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Digitally restored Wild Lilies at Lumière Festival 2019

Digitally restored film Wild Lilies (1972) by Elo Havetta will world premiere at the of one of the largest and most respected international festivals of the classic film Lumière Festival in Lyon (October 12 - 20, 2019). This is the third digitally restored film from the collections of the National Film Archive of the SFI that festival has selected for its program in the past three years.

The festival draws attention to essential films from the history of cinema and helps classic cinema to stay alive. The program is dedicated to restored classic films, retrospectives and tributes to significant filmmakers. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the festival, the organizers created the Lumière Classics label, which covers three program sections dedicated to restored films: French Films, International Films and Treasures from Archives Around the World. Wild Lilies (part of the Treasures from Archives Around the World section) will also run for the awards for best restoration.

Wild Lilies captures war veterans returning from World War I to their homeland. They try to find a home and rediscover their roots, but their desire to live free without any commitments is just as strong.

The selection of a film for the Lumière Festival program is always a great chance for the archive institutions to bring back the attention for one of their classic films. Wild Lilies is the third Slovak digitally restored film to be presented at the festival. In 2017, the festival introduced the feature-length animated film The Bloody Lady (1980) by Viktor Kubal, last year a tragicomedy The Barnabáš Kos Case (1964) by Peter Solan was premiered there. “Digital film restoration is a long-term and demanding process. Each year we select one ’crucial’ film that we digitally restored with the prospect of submitting it to Lumière Festival. This year, it was Wild Lilies, a film that is formally and extraordinarily unique, unknown to audiences outside of Slovakia,” explains Rastislav Steranka, director of the SFI National Cinematographic Center, who will also introduce the film at the screenings.

As part of the festival, the SFI will also participate in the Marché International du Film Classique, where it will again have a stand together with the National Film Archive in Prague.

Havetta's films Celebration in the Botanical Garden (1969) and Wild Lilies (1972) will be released by the Slovak Film Institute this year on DVD and blu-ray.

Screenings:
October 16 / 14:00 / LUMIÈRE BELLECOUR
October 17 / 14:15 / LUMIÈRE FOURMI

Web:
http://www.festival-lumiere.org/en/

published: 11.10.2019
updated: 11.10.2019