Baltic Frames Film Festival in Cinemateket, Copenhagen

Baltic Frames Film Festival in Cinemateket gives you the chance of experiencing fun, seriousness and surprise

After having lit up the silver screen in Øst for Paradis in Aarhus earlier this month, the Baltic Frames Film Festival comes to Copenhagen’s Cinemateket. The festival opens on April 26th with a reception hosted by the Baltic embassies in Denmark. The reception takes place in Cinemateket’s Asta Bar. Following this the two first films are screened, the classic documentary short “10 Minutes Older” from Latvia and the Lithuanian comedy “Miracle” (Stebuklas) from 2017. The festival ends on May 12th.

“10 Minutes Older” is directed by Hercs Franks (LV). The running time is 10 minutes, like the title suggests, during which the viewer follows the expressions of a group of children attending a puppet show. The director Egle Vertelyte (LT) has directed “Miracle”, telling the tale of a Trump-like businessman, which seems to have the answers of all the problems in the small, challenged village. Egle Vertelyte visits Cinemateket, and answers questions from the audience after the film screening.

Baltic Frames Film Festival in Cinemateket

The theme of this years’ Baltic Frames is “A Celebration of Contemporary Baltic Cinema”. The celebration coincide with the centenary celebrations of the Baltic countries. The festival presents ten new, excellent and thoroughly diverse films from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Together they provide a look into the originality and variety of the modern Baltic cinema. The program have a broad range, from satirical treatments of the transition fase from Soviet communism to the free market, e.g. “Miracle”, to the gloomy fairy tale “November”, by Estonian Rainer Sarnet. Documentary films are very well represented, although this genre is also subject to wildly different takes.

Some challenge the borders between fiction and documentary, like Eeva Mägi does in “Lembri Uudu”, which paints a picture of a village via its interactions with the ghost Uudu. Others bring the audience up close to a slice of life, like the award winning documentary filmmaker Arunas Matelis with his “Wonderful Losers: A Different World”, shedding light on the rough life of the “gregarios” of professional cycling – the riders that help the team captains attain their triumphs, but receive little praise themselves.

Danish professional cyclist Chris Anker Sørensen is one of the main characters in “Wonderful Losers”. The film is introduced by documentary film legend Tue Steen Müller, for the Baltic Frames screening.

Baltic Frames 2018 is organized by the Danish Cultural Institute in cooperation with the Baltic embassies in Denmark, the Baltic film centres, the Danish Ministry of Culture and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For tickets or more information on the program and films go to dfi.dk