In a few months, two years will have passed since the death of Thomas Heise, a key figure of European documentary and auteur cinema over the last fifty years. Heise was remembered in Bolzano one month ago during two very intense days, when, together with FAS – Film Association South Tyrol, the three films of the Halle-Neustadt Trilogy (STAU – JETZT GEHT’S LOS / NEUSTADT / KINDER. WIE DIE ZEIT VERGEHT) were screened in the cinema, and a masterclass was organised in his memory. The masterclass retraced his artistic path, from the years of the GDR to the reunification of Germany, and highlighted the importance of what Heise called an “archaeology of memory” in his cinema – a way of working in which the past continues to cast its shadows on the present.

During these days, long-time collaborators of Heise joined us, bringing a living and personal memory of the great German filmmaker. Among them were the cinematographer and lifelong friend Peter Badel, and his first producer during the years of the Wende, Katrin Schlösser.

We would like to open this newsletter by once again taking time – and offering it to you – to pay tribute to a great filmmaker, for a very simple reason: Thomas Heise was an artist who was never afraid to face the contradictions of his time. He was never afraid to “get his hands dirty” and to enter places that were uncomfortable or difficult: whether filming inside a police station in Berlin during the GDR (when all his previous films had already been rejected by the regime), or spending time with a group of neo-Nazis in the town of Halle just after the collapse of the GDR, or even meeting his own brother after many years to reflect on the role that one of their closest friends had played within the Stasi.

Heise loved the spoken word in his films, but many of them will be remembered above all for their silences: for the sighs of the people on screen, and for the deep sense of empathy that Heise was able to create with everyone he met. Very few filmmakers have reached such emotional closeness to the people they filmed. It is worth remembering here another great German filmmaker, Helga Reidemeister, who passed away five years ago and was also born in Halle, before the GDR. In films such as LICHTER AUS DEM HINTERGRUND, VON WEGEN “SCHICKSAL” and GOTTESZELL – EINE FRAUGEFÄNGNIS, she touched the living heart of the people she worked with.

Thomas Heise’s cinema was built around key historical moments and nourished by materials that document important passages of the twentieth century. It is a cinema that does not impose a point of view, but instead asks essential questions to a community. It is a cinema that enters the cracks of History and personal stories and asks: what happens to a community when a social and political balance breaks? Within this work, Heise searched for the physical presence of silence – of sighs, pauses and waiting – creating moments of deep intimacy with the people he filmed. Through Heise’s films, we learn to use words not only to give information, but also to feel and touch emptiness and suspension: in History, in a farewell, in a wound, in a relationship.

Heise’s films should be watched again today more than ever, in a time of easy and tragic oppositions, a time in which everything is shouted, and everyone seems to be the protagonist of something somewhere, while in reality we are more and more victims of History. Heise teaches us to get our hands dirty – and this is the best wish we can make for our young filmmakers.

Emanuele Vernillo Zelig, Head of the Three-Years Training

The long-awaited documentary ‘MARIINKA’ directed by acclaimed Belgian filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue, has been selected as the opening film of the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX taking place March 11–22, 2026 in Copenhagen. The film will celebrate its world premiere at the CPH:DOX 2026 opening gala in the concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music on March 10 at 19:00, in the presence of the director and the film crew, including two of the main protagonists in the film.

Shot on 16mm and nine years in the making, ‘MARIINKA’ is the second feature documentary by Pieter-Jan de Pue after the highly praised ‘The Land of the Enlightened’ (2016). The film will be screened in the festival’s main competition, DOX:AWARD, honouring films that combine exceptional storytelling, innovative filmmaking, and cultural as well as social relevance.

‘MARIINKA’ begins long before the world watched the full-scale invasion. In eastern Ukraine, the film traces several young Ukrainians whose lives have been forever shaped by more than ten years of war and conflict in the Donbas region.

Amidst the war a promising boxing talent turns military paramedic, a girl is smuggling unexpected goods across the frontline to survive, and as in a Greek tragedy, two brothers now fight on opposite sides of the front line – against each other – while their youngest brother lives in safety far from the war with a foster family in the United States. Through letters, video calls and silent meetings, a story unfolds about belonging, national loyalty and the fault lines where political conflicts can trump even the bonds of blood.

“’MARIINKA’ is a film that insists on our attention at a time when attention itself has become a scarce resource. Pieter-Jan de Pue has spent nearly a decade staying with this story – not chasing the news cycle, but listening to lives shaped by a war that began long before it filled our headlines and continues as the world’s gaze threatens to drift elsewhere. The result is a remarkable cinematic achievement that refuses both distance and simplification, presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine as lived reality, carried in bodies, relationships and impossible choices. Shaped through European co-production – and years of engagement with CPH:DOX’s industry platforms – the film reminds us why documentary cinema matters: not to offer easy answers, but to confront us with urgency, nuance and the complex human realities behind events often reduced to headlines,” says Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director of CPH:DOX.

“I am very happy and honored that the years-long journey of this film has ultimately led to a world premiere as the opening film and competition entry at the renowned CPH:DOX festival, which has always supported us during the development and rough cut phase of the project,” says Pieter-Jan De Pue, director of ‘MARIINKA’.

‘MARIINKA’ is directed by Pieter-Jan De Pue and produced by Bart Van Langendonck and Pieter-Jan De Pue (Savage Film), in co-production with Christian Beetz (Beetz Brothers Film Production), Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix (Submarine), Vincent Metzinger, Emilie Blézat (Dark Riviera), Naoko Films, Shelter Prod, and ZDF in collaboration with ARTE, with the participation of RTBF Documentary Unit, VRT, VPRO, and SVT.

The film is supported by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), the Belgian Federal Tax Shelter, the Netherlands Film Fund, the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, the King Baudouin Foundation, and Eurimages, in collaboration with the Belgian Embassy in Ukraine.

It’s looking at you, the bull. From the big screen in the cinema Grand in Copenhagen. Together with an almost full hall on a Wednesday afternoon, the first day of CPH:DOX 2025, I booked a ticket for Catalan Albert Serra’s first non-fiction film. Admired for his fiction films, considered a true auteur, he had a masterclass last year at DocsBarcelona, that I missed but I understood that he and editor Artur Tort told that they had spent 9 months of editing the two hour long bullfighting documentary! And that Serra said that it would have been impossible to find an actor for the role of torero. That’s why he decided to leave fiction for this film. He found Andrés Roca Rey, see photo.

You also hear the breathing of the bull. It’s ready for the fight that in most cases ends with its death. And in some cases with blood on the torero, again see photo of Roca, as they call him, in a hotel room undressing after a fight assisted by what you could call his butler. The same man is the one who – in a precious scene – dresses Roca starting with feminine underwear and pink socks before the heavy colorful outfit is settled on the body of the young man. 

A fight yes, but also a show, that Serra has his focus on. No spectators are seen, but they are heard, we see Roca in the arena alone with the bull with his red cloth, moving, inviting the bull to attack, the sound is strong, Roca communicates with the bull, he gets advice from his team and praise, all is hearable and even more so when they are back in the car, the sole other location, “you’ve got balls”, “you are the best”, simple dialogues in this world of men.

It’s all about the image. I don’t remember having seen so poignant closeups of a bull suffering; with blood all over it keeps the attack until Roca delivers the death blow with his sword after the bull has received lances in its body. Serra comes back with detail after detail of Roca, bull after bull, taking dancing steps with inviting sounds toward the animal and a face that changes expression depending on how close we are to the final sword thrust. In some sequences Roca performs as a kind of Shakespearean character supported by strong music, classical.

I would never enter a bullfighting arena, it’s disgusting animal cruelty what is going on there to entertain us – Serra is not telling us what to think about this cultural phenomenon – up yo you, but I was caught by the drama as it was magnificently conveyed on the screen by a filmmaker, who knows his métier. One man in the arena. 

Spain, France, Portugal, 2024, 125 mins.

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Dear Tue Steen Müller ,At a moment when Greenland is increasingly framed through the language of geopolitics, resources and strategic interests, the European Film Academy dedicates its newest _UNDERSCORE edition to Greenlandic cinema. We have several Greenlandic members and it is important for us to offer a different entry point: one grounded in stories, memories and lived experiences by Greenlandic filmmakers.The selection, now available on the Academy VOD platform, brings together landmark works spanning more than two decades of filmmaking, from the country’s first feature to recent, internationally acclaimed shorts and documentaries.

WATCH NOW: The Greenland edition of _UNDERSCORE is more than a curated programme. It is a gesture of trust, solidarity and recognition at a moment when Greenland’s voice risks being overshadowed by louder geopolitical narratives. By foregrounding cinema as a space of self-definition and narrative sovereignty, the European Film Academy offers audiences not a commentary on Greenland, but an invitation to listen.You will find the collection of nine Greenlandic films on the Academy VOD Platform until 22 February.

The Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival – DocsBarcelona 2026 will award scottish-irish filmmaker Mark Cousins the Docs of Honor Award and dedicate a retrospective to his work during the next edition, which will take place from May 7 to 17. During his visit to Barcelona, Cousins will also present the spanish premiere of the first episode of his new series, The Story of Documentary Film, after its world and European premieres at the Sundance and Berlin festivals respectively. Cousins will also offer a masterclass and will headline the opening conference of the DocsBarcelona Pro professional market. This tribute is possible thanks to the valued collaboration with the Filmoteca de Catalunya. 

With the new series The Story of Documentary Film, Cousins expands the universe of The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a monumental 15-hour project with which he has redefined the dissemination of film history, reaffirming his status as one of the great audiovisual storytellers of world cinema. In addition to being among the most prominent contemporary film theorists for his academic and essayistic approaches to the seventh art, Cousins also possesses a remarkable artistic, personal, and auteur-driven side, focused on emotions and perspective, materialized in films such as I am Belfast (2015) and Stockholm, My Love (2016). 

DocsBarcelona wanted to recognize Cousins for his unquestionable contribution to cinema, culture and audiovisual education, as well as for a career that champions art and cinema as a tool for cultural transformation and critical thinking, open to the world and its complexities, and for his continued work in the dissemination, preservation and renewal of cinematic language, exploring and expanding its limits.

Photo: Mark Cousins.

With my interest in Latvian documentary films, that goes back to around 1990, where I was lucky to be one of a group that organised the Balticum Film & TV Festival on the island of Bornholm in Denmark, I wanted to know the nominees for the yearly Award ceremony of Lielais Kristaps (that means Big Christopher and there is a legend (AI Overview): that tells of a giant ferryman who carried Baby Jesus across the Daugava River, found gold, and helped build the city, i.e. Riga)

Thanks to long time dear friend Lelda Ozola, who was also on Bornholm and now serves as the EU Media representative (MEDIA DESK) at the Film Centre of Latvia, I got a translation of the huge number of nominations for the awards – the ceremony will take place on March 1. In the following I put the focus on the documentary section, where five titles are listed:

“Aizsniegt dzelmi” (Bored of Borders), dir. Kārlis Bardelis, Artūrs Valdmanis, prod. Līga Skrode This one I have not seen.

“Death of Death” (Frankenstein 2.0), dir. Dāvis Sīmanis, studio “Ego Media” (Latvia), prod. Guntis Trekteris, co-prod. Radim Prochazka, Kuli Film (Czech Republic) Dāvis Simanis is a filmmaker, whose career I have followed for decades. From early works like “Valkyrie Limited” and “Escaping Riga” to my favorite about the library in Riga “Chronicles of the Last Temple” and “D is for Division”. His appearences on this site are numerous and his talent is obvious. That also goes for this essay, where he has traveled the world to meet people, some wise, some seem more charlatans, who have researched how to fight, one says “kill” death. A research-wise impressive film that is too informative and clever for me… sorry Dāvis and Guntis Trekteris, saw it in Ji.hlava and today on my MacBook, it did not catch me.

“Art Born in Agony,” dir. Elizabete Gricmane, Ramunė Rakauskaitė, prod. Uldis Cekulis, VFS Films, co-prod. Arūnas Matelis, Studio Nominum (Lithuania). Juris Kulakovs, national legend, composer and musician is followed closely by the young director Elizabete Gricmane in playful sequences. Charismatic he is Kulakovs, who passed away in 2024.

“All Birds Sing Beautifully”, dir. Krista Burāne, prod. Ilze Celmiņa, Paula Jansone, “VFS Films”. I saw it today and I will use the same word, playful, entertaining and thoughtful as this quote says (Letterboxd): “In the beginning there was the forest. Then came the live performance, and then the film. The yellow wagtail, Eurasian skylark, white-backed woodpecker, corncrake and hazel grouse have not only gotten their voices back, but have taken on human form — clad in elegant tailcoats and bearing names — to recount ancient tales…” Beautiful singing, great cinematography of all the birds.

“The Last Will (Testament)”, (PHOTO) dir. Jānis Ābele, prod. Guntis Trekteris, “Ego Media”, co-prod. Jānis Ābele, Dita Birkenšteina, “Chaland films”. Looking for the ashes of legendary poet Anatols Imermanis, who never went to Paris to meet “professionals”… Two stories are hilarious and deserves to be mentioned: The female journalist, who interviewed him – that was his condition – naked, she said yes and was shocked, when he lifted the blanket… it was like the Tour Eiffel, she says! And his friend who brought in “half corona” cigars from the West through customs showing an official document claiming, that cigars was medicine for the poet to help his low blood pressure!!! Lovely, wonderful, entertaining.

BUT BUT BUT where is the masterpiece of Laila Pakalnina, “Scarecrow”, produced by Uldis Cekulis. A film that takes place at the Riga airport, where men and women are employed to take care of the wildlife that is active on the runaway. An homage to the people with that job, chasing rabbits and birds to protect them from the airplanes. When traveling to and from Riga, I now book a window seat to look out at the animals and people. Laila Pakalnina is a master, her films have a personal style, she has been to festivals all over and right now she is in Paris for a Baltic retro in la Cinématheque Francaise.

All right, she is on the list of nominees in the section of “Best Director” and her cinematographer Māris Maskalāns is nominated for best cinematography. And “Scarecrow” is also nominated for Best Composer and Best Sound. But for me “Scarecrow” would have been an obvious candiate for Best Film.

An important PS concerning the category Best Minority Co-Production, where I find two fine films that I have seen, both praised on this site:

“Redlight to Limelight”, dir. Bipuljit Basu, prod. Nilotpal Majumdar, “Bindubot Communication” (India), co-prod. Uldis Cekulis, “VFS Films” (Latvia), co-prod. John Webster, “JW Documentaries” (Finland)

“On Sacred and Profane”, dir. Giedre Beinorjūte, prod. Jurga Gluskiniene, Monoklis (Lithuania), co-prod. Elīna Gediņa-Ducena, Gints Grūbe, Mistrus Media (Latvia)

It pleases my “Baltic Heart” that there are so many coproductions between the three countries.

This film totally blew my mind. Its freshness, its originality, its playfulness, giving information so it’s never dull and using the cinema language wonderfully. Archive – moving images and photos to make history alive, citizens of Rijeka today, all centered around a mad poet Gabriele d’Annunzio…

I have always wanted to visit that area, where Italy and Slovenia and Croatia meet each other, Rijeka is now on my list, indeed! And this film reminds me of what documentaries can do, taking us back in time, from today, in an entertaining manner. In other words it is a great film, why… read the director’s impressive introduction, says a lot: 

“By making this film I wanted to get to know the past of my hometown Rijeka/Fiume, but also to get to understand it’s present state from a new perspective. During this process I’ve met hundreds of my fellow citizens who wanted to work on the film in front of the camera or behind it. I’ve met drivers, politicians, dustbin collectors, archivists, doormen, cooks, musicians, professors, translators and waiters who all had ideas about what this film should be like. I’ve also met historians of all kinds, from those who saw D’Annunzio as the crazier version of Mussolini to the ones who saw him as the Italian Che Guevara.
Besides meeting new people I’ve also read thousands and thousands of pages on D’Annunzio in Fiume, and while doing it I was not only gathering facts but was also shaping my own political ideas.
One idea, however, stayed clear to me all the way. That idea is formulated in a political pamphlet published in Fiume in 1922, soon after D’Annunzio’s departure: “Long live Fiume, free and independent from any kind of rescuers, liberators and protectors!”.
I made a film with my fellow citizens and for my fellow citizens, building a chronological story that we’ll be able, I hope, to retell to new generations. I also hope that our film will help the audiences outside of Rijeka think about how much they know about the histories of their own hometowns and about how these histories got remembered and retold.
In his lesser-known essay from 1960, Pier Paolo Pasolini calls D’Annunzio’s occupation of Fiume a “pagliacciata narcisistica”, “a narcissistic escapade”: D’Annunzio saw Fiume as a personal playground, as a place where he could experiment and practice everything that came to his mind.
By making this film I wanted to keep D’Annunzio’s idea of Rijeka/Fiume as a playground, but this time the citizens of Rijeka are the ones who are playing.”

Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, 2024, 113 mins.

This film has toured to festivals all over and won several awards. I was in the international jury at WatchDocs in December 2025, where it took the first prize in the National Competition. No need for me to repeat wise praising words of the jury, so here they come:

“It is an emotionally moving, multidimensional, intellectually ambitious, sharp social criticism, at the same time intimate and taking on public, private and political issues, talking about a historical issue but also extremely relevant. It’s a movie about how long the teddy bears are — it touches several generations every time. It’s a story about a moving absence of a father, about racial discrimination, and about a system that, although it seems to try to save a man, abandons him back to fate and separates him from his family again. It’s a visually beautiful image, with tenderness following the hero’s long and painful journey to regain his identity, sense of dignity and peace of mind. Tears of sadness and tears of joy of Mr. Sang, the extraordinary hero of the movie “Dust Child” directed by Weronika Mliczewska, will stay with us forever.”

… though I don’t understand the sentence a movie about how long the teddy bears are, please help me,,, Anyway what moved me mostly were the scenes with Sang and his grandchild, who loves him and wants to fly with him to America. These scenes are full of love, they are true documentary moments, that’s why I chose the photo above, where Sang is cutting the hair of the little boy. The story itself is more or less predictable, we know it will be more than difficult for Sang to settle, he does not know how to write in Vietnamese and now he is to learn American. The film captures that in an excellent way. And for the story it is of course a scoop that the American family has a lot of problems; the father, Sang’s father, comes out sympathetic but had not really been a father for his American children… oh yes, as someone has put it, “family is the worst institution we have invented”. Thanks to the daughter in the American family Sang gets a place to stay and a job, and the father comes to visit. Sang stays in America, he wants to give the little boy a better life than the one, he had growing up in, in Vietnam without a father. The director has tread carefully towards her protagonists, not easy I guess. She is not pointing fingers, leave it to the audience. Thank you! The music… a matter of taste, for me too much here and there. Conclusion, impressive work, for brain and heart.

Poland, Sweden, Qatar, Vietnam, Czech Republic

92 mins.

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