It’s a scoop to have the constant tableau-like returns to the room in the house in Tehran. It’s beautiful to look at – in the beginning I associated to Danish Hammerhøi and his paintings of interiors – here (except for the ending of the film) without human beings. A white room that changes as the life of the director and her parents change in Iran. A white room of memories. Like a stage where a painting of a naked woman is taken down and the double bed disappears. Where mats for praying become visible and glasses with wine are away from the table. The returns serve as pauses for reflections from the photos and archive footage that form the backbone of a family story that is told voice-off by the director and through constructed dialogues between father and mother.

They married while he was studying in Geneva and she was in Tehran. She moved to Geneva to be with him, where she as a religious person „saw sin all over“ in the happy sixties, refrained from drinking and partying as her Mousieu husband – they speak French in Geneva and she could not find the right pronunciation for Monsieur.

When Firouzeh is born, the couple moves back to Tehran, and if she felt lonely abroad, she now gradually gets involved in the revolutionary movement that led to the fall of the Shah. She became a disciple of Shariati, who was an important revolutionary sociologist. She got important educational positions in the Islamic country, whereas her father found meaning in art and music. And in being with his daughter. 

The film builds very much on photos taken by the father and archive material from Geneva but also from Iran – military training for the mother and other veiled women, riots in the streets. Look at the poster… in a scene you hear the mother tearing photos apart of herself without veil, she wants to destroy memories from her non-religious past… On the wall there is now an imaginative painting of the father holding his daughter, the director…The mother, still alive, sitting in the room asks her daughter to hand her the Quran…

Norway, Iran, 2020, 82 mins. 

The Golden Dove as well as the Silver have been given out at the DOK Leipzig festival.

”Downstream to Kinshasa” by Dieudo Hamadi won the Golden, a coproduction ” from the Democratic Republic of Congo, France and Belgium that focuses on war-disabled people from Kisangani in the DR Congo. ”The jury motivation goes like this: ”… praised the filmmaker “for bringing intimacy and dignity to a Sisyphean struggle that is invisible in the broader world, here delivered to the screen with the clear trust of its protagonists and the commitment of the filmmaker”. Who is from Kisangani and whose ”Maman Colonelle” I remember clearly for its quality. This one is also a strong and important documentary to remind us of a horrible war of six days in Kisangani twenty years ago. It’s emotional to follow the crippled people on their way to the parliament in Kinshasa to make their case; they want compensation from the government and parliament who do not care. The film has previously been to Cannes and Toronto and will be in the Masters section at IDFA, whose Bertha Foundation has supported it.

And for the Silver Dove the jury chose “The Poets Visit Juana Bignozzi” by Argentinian Mercedes Halfon and Laura Citarella. I saw the film online a couple of days ago, liked it but I had big problems to access it, understanding it all as Juana Bignozzi’s poems were read in Spanish, a language I don’t master. Impossible to really appreciate her poetry with English subtitles. Anyway I agree with the jury pointing at the film with ”a freshness and energy that recall the French Nouvelle vague”. And yet, maybe a bit too constructed for my taste.

AND one more award for Czech ”A New Shift” (winning at Ji.hlava FF as well) by debutant Jindřich Andr, a good film, read http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4843/ The award was given in The Golden Dove in the “Golden Section”, the newly introduced Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary or Animated Film 

No, actually there were 2 awards for the film about Tomas, the miner who became an IT programmer – the MDR award went to ”A New Shift”. Jindřich Andr must be a happy director with this recognition at two important festivals.

For many other awards go to www.dok-leipzig.de

This is a world premiere of an excellent film, that will travel all over. Shot in the Eastern part of Jerusalem in Palestinian families with the focus on the children. How they cope with living close to settlers and therefore also to the constant presence of Israeli soldiers, who are there to protect the very same settlers. And is often met with rocks being thrown at them. And – the film documents – quite as often provokes kids, laying hands on them. Upon this historical context, quote from one of the texts on the screen up front, in an observational documentary filmed over years:

”In 2019 56 children were killed, 1000 children were jailed, released, then jailed again through ”a rotating door” policy…”

I am writing this just after having watched the film. I am shocked of what I have seen. Even if have seen numerous documentaries about the oppression of the Palestinians in the state of Israel. I am moved after meeting kids, whose lives are ruined by the atrocities they meet in an occupied country, where police brutality is performed. Kids for whom their childhood is full of nightmares and fear and anger. And desire for revenge, when their friends are killed or imprisoned. And I am sad when I listen to a conversation between a father and his son. The father – who has been jailed – believes in a two state construction, the son thinks the Jews should leave the country that they occupied.

Keep your head high, says the mother of Dima, the main character of the film. The mother wants so much that Dima – as a hero coming back from Israeli prison, 12 (!) years old, being jailed for a couple of months – talks to the journalists about, what happened in the prison, and how the other Palestinian female prisoners were treated – were they tortured tc. Dima does not want to talk about it – until at the end of the film, when she is some years older. Dima is followed by the camera, we see her growing, we see her in wonderful sequences (like the one on the photo) with Janna, same age, ”girls talk” full of joy also about boys of course, at the same time as the mother thinks that she has changed since she was in prison. Maybe, for sure she opposes the mother, who wants her to speak up for, what she thinks and has experienced. She takes off her scalf in the class room, your mother won’t like it, a class mate says. She visits another girl, who has been jailed. There is a lot of hugging in the film.

Main character, and yet, my heart bleeds for the little Dareen, who goes to school (6 years old at the beginning of the film) and learns by the teacher what “homeland” means, that she should be proud of being a Palestinian etc. The teacher puts a lot of right words into the classroom. What did you fear most, she asks, the police coming to your home or the snakes your father takes home to his aquarium. The snakes, she says! A bit later she is the witness to the fate of her older brother and cousin having been maltreated by the police with explosions in the street. The camera, the briliant editing should be mentioned, follows her emotions, she is scared – “go to my room Dareen, stop crying or I will beat you!”, says the father. Reading a face! And seeing how the teacher talks to her about her fear. Lovely.

I could go on mentioning strong scenes, full of emotions and food for your thought if you care about, what happens to the Palestinians and the young ones near Jerusalem after Trump’s (who is on the television screens in the Palestinian homes) talk about Jerusalem being the holy place for the Jews and noone else. Intifada. Amazing what and how the director has managed – from 200 hours of material – to put the children in the foreground. 

In an interview the director says: «The word ‘terrorist’ had become a code word for avoiding any real discussion of what was happening to these children. No-one on either side wanted to look for “any nuances and subtleties that may convey the complexity of the issue and the bigger picture.”

This film does!

www.dok-leipzig.de 

You don’t know if she is crying or laughing. The grandmother of the director, who came to France from Algeria with her husband in the fifties. She is born in 1937, the two were married for 62 years, then decided to divorce but they are still living quite close to each other. She is still cooking for him, bringing the food, taking care of him, she is active, but she has decided to have her own life for the time she has left.

He is rarely speaking, moves slowly, watches tv and goes to the local cafeteria to just sit there the whole day – according to his wife, who is no longer his wife, but they are still husband and wife as says the director’s father, an actor in numerous films and before that a mime artist. The daughter uses her father to help reveal the past of the grandparents. She wants to know her roots, wants them to tell. It works very well. The film creates a fine atmosphere.

The film is built around the conversations mixed with footage that the father has shot in 1992. Lovely footage that includes Algerian parties with song and dance. Slowly we get closer to the grandfather and the scoop is when the director, the granddaughter, shows material that she shot in their village in Algeria. Grandfather’s face changes expression and he is proud of her filming there. The former cutler in Thiers. Who with his wife left Algeria. They wanted to come back but the war came with all its atrocities.

They remember, grandmother first of all remembers. You ask too many questions, Lina…she covers her face with her hands and we don’t know if the lively old woman is crying or laughing. 

It’s of course a film about the destiny of Algerian immigrants coming to France, about colonialism but it has a universality: Did we have/do we have the talks with our grandparents before it is too late. I envy the director, I never met my grandparents and there are so many questions I will never get answers to as my parents are no longer alive. This film made me think.

France, 2020, 70 mins.

https://www.dok-leipzig.de

I saw (most of) the IDFA press conference, 2 hours!, with artistic director Orwa Nyrabia on stage in de Balie on Leidseplein, which used to be the main meeting place for IDFA. Nostalgia! Nyrabia presented the sections, also those that are not competitive with – for some films – clips. And he presented the juries and he is good in talking briefly and warmly about the chosen films. There are all together 258 titles for the festival that starts November 18 and goes on until December 6. And here is a quote from Nyrabia:

”The IDFA 2020 program tells us, without doubt or hesitation, that documentary art is just essential, relevant, and meaningful. Here’s a more inclusive program than ever, a program that takes us a step further from the overwhelming immediate moment and shows us a larger worldview. It protects our sanity and helps us find balance in the middle of all the chaos”. Words from a festival director, who is not afraid of expressing passion. Thank you!

And the films… Let me mention some from the competition programs, films I know from when they were on a project stage and filmmakers I know and expect a lot from. 

Feature length: Of course Vitaly Mansky’s “Gorbachev. Heaven”, 100 minutes (photo from the shooting) – “Mikhail Gorbachev, the 89-year-old former leader of the Soviet Union, receives Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky at his house just outside Moscow. In a light and pleasant atmosphere, weighty topics come up for discussion, as Gorbachev looks back over his life.”

And Milo Rau’s “The New Gospel” from Matera in Italy, setting up a play with immigrants. Rau, theatre director, was the one behind “Congo Tribunal”. And I can’t wait to see “Le Temps Perdu” by Argentinian Maria Alvarez, “A group of now-aging Marcel Proust fans have been meeting at a cafe in Buenos Aires since 2001, to read his seven-volume classic In Search of Lost Time. This black-and-white film documenting the reading sessions is an oasis of calm, intimacy, and depth in a modern world dominated by speedy online communications and innovation.” Since 2001! Wow!

First Appearance: Many, many years ago, in a workshop in Bucharest a young man Adrian Pirvu presented a film proposal: “A remarkably frank account of an attempt to get a grip on life. The first question is “When did it all start?” With the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, perhaps? When it happened, Adrian Pirvu’s mother was nearby and pregnant with him. She believes that’s why he is almost blind in one eye. Adrian is lonely and angry, and he hopes to find purpose in his life before he turns 30. So he decides to make a film in Ukraine about other people affected by Chernobyl. That’s how he meets Helena, which turns his world upside down. A new beginning?”. Actually Helena was not in his world by that time but his presentation and passion was convincing all of us in the workshop that here is a film. Alexandru Solomon, Hi Film, stepped in with his production company and now Deckert Distribution is taking care of distribution. Oh, I am so curious to see how the film ended up. “Everything Will Not be Fine”.

The same goes for “This Rain Will Never Stop” by Ukranians Alina Gorlova and producer Maksym Nakonechnyi, super talented young filmmakers, who have presented several versions of the film at different workshops. I remember Gorlova’s “No Obvious Signs” that we gave 5 pens on this site. Here she comes with a family story including locations in Ukraine, Syria, Germany, Iraq.

Mid-Length: I thought I knew the filmography of master Helena Třeštíková with whom I have spent many good festival hours, in Belgrade and last time in Helsinki. But there she is again with a world premiere, “Anny”, who “ didn’t become a sex worker till she was 46, but since then, she’s kept returning to the streets of Prague, rain or shine, as cars pass by at a snail’s pace. Helena Třeštíková’s film crew also kept returning to Anny in the years from 1996 to 2012.” Amazing how many films Třeštíková has made at the same time…

Archive: Bravo for having, for the second time, a section for films that use archive material in a creative way. 10 films compete, including Rithy Panh with his “Irradiated”, where he invites the audience “to become witnesses to human evil in an overwhelming, three-screen meditation on the mechanisms of violence” I had big problems watching it, should I give it another chance? And of course I am – as a lover of Paris and everything related to French culture and art – interested in watching Ulrike Ottinger’s “Paris Calligrammes”.

At the press conference I saw a clip from the opening film, “Nothing but the Sun” by (copy-paste from the press release) “Paraguayan-Swiss director Arami Ullón. A quietly earth-shattering film, Nothing but the Sun lucidly contrasts the hot, arid atmosphere of Paraguay’s Chaco region with the devastating stories of the Ayoreo people, an indigenous community violently uprooted from their ancestral territory by white missionaries. Between past and present, forest and desert, folk songs and church hymns, Ullón’s poetic feature lays bare the raw emotions of the human condition, seen through a culture on the brink of disappearing, but not without a voice.”

The clip took me by the heart. I will watch it, alas not in Amsterdam but at home on my computer. 

On your computers you can already now see trailers from several of the films in competition. Like the one for Iranian Firouzeh Khosrovani’s ”Radiograph of a Family” that competes in feature length section and in the archive category. Fantastic trailer, an invitation to see the whole film, indeed! That’s what a trailer should do.

www.idfa.nl