KATHMANDU: From 13 European countries come 16 films and they are being screened at QFX Kumari, Kamal Pokhari. The platform being 6th European Union (EU) Film Festival, this ‘European Adventures’ is scheduled to screen romance, drama, comedy, adventure, thriller, documentary on subjects ranging from children, women, relationship, warriors and so on.

The festival began on May 19 with an inauguration followed by the screening of a German film — Bornholmer Straße. A comical take-on on 1989’s fall of the Berlin Wall, the German border guards at the checkpoint tickled the funny bones of the audience.

Siddhartha K Shakya, cameraperson and producer, was an attendee and was looking forward to the film.

“I had gone to see what had happened to the Berlin Wall in the year 1994 and had taken a photograph which won a second prize in 2003. The film is related to that Wall and I wanted to watch it,” he shared.

In fact he is looking forward to other films in the festival as well “to know how European films are; their filmmaking is different”. In the meantime, he said he could learn filmmaking techniques as well as their culture from them.

Films have come from Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Latvia, France, Finland among others.

“There are five films which is about the exploration about children; there are two-three documentaries. There are also two-three adult films about relationships,” Ambar Mainali, Press and Information Officer, EU Delegation to Nepal shared about their offerings. “It is a mixture of things but there are some very good films.”

He feels European films “are issue-based and have a clear line of thought”. Among 16 films, he suggests, Swallows And Amazons about child physiology and growing up, Dream Team 1935 where a Lativian basketball team takes home the European Basketball Championship against all odds, Little Mountain Boy, Treasure Knights, Belle et Sebastien and Bornholmer Straße.

The four-day public screening, which is free, started on May 20, but the fever had caught on early. Young film enthusiasts Sudip Barai and Rupendra Shiwakoti were obtaining the tickets for the upcoming films and wished to see all the films if they can.

“I love films; If I had time, I would watch all the films of the fest,” Barai said. This amateur filmmaker wants to explore what is going on in the European cinema through the fest.

Shiwakoti who was at the previous fest added, “You get to know their kind of filmmaking and director’s perspective along with their society and culture.”

He had watched the trailers of the films and he found Oh Boy (Germany), A Second Chance (Denmark), Committed (Cyprus) and Comedy of Tears (Slovenia) interesting because of their genre which are from romantic to psychological thrillers. The films will be screened at 11:00 am, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm and 5:30 pm.