The first day of the 19th Zagreb Film Festival brings two feature film treats from the main program on the big screen. The winner of this year’s Cannes Festival, Titane, a mischievously twisted fantasy immersed in neon, sex and violence, is the second film by French director Julie Ducournau. After the cannibalistic debut Raw, the author once again explores the limits of horror films, this time of Cronenberg’s bodily horror. Titane is screened in Tuškanac Cinema at 13 h and at SC Cinema at 21 h.

The Tunisian The Man Who Sold His Skin, by director Kaouther Ben Hania, is a love story about a young Syrian refugee who wants to meet up with his beloved wife but ends up as an exhibit in European museums. The lead role in this satire brimming with political comments went to the fantastic Syrian actor Yahya Mahayni who won the Orizzonti Award in Venice, and Monica Bellucci embodied the unscrupulous and cold art dealer. The film plays at Tuškanac Cinema at 10.30 and in SC Cinema at 18.30.

The 17 h time slot in Tuškanac is reserved for the first screening from The Great 5 program. The British one-shot film, Boiling Point by Philip Barantini, pulls viewers into a frenzied evening of a prestigious restaurant and its staff with ease. Actress Vinette Robinson won special mention in Karlovy Vary.

The competition program Together Again in Tuškanac Cinema will open at 19.30 with A Hero, the newest film of the great Iranian director, by two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi (The Past — ZFF 2013; A Separation; The Salesman). Farhadi’s intriguing drama about the fate of an individual in a society which loves to idolize people, but does not believe its own stories. The powerful love drama The Restless by Joachim Lafosse from the same program screens at 18 h in Theatre &TD. As in his previous films (Our Children, After Love, Keep Going), cracks in family relations are Lafosse’s main theme, and the film was inspired by the author’s experience of growing up with a bipolar father.

The short film competition starts at 22 h in Tuškanac Cinema. The program includes the Croatian short film from the Checkers program: Bulky Waste by Andrija Tomić and Rockets by Saša Poštić and Pavle Kocanjer. The international short competition will screen the Georgian film Number 26 by Gvantsa Meparishvili and Belgian Zonder Meer by Meltse Van Coillie, produced by the directorial duo Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens (Khadak — ZFF 2015; King of the Belgians — ZFF 2016; The Barefoot Emperor — ZFF 2019).

The acclaimed Turkish film Brother’s Keeper, by Ferit Karahan, won the FIPRESCI Award at Berlinale and is described as a mixture of Oliver Twist and The Death of Mr Lazarescu. It is the first film from the new program Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region, and screens at Theatre &TD at 20.30.

Part of Zagreb Film Festival’s program is aimed at young and youngest filmlovers. The beautiful Norwegian feature adventure for ages 7 and up which pulls viewers into the magical world of children’s imagination Sisters – The Summer We Found Our Superpowers by Silje Salomonsen and Arild Østin Ommundsen from the competition program KinoKino festival, which this year takes place as part of ZFF, screens Monday in Urania. All five films from the PLUS program, aimed at highschoolers will be available on the platform kinoeuropa.hr until Sunday, November 21.