Eastern Promises (EP)

This section’s raison d’etre is a desire to expose the wilder, livelier and yes, the more passionate side of East-Asian film, more accessible to a wider audience; the face they show mainly in their home countries, to their “own” audiences. The overwhelming majority of Far-Eastern films that reach Slovakia are intended for a global audience. Each of the countries attunes these films to us, our worldview, and our conceptions of their cultures. This is precisely why the section is composed of films which above all captured their domestic audiences, but also drew praise and attention from critics and reviewers (to the point that they sometimes ushered them into international festivals).

Since its very conception, a fundamental aspect of the section has been variety, pertaining not only to the array of countries represented, but also to their genres. At the same time, the section aspires to fulfil the goal of the festival itself – to engage the widest possible audience, including casual visitors, and even to convince them that Art Film Fest is decidedly not intended solely for the few “discerning” viewers and film-club members.

We'd be happy if the section Eastern Promises at least partially filled the gap that our cinema distributors understandably cannot fill themselves, to give viewers versed in Far-Eastern cinema the chance to see these hot-off-the-press cinematic treats where they deserve to be seen – on the big screen in a dimly-lit cinema. And to show “newbies” something new and exotic that may some day become a passion of theirs as well, sought-after in and of itself, as it went with the section's coordinators.

Adrián Žiška, Kristína Aschenbrennerová, section coordinators