The Festival of Tolerance – Jewish Film Festival Zagreb is a somewhat unique film festival in these parts. It’s program includes film projections, thematic exhibitions, educational workshops and lectures, discussions and music events. Pretty standard stuff for a film festival, except its central theme. Jewish Film Festival started off ten years ago as a project of remembrance and awareness of the Holocaust and the legacy the horrendous event has bestowed upon the world, featuring films that tackle the theme, bu has since became a festival of films that promote universal tolerance and humanity, both in its darkest iterations as a warning, and in its brightest, as a guide and a beacon of hope.
‘We started out with an idea about raising awareness and maintaining the collective memory of the Holocaust using it as an example to transfer experience from the past, but listening to the needs of the society not just here but also in the world, during the nine years of the Festival we touched upon other topics whose awareness can and should enable a common better tomorrow. We recognized and warned about the problems of racism, discrimination, xenophobia, homophobia, hate speech and the relationship of the society towards persons of the third age, but this year we will also deal with the problem of migrants and their assimilation’, announced the organizers.
The tenth jubilee edition of the Festival of Tolerance under the baton of double Oscar winner Branko Lustig (Schindler’s list, Gladiator) and director of the Festival Natasa Popovic will be held from April 9th until 15th at Europa and Tuskanac movie theaters. . The main themes will be the legacy of fascism, the refugees question and the problem of intolerance towards those who are different.
‘These current social happenings increasingly reveal certain socio-cultural antagonisms so the need to speak about injustices, insisting on dialogue and cooperation of the whole community in the fight against discrimination is certainly one of the main goals of the 10th Festival of Tolerance’, said Popovic.
To check out the screening schedule, trailers, guest lecturers and other parts of the program in English, click here.
