On the horizon is the tenth edition of the Cinelibri International Book-to-Film Festival which this year will take place between October 10 and November 3 under the motto “Endless Poetry”. Intended to show the latest cinematic masterpieces inspired by the immeasurable world of literature, this one-of-a-kind film forum, which already has a devoted audience at different age, will be held in parallel in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo and Stara Zagora.
We are pleased to present the official vision of Cinelibri 2024, inspired by the program’s rich conceptual, thematic and artistic content. With the motto “Endless Poetry”, the festival pays tribute to the luminaries of poetic art, to whom we owe unforgettable thrills and flights of the spirit. It is enough to mention the greatest French poet of the Renaissance – Pierre de Ronsard, born 500 years ago and proclaimed by his contemporaries as the “Prince of Poets”; the famous Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, born 120 years ago; the immortal Mexican poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz, born 110 years ago; the brilliant Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, born 170 years ago; the extravagant George Byron, who flew out of this world prematurely two centuries ago… In 2024, we also celebrate the 120th anniversary of the birth of the Bulgarian poet and translator Atanas Dalchev – an erudite creator, impervious to conjunctural influences.
This year, in the context of an increasingly inconsolable world, we find hope in poetry. In poetry, similar to Arthur Rimbaud’s drunken ship, full of happy and bemused drowning people, but also in poetry as a resistance to the monotony and fragility of life, as “rest for the chained fantasy.” Especially in poetry as the immensity and freedom that Paul Verlaine so longed for, the poet “innocent as birds” (as Borges saw him), born exactly 180 years ago.
Cinelibri 2024 celebrates the permeability between poetry and dream, art and life, the spiritual and the material, hope and despair. That is why the figure in the center of the image, a kind of heart made of outstretched hands and palms, befitting a book with leaves, symbolizes the inexhaustible human urge. A sense of community and sharing gives wings to hope for a more harmonious future. Encoded here is the belief that unity springs from diversity, from reconciling our differences. That the flame of life, love and peace are impossible without accepting the otherness that contains so much beauty, as long as you have eyes for it. Poetry has no limits, because human urges and yearnings are infinite, and they find their manifestation in art.
The motto “Endless Poetry” is also a reference to the film of the same name by Alejandro Jodorowsky, a real movie wizard whose surreal revelations captivate or repulse, but never leave the viewer indifferent. And the wings on the figure are an unequivocal reference to Wim Wenders’ iconic romantic drama “Wings of Desire”. Because at the base of every art – every film, poem or theatre performance – is the desire. The reference to Wenders’ film is also the most poetic, metaphorical reminder possible of the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of some illusions replaced by others. And since the current historical moment is more often about guns than about poetry, we can’t help but celebrate the 100th anniversary of Truman Capote, the author of “The Muses Are Heard”, which constantly reminds us that “when the cannons are silent, the muses are heard.”
The conceptual vision of Cinelibri 2024, generated partly through AI, is a result from the original design talent and fresh ideas of Radoslava Boor, who masterfully integrates new technologies into her projects.
The project is to be realized with the financial support of the “National Film Center” – Bulgaria, Sofia Municipality, Plovdiv Municipality, the “Culture” Fund of Varna Municipality, Burgas Municipality, Veliko Tarnovo Municipality, Gabrovo Municipality and in partnership with “Zachary Knyazheski” Regional Library, Stara Zagora Municipality. The project is part of the Cultural Events Calendar of Sofia Municipality for 2024. The program is to be accomplished in cooperation with many partners and like-minded people, which we are yet to announce.