‘Journey Beyond the Three Seas’ to Open Pacific Meridian Film Festival

VLADIVOSTOK. August 11. VOSTOK-MEDIA – The Pacific Meridian International Film Festival, which is scheduled to be held in Vladivostok in September this year, will present a series of film screenings titled “A Journey Beyond the Three Seas” featuring movies by Mexican, Estonian and Turkish filmmakers. Organizers said the traditional and well-known to Vladivostok movie-goers event, In Focus, will definitely push the envelope this year.

Each year Mexican filmmakers are taking part in the Pacific Meridian. This year a record high number of 98 entries have been submitted by Mexican cinematographers for the film festival.

Mexican films have long been popular with Vladivostok movie-goers and have been highly praised by the jury. In 2006, Iria Gomez Concheiro won Best Short Film Award at Pacific Meridian. In 2008, Sarah Hoch, the founder and director of Expresión en Corto International Film Festival, was a member of the film festival jury in Vladivostok.

This year’s In Focus: Mexica will include four films: “Almar” by Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio, “Vaho” by Alejandro Gerber Bicecci, “Backyard” by Carlos Carrera, and “To and Fro” by Gerardo Tort. The films explore the impact of Mexican national identity on the emotional experiences of people, which change their lives and their attitudes to each other and the outside world.

In recent years Estonian cinema has received a worldwide acclaim among movie enthusiasts and has won numerous awards at various film festivals. “Autumn Ball”, the first full-length movie by one of the most prominent film-directors of the new Estonian cinema, Veiko Õunpuu, won Horizons Prize at the 2007 Venice Film Festival and a number of other notable awards.

Kadri Kousaars debut feature Magnus was banned in Estonia and became the first Estonian film that made it into the Cannes Film Festival.

Jaak Kilmi’s “Disco and Atomic War”, a documentary about failed attempt of the Soviet authorities to convince citizens of the danger and decadence of picking up Finish radio and television broadcast, has been screened at various film festivals. In 2009, the film won Estonian Culture Capital Award

In all, In Focus: Estonia will include eight movies: “Bank Robbery” by Andrus Tuisk, “Disco and Atomic War” by Jaak Kilmi, “Magnus” by Kadri Kousaar, “Autumn Ball” by Veiko Õunpuu, “I Respect You My Friend” by Ove Musting, Mihkel Ulk’s “Piggy”, “Ecology” by Yulia Kozyryova, and a film by Liina Paakspuu.

Five films will be screened within In Focus: Turkey: “The Breath” by Levent Semerci, Yilmaz Erdogan’s “Neseli Hayat”, “Love in Another Language” by Ilksen Basarir, and Yesim Ustaoglu’s “Pandoras Box”.