One More Slovak Documentary Triumph

On this site, not long ago, you could find a review of ”Cooking History” by Slovak director Peter Kerekes. During the last year you have had the chance to read several enthusiastic words about Slovak director Juraj Lehotsky’s ”Blind Loves”. And if you go back to the start of the site – soon to be two years old – you will be able to find the name of Marko Skop connected to his fine work ”Other Worlds”, Now same director, who was the producer of ”Blind Loves”, has won the first prize for his new film ”Osadne” at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Yesterday night. Slovak documentaries prove that Eastern European documentaries work with humour, original structure in storytelling and important subjects – as this one about being a citizen of Europe. Here is the description of the film that I hope to watch very soon:

In this cheerful “document-toury movie” by Other Worlds creator Marko Škop, an Orthodox priest, a long-serving mayor, and a Ruthenian activist set out on a journey from the remote eastern Slovak village of Osadné for the European Parliament in Brussels. The village of Osadné lies on the farthest eastern border of the European Union. Local Orthodox priest Peter Soroka has buried 50 people in the past five years and baptized merely two children. Soroka’s civilian counterpart is Mayor Ladislav Mikuláško, a political record-holder who has been the village bigwig for 36 years. These two unusual local patriots decide to take the future of Osadné into their own hands and, with the help of Ruthenian activist Fedor Vico, seek help from the highest authorities.

Osadne, 65/52 mins., Slovakia & Czech Republic

http://www.artileria.sk/en/

http://www.kviff.com/

http://web.docuinter.net/en/net_archive.php?id=669

http://www.blindloves.com/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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