Films

Award-winning ethnographic caleidoscope featuring over 50 different masquerades of some 13 European countries. Thanks to some careful editing, the underlying structure of European winter masked ritual is made apparent, from fear (Act 1) to ceremony (Act 2: the marital cortege + ritual ploughing) to the burlesque (Act 3), and finally to a sobering Epilogue on the pyre. All winter masquerades in Europe – and there are hundreds all over the continent – seem to bear reference at some level to this single hidden script, and “Carnival King of Europe” demonstrates it with exceptionally persuasive visuals. Prize-winning in Japan (“Grand Prize for Academic Film”, Kyoto University Museum Academic Film EXPO 2009) and Armenia (“Special Prize by Filmadaran Film Culture Development Organization”, Apricot Tree International Ethno Film Festival 2016), the film was also shown to great acclaim at festivals and conferences in Bristol, Binche, Göttingen, Rome, Čadca, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Beograd, Cluj, Moscow and elsewhere.