Good evening, friends, colleagues, and guardians of the documentary tradition.

It is wonderful again to see the many friends and colleagues I have known for almost 30 years, but it is even better to see all of you who are decades younger and take part in the Forum to shape the future for yourself and for all of us.

Thirty years ago—on a June morning in 1997 twenty-five documentary projects were presented to a panel of commissioning editors in the old Kino Gudhjem on the island of Bornholm.

That first Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries was more than a pitching session. It was an act of faith. Faith in the power of co-production to build understanding across borders that had only recently begun to open. Faith in stories from the East that deserved to be seen in the West. Faith in a genre—documentary—that was, at the time, struggling to find its place in a rapidly changing media landscape.

Today, as we gather in Riga for the 30th anniversary of Baltic Sea Docs, we celebrate not just an event. We celebrate a movement. A movement that has helped shape the very concept of the Baltic documentary film producer—a profession that did not exist under the Soviet regime.

What were the visions

The founding vision of this Forum was simple yet profound. As the early documentation states: “If you wish to access funding in another country than your own, you need to have an alliance with a co-producing company in that country.”

When we started the main investors were national public service media and film institutes that planned to screen the final productions.

This principle—born from the practical realities of film financing—became something far greater. It became a method of peacebuilding through culture.

Think about what that means. Co-production is not just about money. It is about trust. It is about relationships. It is about sitting in a room with people from different countries, different languages, different histories—and finding common ground in a story that matters.

Over three decades, an average of 25% of the projects that participated in this Forum have received international funding or become international co-productions. But the numbers tell only part of the story.

What truly matters is the collaboration across borders that these meetings have created. Developing projects with the help of TV commissioning editors who love to take part in a creative process. Building networks that outlast the Forum itself. Creating alliances that turn competitors into collaborators.

Look around this room. Some of you have been here for twenty editions. Some of you are here for the first time. But all of you are part of the same story—a story that began on Bornholm in 1997 and has travelled through Dubrovnik, Tallinn, Vilnius, and, since 2006, found its permanent home here in Riga.

The Founders and Guardian Angels

No anniversary celebration would be complete without honouring those who made this journey possible. Let me begin with the names that must be spoken tonight.

Tue Steen Müller. Tue’s voice has guided this Forum from its first morning in Gudhjem to this 30th edition—moderating, mentoring, and never losing his addiction to documentaries from the East of Europe. As he wrote in 2016, celebrating 20 years: “Thanks for letting me into a world of documentaries that I have become totally addicted to.” Tue, we thank you for that addiction—and for sharing it with all of us.

Sonja Vesterholt who could not be present, joined me in 1989 on Bornholm to document the complete regional transformation toward democracy and European cooperation and laid the groundwork for what would become the Balticum Film & TV Festival and, ultimately, this Forum. The Baltic Sea was no longer a divide but a new possibility of cooperation.

On that first morning in 1997, it was Sonja who opened the Forum alongside Alexander Krivonos from St. Petersburg with Searching of the Russian Avant-Garde Artists, setting the tone as bold, creative, and unafraid to tell difficult stories.

Simon Drewsen Holmberg. – One of the founders of Baltic Sea Docs, as my deputy at the Baltic Media Centre on Bornholm. Simon was a visionary who saw that unknown Baltic stories were worth breaking out into the world.

Lelda Ozola wrote in her tribute earlier this year: “Simon has undoubtedly left his footprint in the Baltic documentary scene, and it cannot be erased. And we are sure that he’ll continue to guide us as a guardian angel from the silver lined heaven.”

Simon’s passing is a profound loss. But his legacy lives on in every project that finds its way through this Forum to international audiences.

The Latvian Success Story—Lelda and Ilze

And then there are the two names that keep on coming back, as Tue Steen Müller wrote: Lelda Ozola and Ilze Galite Holmberg—the guardian angels of the Forum.

Lelda Ozola produced the first three editions of the Forum on Bornholm (1997– 1999). Her journey from the Soviet republic of Latvia to becoming a cornerstone of the National Film Centre of Latvia exemplifies the transformative power of this Forum.

As Lelda herself recalled, she used her experience from Bornholm to continue growing together with the Latvian film industry. Today, Lelda remains a vital force in Baltic documentary culture.

Ilze Galite Holmberg produced the fourth edition of the Forum and, as director of the National Film Centre of Latvia, initiated the parallel film programme that has become a Forum tradition.

Ilze’s logistical and technical skills carried the Forum through challenging moments— including the memorable 2001 edition as part of the SEE Docs of Dubrovnik that was a sister festival to Balticum Film & TV Festival.

Ilze’s warmth and professionalism, alongside Zanda Dudina’s, became the fundament of the Forum, when it found its permanent home in Riga in 2006.

Together, Lelda and Ilze represent the Latvian success story that we celebrate tonight: the transformation of the Baltic Sea Forum from Bornholm into a solid international event that has become the most important documentary event in the Baltic countries—highly respected for its professionality and loved for its friendly and inclusive atmosphere.

The Balticum Model—Economic Sustainability Through Culture

We must also stress the Latvian success with making the Forum into a solid international event for the economy of documentaries.

What began in 1990 as a festival founded by TV2 Bornholm evolved into a model of sustainable cultural cooperation. The setting up of the Forum created a unique ecosystem where artistic excellence met economic viability—where festival fees, distribution deals, and co-production agreements could multiply a filmmaker’s income.

As the role of commissioning editors’ financial importance decreased over the decades, sales agents and distributors grew enormously in influence—becoming go- betweens, who could secure festival money, VideoOnDemand deals, and non- theatrical distribution.

The Balticum model anticipated this shift. It created a space where filmmakers could meet not just broadcasters, but the full spectrum of decision-makers who determine whether a documentary finds its audience, It is about building a sustainable ecosystem for documentary film in a region that has known censorship, conflict, and the struggle for independence.

Why Documentaries Matter

Why does this matter? Why was it worth spending thirty years with this Forum? Because documentaries ask not just what is happening, but how does it happen—

and perhaps also why does it happen that way.

In a region that has known conflict, censorship, and the struggle for independence, documentaries have been a tool for telling the truth between the lines—creatively, visually, courageously. Today, as the Baltic Sea countries face renewed tensions— Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, hybrid threats target critical infrastructure, and NATO responds with enhanced security measures—the work of documentary filmmakers carries even greater weight.

From Ivars Seleckis’s Crossroad Street to Ukrainian filmmakers documenting their reality with extraordinary courage at this Forum, these projects have not only recorded history—they have helped shape it. In an age of electronic warfare and contested narratives, documentary film remains one of the few spaces where we can still navigate by True North.

The Next Thirty Years

Let us continue this work—of co-production, of collaboration, of building understanding through the power of documentary film.

Photo A. Zeltina.

Bent 09.09.2026

AMAZOMANIA

DIR. NATHAN GROSSMAN | 2026 | 93 MIN | SWEDEN, DENMARK, FRANCE | 16+

In 1996, a Swedish journalist together with an international expedition group heads to the Amazon rainforest to meet the Korubu tribe – a group of indigenous peoples isolated from the modern world. The expedition’s footage becomes a global sensation. Almost thirty years later director Nathan Grossman travels to the Amazon jungle to once again meet the native tribe. When representatives from the Korubu tribe share their version of the first meeting, the viewers’ perspective also changes. Initial research on the historical material turns into an unexpected confrontation with the past, and the camera increasingly turns towards the filmmakers themselves. Who owns the rights to creating a story? Can documentary film uncover and at the same time repeat colonial power struggles?

According to UN estimates, there are some 500 million indigenous peoples in the world today, living within the territories of 90 different nations. Their way of life, traditions and environment is threatened by economic interests, missionary efforts and diseases brought in by tourists. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was only adopted in 2007. The 2022 report by the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch on Brazil indicated that policies implemented by Jair Bolsonaro’s government significantly threatened the sovereignty of the indigenous peoples and the environmental protections of the Amazon.

BECOMING ROOSI

SIIT TA TULEB, ROOSI | DIR. MARGIT LILLAK | 2025 | 84 MIN | ESTONIA, GERMANY | 12+ | BSD 2022

For 10 years the director documented Roosi’s coming-of-age – from a childhood in a remote eco-community to climate advocacy protests in the city. Questions about parental choices alternate with searching for identity, personal challenges, creative experiments and generational responsibility in combating devastating climate change.

The film is an emotionally subtle story about anxiety in the face of inevitable change, the complicated relationship between children and parents, and the determination to find one’s own way in the chaos of the adult world. Alongside serious questions, though, there is no lack of irony and humour – unpredictable situations and sharp conversation with her parents reveal Roosi to be a cheerful and independent personality. The film Becoming Roosi speaks to the freedom to choose one’s own path in life and to consider how much of your parents’ convictions and mission to absorb into your own life.

Record-breaking heat, drought, unprecedented storms, flooding, uncontrollable forest fires are no longer future predictions, but everyday life. The European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) states: today’s political decisions will determine the survival of children and youth, their health and access to clean drinking water and food supplies. Globally some 70% of young people are concerned about climate change, while in Latvia in 2020, a European Commission study found this concern in only 23% of youth. Within Latvian society in general worry about climate change is relatively low – in a 2021 Special Eurobarometer survey only 59% of inhabitant viewed it as a serious problem, the lowest indicator in the EU.

THE BEAUTY OF ERRORS

KAPPALE KAUNEINTA SUOMEA | Dir. Jukka Kärkkäinen | 2026 | 94 min | Finland | 16+

When children grow up their parents have to change too. When Tero’s son Henri falls in love, the father feels betrayed. A sharp, poignant and unexpectedly upbeat story about a family where love is presented through awkward gestures, glances and sighs. The clash between father and son reveals a generational model of inherited masculinity – concern is more often expressed in actions not words, while attachment hides behind sharp remarks.

The everyday routine the characters seem to be stuck in alternates with a picturesque calm accompanied by Finnish pop classics. Like in Aki Kaurismäki’s works with a world full of comic situations, there is no shortage of typical Nordic dark humour. The absurdity of everyday dilemmas reveals human vulnerability and the so-very- familiar desire for understanding and support from loved ones, and the courage to accept one’s own mistakes and those of others. The film doesn’t judge – it is moving in its ability to see the tenderness where loneliness, dependence and everyday difficulties dwell.

Director Jukka Kärkkäinen has been making documentary films since 2003. His films are often centred around people who are ignored by society. He has worked with Tero and Henri before – the 2009 film “The Living Room of the Nation” (Kansakunnan olohuone) is about Tero becoming a father, and in “The Beauty of Errors” he revisits both characters 15 years later. Kärkkäinen admits that the film was inspired by the works of Roy Andersson and Ulrich Zeidler.

KNIFE: THE

LITTLE SINNER

DIR. DARO HANSEN, THOMAS PAPAPETROS | 2026 | 90 MIN | DENMARK | 16+

How to continue living and doing good when the world seems to be going crazy? Daro Hansen’s very personal journey through space and time takes her from Syria to Denmark, Lebanon and Greece. A personal video archive accumulated over the course of twenty years becomes a unique memory card – from first love and forced marriage, to war, migration and family trauma. This is a film about the ability to preserve humanity, closeness and love in a world in which safety is by no means a given.

The director bravely returns to her mother’s story and their complicated relationship, exploring whether the chain of violence passed down through generations can be broken. Sometimes you must dare to examine that which you most want to avoid. Looking back at the past helps to see family ties differently, and find a path to forgiveness, belonging and healing. The film is like meeting a close friend – deep, genuine and without pretence.

Within the EU, Latvia has the highest rates of violence against women and children. According to Ministry of Justice data, in 2025, 2,292 women in Latvia sought temporary protection against violence. Experts acknowledge that statistics can be misleading because many victims are too afraid to seek help. Latvia is also the first EU member state to vote to withdraw from the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence less than two years after it was ratified.

MY FAMILY AND OTHER CLOWNS

MINU PERE JA MUUD KLOUNI | DIR. HEILIKA PIKKOV, LIINA SÄRKINEN | 2025 | 84 MIN | ESTONIA | 12+ | BSD 2022

Sometimes we laugh the loudest when we least expect it. For more than 25 years Estonian clowns Piip and Tuut have entertained children and families the world over, but daily life is not always as fun as performing under stage lights. While Piip and Tuut, exhausted, are once again packing for travel in a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Tallinn, their three children are growing up on their own and long for the presence of their parents. Siim has autism, and older sister Emma takes care of him, and of the youngest, Anni.

When the pandemic disrupts their marathon of performances, Piip and Tuut’s creativity becomes the strength needed to adapt to change and retain the ability to experience joy. With heartfelt reverence, the film captures the fragile everyday moments that shape a family’s inter-relationships. Smiles, deep affection and doses of valuable advice guaranteed for the viewer!

Haide and Tomass have performed not only in Europe, but also Australia, the USA, Canada, China, Korea, India and Jordan. Every year they play more than 200 performances. Since 2007 they have been training volunteer clowns at the Dr. Clown Foundation’s Estonian branch. In Latvia, Dr. Clown has been operating since 2012 – specially trained volunteer doctor clowns make more than 1,000 visits per month to children in hospitals in Riga and other regions.

4

ATTEMPTED MURDER

OF SALMAN RUSHDIE

DIR. ALEX GIBNEY | 2026 | 107 MIN | USA | 16+

At the centre of the film is the unbreakable strength to continue creating, despite the death threats. On August 12, 2022, writer Salman Rushdie climbed onstage in NY state to talk about the USA as a safe haven for writers living in exile. After a few seconds an attacker stabbed the writer 15 times. Rushdie was severely injured and lost an eye but survived. Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney’s documentary follows Rushdie’s recovery process and reveals the most significant waypoints in his biography. The film utilizes previously unpublished personal footage filmed by Rushdie’s wife, poet-photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths, after the attack.

Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie is a story about the price of the freedom of speech – about what can happen when literary text is declared a threat and a writer’s body becomes a battlefield for ideologies, religious fanaticism and political power.

In 1989, after Iran’s Ayatollah issued a fatwa against Rushdie (a religious ruling with an invitation to kill), the writer spent several years in complete isolation guarded by the Secret Service. The publishers and translators of his works have also been subjected to threats and attacks. The Rushdie situation is not an exception – writers, artists and journalists all over the world are still being jailed, persecuted, physically threatened, killed or forced into exile for their works and publicly stated opinions. The 2025 PEN America study “Freedom to Write Index” recorded at least 401 jailed writers in 44 countries – the highest number since the index was created. In the “Writers at Risk” database there are currently more than 1,000 active cases involving culture and media professionals who are experiencing persecution, attacks or deportation.

BACK TO CONTENTS

FILM PROGRAMME

TECHPLOMACY

DIR. SUSANNE KOVÁCS | 2026 | 93 MIN | DENMARK | 12+

The digital environment is changing at an almost uncontrollable pace, and democratic institutions and regulations can’t keep up. Who will determine what sort of technology will shape our future – democratic values or corporate interests?

Enterprising Dane, Anne Marie Entoft Meldgaard, is one of the first international ambassadors in the field of technology. With Nordic directness and conviction about the importance of human rights and public good she heads to the modern-day “Wild West” – Silicon Valley in the USA – to seek a democratic digital future. How to shape a sustainable digital environment strategy and communicate with tech magnates about protecting human rights? For five years the film crew travels from Palo Alto to Copenhagen, to the UN HQ in Geneva and the G20 summit in Sao Paolo, showing the effort involved in compelling technology to serve people and not profit only.

With the rapidly growing importance of AI, decisions made by the so-called Big Seven company leaders (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla), will influence the lives of 8 billion citizens of the world. In July 2026 in Geneva, the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance took place, attended by governments, tech companies, civil society and scientists. “Our behavioural patterns and worldview are highly vulnerable to AI systems of influence,” stated Jānis Sārts, director of the NATO Stratcom COE (interview with LSM, on July 31, 2026).

TO DIE TO LIVE

ПОМЕРТИ, ЩОБ ЖИТИ | DIR. YULIIA HONTARUK | 2026 | 120 MIN | UKRAINE, LATVIA, SLOVAKIA | 16+ | BSD 2019

In 2014 when Russia began its occupation of Crimea, three Ukrainian boys – Shakhta, Dancer and Potter – volunteered to fight. After the full-scale invasion in the spring of 2022, they once again returned to the front. The director allows us in close-up to get to know this generation of Ukrainians whose lives are determined by the ruthless struggle for their nation’s existence. Returning to civilian life turns out to be no less complicated. Former soldiers feel alienated from individualistic society and long for the community and clear goals of their experience at the front.

Footage shot over twelve years creates a fragmented and intense cinematic experience, wherein the war’s past merges with the present. The film is about man’s attempt to come to terms with mortality while at the same time maintaining the will to live. “Yuliia’s film reminds us that behind every headline and each statistic are people who carry invisible scars. Its message reaches far beyond the borders of Ukraine; it is about the unseen price of freedom, about the courage to choose life again and again,” states Uldis Cekulis, the film’s co-producer from VFS Films studio.

According to Ukrainian National news agency “Ukrinform” data, more than 71% of Ukraine’s inhabitants have volunteered for national defence and support activities since the Russian invasion. During this period more than 20 members of the Ukrainian film industry have perished at the front lines. “When the full-scale invasion began, everyone was saving children and the elderly, but I grabbed a suitcase full of hard drives,” says director Yuliia Hontaruk – “To Live to Die” was created from more than 1,000 hours of footage and approx. 80 film edit versions.

FILMAS.LV

UKRAINIAN SHERIFFS

DIR. ROMAN BONDARCHUK | 2015 | 85 MIN | UKRAINE, LATVIA, GERMANY | 16+

In the remote Ukrainian village of Stara Zburyivka where official law enforcement rarely visits, the head of the village has found an effective way to combat disorder. He has chosen and appointed two men – the smartest one and the strongest one – as sheriffs. Bearing shiny badges and driving a rickety Zhiguli, this law enforcement team heads to the next routine call – someone had two ducks stolen, a woman has been attacked by an anaconda, the resident homeless person has eaten his neighbour’s dog.

Their regular routine is disrupted by news of war in the border region of nearby Crimea. Factions begin to rage in the village and draft-age men flee from conscription summons, but the head of the village does not lose faith in his fellow villagers’ ability to face hardship. Film director Roman Bondarchuk calls his work a tragi- comedy documentary and hopes that after the war a continuation of the film can be made.

The film was shown in more than 25 festivals worldwide. After the 2022 invasion the Russian Army tortured the head of the village from the film in an attempt to gain information about the resistance movement. He managed to escape and came to Latvia in 2023 to heal from his injuries and his traumatic experience. An exhibition dedicated to the film and the Kherson region will be on display at art station “Dubulti” from September 10th to October 1st.

FILMAS.LV

UNDER THE RED LIGHT

ROMUALDAS IR JŪRA | DIR. JORIS SKUDRA | 2025 | 73 MIN | LITHUANIA | 12+ | BSD 2022

Romualdas Požerskis is one of most renowned photographers in Lithuania. During the Soviet occupation, when it was forbidden to photograph the sea, religion and nakedness, Požerskis documented the yearning for freedom by Lithuanian youth. Tens of thousands of captured moments, a unique perspective, which at the time was prohibited from being displayed. Secretly listening to American rock music at night, unauthorized motorcycle rides by the sea and imagery as a form of protest.

Despite strict Soviet censorship, the photographer captured and immortalized religious rituals, holy pilgrims, Lithuanian rural folk, small- town life and behind the scenes of the local art world. Požerskis’ camera also captured decisive moments in the process of Lithuania regaining its independence. In the artist’s photographs the everyday meets the sacred, revealing the fragility of human relationships, existential loneliness and striving for timelessness.

In the late 1960s in Lithuania, the so-called Lithuanian School of Photography emerged – a documentary, humanistic tradition that focussed on everyday life, the countryside, human relationships and individual experiences, and in doing so distinguished itself from the official, ideologically-construed representation of Soviet reality. The functional significance of this type of photography was also the preservation of Lithuanian national identity and traditional way of life: during the Soviet era, documenting national culture could be deemed to be indirect resistance. The works of Romualdas Požerskis precisely fit into this tradition.

FILMAS.LV

THE QUEEN AND THE SMOKEHOUSE

BAŁTYK | DIR. IGA LIS | 2025 | 65 MIN | POLAND | 12+ | BSD 2024

During the summer Łeba is one of the most popular resort towns in Poland, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors. At the centre of the film is Miecia – proprietor of Łeba’s legendary fish smokehouse, whom the locals refer to as Queen of the town. Over the course of more than 40 years of working, she has become an integral part of the town’s landscape. Always with cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth, Miecia jokes that she has smoked herself along with the fish. The film lets us hear the murmur of the sea and see the spirit of the Baltic shore that is slowly fading under the shiny façade of tourism. The daily work takes on a poetic ritual significance wherein the smokehouse becomes a smoke-filled sanctuary, symbolizing endurance and love of life.

The director finds beauty in the seemingly mundane: work calloused hands and a gaze that simultaneously shows stubbornness and fragility. Miecia’s daily life flows like a carousel in the beachside amusement park – at times energetic and noisy, and also meditative and subdued. Facing health problems, she is forced to go on vacation for the first time in her life and learn to live not just for work, but also for herself. A humorous and deeply moving story, it is especially dangerous for viewers who like fish.

Łeba was first mentioned in historical sources in 1268 as a fishing settlement. During WWII, the German Army conducted missile tests in its territory. Today the town has some 3,000 inhabitants and is situated near the Słowiński Biosphere Reserve, which is listed in the UNESCO list of protected areas and encompasses one of the largest and most active shifting sand dune systems of the Baltic Sea area.

FILMAS.LV

WHERE EVERYTHING DISAPPEARS

DE VSE ZNIKAYE | DIR. OLEKSANDR TKACHENKO | 2026 | 88 MIN | FRANCE, UKRAINE | 16+ | BSD 2023

Ukrainian cinematographer and pacifist Dmytro Dokunov founds an eco-village in a picturesque corner of Ukraine’s mountains. Freely, joyfully and creatively these children of nature tend their homes and gardens, while also meditating, swimming in paradise- like waterfalls and loving life in a way that is only possible with youthful maximalism. However, Dmytro receives a conscription notice from the Ukrainian Army to fight against Russian aggression. He begins shooting a war diary with a mobile phone – footage documenting combat units, fellow comrades, fear and his increasingly bitter attempts at understanding how to be a soldier, as someone who believes in pacifism. When Dmytro is heavily injured in Bakhmut, he seeks refuge and healing in the mountains. The war hero title doesn’t help much. Plagued by painful memories, Dmytro learns to live again and to create an environment where peace prevails.

For 20 years, Ukrainian director, journalist and anthropologist Oleksandr Tkachenko has been producing material for national media and has collaborated with international institutions such as the Council of Europe and EUBAM. He has also worked as an advertising and music video director. “Where Everything Disappears” is his first international feature film that was created as part of the ARTE “Generation Ukraine” initiative. The film’s world premiere took place at FIPADOC 2026 in France. At Docudays UA 2026 it received the Viktor Onysko Memorial Prize for best film editing in a Ukrainian documentary. After finishing the film, Oleksandr joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Today in two months, we’ll be kicking off the 69th edition of DOK Leipzig and are delighted to unveil this year’s motif. It shows a pair of bright red dungarees, once again designed by Leipzig-based graphic designer and illustrator Stefan Ibrahim.

“Our poster this year is deliberately open to multiple interpretations,” says festival director Ola Staszel. “In its references to the labour movement, politics, feminism and pop culture, the strength of the motif lies in its layers of meaning. That also ties in with the many voices within a community, which we want to place firmly at the heart of this year’s festival.”

Designer Stefan Ibrahim emphasises the unifying dimension of his motif: “The motif depicts bodies in motion and people interacting. Its association with work and production is, of course, intentional. Whether it be art, crafts, services or care work, everyone is included, everyone is seen. At DOK Leipzig and far beyond the festival, artists and cultural practitioners make an almost daily choice to engage in a creative process, with all its highs and lows, and to lay that process bare in all its many facets – whether in order to tell a story or to make it accessible to a wider audience. This poster pays tribute to that essential artistic labour and invites audience members to become active participants in an idea, a dialogue and a shared exploration.”

What’s up next

Tomorrow we’ll be revealing the first new additions to the 2026 programme, and offer further exciting insights over the coming weeks – until the full film programme for the 69th edition is published on 8 October.

From 26 October to 1 November 2026, Leipzig will once again become a meeting place for documentary and animated film fans from all over the world. If you don’t want to miss out on what’s in store for you at DOK Leipzig 2026, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

We look forward to welcoming you soon!

This is a question we often hear from festival guests, audiences and collaborators, so we decided to tell you – as far as it is possible. Why wouldn’t it be possible, you may ask? Well, because it is not really an exact science. Rather, it’s a combination of defining the festival’s theme, prominence of the kinds of films we want to screen, their availability and visibility, our perception of Croatian and European festival scenes, and obviously, taking into account what we have learned our audience likes and considering what it is that we might want to introduce them to, challenge them, and above all, create an emotion. So on top of this all comes instinct and experience, and let’s not forget the budget: besides the obvious costs of putting up a festival, screening a film comes with a substantial price too.

When my friend Robert Zuber invited me to curate Rab Film Festival, my first question was: „What kind of a festival?“ Croatia has many film festivals that cover a multitude of genres, forms, styles and topics, so how can we stand out? Since we are both in essence journalists, and everything that came after in our careers built upon that angle, we decided on investigative cinema. But what is investigative cinema? It may seem easy to define it in terms of documentary films which often aim to uncover and examine certain topics, but even this is not so clear cut, let alone how this term would be positioned within fiction cinema. So we realised that we will, together with the audience and our colleagues at home and around the world, learn as we go. We decided to investigate what investigative cinema is, so the programme and side activities that you have the chance to experience every August in Rab is the result of this process.

We are a small, or „boutique“ festival, meaning that we show only about 25 films, and out of these, only 12 constitute the main competition programme. This means we have to pick carefully and meticulously with many criteria in mind, and since we don’t accept applications, this is a fully curated event. We follow big and small festivals in Europe, North America and Asia, we follow what is happening in Croatia and the region, and we watch many documentary and fiction films in order to make a programme that is engaging, relevant, audience-oriented but also challenging. Our main goal is to build an audience that will, as years go by, know what kind of films to expect at Rab Film Festival, but also to surprise them and inspire them to look for some different kinds of art than what they’re used to. We take into account all the different ages and walks of life that our audience comes from and try to strike a balance between entertainment, education and art.

But we do not exist in a vacuum. Other festivals in Croatia and the region will want to screen the same films as us, and we collaborate with some of them. National or regional premieres are a matter of prestige among festivals, but our aim is not to build this kind of reputation: we simply show films that fit our topic and which we believe would be interesting for audiences in Rab. Still, other festivals who want premieres sometimes prevent us from showing some films that we want, and this is another reason we position the festival at the end of August, after the biggest world festivals like IDFA, Sundance, Berlinale, Cannes, CPH:DOX, and regional ones, such as Motovun, Pula and Sarajevo. This gives us a good overview and a certain freedom in picking films, as well as feedback from audiences and critics at those festivals.

Since we don’t have a strictly established system or pattern of selection, except the widest idea of the fiction and documentary split, every edition of Rab Film Festival is an experiment that builds on previous years. This makes our work challenging but also exciting, and most importantly, it is an organic process that eventually culminates in six days of films that live and breathe today with the present audiences, but also reflect the past and inform the future. And, we believe, entertains, educates, uplifts and inspires people in Rab and visitors from outside. 

Vladan Petkovic

Press release from the festival:

RAFF Generation once again brings a series of lectures, workshops, talks and case studies aimed at young people who want to gain a better understanding of film, journalism and the media – as well as anyone who wants to learn from professionals with extensive experience.

How do we watch films, and how much do we really understand what we are watching? Film critic Vladan Petković, in his workshop How to Watch and Discuss a Film, as a Filmmaker or as a Viewer, will explore critical approaches to watching films and the different ways filmmakers and audiences engage with them.

Prof. Tomislav Levak will address the challenges facing the journalism profession in Motivation in Journalism at a Time of Major Changes in the Media Market, while Nova TV journalist Barbara Štrbac will share her experience in the lecture Breaking News in Small Newsrooms.

What does a young filmmaker’s first serious encounter with investigative documentary filmmaking look like? Vida Žagar will share her experience through a case study of the documentary “The World’s Best Film Professor”, focusing on a young filmmaker working on their debut investigative documentary.

And in an age of almost limitless content, how do we decide what is actually worth watching? Đelo Hadžiselimović will address the topic How to Choose Films in the Age of Streaming Platforms Without an Editor Choosing for You?

On the other side of the camera, director Igor Jelinović, author of the film “Koke”, will talk about the experience of making his first feature film through a very practical question: How to Survive Your Debut Film?

What does it take for a film idea to actually become a finished film? Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković will present their experience of working on a project through the topic “Yugo Goes to America – How Did We Manage to Shoot It?”

But once a film has been shot, its journey to the audience is only beginning. Belgian producer and distributor Thierry Detaille will introduce participants to this often less visible side of the film industry through the topic Production, Distribution, Sales – What Are They?

And after all the questions about how we watch, choose, create, produce and bring films to audiences, perhaps the simplest and most important question remains: why do we love film in the first place? Danish film critic Tue Steen Müller will offer his own perspective in the lecture Why Do I Love Film?

This year’s RAFF Generation concludes with a conversation between festival programmer Vladan Petković and RAFF director Robert Tomić Zuber about the participants’ impressions of the programme.

The RAFF Generation programme is supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).

I saw the film but understood that I did not get it all. Especially who was who in this three generation family drama, that takes place in Uzice in Serbia. I went back to the MacBook this morning and watched it again and understood everything, including how great a film it is. I am sure it will be loved by the audience at Sarajevo Film Festival. It is entertaining AND touching with an absolute star as protagonist, the aunt Gordana, around whom all the other characters circle, first of all her grown-up children Mladen and Marija, but also the sisters of Gordana, Biljana and Mira, and their mother… and many others, also grandchildren.

In one of the key scenes where Gordana is confronted by her daughter, Marija, her little son sitting in the middle of the sofa says to Bojana, the director behind the camera – save your batteries, stop filming, it’s gonna be an ugly film… From a child’s perspective he is right, there are so many hideous stories from the past of Gordana and, in this case, her daughter, that comes to the surface. Abuse.

Bojana comes back to Serbia from Hollywood, she is an actress, she wants to stay with her aunt, with whom she spent very little time when a child, before she and her parents went to Australia, where she grew up. As a child she was not allowed to see Gordana, who was an alcoholic and lived a life full of parties, having relationships to many men, leaving her two children alone – just like she she, Gordana, was pretty much alone as a child.

There are photos from their respective childhoods but the brave and wise solution by Bojana is to reenact scenes from the past. She does so inspired by Gordana´s obsession with tv soaps. The editing functions perfectly, and it is fun to watch. There is for instance a scene, where Gordana – being the third child – sits with her two sisters and does not eat… her father has told her that she should sit and “inhale” the smells from their food, that would make her full!

It is the face and presence of Gordana and her – being sober now – extraordinary helpfulness to older people around her, AND her story as a successful hairdresser with her own salon that took my attention. She won a competition and was invited to become a superb hairdresser. She said no. “Do you know what it means to be damaged”, she says in one of the many fine intimate conversations she has with Bojana. It turns out that Bojana also has had a problem with drinking; at a point she says – or is it Gordana – that she does not want to be like her aunt.

Who openly says that she destroyed the life of her children. For two years, they say, they were alone, I did not have a mother, says Mladen. But she is now, the film shows, a caring grandmother – and what was Gordana’s salon is now a salon of Marija!

A soap opera as the poster says, yes, with the word documentary in focus, hybrid, does not matter. A complex structure unfolded to become a Great film!

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Serbia, Australia, 85 mins.

“Artist Dragana Jurišić travels to the town of Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to stage a short film in the style of a mythical cult Western director Hari Džekson (Harry Jackson). In an attempt to uncover the story of Hari’s life and legacy, Dragana embarks on making a Western with the local community. She meets his former collaborators, family members, and local residents, piecing together memories of Hari’s town before the war and getting to know its inhabitants today. The resulting documentary film becomes an exploration of the impact of war on Hari, herself and the town. It also asks the question if the spirit of Hari Dzekson still exists today.”

This is what the film is about. It is entertaining to watch, especially her Western auditions with kids and grown-ups, many knew Hari, described him as a nice guy, “he was always chasing justice”, worked with him on his westerns, knew how to hold a gun and how to operate it. So it is a looking-back film with Dragana Jurišić, who lives in Ireland, contemplating on nationalism, “the ideology of idiots” as one says. There is an interview with the journalist Yusuf, who was captured and tortured by the warlord Arkan and his group – “noone has until today been held accountable for what Arkan did when he was in Bijeljina”. And the shocking photos of Ron Haviv are shown. You can go to the internet to take a look, I can’t afford to show them here.

I prefer to stay with the director and skilled photographer Dragana, who finds a location in the countryside, where Darko lives, a bachelor, who invites the film crew to come and shoot the western in memory of Harry Jackson at his place.

Hari stayed in Bijeljina but sent his family – wife and kids – abroad.

Nationalism… there is a short clip from Dublin, from a demonstration against foreigners coming to Ireland, “send them back”. Alas, could have been Copenhagen…

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Ireland, Croatia, 2026, 93 mins.

There is a bitterness in the face of the charismatic elderly Roko Markovina. “There is no justice in the world, nothing is fair”. He lives on an island and goes with a stick. He is doing gardening. Let me quote from the always competent publicist Dimitra Kouzi’s synopsis:

“Roko Markovina was a socialist member of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. A respected and widely loved public figure, he believed that, when war
came, it was his moral duty to lead by example and remain in Mostar with his family, even as the city was torn apart by ethnic conflict. They were soon driven out by nationalists from their own ethnic community, who branded Roko a traitor and seized their home. Although the family eventually recovered the house, they never returned.”

Why not, says one of his children, Dragan, “I lost my hometown” – the other son Damir is the one, who made the film – they are both in the film’s central scene that takes place at the dinner table and present is also the wife and mother of the two, Zinaida. I don´t want to live in a divided city, father Roko says, Mostar is full of hate. You exiled us, say mother and sons, and yet says the wife, whenever you have been there to visit, you come home telling that you met so many old friends, says Zinaida… and enemies, says Roko.

Excellent archive material shows Roko Markovina speaking in the BiH parliament, powerful he is and strong in his argumentation for a non-nationalistic country. He was appointed Head of Civil Defense in Mostar during the war, “I buried 386 people”, he says.

The 13th of October 1993 the family left their apartment in Mostar, actually they were thrown out by the winning Croat nationalistic party.

The film’s director, Damir, states in an interview with publicist Kouzi that “Reflecting on how best to portray the war we lived through in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I realised that my family is by no means alone in a struggle to accept the new post-war society and its rules. After nearly fifty years of living together, many families in BiH found themselves excluded by the new nationalist divides and factions.” He does not take a stand against his father, although he and the brother Dragan indeed reproach him for being so untouchably stubborn – your position had consequences for your family.

There is a lot of images from the childhood of Damir and Dragan, home video clips that are inserted into footage of today and archive from Sarajevo during the war is strongly there, so the place for the premiere is of course obvious.

There are not many smiles from Roko Markovina, and yet, watch the film and enjoy the ending scene with him and the director…

Croatia, 2026, 75 mins.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

“The idea of making a film first came to me after the death of my close friend and brother-in-arms, 20-year-old Artem. I really wanted him to be remembered. My brothers-in-arms, who had by then become like family, accepted the idea. But during that period there was almost no time for “just filming” — in war there is constant work and no days off. I did not film secret operations. I did not take the camera to combat positions. I filmed only when it was possible and when it did not interfere with service…” A quote from an interview with Helena Maksyom from the website of Ukrainian festival DocuDays, where the film had its premiere and won two awards, for Best Film and for the editing. Artem is on the photo taken from the interview, “provided by the director”.

Helena is at the funeral of Artem filming – cleverly thought – flowers being brought to the grave and from a distance – respect! – the sorrow of his family. The emotional response from Helena comes after, a cut to her with a rifle firing several shots, I see it as getting the aggression out.

The film, as a whole, is far from aggression. With Helena in picture talking to the camera giving comments to the situation and/or talking to her frail mother, who in the beginning of the film says to Helena “take your passport and get out of the country” – Helena answers why she wants to stay in her country, we spectators do not doubt her attachment to her country.

The film has a non-sensationalistic tone, where we spectators are with Helena and her family, as she called it in the interview, when they are in places waiting for the next call for battle, when they are evacuating a family (I will never forget the wee boy with big curious eyes turning around for the camera, when he and his family goes for the car for evacuation), when she has conversations with the young soldiers, when we see soldiers being treated for wounds in the field hospital etc.

The approach is respectful and for me beautiful, the film is likewise a personal documentation of high quality.

Ukraine, Romania, Germany, The Netherlands 2026, 104 min.