France is now hosting a new international festival. For the third time, the AGT-Evropa Filmakt association is presenting 'Europe around Europe' Paris-Normandy in March 2008 (4 to 21): in Paris (the Entrepôt cinema), in Evreux (the Zénith), in Bernay (the Rex), in Rouen (the UGC), in Mont Saint Aignan (the Ariel), and the Moulin d’Andé.

The main idea at the core of the festival is to show there is a cultural coherence in contemporary European film production, whose roots can be found in Russian avant-garde films, in German expressionism, in the ‘film noir’, in French poetic realism and the new waves of eastern and western cinema.

Our selection stresses the artistic influences and the combinations of sources of inspiration, the subtle shuttle from Europe, to Europe and around Europe.

On the agenda this year you will find a selection centered on Eastern Europe films. Indeed the extraordinary vitality of this cinema reminds us of the great surge of trends in European cinema in the 60’s.

The festival is organized in several themes.

1. The new European sensibility in the 60’s : Antonioni, Petrovic, Varda, Khoutsiev, Hladnik

2. Literary adaptations : Petrovic ( Three), Kurosawa (The Lower Depths, The Idiot), Visconti (The Leopard)

3. Tribute to a Slovenian film director : Karpo Acimovic Godina

4. « Cinema of moral anxiety : committed documentaries created in the 70’s by Kieslowski and Zanussi

5. ‘Farewell until next war’ : masterpieces of auteur cinema by Pavlovic, Petrovic, Balabanov, Sokourov

6. Recent releases : Nemescu, Kusturica, Mitevska, Pevec, Golubovic, Stojanovic, Melykian

7. Documentaries : Uibo, Zupanc, Yamamoto…

8. Short films: Paskaljevic, Gilic, Kusturica, Sijan…

Irena Bilic                                          
Festival Director

Gaètane de Framond                         
Press attachée