In a cabin in the forest, Jean and Mana listen to various animal species and catalogue voice recordings. When they hear unfamiliar sounds, their curiosity to uncover a secret is aroused.
Jean lives as a hermit in a forest. From his cabin, he listens to and records the sounds of the animals that inhabit the surrounding area. One night, he hears the cry of an unknown animal. Along with Mana, a young girl who sings with the birds, he goes in search of the mysterious creature.
This is a story about a microcosmos that appears where we least expect it, but when we need it the most. It is a story of a friendship that started when everything else ended.
1001 Nights tells the story of Ema (85) and Maja (80), the most loyal viewers and funniest critics of Turkish soap operas. For the last five years, Ema and Maja have spent every evening together, watching Turkish series in Ema's apartment in the Mediterranean town of Split as a way of coping with loneliness. This is a story about a microcosmos that appears where we least expect it, but when we need it the most. It is a story of a friendship that started when everything else ended.
Anxious in Beirut is a personal diary that documents the events of the last two years in Lebanon – revolution, post-war, explosions, demonstrations. Living with constant anxiety, Zakaria, the film’s young director, narrates his own life while trying, on numerous occasions, to leave his country.
In front of a psychiatric clinic a patient enjoys his tenth coffee in the morning. Two street musicians take a break. Three boule players are waiting for their next turn. And a couple of teenagers celebrate the eve of the summer of their lives.
Ten chance encounters on Berlin benches, a brief pause in the everyday life of a restless city. What moves the lingerers? Where do they come from and where are they going? A homage to public seating and the people who use it.
Rodica (40) and her children, Maria (14) and Patrick (18), struggle to find each other's coordinates in order to have a balanced family life. Blue is a film about love, fear, anxiety, and the emotions that emerge at their intersection.
Clowning around with a red nose? No way! Clown*esses challenge the patriarchal society with anarchy and subversion and cultivate the fun of creative resistance.
The clown*esses Gözde and Lokke emancipate themselves from patriarchal structures and representations in search of their very own homeland. Between the stage and everyday life, they find their constant in transformation and enter into a dialogue with themselves and the world. An underestimated theatrical art becomes a niche of feminism. A documentary between reality and magic.
Frieda, Viola and Jilou are three of the most successful women in the male-dominated breakdance world. At different points in their careers, each of them faces serious challenges.
Who says that women can't break dance? Frieda, Viola and Jilou are three of the most successful women in the male-dominated breaking world. The movie shows their tough training methods, their dance performances at international battles and their personal backgrounds that drive them to fulfil their dreams. The three friends are at different points in their sports careers and thus face new challenges and decisions that will change their lives.
B-girl Jilou is at the height of her career and counts as one of the best in the world. With her extraordinary determination, she is currently winning one battle after the other, whereas Frieda is still grappling with an injury. As a B-girl ever since the emergence of break dancing, she has to come to terms with the fact that her advancing age means she can no longer rely on her body and has to find a life outside of her professional sports career. B-girl Viola is focused on becoming recognised as a dancer and combines breaking with modern dance. For her, every battle is equally a fight for her identity as an artist.
Dancing Heartbeats is an inspiring portrait of courage, endurance, the power of one's passion, and what it means to be a young woman who is fighting for acknowledgement and equal rights.
Vasyl is a former ski jumper who now works as a coach at the ski jumping school for children in the Carpathians. He is a loner, and sports is his whole life. Zhenya is Vasyl's favourite trainee. In the last 5 years, he spends a lot of energy making her a champion. With her success, his dreams can come true. When the girl grows up, she decides to try in another area of life not connected to sports. Vasyl's work seems to no longer make sense. But he finds the strength to start all over again.
Els is in her late forties, divorced and in love again. For her, falling in love was not easy: it meant that she had to accept, that she has a life even if her twenty-year-old daughter wants to die and has already asked for psychiatric euthanasia which her mother can do nothing about. In the storm of her own emotions, mixed with guilt, anger, fear and hope, love is what teaches Els to try stepping forward even if it seems impossible.
Falling is a lyrical, found-footage-based testimony from a mother who faces not only the taboos surrounding motherhood but also the most difficult situation in her life.
In Eastern Serbia, in a town with a dual identity divided between magic and industry, a family whose destiny is intrinsically linked with both does their best to ensure the survival of their traditions and their future generations. Lifelong miner Dragan Markovic is the last in a line of dragon hunters, while his sister Desa is the widow of the union leader who is trying to continue his legacy by ensuring the rights of fellow mine-worker families.
Girls' stories, teenage days. Seemingly nothing happens, and so much changes. Jagoda and Zuzia are friends from the neighbourhood. They meet at the local square. Sometimes they go for ice cream or to the playground. And they always have a lot to talk about. Being a girl is a special experience, and they are just entering puberty. Biology, hormones, pimples, first rebellion, first love. The first period – when will it come? Will there be anything else? Adults can't always give support or answers. And the girls see more and more. School absurdities, unwanted rules, and dilemmas to be solved. Jagoda and Zuzia are great commentators: contradictory, ironic, independent, and scared. With a great appetite for life! They introduce us to the “girlish” world that every woman remembers and any boy, who watches the film, will finally be able to discover.
5 Moroccan boys live in a cave at the lighthouse in Melilla and dream of Europe. Away from their mothers, longing for one ship that will transfer them illegally to a better life.
The Moroccan boys Imad (15), Nourdine (17), Walid (18), Hamza (17) and Aziz (20) live in a cave under the lighthouse in Melilla. Every night they break into the harbour trying to climb onto the ships leaving for the Spanish mainland. In the shadow of the rocks, they and a hundred other kids have created their own micro-society: “Lord of the Flies” in reality – with their own hierarchies, chants and rules. To pass the time, they phone their mothers on video or film themselves being chased by the police. The film follows the gang of boys for 5 years. From their life in the caves to their successful escape attempts to Spain. They call themselves: Harragas – those who burn the passports, the borders, their lives.
Lamine and his family recently moved to a farm in Senegal. There’s always a lot to do, but the afternoons are too hot. So it’s off to the beach with his new friend.
Lamine is seven years old and has just moved to Senegal with his family. His dad is half-Senegalese but was born and raised in Germany. The family of five has given up everything in Germany and is planning their future in West Africa. With their savings, they have bought a piece of land in the savannah where they want to build their own eco-farm. This has been their dream for years. The project is called “Gorgorlou” and means “life artist” in the local language Wolof. Their goal is to grow fruit and vegetables without soil in a sustainable and climate-friendly way and to keep animals in a species-appropriate way. Everything that forms nutrients is used. But there is still a lot to do before it all goes right: a huge greenhouse, a large chicken garden with space for 2,000 chickens, fish ponds and a small residential house, which they want to move into quickly because the farm has to be guarded day and night and because it is so nice to live in the middle of nature.
Lamine wants to learn everything from the beginning to become a real eco-farmer later on. He thinks it's great that he has so much freedom here. In the evening, he meets his new friend Samba on the beach for a mango picnic and finds out that mangoes are pretty much the best thing in Senegal!
In Denmark the police offer voluntary boot camps for girls. 12-year-old Tatheer from Copenhagen takes part. Far away from home, she will have grown a few centimetres before the end.
12-year-old Tatheer embarks on a week-long police boot camp for girls from a social housing estate in Copenhagen. Far from home, deep in the woods, she navigates gruelling rituals, elusive social dynamics, and personal setbacks to find her place in this tender and revealing coming-of-age story.
It’s Only/Not Only a Body... Or a Short Film about Freedom
To tylko/aż ciało… albo krótki film o wolności
Michal Hytros
Krakow Film Foundation & Polish Docs
Documentary Film
Poland
2023
82 minutes
Polish
International Premiere open
Synopsis
Love thyself. This is the life credo of Zosia – a photographer, traveller and a free spirit. Going around the world in her camper, she uses photography to make other women comfortable with nakedness and teaches them to love their own bodies. In front of her lens stood women who experienced eating disorders and did not accept their looks. Zosia, who has no place of her own on Earth, has been on the road since she left school at the age of 18. Freedom is a priority for her but loneliness and longing for love may sometimes jeopardise her travel plans.
Two best friends are drifting through the city of Montreal. They come from a small Inuit settlement in northern Canada and share the same heritage, language and longings.
Kathy and Teresa are best friends. Far from their home village, a small Inuit settlement in northern Canada, the two young women share a tender relationship in the city of Montreal.
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.