Curtains go up on 34th European Film Festival

AMMAN — The 34th edition of the European Film Festival (EUFF), held under the patronage of HRH Princess Rym Ali, was inaugurated on Sunday at the Haya Cultural Centre.

Funded by the European Union (EU) in Jordan and co-organised with the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), the festival’s opened with the film “Civilisation: Good News about the End of the World”, which came from the Czech Republic.

This year, the Kingdom will be the festival’s guest of honour, screening the award-winning film “Daughters of Abdelrahman” at the closing ceremony.

In an interview with The Jordan Times on Sunday, EU Ambassador to Jordan Maria Hadjitheodosiou, said that this festival is a space for intercultural cooperation and dialogue exchange.

“This festival seeks to provide Jordanian audiences the chance to discover not only European films, way of thinking and culture, but it also opens up space for dialogue.”

She added that 2022 is the European Year of Youth, therefore the EUFF will be dedicated to the young generation.

The 34th edition of the festival, organised in participation with embassies of the EU member states, will take place between November 13 and 25 at the Haya Cultural Centre’s theatre.

This year’s programme includes 15 films from various EU countries, and most of which are award-winning.

The festival seeks to “provide the audience with the opportunity to enjoy European films screened in their original languages and subtitled in both Arabic and English”, according to an EU statement sent to The Jordan Times on Monday.

The films include the Polish movie “Never snow again”, the Austrian movie “Oskar & Lili - Where No One Knows Us”, the French movie “My Donkey, My Lover & I”, the Belgian movie “Gods of Molenbeek”, the Cypriot movie “Family member”, the Dutch movie “Romy's Salon”, the German movie “The Audition”, the Bulgarian movie “BUBBLEGUM”, the Spanish movie “Fire Will Come”, the Irish movie “Here before”, the Italian movie “Run to You”, the Swedish movie “Cold Case Hammarskjöld”, and the British movie “The Reason I Jump”.

As part of the 34th edition of the festival, there will also be a Mobile Film Competition, organised in cooperation with SAE Institute Jordan, offering filmmakers and enthusiasts the chance to produce their own mobile film.

All screenings are free and open to the public.