The winner of the Documentary Competition of the 2025 Sarajevo FF.

I had not heard about this film before, even if it was at the Berlinale. And to be honest, when I read the synopsis, I thought “ok, here is another film on racism”, I hope it goes deeper than all the well meaning reportage-like tv documentaries. It did.

Again this shows the skills of a good director, who decided to stay with her protagonists for a year in a mix of direct and arranged documentary cinema and yet it is obvious, that the director has been looking for and found, with the help of the protagonists, the white woman and the black man, the scenes that gave us viewers a rich film, emotionally and rationally. I use these words, also because they correspond to how Victoria describes the two: I am the rational, Siaka the emotional. Will this match work? Siaka is the one, who suffers, for more than 20 years, since he left Gambia and his family, that is constantly in his thoughts, for them it is a question of survival, he says and we understand that the couple – they are married – send money to help. We understand the cultural differences between Victoria’s Austria and Siaka’s Gambia.

I want to be happy and I will be with my wife and my child. He talks like that, also before the two become parents and after they have been to Gambia to celebrate their marriage.

What should be in the film? There is a very intense conversation set up by the director, where Victoria argues that there should be more good moments in the film, whereas Siaka thinks that the pain must be there, and he is the one talking about “we”, the viewers should understand what it means to be a migrant, in this case a black man in a white country, where the institutions, the system is not really with you – I am writing this from Denmark, a country with hard rules for foreigners, to say the least. Understandable. The ambition of the film obviously is to reach a wide audience, so it also includes scenes from Victoria’s family, a lovely grandmother there is, her divorced parents. This is maybe a bit too much so I am happy to

… mention my favourite scenes, which take place in the backyard of building where the couple lives. Siaka helps another resident to renew their common garden. He does, he is very nice to her, she is very nice to him… but don´t make a BBQ! We have to understand and help each other. Fight racism!!!

Austria, 2025, 105 mins.

From the documentary competition of the Sarajevo FF 2025

At numerous workshops in Eastern Europe I have told filmmakers from that part of the world that to call all characters or protagonists “heroes” is not a good idea – as in English they are people, who have done something extraordinary, outstanding, with courage, people who deserves admiration. I have just finished my armchair watching of a film with protagonists, who are heroes in the best sense of the word.

And who simply are the best film protagonists, you could wish for: Oleksandra Lysytska (“Alaska”) and Yuliia Sidorova (“Cuba”), who fill the film with their unique personalities. Close friends, both working as combat medics on the front line, experiencing what war is, when it is most brutal and deadly and at the same time spreading good atmosphere within the male teams they are part of. Cuba is in most parts of the film laughing her way through life, caring, and so much more, when Alaska gets seriously injured and end up in a wheelchair for some time followed by hard rehab; she has to learn to walk again. She draws, whereas Cuba is a talented fashion designer and the film follows her to a show in Paris – and from there to Alicante, where her mother lives with their dog. By the way, Cuba reminds me so much of Apolonia from the film with the same name by Lea Glob. A powerhouse of energy and passion.

It’s a roller coaster of a film full of strong emotional human scenes from the front line and from the medic cars, where you are invited to follow the professional work of Cuba, when she is trying to save lives or “at least” limbs of wounded soldiers.

I found myself shouting at the screen, using words used pretty often in the film, motherfuckers and bastards, it makes you angry, an understatement, but sometimes, with tears in eyes, it is unbearable to watch. But the two women’s hunger for Life, their dedication to their jobs that they have been performing since 2014, their friendship and all the funny situations with Cuba laughing and Alaska’s dry humor, make this film viewer go through good and bad emotions on behalf of women fighting for a free country. It has to be said that there are wonderful male characters as well, like Artist and Baldhead and Sreba. The latter comes to play an important role in the film.

The film is a big international coproduction, part of the Ukrainian documentary slate within Arte. Meaning that also this UA documentary will reach a big audience outside the festivals, where it is touring right now.

Photo credit: Yegor Troyanovsky, who is now in the army.

Ukraine and many other countries, 2025, 93 mins.

I have several times on this site praised the film of Ketevan Vashagashvili, that I know – also as a project – for many years due to the CinéDoc Mentoring Program in Georgia. Ketevan came from journalism into documentary film making and she represents a wonderful example of how the two approaches can benefit from each other. The film is in the Documentary Competition in Sarajevo FF.

I quote from an interview – anonymous – from the Daily 8 of the Sarajevo FF. To be recommended:

“My Foremost Concern Was To Avoid Portraying Zhana As a Mere Victim of Her Circumstances…”

Indeed she avoids that. The main narrative point in the film is the relationship between mother and daughter. That was the motivation for the jury at CPH:Doxto award the film:

“The winner in the Human Rights Competition is a film that portrays the relationship between a mother and her daughter with a radical intimacy and an outstanding tenderness. Through its visual poetry the film balances delicately between the harshness of their situation and the humanity of Zhana and her intense love for her daughter.”

And another quote from the interview of Daily 8 of the Sarajevo FF:

The dialogue you mentioned between Zhana and Elene holds great significance for me. When I first filmed Zhana and Elene on the streets, the film aired on TV, prompting a social agency to seek Zhana to understand her situation. By the time we already located her, she was already in a rented apartment, thanks to the film, but they began questioning her ability to support Elene. Zhana requested that I accompany her to explain to them that she was a good mother and would never allow Elene to live in an orphanage. The thought of Elene in an orphanage was a nightmare for her. I stood by Zhana, of course. During Zhana’s surrogate pregnancies, traumatized and shocked, I often questioned whether I had acted correctly or if the social care system could have done more for Elene, potentially preventing Zhana from enduring the toll on her body. Yet in that moment, witnessing Elene stand so firmly for herself, I realized that she would never possess such strength without Zhana’s unwavering love and the opportunities she provided for her education and independence.

Photo of the director taken from the Daily 8.

Georgia, 2024, 84 mins.

The success is understandable for this well-funded super-professional production by Romanian company Manifest – producer Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan – with many co-producers, shot over a long period, with four editors on board, with a complicated structure as it takes place in three countries and has many layers, with the directing couple as the main characters, at least Lina is, Radu is behind the camera and with a Tata – father – as the strong – and weak man, who has been an abuser to Lina and her mother, and who himself is an abused migrant in Italy asking his daughter to help him. Wow and yes it has had an audience, understandable with domestic violence, well violence in all its grim facets, not only in the Eastern part of Europe, where it takes place.

Here you have some more info, copy-pasted from the website of the Autlook website, they take care of the film:

“After years of estrangement, Lina, a Moldovan journalist, receives a video message from her father, a migrant worker in Italy, showing bruises on his arms. Equipping him with a hidden camera so that he may find justice, Lina finds herself on a parallel journey — uncovering a pattern of domestic violence that has plagued her family for generations.

Filmed across Italy, Moldova, and Romania, TATA is a raw portrait of a family locked in a relentless struggle against toxic masculinity. It tells the story of a daughter’s emotionally poignant quest to break the cycle for herself, the next generation, and even for the one who hurt her.”

There is a wonderful ending of the film, where the child of the directing couple asks Lina “why are you upset”… Watch the film to get the answer!

Romania, Germany, The Netherlands, 84 mins., 2024

Review written by Allan Berg Nielsen for DOX Magazine 2002, now available at Modern Times Review.

In Anything Can Happen, Marcel Lozinski takes his six-year-old son to the park and asks him to ride around on his push scooter and occasionally stop at the benches and start talking with whomever – mainly elderly persons – is sitting there. The film crew follow him around recording the interactions from a great distance without being seen. Six-year-old Tomek is equipped with a small, wireless microphone and has received general instructions as to what he should do and what he should talk with the people about. Otherwise the boy improvises the conversations.

One smiles and laughs during these all told nineteen conversations that in their childlike wisdom wonderfully cover many serious human problems. This is first time I have ever seen the hidden camera technique used for anything but making the participants look ridiculous to the audience. This film does exactly the opposite: it reconstructs personal dignity.

It starts with a refusal. The young main character – easy to spot in his red jacket – has to give up and continue riding his push scooter along the footpaths in the park. Between every bench encounter, he is accompanied by a Strauss waltz on the soundtrack as he rushes along, giving the viewer a few seconds to think about what has just been said. The first, however, is the rejected advance.

The next person in the series lets the child talk, but does not give him seriousness and truth in return. Wants to playfully tease him instead: “My name is Don Juan,” he answers when the boy asks. This arouses wonder as it sounds French to the boy, who is unfamiliar with the famous seducer. But he accepts it as a reply. “My name is Tomek Lozinski,” he doesn’t try to conceal anything by contrast. I am who I am. The son of a famous filmmaker. Currently making a scene in his next film. This is the world of candour and reality. This is how we use films here.

The introduction continues in the fourth conversation. Though Tomek doesn’t know who Don Juan is, he is quite adept at flattering a woman: “You are very elegant,” he says to an old, well-dressed lady, and she instructs him in her technique of how to match the colours of her outfits.

The ingenious dialogue – which must have been fashioned during the editing of many metres of footage from the nine days of improvised shootings – continues embroidering in its own Socratic style. There are nineteen conversations in all on being a child and an adult, on the war, on the length of life, on love, divorce, sickness, poverty, money, sorrow and death.

In the nineteenth conversation, an old man describes the sorrow he feels over the death of his wife. And about the significance of her memory. He still feels he is together with his beloved in the rooms at home, and Tomek acknowledges that his mother felt the same way, when grandfather died. And the little boy quiets Death, “If someone dies, it doesn’t mean you will never see her again. Perhaps Death will stop,” – and he explains by holding up his flat hand in a stopping gesture – “and life will return. It might happen!” Anything can happen.

Poland, 1995.

Awards were given in Sarajevo for participants of the Rough Cut Boutique, which has Martichka Bozhilova and Rada Sesic as organisers and leading figures. At the photo (Sarajevo FF) the two are with microphone in hands, Martichka standing, Rada kneeling.

For information, what is the Rough Cut, text taken from the Sarajevo Cinelink website:

“Created by the Sarajevo Film Festival and Balkan Documentary Center, Docu Rough Cut Boutique is the leading regional program for documentaries in the editing stage from Southeast Europe and the Caucuses. It is famous for its boutique format, which includes only five selected projects. The programme is organized in three working modules: Sofia (first week of April 2025), Cluj (June 2025) and Sarajevo (August 2025). The workshop programme is based on tailor-made coaching, editing tutorials, group sessions and individual meetings with renowned documentary experts and professionals.”

And the winners were:

HBO Award
Cordon – Anton Mezulić (Croatia/France)
Producer: Oliver Sertić (Restart)
Co-producer: Victor Ede (Cinéphage)

Avanpost Award
The Great Reset – Peter Akar, Ambrus Fater (Hungary)
Producers: Rita Balogh, Barbara Frank (Other Films)

East Silver Caravan Award
Cordon – Anton Mezulić

Movies That Matter Award
We Shall Live Together – Damir Markovina (Croatia)
Producers: Tamara Babun Zovko (Wolfgang & Dolly), Damir Markovina (Osoba D)

DOK Leipzig Preview Award
We Shall Live Together – Damir Markovina

Congratulations!

Aforementioned award will be presented with the official partnership of the Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers which will be supported by the Azad Mirzajanzadeh Development Program, the Young Filmmakers Association, and the Guild of Azerbaijani Film Critics and Scholars. The award was founded by Afag Yusifli, a filmmaker and the international relations and projects manager of the Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers.

Named in the honor of Izzat Orujova, the first national film actress of Azerbaijan, the award aims to enhance the role and representation of women in Azerbaijani cinema. For the first time in the country, this award brings women’s issues to the professional film stage and introduces a new initiative by presenting a special award specifically for females in the film industry.

The project also carries symbolic significance by being dedicated to her — not only the first Azerbaijani film actress but also prominent chemist – thus highlighting her historical legacy. The presentation of this award offers a fresh perspective on strengthening the position of women in the film industry and encouraging their professional contributions.

As part of the project, a professional jury will evaluate the women’s segment of the Azerbaijani cinema from several perspectives to determine the winners. A specially designed award and cash prizes will be presented in front of an audience. Despite the fact that Azerbaijan granted women the right to vote in 1918 — a first in the East — and that Azerbaijani cinema has a 127-year history, female filmmakers in cinema still remain under-recognized and underrepresented.

This award highlights that issue and proposes solutions. By being named after Izzat Orujova, the award once again brings attention to women and women-centered topics in cinema. Accomplished authors are publicly recognized as winners.

It is worth noting that this project is one of the winners of the Azad Mirzajanzadeh Development Program, and in the upcoming weeks, further details — including the jury members, award categories, and the date of the ceremony — will be shared publicly.

Programmed for the Sarajevo FF in the documentary competition.

The film won main award in the regional competition of this year’s ZagrebDox, the photo shows the director with her Big Stamp as the festival calls its award.

No need for me to give a brief of the content as ZagrebDox has already done so:

“This film was made in memory of the author’s father, who devoted much of his life to recording the world around him. Discovering a multitude of unmarked, unedited, and unseen tapes belonging to her father, the author begins a personal and cinematic odyssey to unveil the real man behind the recordings. By viewing videos of the moments she didn’t witness, reflecting on her childhood and her family’s relationship with the camera — her father’s tool, diary method, and preferred means of expression — the author gains insight into his diverse roles across various times and corners of the world.”

Danijel “Danko” Dozet, the father, was with a camera in his hand al the time and left – passing away at the age of 55 – tapes that could fill a whole room, it seems; home videos shot by the father, very very often with the daughter – and other family members – objecting to be filmed. He left a mosaic of images that I wish to rearrange – and she does ending up, as the father, to be constantly filming herself, first with the camera that the father gave her when she left elementary school. He made her a filmmaker…

Dalija, the director, is watching and commenting on what she has chosen from the tapes – who was he, my father and how am I looking at my childhood and my youth, did I learn something from him, from his “video lessons”. Danko was, she says, a trouble-maker in the sense that he wanted something to happen in front of the camera, in the family, and there are some fine moments, where father and daughter are together, caught on camera.

When he was not so popular filming the household any longer, he started filming in the streets and abroad and you see that he has the curiosity of a documentarian – as she, Dalija, has, as well bringing in the playfulness to a film like this must have to convince an audience that it should be interested; the crossing from private to personal. On top of that there are in the beginning and at the end some beautiful letters conveyed on the screen. From father to daughter.

Personal… yes, the film made me think of my father, who died when he was 59, also a young man, an actor who did not leave loads of VHS-tapes… alas, there was so much I did not get to talk with him about.