… is the title of the wonderful film by Ksenia Elyan, who won  the Best Feature Documentary Award at the Doker Festival in Moscow. I have seen it pitched on several occasions and the promises planted on these occasions were held. Charming boys, scenes full of energy and humour. Here is the synopsis:

“Zakhar lives among the vast Arctic spaces of Siberia, 100 miles away from human dwellings. He is 7, but he has his own reindeer and tundra for pasture. One day his nomad family is joined by a teacher, sent by the authorities to explain to the kids why why they need math and Putin. It’s the 1st grade for Zakhar and the 3rd for his brother Prokopy. The teacher is supposed to give them a standard set of knowledge, but Zakhar craves answers to millions questions about the world.” 

At the award ceremony in Moscow the director, asked the audience to stand up to honour Alexander Rastorguev, who was co-producer of the film – together with cameraman Kirill Radchenko and reporter Orhan Dzhemal he was killed while making a film in the Central African Republic on Russian mercenaries. It was a moving moment full of dignity. “Without him the film would never have been made”, she and Estonian producer Max Tuula said.

I saw the film at IDFA – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4411/

www.midff.com

Let me leave the floor to this very inviting and good festival itself with this quote from the website: KFF is one of the oldest events in Europe dedicated to documentary, animated and short feature films. Its core consists of four competitions of equal rank: documentary film competition, short film competition, national competition and music documentary film competition DocFilmMusic. During the eight festival days, the viewers have a chance to watch about 250 films from Poland and from around the world. They are shown in competition sections and in special screenings. The festival is accompanied by exhibitions, concerts, open-air shows and meetings with artists. Every year, the festival is visited by approximately 700 Polish and international guests: directors, producers, festival programmers and numerous Krakow audience…

… and it takes place in a historical city full of culture and atmosphere, and tourists, including the Jewish quarter Kazimierz with its memorials and restaurants, where I the last couple of years have dined with good friend, film director and producer and academic Krzysztof Kopczyński. Who made „The Dybbuk. A Tale of Wandering Souls“ in 2015.

To be on the mailing list of KFF that runs from May 26 till June 2 means that you can be very well informed: Finland is the guest country and of course “Gods of Molenbeek” by Reetta Huhtanen will be screened here as well as veteran icon Jörn Donner’s “Fuck Off 2. Images from Finland”, a sequel to the film Donner made about his country in 1971. Plus three more from the country that was nominated as the luckiest nation in the world. Check the website for more about the Finnish series.

On this site I have often characterised Polish documentaries as special in terms of storytelling aesthetics, so I am curious what comes up this year. The caption is “A Window to the World” and two new films taking part in the international competition are highlighted:

The website says “59. Krakow Film Festival will be opened on 26h May with a screening of “The Wind. A Documentary Thriller” directed by Michał Bielawski. The documentary showcasing the destructive force of the halny wind and the way it disrupts the lives of local inhabitants is one of the two Polish films, that will compete in the international full length documentary competition. The second one is “Of Animals and Men” directed by Łukasz Czajka, a dramatic story, filled with fascinating archive materials, of a married couple, the Żabinscy, who gave shelter to almost 300 refugees from the ghetto during the occupation until the break of the Warsaw Uprising.”

Otherwise there are films by directors I know from their previous films, like Marcin Sauter, Marcin Polar, Wiktoria Szymańska and Belorussian Andrei Kutsila’s Polish film “Summa” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4410/),

and to my pleasant surprise I see that Russian Alina Rudnitskaya together with Sergei Vinokurov has finished “Fatei and the Sea” as a Polish, Russian, Finnish coproduction.

Festival director Krzysztof Gierat is a proud man, when he presents the Panorama section: In the Panorama of the Polish document section, we are bragging with what is the bestand, the most original in Polish production. It is, next to the competition, the most powerful presentation of our documentary thought, which is admired and even envied at international festival. It is here, in Krakow, that international careers often start… no doubt he is right.

And some words about the international competition, where I am very happy to see American Jesse Alk’s “Pariah Dog” (PHOTO) that was at the rough cut of DocsBarcelona last year but did not make it to the Panorama section of that festival. It is visually a very strong film and touching it is in its portraits of brave people in Calcutta taking care of the street dogs. As – many times mentioned on this site – does “Wongar” of his dingos in the film of Serbian Andrijana Stojkovic, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4137/

And Geyerhalter’s “The Border Fence”, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4437/, „Kabul, City in the Wind“ by Aboozar Amini, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4398/, and “Heat Singers” by Nadia Parfan from Ukraine that I met at Baltic Sea Docs as a project and later at a rough cut stage –

and again a quote from the website “The Israeli films have a strong representation at this year’s Festival.  “Advocate” (dir. Rachel Lech Jones, Philippe Bellaiche) is a film portrait of an exceptional lawyer, who devoted her whole professional life to the fight for human rights. Lea Tsemel, an Israeli woman, have been endangering her own life as well as the lives of her family for the past 50 years with her tireless court defense of Palestinians accused of being terrorists.  Unes, the protagonist of the “Around The Bed of A Dying Collaborator” (dir. David Ofek, Tal Michael) is considered to be a traitor by his kinsmen, just like Lea. Years ago he brought shame to his Arab family when he agreed to co-operate with the Israeli secret service. In the face of death he struggles with fear, shame and guilt… Two films I am looking forward to see.

https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/

In terms of number of films DocsBarcelona is a small festival. 30. Where other documentary festivals invite the audience to choose between 100 or even more films, we make it easier, as we have already made a strong selection among hundred of films to come to this point: “Here you have 30 films, make your choice, we are sure there is something for you”. “There is something for whatever taste you have, except for the bad…”

Yes, we use the buzz words of today: Diversity and Quality. The documentary has many rooms. Those days are gone, where the documentary was considered to be a boring visual lecture meant for the classroom, being the truth about a subject or a theme. Especially…

when films are touching on sensitive subjects, political or social. Like Vitaly Mansky does with Putin’s Witnesses, where he is using material from what became a promotion film for Putin, when he was elected president in Russia after Jeltsin. His view on the president has changed completely since then! Mansky no longer lives in Russia… The same goes for Italian Claudia Tosi, who with I Had a Dream gets involved in the political lives of two wonderful women, who as politicians try to change « Berlusconi-land ».

Women’s issues are indeed the focus of Chachada by Marlén Viñayo from El Salvador, a touching story – full of humour – about five women, single mothers, poor, who have quite some stories to get rid of in the theatre play, they are performing together.

Documentaries mirror the world, we live in, for good and for worse. I am happy that we got hold of Tiny Souls  by Palestinian director Dina Naser, a film that takes its audience to meet Syrian children in a refugee camp, shot over several years, a debut film as many of the films we show are. It would be right to say that we are hunting for talent.

Documentaries put focus on current issues in time. Climate change, of course. The opening film, Aquarela by Victor Kossakovsky, for me the best film in 2018, is far from being a debate program but through its formidable poetic cinematography and an amazing sound score, it makes an indirect comment to what we are doing to the planet.

On the same level – remember that films should be seen on a big screen – is Lithuanian Mindaugas Survila with The Ancient Woods, and Honeyland by Macedonian Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, who a couple of months ago took three awards at Sundance.

… and then there are 23 other films that conclude the program of a Documentary Feast.

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/

May 8 – 13 in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, the seventh edition of the documentary festival that I visited the first time at the opening edition as a juror , where the main awards were given to Lithuanian Lina Luzyte for « Igrushki » and Polish Pawel Kloc for « Phnom Penh Lullaby ». Last year the organisers, filmmakers Artchil Khetagouri and Ileana Stanculescu, showed, among many international quality documentaries « Infinite Football » by Romanian Corneliu Porumbolu accompanied by a football match, led by the main character of the film Laurentiu Ginghina, where I had the honour to be the referee ! An experience full of fun !

This year the organisers want to make it easier for the audience to make choices from the many films that are offered. They have made topics to group the films : Filmmaker in Focus, Unconditional Love, Beyond Faith, Red Soul, Our planet and Us, A Place We Call Home, Family Portraits, Aftermath of Conflict, Eternally Young, All that Matters to Me, Erotic Dox and Adaptation… telling the readers in the preface to the catalogue that « all of the documentaries… ask the eternal question : What does it mean to be human in this day and age… »

Filmmaker in Focus is Nicolas Philibert and I am already now looking forward to see « Etre et Avoir » again after years. I have the poster from the masterpiece in my small home office, I often talk to my wife about JoJo, the main character, when we see other films with boys like him ; lucky those who see the film for the first time and lucky me, who have been asked to talk to the director after the film about his œuvre, un grand auteur  he is indeed. Have done that before in different places, who also shows his newest film « Each and Every Moment“ and « Animals » from 1994.

Otherwise let me pick films from the selection. Films that have been reviewed or commented on filmkomentaren.dk with links to be used by those of you, who want to read more that the catalogue/website offers :

Ukrainian Vadym Ilkov’s « My Father is My Mother’s Brother », great film not reviewed but noted, Polish Wojciech Klimala’s « Hugo », touching, not reviewed, Mari Gulbiani’s « Before Father Gets Back » (reviewed by Allan Berg in Danish with English synopsis – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4446/, Reetta Huhtanen’s « Gods of Molenbeek » http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4454/.

Under the title « Red Soul » and with a masterclass attached with Vitaly Mansky, his « Putin’s Witnesses » is shown – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4390/, as well as the exceptional Dziga Vertov’s 1918 « Anniversary of the Revolution » that I enjoyed at the IDFA screening and look forward to see again, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4402/, and of course « Meeting Gorbachev » by Herzog and Singer, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4386/

Plus a couple of more films related to the post-soviet times, we live in.

Of course very happy but not surprised that « Honeyland » is in the program – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4449/ – as well as wonderful « When Tomatoes Met Wagner » by Marianna Economou, who let me watch a rough cut and whose brilliant documentary carreer I have had the pleasure to follow.

And Czech Filip Remunda is there with his new « Okamura Brothers », Valentina Primavera presents the strong family drama « Una Primavera », and the organisers have wisely invited « Train To Adulthood » by Klara Trencsenyi from 2015 to be in the category « A Place We Call Home », http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3395/

Another festival hit is there, beautiful, “Transnistra” by Anna Eborn, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3395/ – look out for that.

And then there all the films that are new – including the ones in the Focus Caucasus section where I am to be a juror together with two festival directors, Petra Seliskar from MakeDox and Csilla Kato from Astra Film Festival in Romania. In the jury for the International Competition Jury there are Current Time’s Kenan Aliyev, One World’s Ondrej Kamenicky and Georgian director Mariam Chachia, who made “Listen to the Silence”, an impressive film about a deaf 9 year old boy, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3736/

You can read much more on the website of the festival, link below, and as in the previous festival presentations no words about the industry activities – and yet curious to see what comes out of the Civil Pitch 2019, led by Daniel Abma and Brigid O’Shea, both working for DOK Leipzig.

A feast it’s gonna be, also outside the cinema – chacha and Georgian food and wine!

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

The documentary festival in Belgrade with more than 100 films, and a full-bodied industry program starts in 17 days. The website is not totally up and running – ”coming soon” it says many places – and a lot is in Serbian, that I ought to master after 15 years of the other Belgradian festival ”Magnificent7” festival, but as the organisers and people around them speak so good English…

100 films means many parallel screenings, hope that it does not mean that some screenings are ”cannibalised” by others – on the other hand Belgrade has a formidable audience, when it comes to documentaries.

There is a fine retrospective with the legendary Japanese director Kazuo Hara, Croat Goran Devic shows 9 of his often critical works, there is in collaboration with DocLisboa a series of Portuguese documentaries, there are great films like American ”Minding the Gap” by Bing Liu (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4473/) Norwegian ”Reconstructing Utøya” by Carl Javér, ”My Unknown Soldier” by Anna Kryvenko, (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4473/) who got a mention at the ZagrebDox, ”RBG” by Julie Cohen and Betsy West (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4464/), ”Summa” by Andrei Kutsila (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4410/), ”Doel” by Danish Frederik Sølberg, the dubious ”Meeting Gorbachev” by Herzog and André Singer (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4386/, ”To Be Continued” by Ivars Seleckis (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4075/) , ”The Trial” by Sergei Loznitsa (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4393/ ), and many others that have been noticed on this site.

The festival has an international and a national competition. In the latter there is a new film by Andrijana Stojkovic, “Gipsy Mafia” that has this description „Two brothers – Skill and Buddy – have been making hip-hop for over 10 years and releasing DIY albums. In their native Serbia, they belong to the disadvantaged Roma population and in Germany, where they live now, they are migrant workers with a temporary residence permit. In their songs, they fiercely criticize racism, segregation of Roma and neo-liberal capitalism. They’ve just released their third album and set off on an unusual European tour…“

Considering that her previous film, „Wongar“, was on its way for a decade, it is a sensation that this film is made so quickly, was it during less than a year, the director, a dear friend, told me.

… and after recently having won the main award at the Visions du Réel in Nyon, German master director Thomas Heise is at Beldocs with his “Heimat Is a Space in Time”, 218 mins., longing to watch that film!

Photo from wonderful “Los Reyes” Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff, featuring Chola and Football! Go and see that, dear dog lovers in Belgrade!

https://beldocs.rs/en/filmovi/#

Ten days after the Doker International Documentary Festival (https://www.midff.com) ended, there are more documentaries to enjoy for the Moscow audience. Where the Doker festival is sailing under the flag of being independent, the official Moscow Film Festival operates (quoted from website)

“with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Moscow Government and the Department of Culture of the City of Moscow.” The festival has existed for 41 years, “for many years the President of the MIFF has been the Russian director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov”, it is a Red Carpet festival, that for the seventh year has included documentaries in a

competition section, having also a section called “Free Thought”. The two persons who have fought to get the documentaries to be part of the program, now a respected and well visited one, are Sergey Miroshnichenko and Grigory Libergal.

I had a beer with Grigory Libergal, when in Moscow for the Doker Festival and he revealed some of the titles that he had found on travels and after examining the overwhelming amount of documentaries submitted for consideration. He also said that he had watched 110 Russian documentaries so “something is happening but the overall quality is not good enough”.   

In the competition that consists of seven films you find Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s “Earth”, that closed the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade the other day http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4515/ and three films that illustrate the true enthusiasm that Grigory Libergal has for films from the Nordic countries:

“Men’s Room” from Norway by Petter Sommer and Jo Vemund Svendsen, Danish production “Patrimonium” by Swedish Carl Olsson and “Winter’s Yearning” (“Håbets Ø”) (PHOTO), a Norwegian, Greeenlandic, Danish coproduction by Sidse Torstholm Larsen and Sturla Pilskog, which was reviewed by Allan Berg on this site, in Danish and with an English synopsis summary. http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4494/

In the “Free Thought” you find Danish Mads Brügger’s “Cold Case Hammarskjöld”. Libergal is a big fan of the Danish director (Danish language review http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4457/) who earlier had big success at the festival with his “The Ambassador” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2083/), Nicolas Philibert’s “Each and Every Moment” – and of course – as everywhere – “Honeyland” by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4449/)

AND the closing film of the festival in Moscow, with the possible participation of the protagonist, if his health allows it, is “Meeting Gorbachev” by Werner Herzog and André Singer, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4386/

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/

http://moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff41/eng/press/video/?id=200 

Of course it was a scoop for us at the Magnificent7 Festival to have Nikolaus Geyerhalter’s masterpiece as the closing film of the festival. A couple of months after its premiere at the Berlinale. A fine gesture from the director, who knows and loves the festival. It is magnificent in form and it touches strongly on what we are doing to our planet. Contrary to some of his previous films that also has a grandeur in its aesthetical choice, like ”Homo Sapiens”, he in this film includes people working on the locations, he has chosen – in California, in Germany, in Italy… – to talk about what they do and what they think about what they do. When people ask me, what is my job, I answer ”I move mountains”, a big American worker says to Geyerhalter, who is behind the camera asking questions.

His own description of the film taken from its site – http://erde-film.at/english/themovie goes like this:

”Several billion tons of earth are moved annually by humans – with shovels, excavators or dynamite. An observation of people, in mines, quarries and at large construction sites, engaged in a constant struggle to take possession of the planet.”

Yes, to take possession of the planet, most of the workers are not happy about this but we need space and money to survive, to change nature into something profitable.

It is an amazing, mind blowing film that sits in your stomach and makes you think at the same time as you enjoy the images llike the photo above that comes from a sequence where machines perform their killing of the nature in a ballet kind of dance. A film from our planet with images that looks like taken from another planet.

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/zemlja.php