The Images and Views of Alternative Cinema Festival returns to Nicosia

Summer is on its way, and that means that outdoor film screenings. First up is Nicosia’s Images and Views of Alternative Cinema Festival, which returns to the old town from June 15 to 21, taking place in the inner courtyard of the Hambis Municipal Printmaking Museum.

The festival is an initiative of the deputy ministry of culture, in collaboration with the non-profit organisation Brave New Culture, and has a packed programme for lovers of alternative film.

“Amid the turbulence of an increasingly chaotic world,” say organisers, “where deceptive Artificial Intelligence (AI) imagery multiplies and the dark nightmares of the past re-emerge in threatening ways, the truth revealed through the art of independent creators remains one of the few refuges for free thought and for strengthening resistance against totalitarian ideologies. This beloved institution for cinephiles presents a rich and multifaceted programme this year, exploring the possibilities and limits of the seventh art, moving beyond the narrow frameworks of conventional storytelling and traditional visual language.”

The 2026 programme will feature three films by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, whose works are distinguished by their mesmerising, almost hypnotic, flow of images and their melancholic sense of the metaphysical.

His work emerged from the ruins of state socialism and, to an extent, reflects the melancholy of endings. Yet it also extends into unexplored cinematic territories. Three films will be presented: his recently rediscovered student film Cinemarxisme (1979) and two iconic works from his mature period, created in collaboration with Nobel laureate László Krasznahorkai: Damnation (1988) and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000).

The physical cinema of Arianna Economou will also be presented, exploring the fertile ground where live performance, movement-based research and cinematic mediation converge. This selection of works by Cypriot artist Arianna Economou, an important figure in contemporary dance, destabilises traditional boundaries between dance, theatre, video and cinema.

Scanners

One of the Soviet cinema’s most inventive filmmakers, Boris Barnet, will be presented as well, featuring his comic flair and social observation with rare lyrical sensitivity. The tribute Boris Barnet: Comedy and Revolution highlights his early creative period through three outstanding films: the sharp and delightfully playful The Girl with the Hatbox (1927), the lively social satire The House on Trubnaya Square (1928), and the tender yet ironic By the Bluest of Seas (1935), where poetic rhythm meets genuine emotion.

The Cronenberg in the ’80s: Flesh, Paranoia and Technology tribute focuses on the most defining period of the renowned Canadian filmmaker, during which he established himself as a singular voice in world cinema.

The three films Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), and Dead Ringers (1988) reveal his distinctive universe, where body, mind and technology collide in ways both disturbing and fascinating. Cronenberg moves seamlessly between horror, science fiction and psychological tension.

Next, the Breaking the Mold: Alternative Currents in Animation programme will present two early and foundational works of European animation beyond the dominant Disney tradition: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger and The New Gulliver (1935) by Aleksandr Ptushko.

Russ Meyer’s cinema will also, feature in the festival, bringing his relentless political satire, manic violence, frenzied sexual provocation, the exploration of social norms, the deconstruction of gender stereotypes and his obsession with the female body to the screen. Screenings include what John Waters called his masterpiece, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966), and his surprising collaboration with Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970).

The films of Jeff Keen, an iconic figure of British underground cinema from the 1960s to the 1990s, will take up space in the festival as well, highlighting his radical imagination and DIY aesthetics through short works combining collage, performance, painting directly on film and handmade special effects.

Lastly, queer feminist interventions in Iranian cinema will be featured in the festival with three film screenings by Maryam Tafakory, whose work explores desire, censorship, gender and the politics of the gaze. Her works invite viewers into a slowed-down, intimate act of observation, where images and words function as traces rather than declarations. With remarkable skill and almost surgical precision, Tafakory stitches new meanings into every frame through a rich and captivating multimedia collage.

Images and Views of Alternative Cinema Festival

Annual film festival of alternative world cinema. June 15-21. Hambis Municipal Printmaking Museum, Nicosia. 8pm. Free admission. Films suitable for audiences above 18 years old. Tel: 99-407856. www.facebook.com/ImagesViewsOfAlternativeCinemaFilmFestival