17th International T-Mobile New Horizons Film Festival

One of the key features in the programme is a retrospective of Jacques Rivette (died in January 2016), who is considered to be one of the masters of the French Nouvelle Vague, a realist and a visionary, a legendary auteur and a radical and truly spectacular artist. For many years, Rivette was one of the leading film critics at "Cahiers du Cinéma" (also Editor-in-Chief). He is also believed to have directed the first Nouvelle Vague film ever (a short film called Le Coup du Berger in 1956).

The retrospective brings a dozen or so titles from the master, most of which have never been featured in Poland, including a monumental experiment, a thirteen-hour long legendary Out 1 (1971);a Locarno-awarded surrealistic fantasy called Céline et Julie Vont en Bateau, or Phantom Ladies Over Paris (1974); an over four-hour long melodrama L'Amour Fou (1969); Secret Défense (1998), featuring a celebrated Polish actor, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz; and Cannes-awarded La Belle Noiseuse (1991), starring an unforgettable trio, namely Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin and Emmanuelle Bèart. The overview will be complemented with a documentary by Serge Daney and this year's festival guest Claire Denis (Jacques Rivette, Le Veilleur, 1990), or recently remastered short films by Rivette from the 1940s and 1950s.

A separate retrospective will also be devoted to Fred Kelemen, an intriguing German director and Béla Tarr’s long-standing collaborator. Fred Kelemen is known as a master of long takes, chiaroscuro, metaphorical frames and emotional message. Most of his works were recorded on film tape. The overview brings all of his attempts as director, including Locarno-awarded Frost (1997), Toronto-awarded Abendland (1999) and his latest Sarajevo Songs of Woe (2016).

The section is complemented with his most successful attempts as director of photography, including Béla Tarr's projects. The artist is expected to put in an appearance at this year's festival. The 17th edition of the International T-Mobile New Horizons Film Festival also brings an overview of Israeli cinema. The programme offers a dozen or so films from 2014–2017, both feature films and documentaries, as well as experimental works combining film-making with visual arts. Israeli artists are now at the forefront of the cinema, with their vivid, rapidly developing and compelling story-telling, engagé attitudes and a relentless drive to confront reality.

Both Israeli cinema and the society it originates from are diverse and in the process of seeking new identities. They have been called a new Isreali wave of late, and they are now all the rage at international festivals. This year's edition of the festival will put their powers to the test. The programme brings a widely discussed and Locarno-featured film called People That Are Not Me by Hadas Ben Aroya, a young female director from Tel Aviv.