The 34th International Film Festival Rotterdam takes place from Wednesday January 26 till Sunday February 6, 2005.

Russian filmmaker and photographer Yevgeni Yufit (1961, Saint Petersburg) has been selected as IFFR 2005 Filmmaker in Focus. The festival honours Yufit with the screening of four feature films (including his latest film BIPEDALISM as world premiere), eight short films and a photo exhibition. After finishing his studies in mechanical engineering in 1983, Yufit took film lessons from Aleksandr Sokurov. Yufit went on founding the film studio Mzhalalafilm and started making experimental films. He was the founding father of the 'Necrorealism' movement in Saint Petersburg that includes filmmakers, photographers, painters and writers. Manifesting themselves by the beginning of the Eighties, death as a physical reality became a principal theme in their works. IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund has supported his BIPEDALISM (2005). Yufit's works had considerable influence on a later generation of Russian progressive filmmakers and artists. One of the IFFR 2005 theme programmes will be 'Near Past
and Near Future' devoted to a choice of feature and short films from this 'Parallel Cinema' movement.

Near Past and Near Future: Russian Parallel Cinema
The rise of what in Russia is known as 'Parallel Cinema' (which includes Yufit's 'Necrorealism') is closely connected to the 'perestrojka' period and the desintegration of the former USSR. 'Parallel' meaning that these films were made and screened without official support or consent of the authorities. A second generation, now including artists, performers, musicians, photographers, writers and journalists continued the Parallel Cinema throughout the Nineties. In and around Moscow, they now have a network of own festivals, production platforms, websites, films and film stars. IFFR focuses the attention on eight feature films and five short films from this widespread alternative circuit. Themes and forms of these films vary from the very Russian 4 by Ilya Khrzhanovky, the anti-Chechen war drama ZELENIY SLONIK (GREEN ELEPHANT) by Svetlana Baskova to the bizarre comedy IVAN DURAK (IVAN THE IDIOT) van Alexandr Doulerain & Sergei Koryagin.

Dutch films in world premiere
The following Dutch films will see their world premieres during the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam: ZIELEN VAN NAPELS (SOULS OF NAPLES) by Vincent Monnikendam, VOORLAND by Eugenie Jansen, HET MYSTERIE VAN DE SARDINE (THE MYSTERY OF THE SARDINE) by Erik van Zuylen, CINEMA INVISIBLE: HET BOEK (CINEMA INVISIBLE: THE BOOK) by Kees Hin, BROSSA by Digna Sinke and Colette Bothof's début feature film ZWARTE ZWANEN (BLACK SWANS). ALIAS KURBAN SAÏD by Jos de Putter gets its European bow. After the Dutch internet release in December 2004, 0605 by Theo van Gogh gets its screen premiere during the festival.