With tonight’s 7 p.m. screening of the film Erased, a Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian co-production, in the Kinoteka cinema, the 13th Festival of Tolerance will be officially concluded. The film stars Judita Franković Brdar, who will talk to the audience with the rest of the film’s crew after the screening. The film discusses the issue of the “erased” people from the 1990s, when Slovenia stripped the rights of its citizens who were not of Slovenian origin. Judita Franković stars as a youg mother who after giving birth realizes that she has suddenly become a foreigner though she has lived in Slovenia her entire life. This also means her child is considered an orphan and orphaned children are given up for adoption.
The last Festival day will begin in Kinoteka with three great children’s films from the Festival’s new program Small Steps. At 11 a.m. the film Checkered Ninja will be shown, the most successful Danish film in recent times. In this animated blockbuster, a boy receives a Ninja doll as a gift that turns out to be alive and helps the boy with his problems at school. At 3 p.m. audiences can watch the film Psychobitch in the same cinema, a film about 15-year old Frida who totally assumes the role of the class outsider and at 5 pm the film A Colony will be shown, a hit at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Crystal Bear for Best Children’s Film.
Cinema Tušlanac will show two exceptional documentaries. The festival hit Ex-shaman (shown at 7 pm), which won awards at the Berlin Film Festival and Chicago Film Festival, follows the once isolated Amazon tribe Paiter Surui that has been facing assaults of the modern era ever since 1969, when it made first contact with the white man. Smartphones, electricity, fuel tanks, guns and Facebook have now replaced their traditional way of life. The film is followed by the documentary Dreamers at 9 pm, about the once popular summer resort Sharm El Sheikh, now abandoned to the country’s security and safety issues in recent years. The documentary takes us into the glittering ghost town with its last inhabitants – the resort employees who spend their days in the empty suites dreaming of better days.
Despite the sudden issue of moving a part of the Festival program to a new venue, the 13th iteration of the Festival has been successfully concluded. Over the course of seven days, more than 70 feature, documentary and children’s films have been shown, and traditional Educational Mornings, two exhibitions, many discussion forums, round table discussions, book promotions and two concerts were organizes. This year, particular emphasis has been placed on the importance of acceptance and respect for diversity as well as the fundamental principles of equality and justice.