JANKO BALJAK, Selector of the programme: RED LIGHT FOCUS

NOW AND NEVER AGAIN

- OSCAR WINNER IN FRONT OF THE DOMESTIC AUDIENCE

RED LIGHT FOCUS consists of the films that I selected at IDFA Festival in Amsterdam , in November. The selected films, in different and very interesting ways, deal with the problems of sex-trafficking and prostitution in various parts of the world. The program consists of four films, made mainly by women authors. It will be interesting for the audience to see them as they are to be shown in Belgrade now and never again. When I watched and selected the films for our Festival, I did not even imagine that the film “Born into Brothel: Calcutta Red Light Kids” would get an Oscar for the feature length documentary film and here is the opportunity for our audience to exclusively see a film awarded by the Oscar. In addition, the films from Iran , “Prostitution under the Vail”, and then the film by the Croatian author Dane Budisavljevic, “Straight A's!” about a Croatian porno-star, more precisely, about her private life, are also interesting. It is an extremely warm and a real “women's” film told in the first person singular. These films are maybe targeting the women, especially because the authors - women deal with such a delicate subject, but this subjects initiates different questions at the level of something that is called sociology and politics and which is, in the end, universal. Sex-trafficking is a big, planetary problem, whether it is happening in an Islamic country, in the Balkans, or in India . My choice, should, as I imagined, initiate some kind of debate or at least discussion about this phenomenon which has been really a contemporary and I would say, “in”- theme worldwide in the past few years.

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