Sergei Loznitsa: Mr.Landsbergis
Jury words IDFA 2021 on the film: “It is not easy to bring history to life. It is even more difficult to make it thrilling, urgent, and totally enriching, to make it feel like we are living through it as…
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Festival
Read MoreSergei Loznitsa: Mr.Landsbergis
Peter Kerekes: 107 Mothers
2017, on this site: High expectations. What else can you have with a project from Slovak film director Peter Kerekes, who won a big award at the Karlovy Vary festival the other day. Let me remind you of the many innovative, entertaining…
Ana Barjadze: Bitter Sugar
More than well done by Georgian young director Ana Barjadze and her producer Irina Gelashvili, who have now won the Adami Media Prize, ”Project Pitching Winner”. What that is you can read by clicking below – and via another link…
Joan Gonzàlez is Honored
It was a happy and proud man I talked to the other day. A man who had been honored, and wanted to share his joy with me. So well deserved the honor! First an edited and translated version of a press…
Karim Kassem: Octopus
The IDFA website intro to this remarkable hybrid documentar-fiction goes like this: ”The aftermath of the explosion that took place at the Port of Beirut in August 2020 is revealed in quiet stillnes, from the destroyed buildings and the despair…
Nidal Al Dibs: Homemade Stories
The website intro text to the film, which was in the Envision Competition at IDFA: „As the revolution turns into war; Nidal, a Syrian filmmaker, is forced to leave the country. He locks his Damascus home door and travels with…
Ruslan Fedotow: Where are We Headed
The winner of the IDFA Award for Best First Film and the IDFA Award for Best Cinematography. No objection from my side. Observational documentary cinema with a location so well known, the Moscow Metro. And yet a film with several…
IDFA Winners 2021
Mr. Landsbergis wins IDFA Award for Best Film in the International Competition and Octopus wins IDFA Award for Best Film in the Envision Competition Last night, IDFA announced the winners of the competition programs during the IDFA 2021 Awards Ceremony.…
De Sousa Dias & Schaefer: Journey to the Sun
… their first names are Susana and Ansgar, well known by the editors of this site due to their films “Still Life“ and „48“, (). This new film by the Portuguese couple demonstrates again how perfectly they know how to combine…
IDFA: Kapanadze & van der Horst
A debutant and a veteran director, two very good films, award candidates I guess, I watched them, I give you some brief texts about them. Recommendations: Ketevan Kapanadze’s ”How the Room Felt” and Aliona van der Horst ”Turn Your Body to…
Niels Pagh Andersen: Order in Chaos Launch
I have already posted (on FB) advertising texts about Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen and his book launch at IDFA sunday morning through a debate with IDFA director Orwa Nyrabia. The launch was set up as a masterclass with the…
Mikael Opstrup: The Uncertainty
Subitled: «A book about Developing Character driven Documentary» ”I am painfully aware that this book is risky business. I am trying to rationalize the irrational, to break down the bumpy documentary film process into conscious decisions and structures, yes even…
IDFA: Amsterdam Global Village
Full house at beautiful Tuschinski last night – for a 25 year old film, a classic in world documentary history, Johan van der Keuken’s Amsterdam Global Village. 4 hours (!) plus one hour with the film’s producer Pieter van Huystee,…
IDFA Starts Tomorrow
… the 34th edition and this is what the IDFA staff luckily communicated the other day: ”IDFA is delighted to share that the festival continues in person next week, and cinemas remain open. Following the measures laid out by the Dutch…
Srdan Keca: Museum of the Revolution
To safeguard the truth about us, were the words architect Richter used, when he presented his plan for a Museum of the Revolution to be built in Belgrade in 1961… Director Srdan Keca takes this – with great propaganda archive…
DOKLeipzig Awards 2021
“Father” earns Golden Dove in International Competition at DOK Leipzig Golden Dove in the German Competition for “A Sound of My Own” | Audience jury awards “Dida” a Golden Dove The award-winning films of the 64th edition of DOK…
Maradia Tsaava: Water Has No Borders
First some background: Since the end of the civil war in the early 1990s, the region of Abkhazia has been acting independently of Georgia. This has turned a massive dam into a border. But the hydroelectric power station also connects…
Nikola and Corina Ilić: Dida
Full names: Nikola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber Ilić – I had seen (some of) their previous short works, the lovely ”Rakijada” and the aesthetical perfect ”All Inclusive”, both films that have travelled to short film festivals all over – and…
DOK Leipzig 2021
“At this year’s edition of DOK Leipzig, a total of 63,250 euros in prize money will be awarded. In addition, there are non-cash benefits worth 10,000 euros that filmmakers will be able to use in developing their films…” A quote…
Ji.hlava IDFF 25 Years!
25 years, still alive and kicking, young and fresh – is the impression I get from going through the website of the film festival in the Czech provincial town that is full of films, of Cinema from October 10 till…
Andrei Kutsila: When the Flowers are not Silent
There is still a media focus on Belarus – but now it seems that the first priority is the latest criminal action by Lukashenko and his regime: the flying in of migrants to Belarus pushing them on to the Polish,…
Samir Karahoda: Displaced
With the working title ”Table Stories”. The producer Erol Bilibani asked me for feedback on the film – no objections, on the contrary, love it. The film shows perfectly how strong a short film can be if you master the…
Camilla Nielsson: President
This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, festival directors of Magnificent7: A brilliant film awarded at the Sundance Film Festival as the best cinéma vérité film, made in a style that directly places it alongside the legendary “Primary”,…
Andrei Dăscălescu: Holy Father
This text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic This is an exclusive road movie in search of answers hidden deep in silence and oblivion. Andrei Dăscălescu is facing a situation that announces a major, important change in…
Heddy Honigmann: 100UP
This text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic. One of the world’s most important authors took on an incredible, unusual endeavor and made a unique film in her elegant style. Heddy Honigmann is a documentary filmmaker who…
Kim and Bouillot: The Man Who Paints Waterdrops
Oan Kim and Brigitte Bouillot are their full names. This text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic. A superb documentary work that ranks in style with the films of some of the most important French authors. This…
Marc Isaacs: The Filmmaker’s House
“The Filmmaker’s House” is masterly made film by one of the most important documentary authors in Great Britain, created in facing a space that we usually think of as a set of walls and things. What makes the house we…
Mohamed El Abudi: School of Hope
This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic Morocco. Vast desert. People living under tents. And a house like a grain of sand, the grain that becomes a pearl in a shell. Mohamed El Aboudi comes to his native…
Mladen Kovačević: Merry Christmas Yiwu
This text is written by the festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic This is not a film about China. This is a film about people’s dreams. This is a film about everything that makes a dream about China. Wonderful and…
Magnificent7 – Salomé Jashi: Taming the Garden
In this text the directors of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade (October 2 – 6) gives their reasons for showing the film at a special screening followed by their intro-review for the film that is shown on the last day, October 6…
Magnificent7 2021 Belgrade
”My headline is ordinary people”. Director Marc Isaacs is behind the camera skype-talking with his producer, who gives him the information that the broadcasters of today only want to give money for more commercial/sensational stories. Not ordinary people stories. For…
Mads Hedegaard: Cannon Arm and The Arcade Quest
To sit in a cinema watching documentaries! In Malmø where the 32nd Nordisk Panorama takes place. Anita Reher, my colleague from the time where EDN (European Documentary Network) was alive and kicking, invited me to be a juror in the…
Baltic Sea Docs 2021: Courage
I wrote this in connection with CPH:DOX festival in April/May this year. The other day it was screened in K-Suns cinema in Riga. First time for me to see it on a big screen. And Aliaksey Paluyan was there on the screen…
Baltic Sea Docs announces the programme
The 25th Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries will run on 1-12 September in Riga and online, with a total of 18 film projects to be presented at the training and pitching forum, as well as a programme of masterclasses and…
Stefan Pavlović: Looking for Horses
The film received the Special Jury Award at the Sarajevo FF’s documentary competition. And before that also an award at Visions du Réel in Nyon. The first feature documentary of the director, a gem, a very original work by a young…
Documentary Awards at Sarajevo FF 2021
Jury: Cecilia Lidin (Film Consultant, Denmark) Jean-Pierre Rehm (General Delegate of FIDMarseille – International Cinema Film Festival, France) Mila Turajlić (Director, Serbia) HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE Serbia, Germany, France Director: Marta Popivoda Award in…
CINÉDOC-TBILISI 2021 – HYBRID EDITION
From the organisers of CinéDoc-Tbilisi: This year we have fully embraced the hybrid festival format, reaching out to audiences through different platforms (Georgian Public Broadcaster, Adjara Television, DAFilms and virtual cinemas on our website) and selecting the best documentaries from our…
Parramon & Arzallus: Altsasu
… with the subtitle Gau Hura – That Night. The film, completed in May 2021, was shown at DocsBarcelona. In a cinema. I could not be there but was told by festival director Joan Gonzalez that the film after the screening…
Nordisk Panorama Forum 2021
A mail arrived this morning : ”We are thrilled to announce the projects selected for Nordisk Panorama Forum and wish to congratulate all who made the cut!” Sent by the Nordisk Panorama people announcing what is going to happen in Malmö the 20th…
BSD 25 Years
In Riga, capital of Latvia, a cinematic celebration will take place, September 1-12: For 25 years filmmakers from the countries around the Baltic Sea have gathered at a forum, that started on the island of Bornholm, then toured the Baltic…
The Blunder of Love & Bless You Awarded
The winners of the Doc Alliance Awards have been announced on 13 July at Cannes Docs, the documentary-focused industry programme of the Cannes Film Festival. Doc Alliance is a network consisting of seven of the most influential European documentary film…
Doker 2021 The Winners
The Doker festival in Moscow ended last night. I managed to watch and write about 8 of the films, one short and seven features shown in the main competition. I am a fan of the festival that I have visited…
Doker 2021 Graboy The War of Raya Sinitsina
They make good documentaires in Israel. Here is one more, awarded at the DocAviv. The Best Director award as well as Best Cinematography. And I understand why: The debutant Efim Graboy works brilliantly with several layers and in different styles…
Doker 2021 Higgins&Carrier Wandering
… with the subtitle ”A Rohingya Story” takes place in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangla Desh, the biggest in the world with 700.000 people from the Muslim minority in Myanmar, before named Burma. They fled from genocide, and ended…
Doker 2021 Dér&Haragonics Her Mothers
Oh, I Iove that film because it gets so close to the couple Virag and Nora that you can really sense their love to each other and the small and bigger crisis they experience, when they, a lesbian couple, succeed…
Doker 2021 Roman Hodel The Game
In my visit to DOKER online I left the main competition to have a look at the short film competition and my eyes stopped at “Das Spiel”, “The Game” in English, a film for a football fan like me, who…
Doker Jessica Nettelbladt: Prince of Dreams
Let me give you a brief content quote from the Doker website: ”Erik was born as a girl but always felt like a boy. As an 18-year-old, he began the process of gender reassignment. This is where ‘Prince of Dreams’…
Doker 2021 Andrš Jindrich: A New Shift
It’s a good film. Not because of the theme (a mine is closed, miners are without job, what to do?) that is pretty much known. This time it takes place in Silesia, a region that has also been described before,…
Doker 2021 Billie Mintz: Portrayal
The Russian documentary film festival has chosen quite a story to open its 2021 festival. Well crafted and told, full of layers and conflicts with several strong characters. With the young Roman Lapshin as the one in focus. He wants to…
Doker 2021
The festival starts on Friday June 18 and goes on until June 27, the Moscow International Documentary Film Festival, that is close to my heart, because of the dedication, thoughtfulness, independence and competence of those, who are running it,…