suggests, it shows some of the films that attracted attention in the last year Berlin film festival. Section Another view present unconventional, original and, in some cases, experimental approach to form and content.

Traditionally, special focus is on US independent films. Add Latin American Panorama and Thai film plus retrospective on British film and you get the sexiest film show of the world film production. Visitors should not miss tribute to John Huston (in honour of his centennial), with his film debut The Treasure of Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart from 1948 and five more films directed by him. Year by year, films chosen by Variety critics get strongest audience.

The KVIFF, the most important international film festival in Central and Eastern Europe and the only A-category festival in the Czech Republic, takes place in the famous spa town from June 30 to July 8, 2006.

Official KVIFF website

Accommodation in Karlovy Vary

Carlsbad hotels