15 minute read
Competition Programme – Documentary Film
WORLD PREMIERE
Liturgy of anti-tank obstacles
Ukraine, United States, 2022, Colour, 12 min, Ukrainian Director: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk Screenplay: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Ukrainian reality is divided into two periods – before and after begining the war. In the nationwide resistance, every citizen tries to be helpful. Ukrainians change professions and adapt to wartime. Sculptors fabricate anti-tank obstacles in their workshops. Just like the Terracotta Army, silent figures of Ukrainian personalities, angels, Cossacks, and copies of Jesus Christ freeze in anticipation of new creations.
13.08. Saturday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Another Spring
Serbia, France, Qatar, 2022, Colour and B&W, 90 min, Serbian, Albanian, English Director: Mladen Kovačević Screenplay: Mladen Kovačević
ANOTHER SPRING is a “medical thriller” reconstructed from fifty-year-old archival footage taken place in the spring of 1972, when the smallpox virus was brought into Yugoslavia from a bazaar in Iraq. The disease spread for a full month before it was discovered in Kosovo, while in Belgrade it remained undetected even when the first victims started dying. Smallpox, the deadliest disease in human history, killed nearly 500 million people in the twentieth century alone. It is also the only deadly virus humans have eradicated, a feat regarded as one of the greatest achievements of our civilization. In a story that united the entire world, the Yugoslavian smallpox epidemic is still remembered as one of the most horrifying and inspiring chapters. It was the final outbreak of the disease in Europe.
13.08. Saturday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
13.08. Saturday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Ribs
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Portugal, Belgium, 2022, Colour, 8 min, Bosnian Director: Farah Hasanbegović Screenplay: Farah Hasanbegović
In a space halfway between animation and whispered confession, this coming-of-age melodrama seeks to discover the origin of a constant feeling of guilt. Tangling the line between emotion and body, a young girl begins to wonder if feeling guilty is the same as being guilty.
13.08. Saturday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Bigger Than Trauma
Croatia, 2022, Colour, 91 min, Croatian Director: Vedrana Pribačić Screenplay: Mirta Puhlovski, Vedrana Pribačić
Twenty-five years after the Croatian War of Independence, its women survivors have yet to heal. Still traumatised by their experiences of torture, rape, and the loss of their loved ones, several women go through a three-year therapeutic programme. While friction escalates along cultural lines, Katica, Ana, and Marija share their life stories, confront their traumas, and seek self-acceptance in order to find their inner strength and learn how to embrace the joy of life. This film is the result of a collaboration between two colleagues and friends, Mirta Puhlovski and Vedrana Pribačić. The two of them achieved cooperation in a similar way as the protagonists of the film, both in author’s work and work on themselves during the empowerment program. It was the unity among women that led to the (best) results.
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Fragile Memory
Ukraine, Slovakia, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish Director: Igor Ivanko Screenplay: Igor Ivanko, Mariia Ponomarova
Soviet cinematographer Leonid Burlaka worked at the Odessa Film Studio in the 1960s on dozens of films that have travelled the world. Today, he is in his eighties and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. As his memory fades away, his grandson, the young filmmaker Igor Ivanko, follows the tracks Burlaka left behind via film rolls, homemade videos, letters, and forgotten friends. As he dives deeper and deeper into the archive, Ivanko realises that the story of his grandfather has historical value. Burlaka started his career at a time when scripts were often rejected and artists were dealing with censorship, and established himself as a cinematographer in the mid-1960s, when Soviet repression finally began to relax. This political change is present in his works and also creates a strong bond between grandfather and grandson, since they both started working in cinema in times of turmoil. Yet the time is running out: soon Leonid will not remember Igor at all.
13.08. Saturday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 21:30
WORLD PREMIERE
Shadowed by the Plane Tree
Azerbaijan, 2022, Colour, 18 min, Azerbaijani Director: Aynur Elgunesh Screenplay: Aynur Elgunesh
Twenty-eight years after she and her family were displaced, Aynur Elgunesh is setting off to visit Aghdam in Azerbaijan. She comes across fragments of stone: among them, she searches for traces of her past, of a childhood gone with the war. The memories that had faded now haunt her through these ruins.
14. 08. Sunday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
14. 08. Sunday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
WORLD PREMIERE
The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters
Romania, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Romany, Romanian Director: Cătălina Tesăr, Dana Bunescu Screenplay: Cătălina Tesăr
Peli and Nina are a couple from a traditional Roma community who were married by arrangement and are parents to a little girl. However, local custom posits that a marital union can only endure if the couple conceive a boy who can later inherit the family’s badge – the chalice (tahtai). While they live under tremendous strain and keep undergoing fertility and ultrasound checks, their respective families are disputing their rights to the chalice pledged by Peli’s father to Nina’s family when they arranged the couple’s match. This puts Nina under considerable pressure, but nobody around her is sympathetic to her plight. As we impatiently await the resolution of the conflict, the film invites us to reflect on women’s resilience in a male-dominated society.
14.08. Sunday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Babajanja
Croatia, 2022, Colour, 13 min, Croatian Director: Ante Zlatko Stolica Screenplay: Ante Zlatko Stolica
BABAJANJA is a short essay film with horror elements. Going back to the past, the narrator tries to find the mysterious woman he was scared of as a boy. Rummaging through memories, dreams, and forgotten horror films, he attempts to determine who she is, and where she is today. He inclu-des his family and fellow villagers in his investigation – none of whom are particularly keen on helping him – but as he gathers more and more information about, the narrator is getting closer to finally meeting her.
REGIONAL PREMIERE
No Place for You in Our Town
Bulgaria, 2022, Colour, 81 min, Bulgarian Director: Nikolay Stefanov Screenplay: Mariana Sabeva, Nikolay Stefanov, Ralitsa Golemanova
NO PLACE FOR YOU IN OUR TOWN pulls us into the heads of the football hooligans from the most hostile city in Bulgaria — Pernik. Once a flourishing mining centre, today all that’s left here are jokes about its citizens’ roughness — an echo of their brave and glorious past. Having exclusive access to the inhabitants, Nikolay Stefanov’s film follows Tsetso, a skinhead and single father, the gang leader Dado, and Mimeto, the only woman in the group, who are devoted to helping their football team rise from the last league. Their customary lifestyle is seriously challenged when Tsetso falls ill and stays in the hospitals for months, while the decaying city faces a grave water crisis caused by corruption. Will the hooligans change in the face of the challenges, looking for their place under the sun?
14.08. Sunday, Hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Beauty of the Beast
Hungary, Serbia, 2022, Colour, 48 min, Hungarian Director: Anna Eszter Nemes
The appearance of female bodybuilders makes them outcasts. Diving under the glitter, this film looks for the reasons lying behind these women’s lifestyles. Four portraits; four different approaches to bodybuilding. Four middle-aged women – Csonka, Yvette, Eszter, and Noemi – show those parts of their lives that are normally hidden from view: when they are offstage, as themselves and with their loved ones. They prepare their bodies for months, years. “Let the beast out!” the women say, while pumping all their fears and desires into their muscles. This is their way to success, and to what we all desire: appreciation.
15.08. Monday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
15.08. Monday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Atonal Glow
Georgia, 2022, Colour and B&W, 67 min, Georgian Director: Alexander Koridze Screenplay: Alexander Koridze
History is made up of political, social, cultural, and other events, which influence and shape society. As times goes by, most of these events are buried in the past and forgotten. But some, like the emergence of brightly shining prodigies, withstand the test of time and space. One such shining star has been born in Georgia, and his name is Tsotne Zedginidze – a ten-year-old composing prodigy who demonstrates a unique combination of childlike simplicity and complex, mature emotions.
15.08. Monday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Retreat
Germany, North Macedonia, 2022, Colour, 30 min, Macedonian, Serbian, English Director: Anabela Angelovska Screenplay: Anabela Angelovska
Over the past twenty years, thousands of young Macedonian women and men were recruited to work in the kitchens and laundries of US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan last summer, the workers returned home, bringing with them quickly earned money that was soon invested in real estate – as well as traumatic memories that have marked them.
WORLD PREMIERE
Lights of Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2022, Colour and B&W, 68 min, Bosnian Director: Srđan Perkić Screenplay: Davor Sučić
Sarajevo 1969–2019. The fiftieth anniversary of the legendary Skenderija Hall, a temple of music and sport, famed far and wide. Half a century of history of this Sarajevo institution is told from the point of view of Sejo Sexon, leader of the band Zabranjeno Pušenje – an intimate story that goes from childhood, youthful dreams, failed attempts, and first successes, all the way through to the band’s post-war comeback and the peak their career. In cold winter nights, LIGHTS OF SARAJEVO guides us through the hall’s unique myths and legends that date back to the socialist era.
15.08. Monday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
WORLD PREMIERE
The Film Factory
Croatia, 2022, Black and white, 15 min, Croatian Director: Silvestar Kolbas Screenplay: Silvestar Kolbas
An essay film about photography, told through still photographs with the passage of time registered in the aging of the photographic materials. THE FILM FACTORY is grounded in black-and-white photographs of Fotokemika, an empty, neglected factory, captured entirely using the photographic materials once produced by the factory itself. Most of the images in the film are standard photographic reproductions, some with visible damage due to the aging of the photographic material. At the same time, the film considers the negative side of transition, the failure of industrialisation, and labour movements.
16.08. Tuesday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Living Together
Austria, 2022, Colour, 90 min, German, English Director: Thomas Fürhapter Screenplay: Thomas Fürhapter
How is the culture of Vienna imparted to migrants via integration courses? LIVING TOGETHER accompanies new immigrants from various backgrounds during their first steps in Vienna. What images and expectations do they have about their new city? What information and which values are addressed – and avoided – in these integration courses?
16.08. Tuesday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
WORLD PREMIERE
Too Close
Romania, Hungary, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Romanian, Hungarian Director: Botond Püsök Screenplay: Botond Püsök
TOO CLOSE is an intimate portrait of Andrea, a single mother in her forties, who faced every woman’s worst fear. It all began as a fairy-tale romance when she fell in love with a charming man from a wellrespected local family. When the man entered her life, Andrea was divorced and raising her nine-year-old daughter alone. What seemed to be a hopeful shift turned out to be an ordeal: during their seemingly perfect relationship, her partner, the man Andrea trusted the most, was abusing her daughter. Moreover, while the abuse was taking place, Andrea became pregnant. She was carrying the perpetrator’s baby. Her life forever changed, Andrea did everything in her power to protect her family and bring the man to justice. Her ex-partner was imprisoned for his crime for some time but was released and moved back to their small village, where shaming and fear turned Andrea’s life into a nightmare.
REGIONAL PREMIERE
A Provincial Hospital
Bulgaria, Germany, 2022, Colour, 110 min, Bulgarian Director: Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva Screenplay: Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
Kyustendil, a sleepy town in the Bulgarian mountains, has been hard hit by Covid. In a close-knit community, patients meet former classmates in the same hospital room. Banter can often be heard in the corridors, but death is never far. Many patients live in constant fear of deteriorating quickly and being sent “upstairs.” “Upstairs” is the intensive care unit, where only a handful are known to have survived. Presiding over the perpetual stream of complicated cases is Dr. Popov. Tall and kind-hearted, for some he has a witty line, for others a quote from Kant. Some of them misfire, but through the quiet dread in the hospital, the doctor exudes a profusion of human warmth. Unexpectedly, light and laughter echo through the hospital halls.
17.08. Wednesday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
17.08. Wednesday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
We, ... Composition
Kosovo, Germany, 2022, 15 min, German Director: Visar Jusufi Screenplay: Visar Jusufi
The director asks in a very personal way whether one should still dream.
17.08. Wednesday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
18.08. Thursday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 15:30
WORLD PREMIERE
Diary of a Bride of Christ
Ukraine, 2021, Colour, 90 min, Ukrainian, Spanish Director: Marta Smerechynska Screenplay: Marta Smerechynska
Director Marta Smerechynska approaches her sister Nastia after six years of silence. She films Nastia’s life in a new home – a convent of the Brides of Christ located in Western Ukraine. Marta’s relationship with Nastia, who has renounced all her human possessions to become a part of this isolated world, reflects the experience of other families and their daughters inside the closed religious community. Unlike when she is talking to her sister, Smerechynska manages to discuss her emotions and feelings freely with nuns, who see her as a point of connection to their past. The film explores their loss, misunderstandings, and judgments. Smerechynska not only struggles with the rules set by the nunnery but also rediscovers her own beliefs and values. Searching for answers, she rediscovers love for her sister and her companions throughout this journey, despite their paths taking very different directions.
B&H PREMIERE
Museum of the Revolution
Serbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, 2021, Colour, 91 min, Serbian, Romany Director: Srđan Keča Screenplay: Srđan Keča
“The wind got up in the night and took our plans away,” reads the proverb in the opening titles of MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION. The words are a reference to the 1961 plan to build a grand museum in Belgrade as a tribute to Socialist Yugoslavia. Meant to “safeguard the truth” about the Yugoslav people, the plan never went beyond the construction of the basement. The derelict building now tells a very different story than that envisioned by the initiators sixty years ago. In the damp, pitch-dark space live the outcasts of a society reshaped by capitalism. The film focuses on a girl who earns cash on the street by cleaning car windows with her mother, and who has a close friendship with an old woman who also lives in the basement. Against the background of a transforming city, the three women find refuge in each other.
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Microbiome
Greece, 2021, Colour, 27 min, Greek Director: Stavros Petropoulos Screenplay: Stavros Petropoulos
The limits of intrusion into the peaceful lives of the inhabitants of the island of Ikaria are being tested by the quest of a group of scientists to find the secret of a long and healthy life. A clash of energies arises between the locals and the perplexed scientists, who leave no stone unturned in the attempt to understand frozen time and intriguing idiosyncrasies. A comedic study in pacing and reframing a world view.
18.08. Thursday, hall 1 / Cineplexx 19:00
WORLD PREMIERE
Paying a Visit to Fortuna
Hungary, Croatia, 2022, Colour, 74 min, Hungarian Director: Mátyás Kálmán Screenplay: Mátyás Kálmán
Anikó and Laci are a middle-aged couple living in a small town in Hungary. Before winning two million euros in 2013, their circumstances were miserable. Still, they managed stability, living in deep poverty, often dreaming of a holiday by the sea. Once they hit the jackpot, hand in hand, truly full of gratitude, the couple dove into a life of what they considered luxury. For Laci, this means the “privilege of not doing,” while for Anikó this means the “power of doing.” On their way to realising material happiness, their relationship has changed. The wife doesn’t understand her husband’s behaviour, while the husband cannot accept his “new” wife. The personal story of the couple’s delight and unexpected difficulties is shown in this contemporary fable about finding happiness.
