Tetovo Twilight

Red carpet, flashbulbs, tuxedos and evening gowns: Hollywood celebrates its birthday. For a hundred years, this has been the place where films and their stars are celebrated. Hollywood is the most American of dreams. But hardly anyone suspects that this story began in the German provinces - with the Swabian emigrant Carl Laemmle from Laupheim near Ulm, who founded Universal Studios in Hollywood in 1912. Together with his niece Carla Laemmle, who is as old as the dream factory itself - namely one hundred years old - the film takes us on a fantastic journey back to the beginnings of film history - to a time when everything was simply "wild", when Indians, elephants and monsters ran around on the Universal premises and things were still loud and hearty during filming.

“After the Rain” is the first documentary film made by a Macedonian director about climate change. The documentary features four women, aged between forty and eighty, who work as farmers in Macedonia. The women are of different backgrounds – Macedonian, Turkish and Albanian – and each has a different attitude towards their work on the land.

Talented people like artists or writers who stayed have one choice only: work as seamstresses. Eriela, Beti and Vesna are seamstresses in the small town of Štip. If they wanted to afford one of their handmade blouses, it would cost them a months salary. While the women are fully employed, their men are less fortunate and find themselves unemployed after the collapse of communism. A situation with a lot of potential conflict for the couples. The men find it hard to be dependent financially on their women, when they used to proudly provide for the family.

This is the portrait of a young accordionist in the 21st century. It is a film about the joys of life and survival strategies on the forgotten stage of Macedonia. This is the story of a 17-year-old accordionist, who is searching for her place in the world. Corridors are her practice rooms – at home and at school. The whole year she practices diligently and passionately on her old Supita accordion. Obviously, she wasn’t given the name Emilija, meaning „the keen one“, for nothing. She wants to become a professional accordionist, but for this she needs a new accordion. Something that is unattainable for her poor family. But the family‘s poverty also releases their creativity and Imagination. Her father, an art teacher, begins to work as a bodyguard, while Emilija‘s mother illegally sells sweets in the family garden. This is a film about becoming an adult in one of Europe‘s more desolate corners.

You say you’re interested in film and you’ve never been to the Moviemento? You are hereby put on cineastic probation – at least until you watch Bernd Sobolla’s documentary.