The Divan Film Festival on the Danube shore in the port town Cetate will feature 47 films, 14 feature length and 33 shorts, between August 19 to August 26, with films from ten countries: Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Turkey, Cyprus and Romania.

The theme of this year's festival and accompanying symposium is 'Escape from the Balkans.' "In our view, 'Escape from Balkans' involves less an escapism, but rather an exceeding of our preconceived ideas about the Balkans,” said Marian Tutui, artistic director, Divan.

The public will be able to see films such as 'Local Vampire' directed by Darko Baletic from Montenegro, 'The Majority' by Turkish director Seren Yuce, 'Punk is Not Dead' a Macedonian film, as well as older movies such as 'Fluturoaica' - 1973 Djordje Kadicevic , and 'The Beauty of a Sin' - 1988 Zivko Nikolic.

Divan Film Festival also has films featuring Romanian artists, such as Bulgarian film "Shelter"( Adapost), which won several awards in 2010 and is directed by Dragomir Sholev in collaboration with Razvan Radulescu.

Also on is 'Fish'n'Chips' (2011), Greek/Cypriot co-production by Elias Demetriou. This film is not just about food, but rather attitudes and adaptation, played convincingly by dialogue and culinary traditions of British cuisine.

Divan of Tasters, Film and Culinary Art festival is organized by the Foundation for Poetry “Mircea Dinescu”, supported by the National Center of Cinematography, Dolj County Council and City Hall Dolj.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com