The annual Preston International Film Festival will be opening this year with a special evening to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the former Czechoslovakia.
The Worldwise Learning Centre, part of the School of Language and Global Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), is welcoming representatives from the embassies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, University of Pardubice academics and prominent Preston resident Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines MBE, who was one of 669 children evacuated from Czechoslovakia during World War Two on a special train organised by Nicholas Winton.
Members of the public are also invited to the free event, taking place at 5pm on 15 October in UCLan’s Mitchell and Kenyon Cinema.
A panel discussion will take place followed by a food and drink reception with traditional Czech and Slovak nibbles and Moravian wine. A screening of Czech film ‘A Dark Blue World,’ by Academy award-winning director Jan Svěrák, will follow at 7.30pm.
The 12th International Film Festival, which runs from 15 to 21 October, will screen films in eight languages with English subtitles. The other films are:
The Idol (Arabic) on 16 October at 7pm
I Am Not Madame Bovary (Chinese) on 17 October at 7pm
Who Will Save the Roses (Italian) on 18 October at 7pm
The Sweet Escape (French) on 19 October at 7pm
Summer 1993 (Catalan) on 20 October at 5pm
Sweet Bean (Japanese) on 20 October at 7pm
The Villainess (Korean) on 21 October at 7pm
Tickets for the screenings cost £3 for adults, £2.50 for concessions or a festival pass, which gives access to all eight films, is available at £15.