Filmmakingfrom Russia and Poland will be the focus of this year's goEast- Festival of Central and East European Cinema in Wiesbaden (April 5-11).

Apart from athree-day symposium on mainstream Russian cinema and a roundtable on new trendsin the Russian film industry, the festival will include a homage to Polishactor-director Jerzy Stuhrand an exhibition dedicated to the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. There will alsobe a podium discussion on the state of distribution for films from Central andEast European in German speaking countries.

Film historianUlrich Gregor will head an International Jurycomprising last year's Documentary Prize winner Boris Mitic(Pretty Dyana),Sarajevo Film Festival director Mirsad Purivatra, Magyar Filmunio'sgeneral manager Eva Vezer, and Russian producer ElenaYatsura, who will decide the winners in thecompetition section of ten feature films and six documentaries.

Among the filmsselected to compete for prize-money totalling $41,043 (Euros 34,000) this yearare Cristi Puiu's The Death Of Mr Lazarescu, Piotr Trzaskalski's TheMaster, Alexei German Jr.'s Garpastum, ArtjomAntonov's Polumgla, Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's The Perfect Afternoon, Andrei Titov's SSSR-Rossija-Transit and Ivona Juka's Facing The Day.

In addition,there will be an "out of competition" screenings of Jasmila Zbani'cs GoldenBear-winner Grbavica and Jan Svankmajer'sLuncay (Silenin) anda sidebar portrait of the work of Lithuanian director SarunasBartas.