The award-winning film Honeyland and Kapitán Demo are coming to EKOFILM

The finishing touches to the accompanying program, the confirmation of the participation of international guests and the wary monitoring of the situation with the epidemic; this year’s preparation of the 46th year of the EKOFILM International Film Festival, which will take place in Brno from 14 to 17 October, are drawing to a close. The organisers can already confirm that the festival opening will involve a performance by the musician Kapitán Demo and that the closing non-competition film will be Honeyland, which won the main documentary prize at the Sundance festival and has been nominated for an Oscar.

At present, the organisers are able to reveal three fixed points in the program. The first is a discussion at the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University, whose theme, like that of the entire festival, will be sustainable consumption and how to achieve it. It will start at 4 pm on Wednesday 14 October. “We have devoted all of this year’s EKOFILM festival to the topic of consumption and its sustainability. Big words, but for all that quite a simple consideration: the production and purchase of items and services in the 21st century should have the smallest possible impact on nature and natural resources. And they should truly improve our lives and not simply slip between our fingers to become worthless waste,” is how the Minister of the Environment Richard Brabec, explained the theme.

In addition to Minister Brabec, the discussion will be attended by the rector of the Mendel University Danuše Nerudová, the marketer and consultant Pavlína Louženská or the Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Protective Technology at the University of Chemistry and Technology Vladimír Kočí. Discussions are also being held with representatives from some of the retail chains. The debate will concern the European Union’s Green Deal, our consumption habits, the circular economy and the options for business to adapt o these trends. The discussion will be moderated by the festival’s president Ladislav Miko.

The program will traditionally not only take place at discussions and cinemas, meaning that festivalgoers and passers-by will also be able to look forward to the program’s second fixed point, a concert by Kapitán Demo, in Brno’s Freedom Square (náměstí Svobody).The concert will commence at 6:30 pm.

The third fixed point at EKOFILM will be the screening of the Macedonian non-competition film Honeyland, which won the jury’s grand prize for the best international documentary film and a further two jury prizes at the Sundance film festival and received two Oscar nominations. This film will conclude the entire festival and it will be screened at the Scala University Theatre on Saturday 17 October from 8:15 pm.

“Honeyland is a sensitive portrait of the fragile balance between nature and man. Of the conflict between the last woman from a family of apiarists with her new neighbours whose lifestyle, her different lifestyle and her struggle to find subsistence in a countryside which is at first glance barren. The film will therefore close the 46th year of the festival both thematically and symbolically,” is how the festival’s head dramaturg Jitka Kotrlová invited audiences to attend this award-winning film.