The best of contemporary European cinema will be on showcase over the next two weeks, as the European Film Festival (EFF) in Trinidad & Tobago takes place from 3–16 October at MovieTowne, Port of Spain, and 9–16 October at MovieTowne, Tobago.
Twenty-seven films from 12 countries are in the lineup for this year’s edition of the Festival.
Founded in 1996, the EFF is organised by the European Member States with diplomatic missions in T&T—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom—and the EU Delegation.
This year Germany is the host mission of the EFF, and the opening night film of the Festival will be the German selection Young Goethe in Love (2010).
Directed by Philipp Stölzl, Young Goethe in Love is inspired by the early life of the celebrated German writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). It follows Goethe (Alexander Fehling) after he fails his law exams and is sent by his father to a sleepy provincial town to lick his wounds.
Here Goethe meets a beautiful young woman named Lotte Buff (Miriam Stein), who is promised in marriage to another man. Goethe and Lotte fall in love, and their story becomes the inspiration for Goethe’s first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther.
In addition to the usual lineup of fiction feature films, a number of documentaries are also being screened this year at the EFF. There are also several children’s films.
Also this year, for the first time, the EFF is being presented in association with the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff). Founded in 2006, the ttff is an annual celebration of the best new and recent cinema from T&T, the Caribbean and its diaspora, and Latin American countries in the Caribbean basin. The ttff/12 runs from 19 September–02 October.
For the full EFF schedule, www.ttfilmfestival.com/eff. A printed programme is also available at MovieTowne Port of Spain and Tobago.
