Bela starts her first year of high school and faces many changes in her life. New friends, first love, first disappointments, and serious decisions. Together with her friends, they decide to form their own band, using music to express their emotions.

Film expert recommends

Ciao Bela is the feature debut of a highly regarded documentary filmmaker and producer in Slovenia, and formerly a well-known journalist and publisher. It is also crowning evidence, as in Scandinavia, of the fruitful cooperation of the essentially small Balkan states in the field of cinematography, which has withstood past animosities and years of conflict. In Ciao Bela Sever reaches back to his musical passions, just revealed in the documents. It may not be possible to clearly identify the genre, but the film refers (not unique to our festival) in various ways to the role of music in the lives of both the older and especially the younger generation. Nominally, it is a coming-of-age story, in which the central point is a painful longing for a loved one who is closest but absent. Rebellions, conflicts, new tested passions and friends stem from this absence. The rescue, as almost always, is art. Sever doesn’t need to complicate the plot of her piece; as viewers, we follow the fascinating protagonist and her offbeat personality. This is one of those films that owe most to the idea of her and the actress creating her, in this case Alina Milicevic.

Jacek Nowakowski

• Polish and English subtitles
• age: 13+