Thessaloniki Film Festival Begins in Greece Today
BalkanTravellers.com
Among the feature and short films, which represent 55 countries, will be included two world premiers, six international premieres and three European ones.
This year’s festival programme consists of three official sections – International Competition, Out of Competition, Special Screenings, as well as retrospectives, spotlights and special events, some of which include Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Tribute, Ousmane Sembene Retrospective, Terence Davies Retrospective, Division And Unity: Cinema In The Middle East, Experimental Forum, Focus: Commune 2008, Balkan Survey: Tribute to Contemporary Turkish Cinema and Romanian Shorts, Greek Tributes: Generation Next and Manos Zakharias.
“Multi-awarded Belgian auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, heretical Japanese actor and director Takeshi Kitano, unconventional English director Terence Davies, internationally renowned and two-time Academy Award winner Argentinean composer Gustavo Santaolalla and Brazilian director Walter Salles are only a few of the big names of modern cinema that are expected to honour this year's festival with their presence,” according to the event’s official website.
For the complete programme of screenings, visit the festival’s official website
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Epicure
Bulgaria
Greece with Best Rose and Best Sweet Wine at Concours Mondial
16 May 2012 | Several Balkan countries scored excellent results at this year’s Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, which announced yesterday its awards. This success is remarkable, as it comes in severe competition amongst 8,397 wine samples from all around the world. Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
Every March, Red and White Strings Welcome Spring in Bulgaria and Romania
I remember walking along Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown on March 2 a few years ago, when I saw a man sporting a small ornament made of red and white thread pinned to his coat lapel. He must be Bulgarian, I thought to myself with a sudden rush of homesickness, but now realize that he may have been Romanian as well.
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Useful Reads
Bulgaria
Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria (2008) | By Kapka Kassabova
Danube blues
Text by Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian*
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Music
Bulgaria
The Choir that Turned England a Bit Bulgarian
One of the few constant sources of pride for Bulgarians is traditional folk music, and especially singing. But not the Oriental-beats-modified kind that often booms in nightclubs, giving their clientele the urge to jump atop tables and chairs and sway their hips around; rather the kind that, when heard, mesmerises you and gives you goose bumps, the kind that is haunting with its out-of-this universe quality, mostly figuratively but sometimes literally as well.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
