By Alex Deleon, <Filmfestivals.com>

Odessa at age Nine is one of the youngest film festivals on the European festival circuit but is clearly making a bid for wider recognition in 2018.

Not to forget that this fabulous Black Sea seaport was the location for one of the most seminal films of the entire XXth century,  Russian director Sergei Eisenstein's silent epic "Battleship Potemkin" in 1924.  The famous Odessa Steps sequence has been quoted and imitated in countless other films, notably by  Brian De Palma in  "The Untouchables", 1975, which includes a nearly shot by shot recreation of that riot in contemporary  Chicago, right down to the baby carriage tumbling out of control down the steps during a massacre.

Below, some of this year's upcoming highlights:

Benedikt Erlingsson’s Woman at War will ioen the 9th Odessa International Film Festival

Winner of the SACD award in Cannes International Critics' Week the film will be screened at the opening ceremony of the festival

The sophomore film by Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson, Woman at War, will open the 9th Odessa International Film Festival on 13 July. The film is co-produced and shot in France, Iceland, and Ukraine and was supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency. Dealing with the issues of the environmental degradation, the film is following a woman who goes against her community and decides to embark on a mission to protect nature and preserve the Icelandic hills.

The  2018 International Competition Program jury is also outstanding.

It will be presided over  by polish producer Ewa Puszczynska, and other members are ace Indian director Ritesh Batra, French director Arnaud des Pallières, and Georgian actress Ia Shugliashvili

Ewa Puszczynska, well known for her prize winning collaborations with Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War) while  Indian director Ritesh Batra whose debut The Lunchbox created a minor sensation in Bollywood by completely reversing the direction of the usual Masala song and dance extravaganzas and making a straight dramatic love story that was acclaimed by festivals all over the world.  Igor Minaiev is a Ukrainian-French theatre and film director, while Arnaud des Pallières is a French director and screenwriter who participated last year in Odessa with his film Orpheline. Georgian actress  Ia Shugliashvili is best known for her role in last year’s success My Happy Family and rounds out a sophisticated eclectic Jury worthy of an A level festival

OIFF-2018: Retrospective «70 years of Israeli cinema»

Considering that Ukraine had the largest yiddish speaking Jewish community in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century which, needless to say was largely decimated by the invading Germans in World War II, this is an especially poignant and savvy bit of programming. Many American Jews have Ukrainian roots ~  And there are still considerable Jewish communities in Kyiv and Zhitomir today. 

On the 70th anniversary of Israeli cinema, the Odesa Film Festival will provide a range of insights into the cultural diversity of present day Israeli society. The Ultra-orthodox community, the Ethiopian Falasha minority, the Arabic presence, the Sefarad and the Ashkenazic Jewish community originally from the former Soviet Union – all of them will be presented on the big screen

Tikkun (2015, Avishai Sivan). Haim-Aaron is a bright, Ultra-Orthodox religious scholar living in Jerusalem. One evening, following a self-imposed fast, Haim-Aaron collapses and loses consciousness. The paramedics announce his death, but his father takes over resuscitation efforts and, beyond all expectations, Haim-Aaron comes back to life. After the accident, he remains apathetic to his studies. The father is tormented by the fear of having crossed God’s will the night he resuscitated his son. Silver Leopard – Special Jury Prize at the 2015 Locarno IFF.

Live and Become (2005, Radu Mihăileanu). Schlomo, an Ethiopian boy, is placed by his Christian mother with an Ethiopian Jewish woman whose child has died. This woman, who will become his adoptive mother, is about to be airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984. His birth mother, who hopes for a better life for him, tells him, “Live and become,” as he leaves her to get on the bus. The film tells of his growing up in Israel and how he deals with the secrets he carries: not being Jewish and having left his birth mother. Panorama Audience Award at the 2005 Berlinale.

To Take a Wife (2004, Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz). The story takes place in Haifa in 1979, during three days before the Shabbat. A hairdresser Viviane struggles to maintain her individuality in a household with an oppressive, conservative husband and his live-in mother. When Viviane’s old lover reappears, an already untenable situation grows more complicated. Critics’ Week Audience Award at the 2004 Venice FF.

Five Hours from Paris (2009, Leonid Prudovsky). In a working-class suburb of Tel Aviv, two people meet. He is a native Israeli. She is a Russian immigrant. He is a taxi driver. She is a music teacher. He has no aspirations. She gave up hers long ago. He is afraid of flying and she is about to fly away. What are the odds of them ending up together? Official Selection at the 2009 Toronto IFF.

Ajami (2009, Yaron Shani, Scandar Copti). Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood is a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. The tragic fragility of human existence is experienced in the enclosed community of Ajami, where enemies must live as neighbors. No location better expresses the dramatic collision of different worlds. Back and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, we witness how impossible the situation actually is. Caméra d’Or – Special Mention at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Another interesting presence here will be the arrival of a new Indian film by a talented young Ukrainian filmmaker, Dargai Molfarnist, who is based in Mumbai and is the fiancée of fast rising Indian producer/writer Dheer Momaya. More about that later, but an Indian film by a young Ukrainian lady will surely be something to write home about.

The famous Odessa Steps, then and now ...

Can't wait to tread these steps with my own two feet,

Alex, Budapest