At least some of them, films I have seen:

Docs Award for the Best Film in the Docs&Pearls Official Selection: Laura Plancarte: Mexican Dream. The jury motivation goes like this: “For emerging as a generous and vibrant film, courageously delving into the complexities of its nuanced character and her reality. The director’s intimate, supportive, and collaborative approach, along with the decision to share script authorship, shows a profound sensitivity. It accompanies the protagonist’s journey of empowerment with empathy, challenging societal boundaries and norms with no hint of judgment or moralism”.

The Docs Nou Talent – Filmin awards the debut Daughter of Genghis by Kristoffer Juel Poulsen and Christian Als. The film is reviewed on this site: https://filmkommentaren.dk/kristoffer-juel-poulsen-christian-als-daughter-of-genghis/ The jury motivation goes like this: “Along with this epic journey, we see a significant transformation of not just the struggling protagonist, but also the camera’s gaze on its subject. And we discover that profound patience is the very thing that enables this transformation. Seven years of production are required to portray the complexity of the once-ultra-nationalist Mongolian woman and allow her to find balance in her own life”.

The award for the best film in the category Docs&Cat – Catalan documentaries went to Casa Reynal by Laia Manresa Casals. The jury motivation goes like this:

“For the director’s narrative skill, which through a tribute to her grandmother and the working class, weaves an emancipatory story about the post-war generation. We want to thank Laia for captivating us with her red thread and moving us.”

Photo: Cesc Maymo.

Thanks to my membership of the European Film Academy I could watch this emotionally strong, storytelling-wise original film after a masterclass at DocsBarcelona yesterday arranged by the festival and DocIncubator, whose founder and director Andrea Prenghyova was in a fine dialogue with the director talking about how the film ended up in the training program and profited from that. The film premiered at IDFA 2023, travelled to many festivals and was nominated for the European Film Awards. It is a film that uses metaphors, is visually constantly attractive and has a narrative text that is beautiful even if you – like me – have to read it as subtitles. Sorry for the superlatives, I now let others take the floor:

“When filmmaker Efthymia Zymvragaki fled her native island of Crete as a young adult, she hoped to leave her violent childhood behind. But in Spain, her memories come flooding back when a man asks her to make a film about him and his violence. The encounters with Ernesto and his alter ego Juan, the frank conversations about the violent acts he committed, and the scenes in which he or actors reenact parts of his autobiography provide unprecedented insight into the nature of an abuser – in this case, one who is painfully self-aware. At the same time, the filmmaker relives her own past. The quiet, almost whispered commentary and the poetic, cinematic shots of sun-drenched landscapes, details of flowers and the sea in which Zymvragaki’s father would eventually die, leave room for the viewer’s own reflections. In addition to the effects and causes of violence, the film is also about identity and the longing for a home. (Thurn Film)”When filmmaker Efthymia Zymvragaki fled her native island of Crete as a young adult, she hoped to leave her violent childhood behind. But in Spain, her memories come flooding back when a man asks her to make a film about him and his violence. The encounters with Ernesto and his alter ego Juan, the frank conversations about the violent acts he committed, and the scenes in which he or actors reenact parts of his autobiography provide unprecedented insight into the nature of an abuser – in this case, one who is painfully self-aware. At the same time, the filmmaker relives her own past. The quiet, almost whispered commentary and the poetic, cinematic shots of sun-drenched landscapes, details of flowers and the sea in which Zymvragaki’s father would eventually die, leave room for the viewer’s own reflections. In addition to the effects and causes of violence, the film is also about identity and the longing for a home.” (Thurn Film)

,,Light Falls Vertical” is a film about Ernesto and his struggle with his patterns of violence and abuse. It is also a film about his partner Juliane and her reality of the intense presence and absence of the man in her life absence of the man in her life. And finally and above all, it is a film about me and my encounter with the torment of my past,my late father, the silence that permeated our dialogue, and the circles of violence. (The director, October 2022)

A good advice: If you have the time – go for a festival and stay there for the full period, it goes on. I had the luck – with my wife – to be for the 20th edition of ZagrebDox, invited because I was there for the first edition, where I was a juror for the international AND regional competition. Hard work, he was a tough guy back then, the founder and artistic director, Nenad Puhovski, this year he acted gently and put me in the short film jury – was he thinking that a 76 year old man might have problems with his bladder and would suffer if he was to watch feature length documentaries?

We were there for the whole week enjoying the atmosphere, seeing that there was a good audience, being spoiled with a hotel 5 minutes distance from the Kaptol Boutique Centre, second floor where 5 good cinema halls were waiting for people to be seated in nice and comfortable chairs. Good sound and good screen quality. The program of Nenad Puhovski and his programmers was excellent, what they do is to select the “Best of the Best” without thinking about the films having a premiere as so many festivals do. Which also gave me the chance to catch up on films that I missed at the CPH:DOX and SarajevoFF like the awarded “Four Daughters” by Kaouther Ben Hania and “Silence of Reasons” by Kumjana Novakova, the latter reviewed on this site (https://filmkommentaren.dk/kumjana-novakova-silence-of-reason/). The first one (info for the Danes) to be released in Copenhagen.

The award ceremony of the 20th edition had the fantastic “Kix” by Bálint Révész & Dávid Mikulán as the winner of three awards (review: https://filmkommentaren.dk/democracy-noir-kix/) and the mentioned “Four Daughters” as the number one in the Regional Competition. No Objections. We (I was joined by Croatian Miljenka Cogelja and Tomislav Pavlic) in the short film jury gave an honorary mention to the Estonian film “Boy” by Vladimir Loginov; the film has another Vladimir as the main protagonist, a well known monster, who is making his new year’s speech with the director cutting now and then to a boy, a soldier who stands behind him. 10 minutes long it is, I could not help thinking about Herz Frank and Juris Podnieks 1978 masterpiece “10 minutes Older”.

Our main prize went to “In Transit” by Lucija Brkić (photo) and here is the motivation: “Using a direct documentary language, the director captures the work of a colorful, charismatic young woman who wants to help migrants in need on their way to an uncertain future. It is a film full of talented observation and compassion that conveys moments of one of the biggest problems facing Europe today”. The young activist, a true hero, Tinka Ines Kalajzic, was on stage and made a long speech that you can read on her FB page.

We made it to the Museum of Broken Relationship, what a great invention with all these stories behind what was left when the split up happened. Stories, yes stories like those told at ZagrebDox, which is a festival that meets you with warmth and a program that Nenad Puhovski can be proud of. I am sure he is!

Love that film. It’s beautiful shot, it has a modest and yet charismatic Amber as the main protagonist, who – with a colleague – is conducting – on behalf of the authorities – interview sessions to find out whether Bhutan is a happy country with happy inhabitants. For the purpose of finding out whether official policies should be changed. The questions the villagers are answering shift from “how are you sleeping” to “how many cow do you have” and in many cases the films stays with the people interviewed and tell their stories, which are not always pure happiness.

Impressive and touching is the story about the 17 year old girl, whose parents divorced; she now lives with her mother, who drinks too much, and her little sister, who she helps with her homework from school. She loves her mother and helps her as much as possible but contrary to schoolmates, she does not have a boyfriend.

And there is the man who suffers after the death of his wife and tries to achieve information whether he will meet her again in after-life.

And the man who wants to be a woman, she acts and is in her sadness close to her mother; we understand that it is not easy to be a transsexual in Bhutan.

And there is the man who has three wives and gets 10 points on all the questions put to him, whereas one of the wives depicts how terrible he can be, seeking consolation in a fine relationship to the other two wives.

The film’s red thread, however, goes with Amber and his longing for happiness as he wants a wife, and children, but the number one candidate, to whom he has proposed, goes to Australia, where he can not go as he can not get a passport – if I get it right, he is born in Bhutan but Nepalese, therefore? His colleague helps him put together a personal letter to the King asking to get a passport so he can move around. Amber is also a very caring son of his old mother, several scenes are full of poetry. Well, many scenes have this poetic dimension.

Atmosphere and tone is what we want from a documentary. This film delivers both. The cinematography catches beauty, not only the landscapes but also the faces, the homes – and the tone has humor, at the same time as the poverty of not all but many of the portrayed Bhutanese is obvious.

What an enjoyable visit to a small country, we know so little about.

Bhutan, Hungary, 2024, 94 mins.

The Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival DocsBarcelona presents the titles that will be part of its 27th edition, a showcase of the best of the world’s documentary production, which this year renews its structure and proposes a program to question colonialisms.  
On the one hand, Docs&Pearls, with an international and competitive character, will be from now on the Official Section of the festival. Docs&Cat will accompany Catalan talent, and the non-competitive thematic section Docs&Love will screen six feature films dedicated to different expressions and forms of love. The classic Docs&Teens and DOC-U will complete a festival that from May 2 to the 12 will offer a program of 40 documentaries and 10 short films. With the CCCB and the Renoir Floridablanca Cinemas as venues, and Filmin as a virtual window, this continues to be an essential cultural event in the Catalan capital. In the words of the Festival’s artistic director, Anna Petrus: “this year’s Docs will be full of discoveries and doors that open to invite us to walk along paths not yet explored, full of questions and tools to unlearn and relearn different ways of thinking and being in the world“.  
Likewise, the 27th edition of DocsBarcelona will pay tribute to the prestigious tandem formed by French filmmakers Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret, who will receive this year’s Honorary DocsBarcelona Award. This award includes a retrospective in collaboration with the Filmoteca de Catalunya, with the screening of Journal de France(2012) and two titles signed by Depardon: 10e Chambre (2004) and La Vie Moderne(2008).  
The festival will open on May 2 with Agent of Happiness, a co-production between Hungary and Bhutan directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó that was presented at the Sundance Festival and questions Bhutan’s label as the happiest country on the planet. On May 11, the festival will announce its list of winners at a gala to be held at the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). All about the films to be screened: https://docsbarcelona.com

Director: Luka Beradze

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.