UPDATE: CIFF44 CANCELLED

While we are saddened that our film loving audience will not have the opportunity to experience CIFF44's amazing films and talented filmmakers, we understand the City's obligation to protect the health and safety of all residents. We regret not having the opportunity to celebrate our three decades at Tower City Center. But we look forward to presenting CIFF45, April 7-18, 2021, at our new and permanent home in Playhouse Square.

While we are saddened that our film loving audience will not have the opportunity to experience CIFF44's amazing films and talented filmmakers, we understand the City's obligation to protect the health and safety of all residents. We regret not having the opportunity to celebrate our three decades at Tower City Center. But we look forward to presenting CIFF45, April 7-18, 2021, at our new and permanent home in Playhouse Square.

While we are saddened that our film loving audience will not have the opportunity to experience CIFF44's amazing films and talented filmmakers, we understand the City's obligation to protect the health and safety of all residents. We regret not having the opportunity to celebrate our three decades at Tower City Center. But we look forward to presenting CIFF45, April 7-18, 2021, at our new and permanent home in Playhouse Square.

While we are saddened that our film loving audience will not have the opportunity to experience CIFF44's amazing films and talented filmmakers, we understand the City's obligation to protect the health and safety of all residents. We regret not having the opportunity to celebrate our three decades at Tower City Center. But we look forward to presenting CIFF45, April 7-18, 2021, at our new and permanent home in Playhouse Square.

While we are saddened that our film loving audience will not have the opportunity to experience CIFF44's amazing films and talented filmmakers, we understand the City's obligation to protect the health and safety of all residents. We regret not having the opportunity to celebrate our three decades at Tower City Center. But we look forward to presenting CIFF45, April 7-18, 2021, at our new and permanent home in Playhouse Square.
Cleveland International Film Festival } March 25 – April 7, 2020 } See Beyond
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VARIOLA VERA

 

Year: 1982
Country: Yugoslavia
Run Time: 110 minutes

As the possibility of a smallpox outbreak looms ominously on the American horizon, VARIOLA VERA, a chilling film about a mysterious virus that spreads through Belgrade, serves as a prophetic warning. A chilling lesson on the politics of containing an epidemic, the film scrutinizes the alternately selfish and selfless behavior of people under a great deal of pressure. After visiting a distant land, a pilgrim returns to Yugoslavia with a sweet-sounding flute, and with it a fatal, highly infectious disease. Nearly comatose, the unfortunate traveler is deposited at Belgrade General Hospital where intrigues among the staff rival the spiciest soap opera. No one pays attention to the dying patient until it's far too late. Word of the plague spreads wildly and the hospital is entirely quarantined by bumbling government bureaucrats trying to save their nation. Tension and fear build to epic proportions within the hermetically sealed hospital as the disease spreads; some doctors keep to their physician's oaths, others succumb to selfishness. A fascinating film inspired by Albert Camus' The Plague, VARIOLA VERA raises the questions of borders, containment, infection and the way a government makes crucial, life-changing decisions without involving its citizens, a consistent theme running through most of Goran Markovi_'s work: the effect of repressive regimes on a people's spirit, consciousness and actions. (In Serbian with English subtitles)

Screenplay
Goran Markovic, Milan Nikolic

Director
Goran Markovic

Producer
Aleksandar Stojanovic

Cinematography
Radoslav Vladic

Editing
Vuksan Lukovac

Principal Cast
Erland Josephson, Rade Markovic, Semka Sokolovic-Bertok, Vladislava Milosavljevic, Peter Carsten

Print Source

Centar Film
Beogradska 71
11000 Belgrade
YUGOSLAVIA
Tel: (381 11) 3240 458
Fax: (381 11) 3232 139
centfilm@eunet.yu
www.centar-film.com

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