The Editorial

Irena Bilic
Founder and Managing Director

“Through the years he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fshes, tools, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face.”

“Au fl des années, il peuple un espace d’images de provinces, de royaumes, de montagnes, de baies, de bateaux, d’îles, de poissons, de pièces, d’outils, d’étoiles, de chevaux et de personnes. Peu avant sa mort, il découvre que le patient labyrinthe de lignes trace l’image de son propre visage.”
Jorge Luis Borges

Dear Friends, Festivalgoers and Partners,

The above quote from Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges opens Carlos Saura’s last film The Walls Can Talk / Las paredes hablan, which opens the 18th Europe by Europe film festival.

With respect to cinema history, documentaries and experimental cinema have always been the source of new ideas, liberties, and audacities that infuence “mainstream” cinema which draws on them for new content, and without which it runs the risk of asphyxiation. In this regard, the three flmmakers who are the subjects of our retrospectives this year display formal refnement, ambition marked by humility, faith in the importance of art and life-affrming humanism. The warm-hearted and courageous approach of Greek artist Eva Stefani’s flms echoes the famous verse of poet Attila Jószef (1937), “ … in her heart at times the tiger cohabits with the gentle squirrel”. Filmmaker Massimo Bacigalupo, translator of poets, essayist and cofounder of the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative, will present his cinematic evocations of time, human beings, and his beloved poetry. Finally, Swedish flmmaker Roy Anderson both disheartens and delights us with a graphic palette whose ambition is to “flm the broadest spectrum of human existence on this planet”

Come see some rarely screened classics of European cinema by Ingmar Bergman and István Szabó,
Come see My 20th Century, in the presence of its director, Ildiko Enyedi, who is also the president of our Sauvage jury.
And Michel Glawogger ‘s prophetic Workingman’s Death. And our section “Who knows what yesterday will bring?”- cynical and romantic films by Balkan directors. And the programs of our three competitions, Prix Sauvage, Prix Present and Prix Sauvage Corto, that represent the driving energy of new talent and hope.

Our selection of flms is the result of an intuitive process and particular circumstances that I believe refect two issues. First of all, moral concern about the perspectives of cinematographic content. In that sense, the encouraging quality of the flms is in counterpoint to the troubling issue of the future of the silver screen. And then, our ability to separate art from ideology and artists from politics. Those bygone issues remain relevant today

126 films.
Come join the dance !
Wishing you pleasant screenings and encounters,

Irena Bilic
Founder and Managing Director

February 28, 2023, Paris