Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja on balancing the Kinoscope programme, splited into two subprogrammes (Kinoscope and Kinoscope Surreal), which this year bring the most daring creations from world festivals.
What themes dominated the films selected for the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival in the Kinoscope programme?
The selection process is always guided by a mix of curiosity, intellectual rigor and hazards as well. It’s only once it is assembled as one that we sort of look at the program as one entity, and yet, when we compose it throughout the year, we are carefully inviting one film after another without any specific theme in mind nor desire to highlight one particular cinematography but thinking that each film will be part of an ensemble. We watch films selected from the autumn festivals like Biennale and Toronto International Film Festival, and until summer festivals like the Locarno Film Festival. Kinoscope is split into two subprogrammes: Kinoscope Surreal, which is dedicated to genre films and Kinoscope for the arthouse films discovered, with a special eye for new talents and debut features. And this year we could notice that quite a few of the Kinoscope films are coming of age stories, in different contexts.
What surprised you most while reviewing numerous films to select this year’s program?
We can notice that as years go by, the genre films we are watching are increasingly more ambitious both in terms of cinema and in terms of story. We notice as well many more female filmmakers exploring genre films, which is great! Indeed, when we started Kinoscope Surreal we were careful in picking films that wouldn’t be misogynistic as many genre films were! Now is a different story, luckily!
What makes the Kinoscope programme so unique?
Kinoscope is a snapshot of film productions shown at the most prestigious festivals of the year, but not only. It is also home to the most challenging or cinematically daring features. We try to create a balance between very accomplished features praised by the press and the industry and features that might have been a bit overlooked or which might need another space to really shine.
Are there any particular scenes that the audience should be prepared for? Give us clues, without spoilers…
Well, Kinoscope Surreal has an appetite for body horror this year, quite surely. And to be more specific, two of these films are ambiented in a med school type of context. Also, in Surreal, eros and thanatos are explored in very different ways in two films as well, Leviticus and Sex And Death At Camp Miasma…
After working together for many years, have your perspectives on films become more aligned, or do you still occasionally disagree on your decisions?
We sometimes disagree, which is good! And we talk a lot, sometimes we disagree about a film but oftentimes we discuss building a balanced programme, which is why we love this job!
