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 once as a juror, and been a juror online (with deliberations via email!) at the first edition of the festival in 2015. Of the flms I saw (online, links from the organizers), 3 of them I have written about, 2 others I have seen but they did not reach the blog in a written form. First the jury’s motivation (the jury: Nikolaus Geyerhalter (Austria), Jordana Berg (Brazil), Maya Kuzina (Russia)): 

 

We had the chance to see 11 films that impressed us in many ways and showed us once again how important documentary film is, especially in the present, in order to better understand ourselves and the challenges of our society. For example, that equality, tolerance and dignified coexistence of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are unfortunately not yet a matter of course everywhere. Or how complex the path to unemployment and retraining can be. One film that impressed us with the humorous observation of its protagonists and which we understand in the broadest sense as a homage to cinema, we would like to mention here: A Special Mention goes to the film “Long Shot” by VLADIMIR GOLOVNEV. We admire Vladimir’s perseverance, enthusiasm and care for the film culture in Russia, and hope to see more of his films in the future.

And here comes the winners with quotes from what I wrote about the films :

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

HER MOTHERS by Asia Dér & Sári Haragonics (Hungary)”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 in adopting a girl, two and a half years old, Meli(ssza) and start bringing her up…” http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4937/

BEST DIRECTOR

A NEW SHIFT by Jindřich Andrš (Czech Republic)” it is good because of the miner Tomas, who becomes the IT programmer Tomas. The director has followed Tomas for four years in his struggle to get a new education – his doubts, his warm realitionship to his children, his dating to find a new partner, his café talks with friends, his passion for Banik Ostrava, the football team he supports… » http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4933/

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

DIRTY FEATHERS by Carlos Alfonso Corral (USA – Mexico) Cinematographer – Nini Blanco. Of course it should have this award because of the astonishingly beautiful b/w images that portray the outcasted characters close to Mexico in the US. 

BEST EDITING

HER MOTHERS by Asia Dér & Sári Haragonics (Hungary) Editor – Flóra Erdélyi

SPECIAL MENTION

LONG SHOT by Vladimir Golovnev (Russia) Agree with the jury’s words above – here is a talented homage to Cinema!

THE AUDIENCE AWARD

THE WAR OF RAYA SINITSINA by Efim Graboy (Israel) ”  The debutant Efim Graboy works brilliantly with several layers and in different styles and it all comes well together in the good story that Raisa, 94 years old, but strong and not afraid to say her opinion or show her emotions, delivers to Fima, the name she uses for the director… http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4939/

Information on the winners in the short film competition, see

https://www.midff.com/news

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 and it all comes well together in the good story that Raisa, 94 years old, but strong and not afraid to say her opinion or show her emotions, delivers to Fima, the name she uses for the director.

The language is Russian, the location is Israel (Tel Aviv?) and Raisa´s story goes back to the siege of Leningrad and the WW2, where she was a nurse. There are some, but not many, archive images from Leningrad, we know them from many documentaries, last one Blockade by Sergei Loznitsa. I was not scared in Leningrad, she says, I was young, but I am afraid now, she says, the charismatic war veteran with the many medals, still dedicated to celebrate Victory Day May 9 and still active at the veteran meetings, where fewer turn up. They have died but their faces stay on photos on the wall – and some are at home like the man, who turns 100 and gets a visit from Raisa and two other old Russian women. Raisa is a proud veteran, when she shows the director a greeting from Putin himself but now at the end of her life, she is more and more occupied with her dreams that she reveals to Fima. They bring her back to her youth and closer to Fima, whose camera again and again catches the emotions of Raisa. In many fine poetic situations. It feels like a fine choice, when the director places her in fields of sunflowers. Or at an empty concert hall playing cello for the first time in decades.

I was happy to have met Raisa Sinitsina. And it reminds me about the words of Lithuanian Audrius Stonys : We make documentary films to keep people alive…

Israel, 2021,

https://www.midff.com/main

… 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 up here. In a humanitarian catastrophy, where they fight to survive.

The film by Olivier Higgins and Mélanie Carrier is excellent. Heartbreaking in content and brilliant in storytelling. The cinematography is superb, the camera is treating the refugees and their devastating environment and living conditions with beautifully composed and framed images and the film gives the viewer the necessary information through the voice off by Kalam (Kala Miya). The directors (on the Doker website) tells about how the film came about:

 

“It was following a shocking Facebook post from the Kutupalong refugee camp in February 2018 by documentary photographer Renaud Philippe, that we became aware of the sheer extent of this major humanitarian crisis that has received so little media coverage. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of this situation and the power of Renaud’s photos, we suggested that we join forces to create this film with as the main objective, alerting the public to the tragedy of the Rohingyas in exile… The role of Rohingya refugee Kala Miya (Kalam) was central in this film. It was Renaud who first met Kalam in February 2018 during his first stay in the camp. Kalam naturally became an ally and the film crew’s guide out in the field. As a fixer, translator and sound recorder, he was the one who ultimately made this film possible. Over the course of the discussions, Kalam’s personal story and the poetry he wrote was so meaningful, so universal, that we decided to make it the narrative thread of this film.”

A warm tribute to Kalam, the main protagonist, who in this English version speaks with a low, melancholic voice – he had reached India but decided to go to Kutupalong to join his family. Many touching stories, most of them through voice-off, are told: Nigthmares, dreams for the future, but also horror stories about the abuses and attacks they have been through in Myanmar by soldiers from the army. You see families cooking, you see (always uplifting) children playing football and with kites, young girls putting on make-up, young boys dancing – and men trying to tame the flood that could swipe the whole camp away. A camp where young kids sometimes disappear – human trafficking!

The film is rich, it’s about poverty and misery but it keeps insisting to depict the dignity of the people, who are in the film, living a life you can not imagine. In cinematic terms I was thinking of films of late Michael Glawogger, with observational visual poetry giving time and respect. My only small objection is the ending where the makers do slow motion of scenes we have already seen. Unnecessary.

A boy is singing: Instead of honey… you gave me poison. 

Canada, Bangla Desh, 2020, 87 mins.

https://www.midff.com/main

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 in adopting a girl, two and a half years old, Meli(ssza) and start bringing her up. I love when the directors Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics stay long at a scene, where Nora argues that she does not want to give Meli chocolate when she picks her up in the kindergarten – this is what Virag does. Chocolate or not chocolate, this is a normal situation that everyone can recognise, also this grandfather. The same goes for the goodnight scene, where Meli wants Mommy (Virag) to put her to bed and not Dada (Nora). 

It’s not that easy, words to that effect, says Nora, sad, with lesbian parenting. Especially not in Orban-instan, with a prime minister of Hungary, who is visually quoted with one of his stupid male chauvinistic comments. 

I love that film because I can´t help love the couple thanks to the presence of the camera in the discussions and dialogues in the house that also includes three dogs! They are taking lessons in German, will they end up in Austria… is that a better place to be for lesbian couples? First of all, however, the film conveys the joy and happiness of the two, when they are able to add the motherhood to their love. 

The rythm of the film is calm, no running after dramatic situations except for some footage from demonstrations framing the political landscape in Hungary. Whatever sexual orientation you might have, you can identify with the small or big problems you face in a family.

Hungary, 2020, 75 mins.

https://www.midff.com/main

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’ starts too. Shot over a full 10 years and with no filter. Isolation, bullying and anxiety have followed Erik throughout his life, while he has struggled with recognition from his surroundings and himself…”

”With no filter” – the film is very close to Erik and his family, especially the mother who on one hand suffers because of the son’s decision, on the other supports, also when Erik finds his Martyna even if the two, the mother and Martyna, have some tough arguments. The Polish grandma is in the background always ready to give a hug and an advice of common sense. The camera is there catching the many embarrasing moments the film is full of.

 

The film’s frame is Erik on his pilgrimage, the camino – oh these Galician landscapes full of beauty that calms him down, giving him the needed spirituality at the moment in his life he has reached, where ”my trans identity brings me down”. At that point in the narrative Erik has revealed that he was sexually abused when he was 13.

 

Which leads me to some storytelling comments: How clever of the film team to hold back this information to the second part of the film, letting the focus be on Erik, who ”always felt like a boy”. It takes the film away from any kind of dramatic sensationalism letting Erik himself express his feelings verbally and through his strong expressionistic ceramic pottery.

 

And it can not be stressed enough how strong a film like this becomes, when you have been able to follow the protagonist through archive for many years. Time is precious and important, in this case for a film on a young man searching for a meaning with life. ”God will come to me”, it feels so natural that he has a job as a cleaner in the church…

 

https://www.midff.com/main

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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, mostly by Polish filmmakers – No, it is good because of the miner Tomas, who becomes the IT programmer Tomas. The director has followed Tomas for four years in his struggle to get a new education – his doubts, his warm realitionship to his children, his dating to find a new partner, his café talks with friends, his passion for Banik Ostrava, the football team he supports.

I write Tomas as I get close to him and his positive attitude to life. He is himself, when he is at interviews for IT Jobs, grounded and charming and funny, also when he talks to a full theater in Prague at a TED arrangement about him succeeding. It made me for a moment think “is this a corporate film” as it of course puts a positive light on the retraining program Tomas is part of. But why bother as this for once is a positive and authentic film. It is the director’s first film, well told (dramaturg is as always in Czech  documentaries Jan Gogola) and being in both DOK Leipzig and Ji.hlava festivals is quite a good start! And now a Russian premiere, congratulations, waiting for the next film from the director.  

Czech Republic, 2020, 91 mins.

This is an edited repeat of a review from this site.

https://www.midff.com/main

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 confront the artist Oz Almog, who had a world-wide success with portraits of well known Jews through exhibitions named “Index Judaeorum”.

 

The exhibitions included hundreds of portraits painted by the Israeli artist Vladimir Dvorkin, the grandfather of Roman Lapshin. And he was never credited for the portraits, which carried Almog’s signature. Roman wants the truth to come out.

The family is divided. Should the secret be revealed? They discuss in the family – the best conversations being between Roman and his uncle (photo); the latter finds it wrong to chase and confront Oz Almog for what could look like catching a thief as it is said in the film, where Roman travels from Toronto to Vienna to Tel Aviv and to Serbia.

Grandmother is alive and is worried about Roman’s intentions… The scenes between her and Roman are touching.

The whole film is full of emotional ups-and-downs of Roman; it has become an obsession for him to meet Almog.

Does he? Yes, but no spoiler from me – would be wrong to tell what actually happens when the director effectively builds up to the meeting by giving the audience a parallel montage of a portrait of Oz Almog, who has quite provokative opinions on what art should be and the story of Roman’s search for the truth – whatever that is, this psychological thriller also brings to the table.

Canada, 2020, 90 mins.

https://www.midff.com/program

 

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, the team, that is described like this on the website:

The DOKer team is a community of like-minded people: directors, cinematographers, sound directors, producers and specialists in other fields, but all passionate enthusiasts for nonfiction cinema…

I was at the festival in 2019 in the short film jury, where awards were given not only to Best film but also to Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound. Respect!

 

More about the leading team members: Irina Shatalova is the founder of the Doker screening project (10 years ago), a brilliant cinematographer – and the director and producer of the festival. She co-directed ”Linar” (praised here http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2447/

with Nastia Tarasova, who is the program director of the festival, where Tatayana Soboleva takes care of the industry part of the festival and is in the selection committee as is Sergei Kachkin, who takes care of “international relations” and with the help of the Danish Embassy in Moscow has “hired” me to write about films in the festival.

The other day I wrote about Soboleva’s “The Russian Way” and before that also her “Siberian Floating Hospital” http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3309/

Sergei Kachkin made, among others, “On the Way Home” – also written about http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1717/

Not to forget Mash Ka – Maria Kozlova – documentarian, photo artist and the festival’s excellent photographer, always creating a good atmosphere!

The festival program includes the feature length and short film competition, a category called ”Let it Dok!” (”information technology and documentaries”), a program for kids and « DOK Therapy » including the fine Romanian film ”Us Against Us”, where ”The director and her father take a camera in hand and film each other during interviews in which they discuss schizophrenia, their own pasts, and their personal conceptions of happiness.” To be recommended.

As four of the films in the international competition, films I have seen and recommend : The Czech « A New Shift” (PHOTO), the Colombian ”Between Fire and Water”, the American/Mexican ”Dirty Feathers” and the Hungarian ”Her Mothers”. More about these documentaries when the festival starts.

https://www.midff.com