The first RAFF – Rab Film Festival, which is a festival of investigative film will take place for the first time in Rab this summer, in the period between August the 23rd and the 27th. The festival will be organised on several open-air stages, and visitors can expect to experience excellent film, music and gastro programs. The focus of the film festival will be on the intriguing titles carrying elements of investigation into current global and local problems and phenomena.
Robert Tomić Zuber, the director of the Rab Film Festival spoke at the press conference in Zagreb, presenting the festival: “In the era of the fast influx of information and the clickbait race, our focus is on research. We are interested in stories that are carefully researched, that either ask precise questions or offer answers based on facts, whether they come in the form of a documentary or a feature film”.
The program was created in cooperation with the Sarajevo Film Festival, one of the biggest festivals in Europe, and Sarajevo’s winning movie will be shown at the opening of RAFF. Mirsad Purivatra, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival said at the press conference that they don’t often agree to partner with other festivals, but that he’s happy to be able to work with RAFF both in terms of logistics and programming, especially through the program of facing the past.
Another important cooperation for a new festival such as RAFF is their partnership with the Al Jazeera Balkans Doc Film Festival, also based in Sarajevo, which will have the role of a broadcast partner for RAFF.
The highlight of the feature film program, selected by the movie critic from Belgrade, Vladan Petković, is the movie Sons of Denmark, the fictional plot of which takes place in Denmark in 2025, after a major bomb attack in Copenhagen, when radicalisation around the country has intensified and ethnic tensions are running high. The movie will see its regional premiere in Rab, and it warns what Europe might look like if the nationalism and anti-immigration politics continue.
Lejla Dedić, the selector of the documentary program (she is also the selector for the Al Jazeera Balkans Doc Film Festival!) has chosen several remarkable documentaries. What stands out is the Croatian premiere of the movie Bellingcat: Truth in a post-truth world, a movie that dissects the appearance of so-called fake news, and wants to find out if there’s a way for real investigative reporting to make a return. The Croatian documentary by author Arsen Oremović, titled “It is what it is” will also be shown, looking into the discrimination of fathers after divorce.
Like we mentioned, a very attractive musical program called RAFF BEAT will be organised during the five days of the festival, with performances by well-known Croatian artists: Urban & 4, Zdenka Kovačiček, Nipplepeople, Elemental and Detour. Urban & 4 concert will be a special event, as he will re-interpret a movie classic with his music. The screening of that movie will remind everyone of the often forgotten consequences of fascism in Europe. Damir Urban said that the combination of music and film has always been intriguing, and that he hopes his performance will give the classic a different point of view.
The final evening of the Rab Film Festival will be spectacular: called the RAFF SEAPLEX “Kaich”, it will be an event where both the movie shown and the concert below the town’s walls will be best seen from a boat anchored at the port! The town of Rab and the Rab Community College will participate in the organisation, have provided all the necesarry infrastructure for the festival, and have helped organisers network with the local tourist workers etc.
The island of Rab has a 106 year-long movie theatre tradition, and they continue to create quality events for the people of Rab, but also for tourists who will be on the island in late August.
