This year's 25th Ljubljana International Film Festival brings a rich selection of feature films, from which it is very difficult to choose. We would prefer to see everything. To make the choice between more than 100 films easier, we have prepared a shortlist of the ten best.
A selection of ten films that we will watch Liff definitely mirrors.
1. Love is a strange thing
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina in the role of a gay couple who, after marriage, find themselves facing a severe life test due to the surrounding homophobia.
When same-sex marriage was legalized in New York in 2011, lovers Ben and George decide to get married after 39 years together. As a result, George is fired from his job as a music teacher at a Catholic school and loses his Chelsea apartment as a result. George moves in with a gay police couple, and Ben is taken in by his nephew's family in Brooklyn. The changed living circumstances bring new pressures on their relationship. It is a story about the problems of the gay community, which the director Ira Sachs turned into a light, tender and general study of a love affair.
2. Palo Alto
After short stories James Franco recorded debut Gia Coppola. An insightful look at the complex bonds, heightened emotions and romantic ups and downs of adolescence.
Sensitive, shy April is the class virgin, torn between an indecent flirtation with her soccer coach and a crush on the teenage Teddy. Emily, on the other hand, offers sexual favors to any boy who crosses her path - including Teddy and his best friend Fred, a hyperactive with no hair on his tongue and no sense of boundaries. April and Teddy struggle to profess their affection for each other between school parties, while Fred's growing recklessness devolves into total chaos.
3. Paths to the stars
The city of dreams awakens the spirits in people, elicits hidden impulses from them, and gives the foreboding smell of blood.
Hollywood is the film capital of the world, with promises of happiness to all who try to reach for the stars. Benjie is only thirteen years old and already famous. His father, Stafford Weiss, is a successful author and meditation guru. One of the clients that Stafford helps to achieve personal and professional happiness is the beautiful actress Havana Segrand. Agatha, a young girl with a disfigured appearance, is Havana's new assistant, and Jerome Fontana is an attractive driver with whom she befriends. But why, despite all this promising happiness, is Hollywood also a place of personal weaknesses, neuroses, incest and jealousy?
4. Mommy
A film that captivated audiences around the world with the extraordinary energy of the cast and the director's signature bold visual play.
Die is a embattled single mother raising fifteen-year-old Antoine, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so Die is exposed to his unpredictable and controversial actions on a daily basis. Meanwhile, a new family moves into the suburban neighborhood. Antoine and Die befriend Kyla, the timid, stuttering mother of the family. Together they form an inseparable friendship circle, within which hope for a better tomorrow emerges instead of previous problems.
5. Birdman
A convincing directorial achievement by the Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González I?árritu, in which the burden of stardom mirrors the true experience of the actor Michael Keaton.
Riggan Thomson is a former Hollywood star known for his film portrayal of the superhero Birdman. From a point far from the peak of success, he is now trying to return to the stage with an ambitious Broadway show. He hopes that with this risky move he will establish himself as a full-fledged artist. Shortly before the play's premiere, however, problems begin to pile up, as one of the actors is injured in a freak accident during rehearsals. In his place, they hire actor Mike Shiner, who guarantees success, and the project brings a lot of personal eccentricities. The closer the premiere gets, the more uncertain Riggan is, who expects the most from the project...
6. 20,000 days on Earth
Twenty thousandth day of life Nick Cava – from the sound of the alarm clock in the morning to a walk on the beach after an evening concert.
The feature-length documentary debut of British directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard outlines the life story of Australian musician Nick Cav in an imaginary day. The film narrative explains the musician's view of the world and his philosophy, which he transfers to music creation. Dramatized scenes return to the musician's childhood, and his musical companions, such as Blixa Bargeld and Kylie Minogue, reminisce about past collaborations. The combination of live and documentary footage blurs the line between imaginary and real and between private and public at every step.
7. Rhythm of Madness
A musical film that takes the desire for glittering success with the seriousness of a life-or-death struggle. Sensation of the film festival in Sundance.
Nineteen-year-old Andrew is a promising drummer at the Manhattan Conservatory of Music, but he refuses to be just an average musician. Since his father failed in life, he worries that he too has mediocrity written in his genes. Because he still wants to succeed, he practices the drums every day until his hands start to bleed. His desire to succeed is heightened when he is chosen to join the school band under the infamous Terence Fletcher, a brutal music teacher who will stop at nothing to bring out the full potential in his students. Under his guidance, Andrew embarks on a journey of perfection at any cost – including his own humanity.
8. Most wanted man
The adaptation of Le Carre's spy novel shows the questionable methods of pursuing terrorists. Excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last roles.
A mysterious, tortured, half-dead man on the run takes refuge in the Islamic community in Hamburg. Isa Karpov is half Chechen and half Russian by birth. Asking for help, he tries to figure out what to do with his Russian father's rich, ill-gotten inheritance. There are many things about this man that raise suspicion. Is he really a torture victim or just a common thief or, worse, an Islamic extremist on a terrorist mission?
9. Mr. Turner
A biographical film about the painter To Joseph MW Turner is to the player to Timothy Spall won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film explores the last period in the life of painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. He is bewildered by the inventions of his time - science, photography, the railway, which strongly influence his conception of art. After his father's death, the painter, deeply shaken, moves in with Mrs. Booth, the widow and mistress of the house by the sea. But he lives a double life there, as he does not reveal his true identity to her. He also meets with his former lover Sarah Danby, with whom he has adult daughters, but whom he persistently denies. His socializing with the aristocracy of the time, visits to brothels and unusual painting ventures draw the character of an inspired genius, but also a strange eccentric, brilliantly portrayed by the actor Timothy Spall.
10. Jealousy
The latest masterpiece of one of the last companions of the new wave, an extraordinary work that flirts with the silent film with a minimalistic design and perfectly shows the mixture of the author's love themes of loss, mourning and love as the fountain of youth.
Louis, a man in his thirties, decides to leave Mathilde, the mother of his child, for Claudia, the woman he loves madly. Louis and Claudia are theater actors. But while he keeps getting offers for roles, she, even though she was considered a rising star until recently, doesn't get even the smallest roles anymore. Insecure and unhappy, Claudia loves Louisa, but she is very afraid that he will leave her. One evening, she meets an architect who offers her cooperation. Louis loves Claudia endlessly, and yet now he is incredibly afraid that she will leave him. In the middle of all this mess is Charlotte, Louis's little daughter...
