From 25th to 30th of April the Crossing Europe film festival is taking place in Linz. It is held the third time and for us it is the second time to have the chance to see movies there. This year 160 films from 27 countries are shown. If you ever have a chance to go to a film festival take advantage of the opportunity. It is so great. You see many good non-mainstream films and the best of all some persons involved (producer, director, actors, etc.) will show up right before/after the movie and give you the opportunity to give some feedback on the movie and to ask all the questions you have.

This year I am going to see four movies and I am coming right back from the first of them: The Slovenian film “Odgrobadogroba” (Gravehopping)”. Starting as a really funny movie it focuses on a topic which is tabu in most countries, suicide, and gets quite tough and touching in some scenes. The plot focuses around the main actor, a man whose profession is to hold speeches at burials, his family and his neighbours. My favourite character was the father of the main role… the poor old man whose wife had died 6 years ago and who tries to escape his loneliness constantly. His expression is great and his person is just so likeable.

My favourite quote:

“Not everyone is born, but everyone is going to die.”

I am still very sorry that the audience (us included) did not ask any questions after the movie. I think we were just so moved by the film and would have needed some time to get ready for conversation. Sorry again about not being that talkative but thank you very much for this great movie.

Check back tomorrow for my comments on “European Animation Highlights” and “On the outskirts”.

Gravehopping movie homepage
Producer (left) and Director (right) of the film, talking to the audience

Crossing Europe film festival homepage

Some minutes ago I published an article at japaninfo.at which focuses on japanese asian Smileys. What are your favourite Smileys/Emoticons/Kaomoji and what are they called in your country?
Personally I really like emoticons which feature kanji
Meet my weird friend (`益´) or my cat ミ^・.・^彡 and dog u・ェ・u
Sometimes I feel just so indifferent（　´_ゝ`）
But anyway… who cares? 凸(｀∇´)凸

Today my generous wife surprised me with a really cool gift. She gave me a book with the title “Japanese Graphics Now”. It’s a book full of photographs and with hardly any text in it (very good feature for lazy people like me). It gives a very good overview of the current product and marketing designs in Japan. You see tons of posters, products, logos and much much more which are presented in over 350 pages. This version of the book is brandnew and sold at a special price (€ 9.99). You might want to click on the image to buy it online from amazon directly.

Another small step into the correct* direction was made. The European union launched a public online forum for everyone to share his thoughts about all the problems and fears which people are facing. Internet might not be the best media for debate but it is still better to discuss online than not to discuss at all. The forum is available in 20 languages. Check it out here: European Forum

*) This is purely my own opinion. Feel free to have your own opinion and probably share it with others on the forum mentioned.