Happy to say that I agree with the competent decisions made by this jury: Leena Pasanen (Festival Director of DOK Leipzig, Germany), Luciano Rigolini (Artist-photographer, producer, Switzerland), Marina Gumzi (Producer/ Scriptwriter, Slovenia). I give you the links for the reviews I made during the festival 

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

SRBENKA

Director: Nebojša Slijepčević 

Croatia 

Financial award, in the amount of 3,000 €, sponsored by Government of Switzerland.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4308/

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

NINE MONTH WAR/ KILENC HÓNAP HÁBORÚ

Director: László Csuja 

Hungary, Qatar

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4315/

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

ARAF (PHOTO)

Turkey, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Director: Didem Pekün 

Best film of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film dealing with the subject of human rights. Award in the amount of 3,000 €, sponsored by Government of Switzerland.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4316/

Here comes a copy-paste of the press release from Jihlava FF. The presentation of the projects took place at the same conference room in Hotel Europe as the Rough Cut Boutique, this time, good for the presenters, they were in spotlight, it helped to create some passion from the very diverse group of people, who were selected by Marek Hovorka and his festival team. I was a member of the jury, so no personal comments would be fair. Here comes the text:

“Ten outstanding documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe, planned for theatrical release during the upcoming 12 months – the Docu Talents from the East –  were presented yesterday at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Projects from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine made it to the final selection of Docu Talents from the East 2018.

The Docu Talent Award was newly granted to the most promising projects. The international jury selected two winners: An absurd tragicomical Ukrainian-Belarussian documentary placed in today’s Crimea My Granny from Mars directed by Alexandar Mihalkovich and produced by Volia Chajkouskaya, and an intimate artistic documentary film Birthday directed and produced by Hilal Baydarov from Azerbaijan. The awards are accompanied with financial prize 2,500 USD for each project, in cooperation with the festival’s partner Current Time TV.

The jury gave the following statements:

“For a choice of charismatic protagonists, treated in a highly cinematic way, and for the sense of absurdity in a difficult and unstable environment.”
 

(My Granny from Mars)

 (PHOTO)

“To a new voice that reveals a pure sense of time, by capturing the universal nature of reality.”

(Birthday)

http://www.dokument-festival.com/industry/docu-talents/2018

Yesterday morning the Rough Cut Boutique presented the five projects that under the leadership of Rada Sesic and Martichka Bozhilova were developed with the tutorial help of people like editor Tom Ernst, producer Stefano Tealdi, commissioning editor Hanka Kastelicova, Katrine Kilgaard from CPH:DOX, Aleksandra Derewienko from Cat&Docs in Paris, Jenny Westergaard from YLE Finland and others.

The presentation took place at a conference room of Hotel Europe, not the best place as the presenters were standing in almost total darkness, no spotlight on them, which made the atmosphere a bit sleepy. The verbal presentation (I was told that they were trained in pitching, sorry could not see that) was followed by clips/scenes from the rough cuts. Have to confess that it is difficult to get a true impression of a film from the visual material.

There were awards for the best projects. They went like this:

– 20.000 EUR postproduction award by Digital Cube Romania: DAUGHTER OF CAMORRA, Siniša Gačić

– IDFA Award – the winner will be fully invited to IDFA 2018: DIARY OF A SERIOUS OFFENDER, Danilo Ceković

– HBO Europe Award – 2000 EUR: DAUGHTER OF CAMORRA, Siniša Gačić

– CAT&Docs Award  – 2000 EUR: THE MAGIC LIFE OF V, Tonislav Hristov

– DOK Preview at DOK Leipzig 2018 and visit to the Festival and presentation: ONE OF US, Đuro Gavran

There was a big quality difference among the five with the Finnish/Bulgarian collaboration (Kaarle Aho and Tonislav Hristov) on a high professional level (superb camera work), whereas the others were beginners or less experienced.

Luckily there was a guest project that I knew about from way back, a film – again – dealing with the past, “Aktion DB” (PHOTO); Dana Budisavljevic is the director who pitched together with producer Miljenka Cogelja. An extraordinary story about an extraordinary woman Diana Budisavljevic, who during WW2 helped children and women out of the concentration camps set up by the Germans and their Croatian partners, the Ustashas. It’s 10000 children and the film is a docufiction using an actress to play DB, sequences with survivors who go the places, where the camps were and shocking archive material from the camps. The director has – from the scenes I saw – found her form, she has made her aesthetic choice, b/w and colour mixed, the b/w maybe tinted a bit, it looked impressive.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hulahop+films&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b

There he was on screen and in persona among the audience, 22 year old Amir Śeśic, whose story was presented by Mirna Buljugic from BIRN, that stands for Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. And what a story: Amir has never seen his father, who was one of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. When he was 3 months old, his mother left him, he grew up in an orphanage, was with a new family, fought to understand what a mother could be, does not want to have anything to do with his own mother AND has written a book.

It took me 2 years to write it, he said, the young energetic man, who is now going around launching the book, that many at the presentation done by Mirna Buljugic told him to make in an English version as well. Buljugic told us that the book is a very emotional experience, describing also what the stay in the orphanage meant for Amir, who regularly visits his father’s grave in Srebrenica.

http://birn.eu.com/network/birn-bosnia-and-herzegovina/

Back in Copenhagen. Thinking of the many documentary adventures I take with me from the Sarajevo Film Festival. To be part of the training team of representatives from ngo’s and human rights organizations was the experience for me. Engaged, committed people who every day deal with human beings who suffer from the consequences of the wars in the 1990’es – and try to help them. Respect!

In an article by Vladan Petkovic for Screen Daily, link below, the stories delivered to a full hall Monday afternoon at the Hotel Europe are described. Read that and let me introduce the panel on the photo:

From right colleague tutor and here moderator Robert Zuber and on stage Goran Zoric, Edin Ramulic, Mediha Haskic who translated for Edin, Augustina Rahmanovic, Sabiha Husic and Mirna Buljugic.

https://www.screendaily.com/news/sarajevos-true-stories-market-opens-competition-for-producers/5131637.article

The theme was how to deal with archives in a creative way; it was a bit more than one hour skype conversation with Mila Turajlic talking to us from her home in Belgrade – the flat those of us, who have seen “The Other Side of Everything” know so well. Turajlic was excused not to be in Sarajevo, because of illness but as the fighter she is, she had prepared clips for the presentation and the conversation went very well giving the audience of primarily young people inspiration to their film work.

The first clip brought us back to the film Turajlic made in 2010, “Cinema Komunisto”, the scene from the partisan feature film (Battle of Neretva, 1969) where Tito has given the order

to blow up the Neretva Bridge. In the clip you see how Turajlic mixes fiction and documentary having wonderful interviews with a couple of film people, who took part in the film. How did you get “the old boys” to agree to take part, I asked. I met them again and again and had them talk about how it was and finally I had their ok. In the clip shown you also see how this place today is – with Turajlic’s words – a place of memory and commemoration.

From “The Other Side of Everything” Turajlic showed the scene, where the mother and friends at the dinner table talks about “Hafner’s Finger”, referring to the event in Parliament, where the old parliament member is warning Comrade Milosevic that Yugoslavia could fall apart if he proceeds with his Great Serbia politics. For Turajlic this scene makes her mother Srbijanka Turajlic become “the guide” for reading the archive of this excellent film (I have written a review of the film: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4090/)

Third film is coming up – the trailer for the film about the lovely old cameraman Stevan Labudovic – working title “The Labudovic Reels” – that is, with Turajlic words, “an archival road trip with Stevan Labudovic, cameraman to Yugoslav President Tito and cinematic eye of the Algerian revolution, investigating the role of cinema in the liberation struggles of the Third World and reconstructing the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement…”. The trailer shown is wonderful, can’t wait to see the final result!

And finally some photos from the video installations made for MOMA in New York, “a commission to contextualise the story of Yugoslav architecture and modernisation”… well to have made two films, have one that soon is coming up and to be at one of the most famous museums in the world, Bravo, and thanks for the conversation, where we also had the chance to say hello to her mother Srbijanka. More about Mila Turajlic on

http://www.dissimila.rs/bio.html

As part of the “Dealing With the Past” there was a talk with producer Siniša Juricic, who co-produced and was a character in “Chris, the Swiss”, a film that was taken to the Cannes Film Festival, a film not loved by Croatian film and tv authorities, they don’t like to see it as a film from Croatia, but not the only film that Juricic has made as a producer; he has not been able to get funding from the Croatian Audiovisual Fund for three years. He was service provider for the Danish production “15 Minutes. The Dvor Massacre” and for this he was “accused of being a traitor” and “blacklisted” at the Fund.

The talk had the long title “Working with films that tackle sensitive issuses from the past” and Juricic, well prepared, had brought along clips/trailers from his filmography: “Dead Man Walking”, “Velvet Terrorists”, the mentioned two films, “Houston, we have a Problem” as well as a clip from a new film about a cartoonist, who was killed by the partisans in Belgrade 1944. It looked very fascinating. Juricic, interviewed by Robert Zuber, said that he now “seriously considers to make comedies” – I don’t believe him having seen his talent as a producer not only for the mentioned films but also for fine works as “Cash and Marry”, one of my favourites from my time at the training programme Ex Oriente, and “Sofia’s Last Ambulance” that is a small masterpiece. What comes out of a talk like this is sadness, well anger that the Croatian film and tv authorities are so scared of anything that is controversial and finds it necessary to blacklist a talent like Juricic. At the discussion after “Srbenka”, the director Nebojša Slijepcevic was asked if the film would end up on Croatian television. With a smile, he said that this would not happen. Something is rotten, not only in the state of Denmark…  

Sarajevo hosts an amazing film festival. The variety of programs and projects is overwhelming. Films in many cinemas, discussions and presentations after the screenings, and in the Hotel Europe where workshops take place and the Atrium has full houses for presentations linked to industry matters.

I am happy to say that documentaries have a visible and important place in

the festival. I have already reviewed some of the films in the competition before the festival, now I have had the chance to be in the cinema for film screenings of some of the films that have been included in the “Dealing With the Past” section of the festival.

Full house for the screening of “The Other Side of Everything” by Mila Turajlic, with a short discussion after the film with producer Carine Chichkowsky and HBO’s Hanka Kastelicovà, in the absence of the director, who had to stay in Belgrade because of illness. The film has been written about many times on this site, here is one link http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4096/

And full house for “Chris, the Swiss” by Anja Kofmel with Sinisa Juricic as co-producer and character in a film that I can only characterize as a masterpiece. The story about the Swiss journalist, who goes to Yugoslavia to cover the war and ends up being killed, when he joins a paramilitary group with the ambition to get material for a book. The screening was transmitted, in collaboration with the Rotterdam IFF, to 8 places in neighbouring countries with Q&A with Anja Kofmel and Sinisa Juricic, led by my tutor colleague Robert Zuber from the “Dealing With the Past”. The film is a superb example of how you can connect animation (the director is animator) with interviews, archive material from the war and footage of the wo going around to the places, where “it” happened. I had seen it before on my computer, it is a total different experience to sit in a full cinema – the music, the sound score.

And full house for Nebojsa Slijepcevic and his “Srbenka”, where I had the pleasure to lead the discussion after the film, more than half an hour, and I dare say that the film was well received by the audience. My review can be read on http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4308/

The film had the regional premiere here in Sarajevo and it was obvious to ask the director: What will happen when the film is premiered in cinemas in Croatia – will it raise tensions as did the theatre play did when it was performed in Rijeka in Croatia. Let’s see, the director answered. The film is a piece of art, so well put together, so many interesting cinematic solutions, and because of that the story about being a Serb in Croatia is so touching and thought-provoking. It is universal, I was thinking, easy to refer it to how it must be to be a muslim in Denmark today. And it is about theatre, what an interesting director Oliver Frljic is, and a very controversial character in his home country, a provocateur some called him at the screening.

And full house for “Occupation” (review on http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4300/), the omnibus film, where the Polish director Magdalena Szymkow and Hungarian producer Ágnes Horváth-Szabó took part in the Q&A. Szymkow told the audience how she started with archive material from the music festival where many artists left as a protest against the invasion by the Warsaw Pact countries and then found the love story that made the title of the film appear, “I’m Writing to You My Love”.

Four strong films, all well received, by an audience, mostly young people; there is hope for creative documentaries as long as there is an attendance as here.

https://www.sff.ba/novost/10863/dealing-with-the-past