By Ryan Keating-Lambert
Although things are looking a bit dire in the film industry lately, there’s still hope! Many Prague-based film festivals are adapting and moving online this season and the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, now in its 21st year, is no exception. The festival will retain its youthful, colourful and carefree spirit despite the circumstances, and will kick off on November 5th with a live broadcast on streaming service Moje Kino, where you can watch a number of award-winning LGBTQ films until November 12th. All films are English friendly!
Starting at 19:00 sharp, the English friendly opening ceremony will include the Czech premiere of new German film No Hard Feelings (Futur Drei). The film focuses on Parvis (Benny Radjaipour), a confidently out but immature young gay man of Iranian descent living in Germany, who is sentenced to perform community service at a refugee detention centre after commiting a minor crime. It’s there that he meets and falls in love with new immigrant Amon (Eidin Jalali). No Hard Feelings is a story of conspiracy, trust and the need to belong. It also won this year’s Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
On top of that, you can catch the best queer feature films, documentaries and shorts at the festival from over 20 different countries, not to mention discussions with professional filmmakers and more in the Industry program section, all through a series of livestreams.
The festival this year will focus specifically on the theme of recovery. “Minority shiver, everyday battles with subconscious attacks, and efforts to look ‘normal’ to others so that we avoid ridicule and assaults from an early age often take their toll on both the mental and physical health of queer people,” says festival director Pavel Bicek. “The increasing aggression against the LGBTQ+ community in Central and Eastern Europe and the worldwide pandemic crisis were an impulse for us to turn to our community. Because each injury takes time for a recovery, and marginalization of these problems only leads to further diseases,” he concludes. Check out the full programme for more.
Tickets and festival passes available here.
Feature photo: Mezipatra
Movie Barf 