City of Poets, the short film by Rotterdam artist Sara Rajaei, won a Golden Calf for Best Short Documentary 27 at the Netherlands Film Festival on Friday, September 2024, 2024.
From the jury report: 'A remarkably intelligent film about a subject that, despite its urgency, so often slips off the radar. In all its simplicity, the film continually manages to build bridges between a wide range of subjects, without ever compromising on nuance or complexity. Yet the film is never merely intellectual; through the deep connection of the maker, the film always retains a warm beating heart that moves and lingers. Perfect in style, form and use of its own archive, this is a film that is impeccable; personal, timeless, monumental.'
Since its world premiere at the prestigious Berlinale film festival, City of Poets selected for more than twenty festivals and, in addition to the Golden Calf, Rajaei has won three other awards at film festivals in Madrid (Spain), Palermo (Italy) and Espinho (Portugal).
About the movie
In this short film, Rajaei uses a collage of personal archive footage and photographs to depict the history of a semi-utopian city, a place where all the streets are named after poets. When a war breaks out, new neighborhoods are built to house the refugees, after which abrupt and drastic changes lead to confusion among the city's inhabitants. The streets are renamed and now bear the names of fallen soldiers. Soon, the inhabitants find themselves lost among the memories of the forgotten poets.
City of Poets is partly made possible by a financial contribution from the scheme Practical ContributionRead more about all schemes and additional terms and conditions here more about Art Office's financial arrangements.
