Saturday, 18/11/2000

Mirolijub Vuckovic, the director of the Za Film Institute of Belgrade, characterized Thessaloniki and the Film Festival as the center for the discharge of Balkan film production. As he said, tributes to Balkan cinema have also been given at Venice's Mostra as well as Vienna but Thessaloniki provides the ideal environment for the Balkan directors' temperament. He also spoke about the second meeting of the Film Institutions of Southeastern Europe with the participation of 11 countries, which had an institutional makeup for the founding of a network for the support of productions, co-productions, screenplay development and the promotion of Balkan cinema in Europe and the rest of the world.

Dajman Kozole, the director of Porno film, who was quite humorous about the Slovenia's national problems, explained that his film had a small budget of 350,000 DM,.

Djordje Milosavljevic, the director of the film The mechanism, has shot two films concerning the notion of violence, and stated that although it concerns him personally, violence itself is not limited to Yugoslavia, but is actually a worldwide problem.

The difficulties of funding films in Bulgaria were underlined by director, producer and actor, Mario Krastev. As he said, film makers in his country have an incredibly hard time securing funds for their films.

The Bulgarian director of the film Glass marbles, Ivan Cherkelov noted that an effort must be made to surpass borders and the Thessaloniki Film Festival plays a vital role in that direction.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the director of the film Clouds of May, said that Turkey also faces problems in funding film productions. He shoots films with low budgets which helps him overcome the dire financial situation.