Since 2012 and once a year, Vienna hosts the International LET’S CEE Film Festival, exclusively featuring high-quality productions from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) including the Caucasus region and Turkey. The Festival not only brings a wide range of cinematic masterpieces to Vienna, but, meanwhile, hosts up to 150 directors, screenwriters, producers, actors, cinematographers and other film experts from across Central and Eastern Europe, year after year. Nearly all screenings are followed by Q&A sessions with the respected filmmakers, providing an unforgettable opportunity for the audience to gain personal understanding of a film and turn the visit to the cinema into a unique experience.
LET’S CEE Film Festival cooperates with IDF's East Silver Caravan, which helps to gather exceptional, but rather unnoticed documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe more attention at film festivals. Last year, LET’S CEE brought a jointly curated selection of films to Vienna. 2018 offers viewers the chance to once again watch important socio-political documentaries. An important item of the programme section East Silver Caravan at this year's edition of the festival is the film Article 18, which – with the help of experts – discusses the state of affairs in Poland concerning illegal same-sex marriage. Another taboo topic is at the centre of the creative documentary The Beast Is Still Alive, which illuminates espionage and the eradication of oppositional opinions in post-1945 Bulgaria. Through impressive camerawork, The Last Kalderash documents the desperate situation of a coppersmith in Romania whose business is failing.
In The Limits of Work, two journalists examine certain professional branches – specifically the worst paid jobs in Czech Republic. No less critical is the documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sentsov, which was part of Berlinale Special and questions the show trial against Ukrainian filmmaker, Maidan activist and alleged “terrorist”, Oleg Sentsov. Finally, it will all be concluded by a panel discussion on political activism on the 18th of April 2018 in collaboration with the University of Vienna. Other films from East Silver catalogue at the festival include two Czech documentaries, When the War Comes and The White World According to Daliborek, and also Macedonian Avec l´amour.