ENTER THE CONTACT ZONE.

ENTER THE CONTACT ZONE is an invitation to dive deep into the cinematic diversity of IFFI #33 and to use the film festival as a social space for encounters, creative exchange and dialogue in order to create new transnational alliances. ENTER THE CONTACT ZONE stands for a reflection on current festival practice in global film networks and makes us explore new perspectives together.

The ‘film festival’ is also at the heart of this year's Retrospective, which is dedicated to the legendary Tashkent Film Festival. It was the first international festival that centred on filmmaking outside of Europe and Hollywood, exclusively showing films from African, Asian and Latin American countries between 1968 and 1988. Together with festival director Valeriya Kim (Tashkent), a series about film history was launched that explores the variety of themes, regions and genres of non-western cinema, attempting to address the complex web of underlying political, cultural and artistic motives and interests.

In this context, the Retrospective is tracking down IFFI and its past. When talking about the beginnings of IFFI, we cannot not mention Helmut Groschup, its founder and long-time director. He is inextricably linked to IFFI; and it is hard to imagine that this year's edition will be the first without Helmut. He will be part of the festival, however: every day, we think of and remember Helmut with a total of six films selected by close friends and companions of his.