 Sept 23 - Sept 26

 Ljubljana

The 15th Migrant Film Festival will see screenings and other events that shed light on various aspects of migration, asylum and refugees.

A total of 22 films from 14 countries will be screened in Ljubljana and eight other towns across Slovenia with an accompanying programme featuring ten guests.

This year the festival will draw attention to the genocide in Palestine, the criminalisation of solidarity, women in migration, violent borders, crisis situations and corporate greed, the organiser, Slovenian Philanthropy, says.

The festival will open at the Kinodvor cinema with the screening of Eldorado, a 2023 drama by Mathieu Volpe about a snow groomer operator from Cameroon in Italian border town who encounters a young migrant desperately trying to cross the border, and the 1945 Swiss film The Last Chance (Die letzte Chance).

The screening of the Georgian film Hotel Metalurg at the Slovenian Cinematheque on 24 September will be followed by a discussion on accommodation for migrants with officials from UNHCR, the Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants, Peace Institute, Slovenian Caritas and Slovenian Philanthropy.

The next day will see screenings of three films at the cinema of the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGFT), to be followed by a discussion with David Fedele, director of This Jungo Life, one of the films screened, and Helena Behr of UNHCR Central Europe.

Arica, a 2020 Swedish documentary about a landmark corporate liability trial over exports of toxic waste to the Chilean desert town of Arica, will be shown at the Slovenian Cinematheque, followed by a discussion about extractivism.

The final evening will see several screenings at the Slovenian Cinematheque and at Slovenian Philanthropy. At the former, the screenings will be followed by a discussion with Aleksandra Chrzanowska from the Polish organization Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej over ZOOM.

All festival events are admission free except for the screening of The Old Oak by UK director Ken Loach at Kinodvor on 25 September.

The programme is available here.