Sarajevo FF: Dealing With the Past

The Dealing with the Past programme is an additional platform for testimonies and stories that can serve as a base for developing film scripts, projects and films. The aim of the program is to initiate dialogue in the countries formed from the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and to deal with problems arising as a result of the wars in the region. As part of the “Dealing with the Past” programme, the True Stories Market was launched, the purpose of which is the presentation of stories and collected materials (personal testimonies).

Two films in this year’s programme, MAMULA ALL INCLUSIVE by Aleksandar Reljić and WAR SOUVENIRS by Georg Zeller, will have their world premieres at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, and both are based on stories that were presented as part of the previous editions of True Stories Market.

The “Dealing with the Past” programme will also host 20 young people from the Western Balkans region as part of the “In Youth Eyes” section, which includes a series of panel discussions, closed conversations and debates on peace activism and reconciliation practices. That part of the programme was organized in cooperation with The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, The Civic Forum for Peace Service – ForumZFD and The PRO-future project of the US Agency for International Development.

The Dealing with the Past programme is supported by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).

DEALING WITH THE PAST PROGRAMME

CINÉ-GUERRILLAS: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS
Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar, 2022, 94 min.
Director: Mila Turajlić

CINÉ-GUERRILLAS: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS is a feature-length documentary that take us on an archival road trip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. The film plunges us into the media battle that played out during the Algerian War of Independence, where cinema was mobilised as a weapon of political struggle against colonialism. Together with NON-ALIGNED, the film forms a documentary diptych.

DELEGATION / HA’MISHLAHAT
Poland, Israel, Germany, 2023, Colour, 99 min.
Director: Asaf Saban
Cast: Yoav Bavly, Neomi Harari, Leib Lev Levin, Ezra Dagan, Alma Dishy

Three Israeli high-school friends take part in class trip visiting Holocaust sites in Poland – their last time together before going into the army. During the trip, shy Frisch, aspiring artist Nitzan, and class heartthrob Ido deal with issues of love, friendship, and politics against the backdrop of concentration camps and memorial sites. This journey will change them forever.

FACING DARKNESS
France, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, 110 min.
Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot

The Siege of Sarajevo lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. Young men were called up to protect their city; a few of them took along their video cameras to face the violence they witnessed throughout those gruelling 1,425 days. Now, thirty years later, they show us their films and share their wartime filming experiences and thoughts on cinema as a means of survival and resistance.

MAMULA ALL INCLUSIVE – World Premiere
Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, 58 min.
Director: Aleksandar Reljić

Ivo Marković, a surviving former inmate of the Mamula prison camp, opposed the decision of Montenegro’s government to build a luxury hotel at the location of a World War II prison camp where countless civilians suffered.

SOUVENIRS OF WAR – World Premiere
Italy, 2023, 75 min.
Director: Georg Zeller

When does a war come to its end? SOUVENIRS OF WAR takes us on a reflective trip around Bosnia and Herzegovina more than two decades after the country was the site of the first post-World War II armed conflict in Europe, where many sites of genuine sorrow have been turned into tourist attractions. A walk along the fine line between dark tourism and an empathetic culture of remembrance, where some enjoy playing war games on the battlefields of a real conflict, while others struggle with turning their very real traumatic legacy into an opportunity.

THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD / NAJSREЌNIOT ČOVEK NA SVETOT
North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Denmark, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2022, 95 min.
Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska
Cast: Jelena Kordić, Adnan Omerović, Labina Mitevska, Ana Kostovska, Ksenija Marinković, Izudin Bajrović, Irma Alimanović, Vedrana Boinović, Mona Muratović, Nikolina Kujača, Siniša Vidović, Kemal Rizvanović

Asja, a forty-year-old single woman, lives in Sarajevo. In order to meet new people, she ends up spending her Saturday at a speed-dating event. She’s matched with Zoran, a forty-three-year-old banker. However, Zoran is looking not for love but for forgiveness.

THE MARCH ON ROME / MARCIA SU ROMA
Italy, 2022, 98 min.
Director: Mark Cousins
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher

Through little-seen archives and his characteristically cinematic analysis, Mark Cousins narrates the ascent of fascism in Italy and its fallout across 1930s Europe. At once essay film and historical document, the film contextualises history through the now, holding up a mirror to a political landscape of a creeping far right and manipulated media.

THE UNCLE / STRIC
Croatia, Serbia, 2022, 104 min.
Director: Andrija Mardešić, David Kapac
Cast: Miki Manojlović, Ivana Roščić, Goran Bogdan, Roko Sikavica, Kaja Šišmanović

Yugoslavia, late 1980s. A family welcomes their beloved uncle, who is coming home for the holidays from Germany. The joyful Christmas lunch is interrupted by a smartphone ringing. It becomes clear it’s not the 1980s, it’s not Christmastime, and it is not just the festive turkey that can be cut with a knife, but the tension as well.

The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 11th to 18th of August 2023.

 

Sarajevo FF Documentary Competition/ 2

 

Rada Šešić, programmer of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film has selected 20 titles for this year’s edition. The selection features nine world premieres, one international, seven regional premieres and three B&H premieres.

“This year I was delighted by the authors who managed to transpose individual reminiscence, personal records and memories into the collective one and thus raise the meaning of individual, empirical and experiential to the level of the universal. The authors thus skillfully manage to draw us into very complex life situations, touch on the complexity of the concepts of religion and love, problematise the drama of relationships within the family, as well as philosophical reflections on the meaning of life, the concept of evil and crime, hatred and the search for justice. Films are in many ways inspiring to viewers and even when they present very traumatic truths, they carry within them the energy of positivity. What is important for me as a programmer is to feel the author’s signature in every film, that we as viewers understand the viewpoint of the director and not just observe the life stories of the selected heroes of the film”, says Rada Šešić about this year’s selection. 

Films in the Competition Programme – Documentary Film of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival are competing for awards:

 

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM 
Award in the amount of €4,000, sponsored by the Government of Switzerland

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM 
Award in the amount of €2,000

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 
Award in the amount of €3,000, sponsored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE 
Award in the amount of €2,500 

WORLD PREMIERES

A DAY, 365 HOURS / BIR GÜN, 365 SAAT 
Türkiye, Croatia, 2023, 79 min. 
Director: Eylem Kaftan

Two young women are joined together by their shared experience of being abused. Their unexpected meeting forms a strong bond that gives them the strength both to take on their abusers in court and to help other young women seek justice.

BODY / TELO 
Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, 2023, 91 min. 
Director: Petra Seliškar

BODY is a unique and poetic journey into the most unknown areas of the self, through the testimony of Urška, who spent twenty years struggling between life and death. A professional piano player and a former fashion model, Urška had everything going for her until she was struck by illness. Recovering from encephalitis, she had to get to know herself again and learn to live: to walk, to recognise her daughter, to understand – and love – her body, which seems to want to destroy her.

BOTTLEMEN / FLAŠAROŠI 
Serbia, Slovenia, 2023, 84 min. 
Director: Nemanja Vojinović

On the outskirts of Belgrade, one of the largest landfills in Europe sprawls across the remains of the ancient Vinča civilization. Plastic bottle collectors, a.k.a. “Bottlemen”, eke out a difficult living in this toxic landscape. Now, their vibrant community is facing new and greater threats. Faced with the imminent privatisation of the landfill, an entire community of bottlemen is brought to a dead end, trapped in the gap between technological modernisation and an inadequate social care system. While the environmental impact of the landfill’s modernisation is unknown, the fragile community of collectors will have to face their uncertain destiny on their own.

FAIRY GARDEN / FANNI KERTJE 
Hungary, Romania, Croatia, 2023, 83 min. 
Director: Gergő Somogyvári

Hidden in the heart of the woods of Budapest, an unorthodox father-daughter relationship blossoms between Fanni, a nineteen-year-old transgender teenager, and Laci, a sixty-year-old homeless man. Together, they form a makeshift family, supporting each other through hardship and change. This unconventional coming-of-age documentary unveils their tale of perseverance and acceptance, and the triumph of finding home amidst the struggles of life.

FRAN AND VERKA; OR, A USUAL DAY IN AN ABANDONED VILLAGE 
Kosovo, 2023, 14 min. 
Director: Sovran Nrecaj

Fran and Verka are the sole inhabitants of Vërnakollë—the place they first met many years ago, were married, and have been living ever since. After the 1999 war in Kosovo, everyone but Fran and Verka left the village. Their story is a testament to the unbreakable bonds that tie us to what we call home and where we belong.

HUG / OBJEM 
Slovenia, Croatia, 2023, 14 min. 
Director: Miroslav Mandić

Nature caressed us into being, even taught us how to pat her back as we grew up. Then, we started hitting her hard, using her goods for our progress at her expense. She stares at us reluctantly yet tolerates us, as a mother would. But, occasionally, she freaks out, warns us with an earthquake, a pandemic, or a tsunami. Shall we ever learn not to take advantage of our mom, and instead share her goods with humility, respect, and appreciation?

REQUIEM TO THE HOT DAYS OF SUMMER / REKVIEMI ZAFKHULIS SITSKHIAN DGHEEBS 
Georgia, Greece, 2023, 77 min. 
Director: Giorgi Parkosadze

Guri and his mother, Sanata, have spent all of their lives in a remote mountainous valley in Georgia, distant from nearly any signs of urban civilisation. Farming, beekeeping, and cheese-making have been their routine for decades. While witnessing the daily life of mother and son, the audience is immersed in the non-verbal, contemplative relationship between the two, and through the gentle gaze of the camera, enters effortlessly into rural reality as an inseparable element of their being. Through a touching motherhood story, REQUIEM TO THE HOT DAYS OF SUMMER embraces the sadness, silence, and solitude that follow every human being as the primordial seal of their fate and inspires the reminiscence of a blissful way of life, which is still present in the unconscious memory of humanity.

SILENCE OF REASON / ŠUTNJA RAZUMA 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, 2023, 63 min. 
Director: Kumjana Novakova

Built solely from forensic visual archive and testimonies, Silence of Reason acts as a memory itself: elusive, fluid, rejecting framing, moving in all directions, spatial and temporal. The singular experiences of violence and torture to women from the Foča rape camps during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina become our own collective memories, surpassing time and space.

WHAT’S TO BE DONE? / ŠTO DA SE RADI? 
Croatia, 2023, 79 min. 
Director: Goran Dević

Zeljko is the labour union leader at Gredelj Train Factory. His deputy, Mladen, has committed suicide after massive public protests and inter-union clashes. Zeljko is torn between the guilt he feels over Mladen’s death and workers’ expectations that he will lead a strike that should thwart a plan by the government, acting on the EU’s behest, to declare the factory bankrupt. WHAT’S TO BE DONE? is structured in three acts. The first act uses observational documentary footage; the second, footage filmed a decade later; while the third is fiction. 

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

MY MUSLIM HUSBAND / SOȚUL MEU MUSULMAN 
Romania, 2023, 70 min. 
Director: Daniel Ioan Bărnuți, Alexandra Lizeta Bărnuți

Alexandra marries Daniel, a young Romanian convert to Islam. She believes that being open to learning about a different culture will enable her new family to find happiness and harmony. But soon, the young couple has to face not only the religious discrimination of society but also other prejudices. Alexandra and Daniel must fight for each other and their relationship, even though it means leaving behind their old selves or cutting off some people from their lives. 

REGIONAL PREMIERES

DE FACTO 
Austria, Germany, 2023, 130 min. 
Director: Selma Doborac 
Cast: Christoph Bach, Cornelius Obonya

How can cinema engage with complicity in crimes against humanity, extreme violence, and state terror without conniving in it? DE FACTO finds answers to these questions in a meticulously directed play of two actors, a precisely compiled film script and a deliberately reduced setting.

DESERTERS / DEZERTERI 
Croatia, 2023, 45 min. 
Director: Damir Markovina

DESERTERS is a hybrid documentary essay about director Damir Markovina’s generation – Bosnian and Herzegovinian high schoolers from the town of Mostar, struck by a devastating war on the verge of their maturity. This tapestry of their memories of the early nineties is composed of modern-day postcards and silent shots of places where wars used to be waged and which the protagonists of this film were forced to abandon. The serenity of these places today contrasts with emotional excerpts from letters addressed to Markovina from refugee camps scattered all over Europe. The refugees describe their flight across the border, their experiences in refugee camps and their lasting hate of the enemies who took away their home and their youth. A film about a lost generation, exile, and difficult choices, and an answer to the toughest question of any war: to stay or to run?

HORROR VACUI 
Croatia, 2023, 23 min. 
Director: Boris Poljak

The term “horror vacui” was coined by Aristotle, and it means “fear of empty space”. It is used as a metaphor of the fear of the uncertain future that causes feelings of anxiety and loneliness. With its one-take sequences and free-associative editing style, this meditative film sends out a warning of the growing hyper-militarisation of the world we live in, and the impact this has on the human psyche. Due to the space and time of the events taking place in film being blurred, everything can happen everywhere at any time in a globalised world.

NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS 
Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar, 2023, 100 min. 
Director: Mila Turajlić

NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS takes us on an archival road trip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. The film traces the birth of the Non-Aligned movement, examining how a global project of political emancipation was constituted by the cinematic image. Together with CINÉ-GUERRILLAS, the film forms a documentary diptych.

ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS / АЛОЄ, ФІКУС, АВОКАДО І 6 ДРАЦЕН 
Ukraine, France, 2023, 8 min. 
Director: Marta Smerechynska

What to take, what to leave? How important are material possessions when you’re trying to save your life? Packages from Ukraine – filled with everything and nothing – wait patiently under a bridge to be found, while a voice stirs memories of frivolous and treasured personal effects, in an apparent heart-breaking farewell letter to Kyiv.

SELF-PORTRAIT ALONG THE BORDERLINE / ავტოპორტრეტი ზღვარზე
Georgia, 2023, 50 min. 
Director: Anna Dziapshipa

An abandoned house opens the door to revisiting the past by bringing to life a unique, nearly destroyed image archive from Abkhazia, the unrecognised territory on the border of the Black Sea, a place that is normally inaccessible to Georgians because of the ethnic conflict that happened between Georgia and Abkhazia in 1993. Combining voice, archival, and recent footage, SELF-PORTRAIT ALONG THE BORDERLINE examines a lost and split identity that is stuck between the margins. The audio-visual fragments of this archive are intricately woven together to create a personal and political biography which recalls the complicated and controversial historical past of Georgian-Abkhaz relations.

VALERIJA 
Croatia, 2023, 16 min. 
Director: Sara Jurinčić 
Cast: Lidija Fabulić-Jurinčić, Sara Jurinčić

This hybrid film takes us on a journey into a world without men. Reality and subconscious blend together in the filmmaker’s intimate encounter with her femail ancestors. Silently, she asks: How does it feel to have a family tree consisting only of women? What do our ancestors whisper from their silent portraits? 

B&H PREMIERES

BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS / ÎNTRE REVOLUȚII 
Romania, Croatia, Qatar, Iran, 2023, 70 min. 
Director: Vlad Petri

In 1970s Bucharest, Zahra and Maria form a deep friendship while studying at university. As political turmoil brews in Iran, Zahra is forced to return home, leaving Maria behind. Over the next decade, they maintain their connection through a series of letters, chronicling their struggles as women fighting for a voice and their respective countries moving in divergent directions. Despite the distance and obstacles, their longing for each other remains strong.

HOPE HOTEL PHANTOM 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, 22 min. 
Director: Bojan Stojčić

In November 1995, the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia met in Dayton, Ohio, to broker a peace agreement that would end four violent years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Peace Agreement was negotiated at the Hope Hotel. Twenty-seven years later, an artist flew to the United States and booked a room at the hotel.

WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY / MY NE ZGASNEMO 
Ukraine, France, Poland, USA, 2023, 100 min. 
Director: Alisa Kovalenko

A group of teenagers from Donbas are entering adulthood, and dream of conquering the world. Although they can hear gunshots and explosions in the distance, they do not lose hope. They rebel, ride on the waves of adventure, walk into minefields, and sunbathe by a local lake. They dream of escaping not only from the war but also-like teenagers all over the world-from the boredom of living in a small town. Then, unexpectedly, an opportunity arises for them to embark on a long journey all the way to Nepal. Will their dream of conquering the world come true? 

Robert Kirchhoff: All Men Become Brothers

I am sure many of you remember the iconic moment from  November 1989, when Vaclav Havel and Alexander Dubcek stand on a balcony in the Wenceslas Square in Prague being welcomed enthusiastically by hundreds of thousands. It was the days of the Velvet revolution and the hero of 1968 and the hero of 1989 were there together. I get tears in my eyes whenever I see that clip with Dubcek with embracing the crowd with his arms…

 

There are films about Havel, first of all “Citizen Havel” (directed by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek), but until now no documentaries – to my knowledge – focused only on Alexander Dubcek. Thanks to Slovak Robert Kirchhoff there is now a detailed, well composed cinematic essay, a huge work that has taken him years of research and contemplation on how to tell the story about the man, who wanted “socialism with a human face”.

I have learned so much about Dubcek from watching this film that had its premiere at the recent festival in Karlovy Vary and will be – according to the director – screened “August 21st, on the 55th anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia… to the Czech Senate under the patronage of Petr Fiala – the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.” And at festival after festival, I am sure.

The face of Dubcek… Kirchhoff keeps going close to portraits and busts of a man, who had the most gentle smile, a mild face, “he was a beautiful being”, says one about him, “but he was a coward”!

Hero or coward? This – in many nuances – question goes through the whole film. Mostly old people – same age as the one who writes this – remember him and many express clearly that Dubcek was a true communist, an Apparatjik, who knew how to gain power and influence to get to the top as party secretary. The main accusation towards him, however, was that he signed the so-called “baton law” that gave the authorities the allowance to beat hard on demonstrators against the Soviet (and the Warsaw pact countries) invasion and their fight against the Prague Spring.

Kirchhoff avoids elegantly to use interviews when he brings witnesses to the screen. The old grey-bearded men meet in Havel’s apartment at the river, to talk and watch a video clip, and in another sequence an almost blind man who was the secretary of Dubcek and who has written a book about him, tries to remember the meeting Dubcek had with Gorbachov after he came back to politics in 1989. It was an important moment for Dubcek, but did he receive an apology? The secretary does not remember. The above mentioned video clip is commented by the people in the apartment – it was about a visit to Dubcek to tell him that he would not become president of Czechoslovakia – he became Head of the Parliament, Havel President. He took it hard one of them says. 

No interviews… and a great introduction to the film seeing legendary film director Karel Vachek lying on the grass in front of the Dubcek Birth House talking about sex watching insects in action (!) and bringing his perception of the man to the screen. He is filmed by one of the students and says – I did not remember – that he has made a film on Dubcek. Clip follows, Dubcek and another man on their way to a meeting, Vachek behind the camera. A small conversation. Lovely!

Archive is always used in an intelligent way as when a reporter knocks on the door of Dubcek asking him if he would like to travel… Dubcek smiles his smile responding that he would love to just leave his house once in a while but impossible – he was under constant surveillance when he came back from his short period as ambassador in Turkey, where Kirchhoff goes to film as well, together with the widow of Dubcek’s translator, who was in fact also working for the Secret Service reporting back on Dubcek, the symbol of the Prague Spring! 

A core scene in the film shows what happens at a ceremony, where one more bust of Dubcek is to be unveiled. It is very ceremonial, but an old white bearded man is present with a sign mentioning four victims of the “baton law”, that was signed by Dubcek. He is not welcomed and ends up being thrown out from the place, violently, to be transported away in an ambulance. The “baton law” in practice again…

Dubcek received lot of recognition when he came back to politics after years working in a forest institution after his brief post in Turkey. Again, there are wonderful archive material with him on Italian television interviewed by Umberto Eco and with Romano Prodi, if anyone Mr. Europe, who, if I got it right, participated in the giving an honorary doctorate to Dubcek at the university in Bologna. Charismatic Prodi talks so well about Dubcek and Europe, including the statesman as a one strong supporter of a free Europe. Kirchhoff ends his film with “An die Freude”, the European anthem.

And then I have not mentioned the start and ending of the film that take place in Kyrgyzstan, another example of the director’s innovative and creative skills as a true filmmaker. Watch it!

PS! The first lines of this article mention the balcony in Prague in 1989 – it is not in the film but stays in my mind as so many of the sequences in the excellent work of Robert Kirchhoff.

Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2023, 116 mins.

Sarajevo FF Documentary Competition

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – DOCUMENTARY FILM 2023

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM 
Award in the amount of €4,000, sponsored by the Government of Switzerland

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM 
Award in the amount of €2,000

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 
Award in the amount of €3,000, sponsored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE 
Award in the amount of €2,500

1. A DAY, 365 HOURS / BIR GÜN, 365 SAAT, Eylem Kaftan (Türkiye, Croatia, 2023, 79 min.) – World premiere 
2. BODY / TELO, Petra Seliškar (Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, 2023, 91 min.) – World premiere 
3. BOTTLEMEN / FLAŠAROŠI, Nemanja Vojinović (Serbia, Slovenia, 2023, 84 min.) – World premiere 
4. FAIRY GARDEN / FANNI KERTJE, Gergő Somogyvári (Hungary, Romania, Croatia, 2023, 83 min.) – World premiere 
5. FRAN AND VERKA; OR A USUAL DAY IN AN ABANDONED VILLAGE, Sovran Nrecaj (Kosovo, 2023, 14 min.) – World premiere 
6. HUG / OBJEM, Miroslav Mandić (Slovenia, Croatia, 2023, 14 min.) – World premiere 
7. REQUIEM TO THE HOT DAYS OF SUMMER / REKVIEMI ZAFKHULIS SITSKHIAN DGHEEBS, Giorgi Parkosadze (Georgia, Greece, 2023, 77 min.) – World premiere 
8. SILENCE OF REASON / ŠUTNJA RAZUMA, Kumjana Novakova (Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, 2023, 63 min.) – World premiere 
9. WHAT’S TO BE DONE? / ŠTO DA SE RADI?, Goran Dević (Croatia, 2023, 79 min.) – World premiere 
10. MY MUSLIM HUSBAND / SOȚUL MEU MUSULMAN, Daniel Ioan Bărnuti, Alexandra Lizeta Bărnuți (Romania, 2023. 70 min.) – International premiere 
11. DE FACTO, Selma Doborac (Austria, Germany, 2023, 130 min.) – Regional premiere 
12. DESERTERS / DEZERTERI, Damir Markovina (Croatia, 2022, 45 min.) – Regional premiere 
13. HORROR VACUI, Boris Poljak (Croatia, 2023, 23 min.) – Regional premiere 
14. NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS, Mila Turajlić (Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar, 2022, 100 min.) – Regional premiere

15. ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS / АЛОЄ, ФІКУС, АВОКАДО І 6 ДРАЦЕН, Marta Smerechynska (Ukraine, France, 2023, 8 min.) – Regional premiere 

16. SELF-PORTRAIT ALONG THE BORDERLINE / ავტოპორტრეტი ზღვარზე, Anna Dziapshipa (Georgia, 2023, 50 min.) – Regional premiere 
17. VALERIJA, Sara Jurinčić (Croatia, 2023, 16 min.) – Regional premiere 
18. BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS / ÎNTRE REVOLUȚII, Vlad Petri (Romania, Croatia, Qatar, Iran, 2023, 70 min.) – B&H premiere 
19. HOPE HOTEL PHANTOM, Bojan Stojčić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, 22 min.) – B&H premiere 
20. WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY / MY NE ZGASNEMO, Alisa Kovalenko (Ukraine, France, Poland, United States, 2023, 100 min.) – B&H premiere

Documentary Association Georgia Protests

Georgia [June 15, 2023]

Georgia’s Ministry of Culture Appoints Interim Director and Initiates Reorganization at Georgian National Film Center

The Georgian National Film Center (GNFC) has recently undergone significant changes with the appointment of Mr. Koba Khubunaia as its interim director, effective June 10. In addition to his new role, Mr. Khubunaia currently serves as the Head of the Economic Office at the Ministry of Culture and has a background in the penitentiary system. This appointment has been swiftly followed by a decision to terminate the positions of deputy directors, effective from July 12, marking the beginning of a comprehensive reorganization of the Film Center.

These developments come in the wake of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to assert substantial political control over Georgia’s theaters, museums, and writers’ organizations. The film industry has widely interpreted these actions as a means of exerting political influence over the country’s film sector.

The Ministry’s decision followed the publication of a letter on the GNFC’s official website, expressing concerns raised by the organization’s employees regarding the Ministry of Culture’s persistent attempts to gain control over the GNFC. The employees advocated for the preservation of the organization’s independence. However, the letter mysteriously disappeared from the website shortly after its publication, and GNFC employees found themselves denied administrative access to the platform.

​On Monday, June 12, the discontent among Georgian film professionals reached a boiling point, leading to a gathering outside the GNFC office. Industry representatives have demanded that Mr. Khubunaia halt the ongoing reorganization process and engage in meaningful consultations with stakeholders from the film industry. Esteemed figures within the Georgian film community, including acclaimed directors, producers, and actors, have expressed deep concern over the alarming situation, emphasizing the potential threats facing the Georgian film sector.

​In response to the escalating turmoil, a letter signed by up to 400 film industry representatives has outlined three key demands, underscoring the gravity of the situation.

​”Today, a deliberate policy to discredit the National Film Centre is underway. Through this policy, the Ministry of Culture seeks to subordinate the independent organization and exploit it solely for predetermined goals,” – reads the letter.

​The letter calls for the following actions:

  • Ceasing the reorganization of GNFC.

  • Conducting a competitive selection process to elect the director, rather than relying on a unilateral decision by the Minister of Culture.

  • Establishing a committee composed of film industry representatives to oversee the director’s election.

​Established in 2000 as the sole film funding institution in Georgia, the Georgian National Film Center plays a vital role in supporting the local film industry, fostering emerging talents, preserving the country’s unique cultural identity, and fostering cross-border collaborations and cultural understanding. The recent developments have sent shockwaves through the film community, raising concerns about the future trajectory of the Georgian film industry and its broader implications.

​Documentary Association Georgia

Baltic Sea Docs 2023 Edition 27!

A copy paste from website of Baltic Sea Docs:

We’re excited to announce the 20 film projects that have been selected for the 27th edition of Baltic Sea Docs in September!
Many thanks to all submitters for sharing your work! This year, two of the projects were chosen at our partner events: B2B Doc Visegrad pitch during East Doc Platform (B2B Doc – Baltic to Black Sea Documentary Network, Institute of Documentary Film) and CinéDOC-Tbilisi mentoring programme.
We’re looking forward to meeting the participants soon in Riga and Liepupe!
Another Man’s Diary | Ukraine
dir. Olexandr Tkachenko | prod. Illia Gladshtein | Phalanstery Films
Archive. Box#64 | Ukraine
dir. Eva Dzhyshyashvili | prod. Natalia Libet | 2Brave Productions
Artworks in Agony | Latvia/Lithuania
dir. Elizabete Gricmane, Ramune Rakauskaite | prod. Uldis Cekulis, Paula Jansone, Arunas Matelis | VFS Films/Studio Nominum
Brothers in the Hunt | Latvia
dir. Ieva Ozolina | prod. Madara Melberga | Fa Filma
Cecilia’s Project | Poland/Sweden
dir. Edward Porembny | prod. Edward Porembny, Magnus Paulsson | AMP Polska Edward Porembny/Solid Entertainment AB
Divia | Ukraine
dir. Dmytro Hreshko | prod. Polina Herman, Glib Lukianets | UP UA STUDIO
Eros and Thanatos | Ukraine
dir. Dmytro Tiazhlov | prod. Ella Shtyka | Indie Media Polis
The First Swallow | Georgia
dir. Joanna Roj, Sandro Wysocki | prod. Glib Lukianets | Gogol Film
House of Ants | Poland
dir. Katarzyna Kultys | prod. Adam Ślesicki | FILM FRAME
How to Talk to Lydia? | Germany/Moldova
dir. Rusudan Gaprindashvili | prod. Hans Gralke, Anna Dziapshipa | Black Market Film Production/Sakdoc
In the Winds of the Icefields (wt) | Estonia
dir. Mihkel Oksmann | prod. Hõbe Ilus | Sui
The Misfit | Finland
dir. Miikka Poutiainen | prod. Miikka Poutiainen, Sami Salminen | PinkAgency Productions
Once We Were Heroes | Finland/Poland
dir. Oliwia Tonteri | prod. Aino Halonen, Kamil Skałkowski | production companies Kompot Ltd/Kalejdoskop Film
Sacrum and Profanum in Pievenai | Lithuania
dir. Giedrė Beinoriūtė | prod. Jurga Gluskinienė | Monoklis
Totem | Estonia
dir./prod. Birgit Rosenberg | Door 2 Produciton
Vanessa (wt) | Sweden
dir. Åsa Ekman, Martina Iverus, Oscar Hedin | prod. Marina-Evelina Cracana, Oscar Hedin | Film and Tell
Voice/Over | Czechia
dir. Bálint Révész | prod. Radovan Síbrt, Viki Réka Kiss | PINK
War in Chornobyl | Ukraine
dir. Oleksiy Radynski | prod. Lyuba Knorozok | Kinotron Group
We Are the Granddaughters Of The Witches You Couldn’t Burn (wt) | Georgia
dir. Mariam Chachia | prod. Sophio Bendiashvili | OpyoDoc/Enkeny Films
Yalla Yalla | Lithuania
dir. Mindaugas Survila | prod. Giedrė ickytė | Moonmakers
For a full list of film projects selected, please visit our homepage: https://dokforums.gov.lv/industry/selected-projects-2023/

Luka Beradze: Smiling Georgia

Georgia. Countryside. A village with the name No Name. In 2012 Misha (Mikheil) Saakashvili came to the village to promise – part of his televised presidential campaign for re-election – the villagers new teeth and smiles (!) instead of the bad teeth they had. Teeth were taken out leaving many toothless or with one or two teeth. Misha lost and no new teeth were placed in the mouths of the old people, who in this very well made documentary remember what happened – or did not happen!

In this very cinematic film, where the cameraman Lomero Akhvlediani shows excellent skills in capturing the surrounding beautiful landscapes, the faces of the old people, situations, like a wedding, a pig that rubs its skin against a tree, small conversations and monologues about the missing teeth and the missing promise – Luka Beradze, the director blends the absurd with the faces and comments of the villagers, who have no belief in politics… there are some hilarious (and sad) sequences, where the election cars come to the village with their flags and slogans. A quick tour with promises like the ones Misha made way back. In that way the film is much more than “once upon a time”, it refers to today, it has a standpoint and an empathy for the villagers, who are far away from Tbilisi and politics and media.

A fantastic sequence cirles around a tv presenter, who arrive to the village to talk to people who need help from dentists; she brings some along. The first woman wants to meet her and the dentist, but her husband asks her to leave with the words – “the dentists are welcome but without camera”, the second woman has already got dentures so she is not interesting for the tv woman’s show… Oh, who asked me to contact these women for MY show!

The ruling party in Georgia is called Georgian Dream!!!

Veery good film, it will travel, deserves to!

Georgia, Germany, 2022, 61 mins. 

Alecu Solomon: Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife

I met Alecu Solomon in Bucharest not long ago and as someone, who has followed his films (almost) from when he started, always admiring him and them, my natural question was: What is your next work? He sent me a link and as the premiere was some days ago at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival I can write about it. Here come my words and the director´s notes:

 

A film about a priest Arsenie Boca (1910-1989) in Romania… well if it had not been from the hands of Alecu, I would probably have dropped it. But the director – as few directors of today – has found his way(s) of making films and his personal tone, (also) this time with a lot of humour letting us viewers see how the film was made, with boom and camera(s) in the picture and the director being both the tour guide (read below) and commentator on a journey that also includes him searching for some answers in a world to which, or in which, he often feels alienated. The casted actors come out with their interesting stories as well and you bond with them and the director and Arsenie Boca, who (also) was an excellent painter as we see, not from a visit to the church, where his most famous works are but through replicas made for the film as the priest did not allow the pilgrims to enter as one of them had been dressed as Arsenie in another shooting for the film.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE: The film is based on a pilgrimage that I organized myself, after participating in many travels with Christian associations in the past 4 years. The observational rushes from these previous pilgrimages will be shortly introduced at the beginning of the film, setting the real circumstances and my troubles in finding a place in this world to which I feel so alienated. They are the trigger for a more fictionalized approach, that is the backbone of the film: a ready-made pilgrimage for which I did a casting with extras that are religious, love Arsenie Boca but have filming experience and all the traits that come with the aspiration of becoming „a film star”. During this pilgrimage, we travel to different places where Arsenie lived, places of worship, marketing and historical meaning. We read texts from the Securitate files on Arsenie, we reenact some of his miracles and we talk together about them. From time to time, I have separate, intimate conversations with the pilgrims, that give us a window into their lives and beliefs. The casting includes many generations, from the older Orthodox nostalgic about the communist times (?!) to the young New-Age healers, from the protestant preacher to the mystical medical assistant. Now and then people start singing religious chants or Tibetan handpan music. On the bus I serve as a travel guide, slipping info on Arsenie’s life and, mostly, his afterlife – the way the Church and the media have shaped his public posterity. Father Arsenie’s history is, first of all, the history of an image, an image that he has been carefully forging during his lifetime and that became a success story after he died. We pass along among the pilgrims Arsenie’s photos, the ones that he set-up himself, as well as the ones taken by undercover agents.

https://alexandrusolomon.ro/film?id=21

– website with trailer

Romania, Luxembourg, 2023, 96 mins.

DocLisboa: Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio

Doclisboa (that takes place 19-29.10) will present another momentous retrospective – with the support of the Finnish Film Foundation – dedicated to the cinema of Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio: this is the first complete retrospective dedicated to the directors.

Anastasia Lapsui, director and screenwriter, born in 1944 in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, then territory of the Soviet Union, and Markku Lehmuskallio, director and director of photography, born in 1938 in Finland, have dedicated their lives and their work together to the indigenous peoples of the North: the Sami, Inuit, Nenets, Chukchi and Selkup, among others. In attempting to convey the ways of seeing and the culture of these peoples, whom they film through a wide variety of cinematic approaches, they have documented their lives and created a unique body of work.

Lehmuskallio worked as a forester in Finland and was introduced to filmmaking while creating instructional films. Lapsui, born into a nomadic family, was the first Indigenous radio journalist in Yamal. Their filmography includes the first Finnish feature in which the Sami people speak their own language, as well as Seven Songs from the Tundra, the first narrative film ever made in the Nenets language. While their cinematic project became a great anthropological study, it is – even – more than that. Nature, ecology, forests and the animal kingdom, plus our planet itself, are among the essential themes they adventurously approach. Lapsui and Lehmuskallio carry on the Flaherty legacy, without, however, repeating its approach. Their films can be seen as a collection of different possibilities for cinema to exist (perhaps, that is why the idea of painting and of how to turn reality into fiction is a recurrent motif in their ouevre).

DOCA Protests Film Changes at the Film Centre

DOCA – Documentary Asociation Georgia – issued this press release on June 15:

The Georgian National Film Center (GNFC) has recently undergone significant changes with the appointment of Mr. Koba Khubunaia as its interim director, effective June 10. In addition to his new role, Mr. Khubunaia currently serves as the Head of the Economic Office at the Ministry of Culture and has a background in the penitentiary system. This appointment has been swiftly followed by a decision to terminate the positions of deputy directors, effective from July 12, marking the beginning of a comprehensive reorganization of the Film Center…

 

These developments come in the wake of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to assert substantial political control over Georgia’s theaters, museums, and writers’ organizations. The film industry has widely interpreted these actions as a means of exerting political influence over the country’s film sector.

​The Ministry’s decision followed the publication of a letter on the GNFC’s official website, expressing concerns raised by the organization’s employees regarding the Ministry of Culture’s persistent attempts to gain control over the GNFC. The employees advocated for the preservation of the organization’s independence. However, the letter mysteriously disappeared from the website shortly after its publication, and GNFC employees found themselves denied administrative access to the platform.

On Monday, June 12, the discontent among Georgian film professionals reached a boiling point, leading to a gathering outside the GNFC office. Industry representatives have demanded that Mr. Khubunaia halt the ongoing reorganization process and engage in meaningful consultations with stakeholders from the film industry. Esteemed figures within the Georgian film community, including acclaimed directors, producers, and actors, have expressed deep concern over the alarming situation, emphasizing the potential threats facing the Georgian film sector.

In response to the escalating turmoil, a letter signed by up to 400 film industry representatives has outlined three key demands, underscoring the gravity of the situation.

“Today, a deliberate policy to discredit the National Film Centre is underway. Through this policy, the Ministry of Culture seeks to subordinate the independent organization and exploit it solely for predetermined goals,” – reads the letter.

​The letter calls for the following actions:

  • Ceasing the reorganization of GNFC.

  • Conducting a competitive selection process to elect the director, rather than relying on a unilateral decision by the Minister of Culture.

  • Establishing a committee composed of film industry representatives to oversee the director’s election.

Established in 2000 as the sole film funding institution in Georgia, the Georgian National Film Center plays a vital role in supporting the local film industry, fostering emerging talents, preserving the country’s unique cultural identity, and fostering cross-border collaborations and cultural understanding. The recent developments have sent shockwaves through the film community, raising concerns about the future trajectory of the Georgian film industry and its broader implications.

​Documentary Association Georgia