Critics’ Choice 8: Re/United

Background

Critics’ Choice 8: Re/United

01 February 2022

For the eighth time, Dana Linssen and Jan Pieter Ekker are organising the context programme Critics' Choice during International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

This eighth edition of Critics’ Choice is even more extraordinary than the third – which could be considered the second-and-a-half edition, after last year's festival that was split into two parts. When we spoke with festival director Vanja Kaludjercic about new ideas for 2022 at the end of last year, one thing seemed certain for 2022: this was going to be the year that films and their festivals would return to cinemas again. AKA: Re/United.

It sadly didn’t go as planned. A lockdown was reinstated, and the cultural industry – which was one of the few that actually enforced adequate safety protocols – was disproportionately affected.

The video essays we have commissioned are nevertheless going to be made later this year. They will be presented when IFFR competition films meet their audiences in cinemas later this year. If you ask us, Critics’ Choice 8 takes place all year round.

And it starts now: the Spanish image editor Noemí, currently residing in The Netherlands, is the driving force behind the collective Now You See Me Moria. They were asked to create a video essay for Mijke de Jong’s Along the Way, after their exhibition in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam caught our attention.

The narrative about Afghan twins Nahid and Malihe who crossed paths with De Jong when she was volunteering in refugee center Moria in Lesbos was supposed to be the opening film for IFFR’s 51st edition. However, when the festival went digital, Along the Way was pulled back from the lineup. A day before IFFR 2022 kicked off, cinemas reopened in The Netherlands and IFFR announced the physical screenings of Along the Way during its closing weekend. The short film by Noemí is now available online and will be screened in cinemas from 14 April onwards.