Critics’ Corner

Why do film critics attend film festivals ? Why do they come to Kastellorizo ? The answer is easy: They come to see films which they couldn’t see otherwise. They come to see films on an exceptionally beautiful island. And they come to experience on this magic island the correlation between cinema and history. This can be observed in films that were sensitively selected by the festival and its magnificent head, Irini Sarioglu, assisted by the dedicated and enthusiastic Michel Noll.

In Kastellorizo history is present, in particular the history between Greece and Turkey. But also the film history. The Italian film “Mediterraneo” has been shot here 32 years ago, an event to be remembered at this year’s festival, to the pleasure of us critics whose work it is to keep the history of cinema alive. There’s another reason for Beyond Borders. The tiny island offers a lot of chances to meet, to talk, to discuss, about life and about cinema – chances which you don’t have in the major festival events. On Kastellorizo, even the “cinema theater” where the competition films are shown, is a great marketplace for a coffee, for contacts, for the exchange of opinions.

To provoke talks about cinema is an advantage and quality of festivals that got lost in the last years of the pandemic. Isn’t it the critics’ job and delight to bring emotional impressions in the form of words? We offer this in a new program called “The Critics’ Corner”. Three critics (the ones who also form the critics’ jury) will talk in public on the films they’ve seen, about films they would wish to see, about cinema. For us it’s an opportunity to learn what the public thinks about films. For the public it is an opportunity to see how critics develop and sharpen what they think about films. FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics (founded 1925) has members in over 70 countries all over the world. The main purpose is to support cinema as an art and as an outstanding and autonomous means of expression and as an essential part of national culture and identity. It is with pleasure that we come, for the second time with a jury, to Kastellorizo.

Klaus Eder, General Secretary of FIPRESCI

Participant Film Critics: Thodoris Koutsogiannopoulos (Greece), Senem Edrine (Turkey) & Davide Magnisi (Italy).