The International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) took place November 18 – 29 and one of its main awards went to the documentary Ukrainian Sheriffs (dir. Roman Bondarchuk), that was supported by IDF back in 2013.
In this documentary, the director Roman Bondarchuk describes the situation in the Ukrainian village of Stara Zburyevka, where instead the order is not maintained by the police, but by two local "sheriffs". As the closest policeman lives in the neighboring village more than 20 kilometers far Zburyevka and in most cases he does not even bother to come, the locals took matters in their own hands and elected two of the strongest and smartest men from the community, whose task is to protect the law and order in the village. They have the authority, company car, shiny badges and the title of "sheriff". Their detective stories are sometimes wild, sometimes violent, sometimes funny, but according to the locals always comply with good intentions. The document was first presented in 2013 at the East European Forum at the East Doc Platform, where it was awarded IDFA Award and DocsBarcelona Award and found co-producer in a sales company Taskovski Films. This year's IDFA Special Jury Award at one of the world's largest documentary festivals, follows the last year's award from the festival, where the Ukrainian Sheriffs project was selected as one of the ten projects, among which IDFA Bertha Fund distributed a total of 132,000 €.
The best films from the East Silver Market were presented at IDFA again. The most popular film from this year's selection at Docs for Sale, which received the most views from the East Silver delegation titles, was the film Spirit in Motion, the award-winning Russian documentary about the participants of the Paralympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
The complete list of East Silver Delegation titles can be found below.
The delegation led by representatives of IDF to IDFA Forum consisted of the authors of the total of 9 documentary projects that have previously participated or are currently participating in Ex Oriente Film or presented previously at the East European Forum. They were joined by the representatives of 10 documentaries at the Docs for Sale market included in this year East Silver market, among them was for example the Czech director Kristyna Bartosova with her film The Dangerous World of Doctor Doleček, Daniel Vadocký from Negativ with Helena Třeštéková’s latest documentary Mallory or Filip Remunda, producer from Hypermarket Film. Joining them at the IDFA Forum were also the winner of East Doc Platform IDFA Forum Award Vesela Kazakova and Mina Mileva, authors of an interesting docu-fiction The Beast is Still Alive. Interview with Bulgarian directors who stirred quite a buzz around their previous film can be found here.
All filmmakers were offered discounted fee or free entry and, above all, they had the opportunity to network with the key international industry professionals, authors and experts.
Czech participants of the delegations were supported by the Czech Centre Haag/Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
East Silver market documentaries at IDFA Docs for Sale 2015:
The Dangerous World of Doctor Doleček (Czech Republic)
For My Sisters (Austria)
I Like that Super Most the Best (Croatia)
Madonna (Georgia)
Mallory (Czech Republic)
My Father the Banker (Latvia)
The Gypsy Baron (Austria, Moldavia)
Spirit in Motion (Russia)
Tashi Delek! (Estonia)
Trapped by Law (Kosovo, Germany)
Filmakers’s delegation of Ex Oriente Film and East European Forum participants at IDFA Forum 2015:
director Matyas Kalman – project Paying a Visit to Fortuna (Hungary)
producer Hugues Landry – project Open Air (France)
producer Eero Talvistu – project Border Youth (Estonia, Germany)
director Marius Iacob – project The Wellness Process (Romania)
producer Michaela Pnačeková – project Border Cut (Germany, Poland)
director Lukaskz Borowsi – project Runners (Poland)
producer Michael Hlavačka – project Reach the Sky (Slovakia)
director Andrei Draculescu – project Petrila Planet (Romania)