A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Actually, I lack words to write about this documentary by Macedonian master Manchevski, director of fiction films, who decided to make a documentary that takes its subject from the horrible tragic fire in a disco in the small town Kocani…
“Growing up, I witnessed my mother’s fear and suffering as my father humiliated her, draining her will to live. My two younger sisters and I were insulted, beaten, and thrown out of the house – punished for opposing him. Anger…
I remember the film project from the Baltic Sea Docs 2019, entitled “Company of Steel”. Especially the scene with the young man, who rides down a street, full speed on a skateboard. And falls. He and the two other protagonists…
Feature Documentaries BEAR WITH ME, Martin Genovski(Bulgaria, 2026, 84 min.): world premiere GOOD PEOPLE / DOBRI LUGJE, Milcho Manchevski(North Macedonia, 2026, 86 min.): world premiere THE BALKAN COWBOY, Dragana Jurišić(Croatia, Ireland, 2026, 93 min.): world premiere FORBIDDEN AUNT, Bojana Novaković(Serbia,…
The 23rd Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival has announced its winners. However, Docudays UA does not end there: the winning films can be watched during the screening day, 12th June. Some recordings of the festival discussions will also be…
Today is the last day of the documentary festival Docudays in Ukraine and I’m back again in this little safe haven in the outskirts of the world, aka Denmark. Here are a few of many remarkable moments: I. During my…
The festival closes with 12,300 attendees, 28 sessions with sold-out tickets and 70% occupancy in the halls Barcelona, May 16, 2026.– DocsBarcelona presented the awards for its 29th edition this Saturday in a ceremony at the Barcelona Contemporary Culture Center…
Det var hårdt at overvære debatten mellem Omar Shargawi og Martin Krasnik efter forevisningen af førstnævntes “Palestinian Unwanted”, som var med i CPH:DOX – på det associerede Para:Dox er den timelange debat at finde. Omar Shargawi (OS) var på hjemmebane,…
Jeg havde set tre af Langballes tidligere film – hans engelske afgangsfilm “Beach Boy” som jeg så i St.Petersburg i 2014, den fortryllende “Q’s Barbershop” og senest “Theatre of Violence” – og kunne lide dem alle. Så forventningerne var høje,…
“Little Sinner er en meget personlig fortælling om tvangsægteskab, vold, traumer og en konstant uro. Alligevel repræsenterer den mange kvinders historier. Ofte forbinder vi tvangsægteskaber med den muslimske tro. Daro er født og opvokset i Syrien. Hendes familie var og…
A perilous character, that´s the title of the film, Douglas Gordon says to director Finlay Pretsell, when they are in the Berlin studio of the Scottish artist. I did not know the English word perilous, checked it and shook my…
Rekordstort antal danske byer inviterer til dokumentarfilmfestivaler Den 10.-25. marts 2026 står i dokumentarfilmens tegn. CPH:DOX’ landsdækkende initiativ, DOX:DANMARK, hvor mere end halvdelen af landets kommuner arrangerer deres egne lokale dokumentarfilmfestivaler, åbner nemlig biografdørene til mere end 400 filmvisninger, 200…
The program “Prisoners of Conscience + A Friend in Prison, Me Next to the Prison” will be shown Saturday the 14th at 13.00, more Georgian films follow, check the website From February 14 to 15, in cooperation with the…
Miecia is the “Queen of Łeba”, a seaside resort at the Baltic Sea, the Sea, so well known for a Dane, who has tasted lots of smoked fish on the Island of Bornholm. Miecia has had her smokehouse for 40…
Lovely with a short film on this site. In this case a gem. Polish, directed and produced by Krzysztof Kopczyński, who – again, see note below – delivers professional camerawork (Michał Popiel-Machnicki) and sound and editing. Inga is a little…
Co-director: Andrew Siedenburg. Allow me first to take a shortcut to the precise and inviting synopsis provided by IDFA, where the film in November was selected for the Luminous section, after that I give you a personal view on the…
Amsterdam, Thursday November 20, 2025A Fox Under a Pink Moon wins Best Film in the International Competition and Past Future Continuous wins Best Film in the Envision Competition This evening, the winners of IDFA’s 38th edition competition programs were officially announced at the Awards Ceremony held at…
Not only it was a comeback for me to Ji.hlava, but it was also a return to good old times. In many ways. A quiet city (or town) with old style shops, different prices than the ones in big cities,…
The award-winning films of the 68th edition of DOK Leipzig have been announced. The seven Golden and two Silver Doves as well as various Partnership Awards were presented at the Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig on Saturday. In the International Competition Documentary…
Eleven industry awards were presented today to the most promising projects participating in the Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2025. In total, fifty-five projects from Europe, United States and East & Southeast Asia were presented at the Forum. The projects in development, production and…
Når det gælder Jørgen Leth er det altid, og i høj grad i denne meget store og aldeles vigtige film, umuligt at skille manden fra værket. Og jeg, som i min ungdom var opdraget i det autonome værks ånd, jeg…
There were many new talents at the Baltic Sea Docs – and there were filmmakers, who have been awarded many times for their works. Audrius Stonys is one of them. He was a new talent, when the Baltic Sea Docs…
There is hope! That was my reaction this morning at the first round of pitching at the 29th Baltic Sea Docs in Riga. I thought so when I met the Hungarian film project “Kind of Adults” by Rita Balogh and…
After a long first day of the Baltic Sea Docs, the tutors were invited for dinner on top of Riga. Two of the tutors come from Georgia and Ukraine: Salomé Jashi and Darya Bassel. Both of them play an important…
I had big expectations after Olha Zhurba’s first long documentary “Outside” – https://filmkommentaren.dk/olha-zhurba-outside/ – and I was not disappointed. “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” is a film that will stay in Ukrainian documentary history. And internationally as a film that should be…
The 29th edition of Baltic Sea Docs, the long-running documentary co-production forum in Riga, is set to run from 31 August to 5 September. The forum will feature 26 documentary projects within its industry programme, alongside film screenings for audiences…
Jury Special Award at the Sarajevo FF. And a text taken from the press kit of the best publicist I know, Greek Dimitra Kouzi: “Bulgarian queer artist and songwriter Ivo Dimchev transforms personal and social hardship into provocative public and…
PRESS RELEASESarajevo, August 19, 2025 DOCU TALENT AWARDS 2025 WENT TO A SONG WITHOUT HOME, FLYING COWS, AND LAND OF FIRE EMERGING PRODUCERS 2026 AND RECIPIENTS OF JI.HLAVA /JB FILMS SUPPORT WERE ANNOUNCED Seven outstanding documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe,…
Producer Adnan Ćuhara. Shown, world premiere August 16 at Sarajevo Film Festival. I quote Sarajevo Times (March 2 2025), where the film crew gives this congratulatory note the 1st of March, to the independence day of Bosnia and Herzegovina: “The…
Sarajevo Film Festival reinforces its commitment to powerful documentary storytelling with a revitalized concept for its documentary strand at CineLink Industry Days. Building on its longstanding support for filmmakers across Southeast Europe and beyond, the Festival introduces a dynamic platform…
It’s really a small film festival that accompanies the Industry based Baltic Sea Docs with project development and pitching. 12 films for the audience in Riga, screenings from the 2nd till the 7th of September primarily in the Splendid Palace…
He texted me yesterday, “watching?”, as he has done dozens of times, when “our” football club FCBarcelona plays. If I am not at the computer here in Denmark, he updates me on how the match goes. I am writing about…
Rada Šešić, the programmer of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film, included 20 films in the competition programme; 12 feature-length and 8 short documentary films, four of which will have a world premiere, four international, 10 films will have a…
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…
I had a very rich experience watching this film. I was pleasantly surprised of the way it was told. The filmmakers took me by surprise by giving me several layers to dig into.Thank you for that but before I go…
There is a short text at the beginning of the film bringing us to the location: “… a network of rural communities (that) provides shelter to individuals struggling with addiction and mental health issues”. A former abuser is running the…
I took this from the website of the producer Onassis Culture to have a precise content description of the film: Filmmaker Eva Stefani follows the preparations behind Transverse Orientation and its tour across theatrical stages in Europe, observing from a close distance Dimitris…
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…
Take a look at the photo/still from the film from Bucha, the city that experienced, what has been called a massacre, where Russian crimes against humanity took place in February 2022. Documented it is by several sources. Including the Office…
The 22nd Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival has announced its winners. However, Docudays UA does not end there: the winning films can be watched during the screening day 13 June. Some recordings of the festival discussions will…
How to pitch your upcoming documentary here and now? And how to successfully promote it once it’s completed? On June 11 and 12, the DOCU/PRO platform will host events that will help industry-accredited participants explore the tools of development, effective pitching,…
Look at the photo… A douce painting by Edgar Degas, for me the first true documentarian? No, an edited still from a Danish documentary – coproduced with a Spanish company – directed by Robin Petré and with Ecuadorian cameraperson María…
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge“, one of many quotes from Albert Einstein that I was thinking of while watching this well made originally thought documentary from Ukraine. Take a…
Thanks to Filmin I could watch some more documentaries that were shown at DocsBarcelona from a soft armchair in a town at Costa Brava. After the festival. All good, some better than the other of course, some more artistic, some…
DocsBarcelona Industry has announced the winners of the 2025 edition this Thursday evening, with Capitán by Laura Otárola taking home the DocsBarcelona Award for Best Project. The awards ceremony was held at Casa Montjuïc and marks the conclusion of DocsBarcelona Industry, the leading…
Gosh, what a film, what a woman, a sad comedy, but also a documentary with a message… Let me give you the precise logline from the website of the director’s company: “Carmen’s life has always been a Quixotesque comedy. Living…
Tomorrow will be the final day of a training week in Baku in Azerbaijan arranged by The Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers (AUF). With filmmaker Afaq Yusifli as the workshop leader, taking care of everything, the perfect organizer behind this project…
“Turning pain into happiness” is a key sentence in the film that deals with a Gaza, before it was totally destroyed after October 7 2023 and the consequent events. The pain of the director Areeb, Palestinian living in the US,…
Wolski pitched “The Big Chief” in Sarajevo last August. During a workshop at ZagrebDox he told me that the film was to have its premiere at Visions du Réel in Nyon. It had, the other day. He sent me a…
Barcelona, April 8, 2025 · The Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival DocsBarcelona will hold its twenty-eighth edition from May 8 to 18 at the CCCB, the Renoir and Phenomena cinemas, and the Filmoteca de Catalunya, the festival’s regular venues, in addition to Casa Montjuïc and Espai Texas.…