The 6th press conference of The International Film Festival FEST 2010 presented the only English director of the festival Gareth Jones with his Film “Desire”, a low budget film nominated for Best UK Feature at the prestigious West End Raindance Festival 2009. The directional debut of Jones, according to Empire Online, “Cinematographer Alex Ryle makes intelligent use of encompassed space in acclaimed screenwriter Gareth Jones’ directional debut “Desire”. This is always more the work of an author then an auteur, but Jones laudably attempts to deal with adult emotions in fathoming the passions and frustrations that are unleashed by the creative process. “This is a sexy film, played with intensity and intriguing insight, about a couple with children and their relationship with their kid’s nanny, a young black woman from Africa. It is an intensive story, and is much about control of lust, because both of them, husband and wife, sleep with the same nanny. Even if the nanny is a victim because of her abducted son in Africa, she does not feel as a victim. She is a catalyst for their (couple’s) mutual sexual desire and lust. This sexy melodrama talks about lust and drags attention of young male audience because of the content of film.

“I really want to get inside of people’s head because I feel very strongly that British film particularly has ostracized itself into the third person or sometimes even third personal plural and has completely abandoned the first person. And I think that weakens and dilutes the identification of the audience. I wanted to keep all my characters very much in the first person.” 

The most popular guests of FEST 2010 were definitely young Croatian star Rene Bitorajac, Croatian film director Branko Schmidt and producer of film Stanko Babic, with film “Metastasis”. The film already awarded on Pula Film Festival 2009 is a serious candidate for award on The International Film Festival FEST 2010. It is based on a very successful Croatian novel “Metastasis” written by Ivo Balenovic and it deals with Nazi oriented and violent football fans based in an urban capital Zagreb. The screenplay is written by very well known Croatian film director and screenwriter Ognjen Svilicic.

The story brings up a dark picture of often hidden part of Croatian postwar society and problem that raises and stays unsolved. Shot with direction of skilful and experienced Croatian film director Schmidt, out of hands and in long frames, it gives the story certain authentic feel, especially enforced with strong characters, made by the reflection of a real people. It’s a story about 4 friends from the neighbor district of Zagreb City, place familiar to anywhere else ex Yugoslavia, caught in a post war atmosphere where heavy drugs and alcohol abuse seems to be every day thing in one cruel and corrupted society. Film clearly pictures violence in a family, life disappointments, football games and funny relationship inside of family. The characters are urban, depressed and very violent. The title of the film Metastasis points out on a social pathology of nowaday society in Croatia, and metaphorically represent the “dangerous illness” a social pathology that spreads quickly in one society.  

 „Metastasis“ were first created as a novel published in Zagreb three years ago. The novel was a huge success and it served as a basis for the same-named theatre play. As much as five directors were interested in this text and owing to my producer, I had the honor to make a film out of it. My producer was generous and he gave the best offer (laughs) and we got the rights to make a film out of the novel. In the medical sense, we know what metastatis is – expansion of cancer cells leading to the death of the body. Both the novel and the theatre play and this film are about this metastasis that have engulfed the Croatian society and threaten to bring about a bad outcome. The story is about something society is reluctant to show and what is most often pushed under the rug. Therefore, it was quite a shocker in Croatia. The film was a big success with about 30 thousand viewers, which is a great number for our country. It has won the Pula film festival and there were a lot of reactions. Interestingly enough, not a single politician attended the premiere. Politicians like to appear at premieres, they didn’t attend mine. This too speaks about the film. It shows that it is rejected by the political top brass of the state, but it has been welcomed by people, especially young people. To date we have participated in a dozen festivals“