European Children's
Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma
pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse
“This film took us longer than the first Gulf War”Sepideh Farsi’s first animated film, in which 15 year old Omid rescues a group of Iranian civilians from the Iraqi attacks on the Abadan oil metropolis in 1980 during the 1st Gulf War, opened this year’s Panorama Section at the Berlinale and has been collecting awards and nominations ever since. The director, born in Tehran in 1965, left the country for Paris in 1984
“What’s the use of sitting there all by yourself?”Jamie is only just starting to get settled at the boarding school for deaf children when she gets an alarming message about her beloved grandmother being admitted to a hospital in Paris. When the family leaves for Paris in panic, Jamie stays behind, feeling powerless. Imane, the most rebellious girl in class, suggests they embark on the trip on their own. Such a journey can never be anything else than adventurous! After trekking for days through the rural Lowlands, will they finally make it to Paris?
“I worked with what I had in my bubble”Andrea and Marina become friends while playing on the rooftops of their adjacent buildings during the pandemic in Mexico City. In days of stress and loneliness, they cling on to this precious long distance bond. But for the survival of this friendship, the children depend on the decisions of their parents. As long as the story lasts, we tend to forget that there is life outside these rooftops; those terraces feel like the entire world.
“The life of an activist doesn’t have a ‘switch off’ button”In the feature documentary PLANET B – that was the opening film of this year’s DOXS Ruhr festival, director Pieter Van Eecke follows two young activists. It is difficult to distinguish the real driving force behind the story: is it their commitment to the climate struggle or their friendship, because both elements are inextricably linked with one another.
“Children are slaves to our need for supervision”Jeremi, a YouTuber with a talent for loneliness and isolation, must spend the summer with his grandfather in the countryside. The healing green environment turns into a challenging place when a robot appears on the scene and hands him weird assignments. Like, creating a message for aliens in the form of a film. To fulfil his task, Jeremi gradually makes friends with a group of kids. The story is a trigger to send children into nature where they confront their own primary emotions. The methods used by Polish director Piotr Stasik were not obvious.
“It’s not a vegan propaganda film”Three short film interviews, conducted during the Zlin Film Festival for a series of podcasts. Meelis Arulepp (Estonia) tells about PETER THE BEETLE, Piotr Chmielewski (Poland) directed CRAB, and Czech film student Elvira Dulskaia graduated with ICE BREAK.
This interview with Filip Pošivač, director and script author of TONY, SHELLY AND THE MAGIC LIGHT, was recorded during the Giffoni Film Festival in July 2023.
This interview with Filip Pošivač & Jana Šrámková, director and script author of TONY, SHELLY AND THE MAGIC LIGHT, was recorded during the Zlin Film Festival in May 2023.