The 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

There are many excellent documentary film festivals in Europe. The one in Thessaloniki is one of them. It runs until March 20 with a very rich program including tributes to Latvian director Laila Pakalnina and Finnish Virpi Suutari. Voices from the North to be screened at the Mediterranean Sea. Bravo!

It’s not the first time Pakalnina has been dedicated a retrospective. When she had one in Paris at Centre Pompidou, she was quoted to say “”I call my method of work “Fishing in the river of time”. As life is extremely talented, we just put camera, set composition and wait. And life happens. So film happens…” Well this ”just” means quite sme preparation and her work with her DOP Gints Berzins is second to none as you will see in “Spoon” and “Homes”, for me both wonderful personal films. 19 films from Pakalnina will be shown in Thessaloniki.

A tribute is given to Virpi Suutari, 6 films are shown, also the one about “Aalto”, the world famous architect and his wife. It was shown – among many places – in Belgrade at the Magnificent7 and I wrote on this site: “Suutari’s personal style is one of élegance, the film is simply a pleasure to watch and again composer – although not mentioned on the festival website – Sanna Salmenkallio must be praised for her extraordinary film music.” As Pakalnina Suutari is a true auteur.

The festival also – of course – has competition programs and I am happy to find there the Danish/Ukranian new film Simon Lereng Wilmont “A House Made of Splinters”, the director’s second film from Ukraine, the first one being “The Distant Barking of Dogs”. And in a side program called “Top Docs” I find a film that I will see one day on a big screen, “Republic of Silence”, by Syrian Diana El Jeiroudi, a dear friend who has been working on this film for 12 years, the duration is more than 3 hours, a dark cinema hall is needed for the projection, hoping for a screening in Copenhagen one day.

And there is so much more to enjoy in Thessaloniki, below some links for you to study, high quality.

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1223 (Pakalnina)

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1233 (Suutari)

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1222 (Intl. Competition)

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1232 (Top Docs)

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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