The program of DOK Leipzig 2022 includes several films supported by the Institute of Documentary Film. Find out when and where you can watch them!
International Competition
Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reel - East Doc Platform 2017
dir. Mila Turajlić, prod. Carine Chichkowsky, Mila Turajlić, Serbia, France, 2022, 94'
In the late 1950s, when Algerians were revolting against French occupation, they had a secret weapon: propaganda. Yugoslavia’s leader Tito sent his favourite cameraman Stevan Labudović to embed with Algeria’s National Liberation Army (ALN) and make newsreels to spread their cause around the world. Labudović had grown up under Nazi occupation and was passionate about helping people win their freedom. He was fearless about putting himself in combat situations. From 1959 to 1962, he documented the revolution in dozens of reels of 35mm footage and hundreds of photographs. Over 50 years later, his legacy was largely forgotten until it attracted the curiosity of Mila Turajlić, known for her essayistic films on history.
Screenings:
18.10.2022 14:00 CineStar 4
19.10.2022 20:30 Regina Palast 1
23.10.2022 21:00 Passage Kinos Wintergarten
Panorama Middle and Eastern Europe
Fragile Memory - Ex Oriente Film 2018, East Doc Platform 2019 & 2021
dir. Igor Ivanko, prod. Mariia Ponomarova, Alexandra Bratyshchenko, Igor Ivanko, Peter Kerekes, Ukraine, Slovakia, 2022, 85'
A famous Soviet cinematographer Leonid Burlaka, who worked at Odesa Film Studio, suddenly gets diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
At the same time Ihor, his grandson, and emerging Ukrainian cinematographer, accidentally finds a heavily damaged grandpa’s photo archive from the Soviet 1960s. A young Ukrainian cinematographer Ihor meets a young Soviet cinematographer Leonid who starts establishing his career during the 'Khrushchev Thaw’.
This makes Ihor see that actually he knows almost nothing about the grandpa and his youth.
Ihor dives into all controversiality of times of Leonid's youth: figuring out how notorious Soviet cinema machine was and how limited was the proposed concept of ‘freedom’.
Yet the time is running out: soon Leonid’s will not remember Igor at all.
Screenings:
18.10.2022 17:30 CineStar 6
21.10.2022 14:30 CineStar 2
Doc Alliance Award
The Pawnshop - East Doc Platform 2020
dir. Łukasz Kowalski, prod. Anna Mazerant, Łukasz Kowalski, Poland, 2022, 81'
Jola and Wiesiek, a couple of extraordinary entrepreneurs, run the biggest pawnshop in the south of Poland. Profitable in the past, today the business only generates loses. Financial troubles affect their relationship. The problems have several causes. Residents of the neighbourhood in which the pawnshop operates more and more often pawn worthless objects to make their ends meet. Wiesiek's irrational marketing initiatives and the good heart of Jola who financially supports poor clients are not conducive to improving the situation either. The love of Jola and Wiesiek begins to falter when the money to live on runs out and they feel overburdened with protracted problems and fights.
Screenings:
18.10.2022 19:00 Polnisches Institut
23.10.2022 17:30 Passage Kinos Astoria
Doc Alliance Award
5 Dreamers and a Horse - East Doc Market / East Silver Caravan / Silver Eye Award 2022 Nomination
dir. Aren Malakyan, Vahagn Khachatryan, prod. Vahagn Khachatryan, co-prod. Eva Blondiau, Armenia, Germany, Switzerland, 82', 2022
Through four protagonists aspiring to fulfil their dreams, three contrasting visions of Armenia are sketched out: there is the lift operator in a hospital, a kind of remnant of urban Sovietism, who wants to travel into space; the farmer in search of a perfect wife, revealing a rural social structure that is still dominated by the patriarchy; and finally, the young feminist and queer girls, who simply want to live their lives, enamoured with emancipation and symbolising the infiltration of Western societal changes, which are also bitterly contested on this side of the Ararat.
Screenings:
21.10.2022 15:00 CineStar 5
22.10.2022 11:00 CineStar 4
Spotlight on: Docudays UA 2022
Plai. A Mountain Path - East Silver 2021 / Silver Eye Award 2022 Nomination
dir. Eva Dzhyshyashvili, prod. Oksana Ivanyuk, 75', UA, 2021
Life of Hannusia and Dmytro, who have been married for over thirty years in a remote village hidden in the midst of the Carpathian Mountains, has changed since Dmytro lost his leg defending independence of modern Ukraine. But the couple stays resilient to all the hardship, cherish love to each other, their children and land, and remain unbroken and calm like the mountains around them.
Screening:
19.10.2022 14:30 CineStar 6
Panorama Middle and Eastern Europe
Love Is Not an Orange - Ex Oriente Film 2017, East Doc Platform 2018 / Silver Eye Award Nomination 2022
dir. Otilia Babara, prod. Hanne Phlypo, Jet Koomen co-prod. Christine Camdessus, BE, MD, NL, FR, 2022, 75 min. / 52 min.
In the early 90’s, women left Moldova in large numbers to provide for their families. Unable to return home, they found a peculiar way to stay in touch: sending large cardboard boxes filled with gifts and food you could only dream about in those days. In return, their children would send videotapes. This exchange became a ritual among thousands of families. Video cameras and presents allowed these mothers and children to share glimpses of their realities while being apart.
Through these intimate private archives, Otilia Babara depicts the fragility of family bonds through the eyes of a generation of mothers and daughters who were forced to live apart in order to survive. While doing so, she portrays a post-soviet country caught in a crossroads of history. A country whose women were unwittingly put in charge of making the transition from communism to capitalism.
Screenings:
18.10.2022 21:00 Passage Kinos Wintergarten
20.10.2022 15:30 CineStar 2
