Film Festivals in Biarritz and Riga
Two documentary film festivals, different in orientation, both with selections of high quality films, many categories, I will with this text focus on some titles from the main competition category of FIPADOC, that starts tomorrow in Biarritz and from ArtDocFest that runs from the 1st of March till the 8th of that month.
Some films will be shown in both festivals. Let me mention “Happiness to All” by Czech Filip Remunda, who shot the film from 2016 to 2024, a strong portrait of charismatic Vitaly Parasyuk, “… a nuclear physicist and record holder in extreme cold-exposure training, (who) makes his living as a bricklayer and lives below the poverty line.” We see him with his mother, who used to be an acclaimed scientist during USSR, we see him getting married in Novosibirsk, his home town, at a ritual in ice-cold water (!), we see and hear him comment on the Putin-regime; a political awakening has been caught by Remunda, who won awards at the Jihlava FF. Now you can watch the film in Biarritz or in Riga.
Putting on the “We are Red, we are White” Danish glasses let me notice that “Balomania” by Sissel Morell Dargis will be shown in Biarritz – I wonder how many festivals this monster success has been to… – and in the Baltic Focus in Riga, I see with pleasure that three Danish documentaries have been taken for the competitive Baltic Focus in Riga, “Afterwar” by Birgitte Stærmose, praised on this site as is “Echo of You” by Zara Zerny, and “A Place in the Sun” by Mette Carla Albrechtsen, that I have not seen.
FIPADOC also has a competitive category called “European Stories” that includes Slovak Marek Sulik’s “Ms.President” and Ukrainian Olha Zhurba’s “Songs of Slow Burning Earth”, both reviewed on this site, the latter I consider as the best documentary of 2024. And then I am very curious about Vladimir Perovic “Goodlands” about his motherland Montenegro. I know Perovic from his short films and from saying hello at many editions of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade.
ArtDocFest in Riga presents “Trains” by Maciej Drygas, IDFA winner, also praised on this site, a short film by one of my favourite Latvian directors Viesturs Kairiss, the strong story from Ukraine by Juri Rechinsky, “Dear Beautiful Beloved”, the personal Polish “In Limbo” by Ukrainian Alina Maksimenko and “Of Caravan and Dogs” by Askold Kurov and an anonymous co-director about “The journalists and activists threatened with long prison sentences and forced to make difficult moral choices in the midst of total war censorship: should they stay or leave the country, should they go to jail or save their team, should they adapt to the new reality or stay true to their principals and close their media? Shot during one decisive year, before and after the invasion, the film portrays the last defenders of democracy in Russia and gives a glimpse of hope for another future… with two Nobel Peace Prize winners Dmitriy Muratov of “Novaya gazeta”, and NGO “Memorial” among them.” In the program presentation the founder and leader of the the festival Vitaly Mansky mentioned that there are no Russian films in the programme but with “Happiness to All” and the film of Kurov, who lives outside Russia and probably other works there are lots to dig into.
Have a nice festival in – hopefully, I have been there in snowstorm – sunny Biarritz. And I will be in Riga for Film School teaching, maybe a film or two in the evening.
