Film Archive

Filmstill Bye Bye Tiberias

Bye Bye Tiberias

Bye Bye Tibériade
Lina Soualem
Audience Competition 2023
Documentary Film
France,
Palestine,
Belgium,
Qatar
2023
82 minutes
French,
Arabic
Subtitles: 
English

The actor Hiam Abbass, who lives in France, is one of the greatest movie stars from the Middle East. She played leading roles in the award-winning films of Israeli director Eran Riklis, acted in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and recently in the U.S. hit series “Succession.” She served on the juries of the big Festivals in Cannes and Berlin, presented her own directing debut in Venice. But she is also a mother, daughter and sister in a large Palestinian family full of resourceful women. In this real role she steps in front of the camera in her daughter Lina Soualem’s work and travels back to her hometown of Deir Hanna in northern Israel – an Arab village in the Jewish state.

“Don’t open the gate to past sorrows,” the director quotes a kind of family dogma. It refers, among other things, to the family’s traumatic expulsion from Tiberias, the city on the Sea of Galilee, in the 1948 Palestine War. But with her confrontation of the family history, Soualem also opens gates to past joys and allegedly discarded identities. Between home videos, historical archive footage, photos and letters, Abbass is a touching and approachable screen presence as she returns to her roots. The long shadow of her origins also falls on a woman of the world.

Jan-Philipp Kohlmann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Lina Soualem
Script
Lina Soualem, Nadine Naous, Gladys Joujou
Cinematographer
Frida Marzouk
Editor
Gladys Joujou
Producer
Jean-Marie Nizan
Co-Producer
Guillaume Malandrin, Ossama Bawardi
Sound
Ludovic Escallier, Lina Soualem
Sound Design
Julie Tribout, Benoit Biral, Rémi Durel
Score
Amine Bouhafa
World Sales
Anna Berthollet
Commissioning Editor
Rasha Salti
Filmstill Cyclepaths

Cyclepaths

Cyclepaths
Anton Cla
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
Belgium
2023
12 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

On the outskirts of the city, the new modern buildings are silent and the motorway bridge drones. Birds are circling in the sky, a young man, concealed by his hoodie, is riding his e-scooter along a park path. The only irritating element is the rifle over his shoulder.

Anton Cla’s film depicts a mood of high alert, while the disaster has in fact already happened. Unexplainable scenes that could not be more disconcerting and grow increasingly drastic unfold calmly. The screaming silence is decisively enhanced by the imperceptibly accumulating mixed drone of the daily sounds of a mechanised world: motorway, tramway, clicking indicators, pulsating emergency signals. What the soundscape adamantly refuses to deliver is a loud discharge that would release the tension. The suburban landscape is steeped in a red theatrical warning light, blurs restrict the view. The 3D computer design masks neither the artificiality nor the computer-based deformations of the images of a normality that has become a combat zone – the machine matrix seems to rule already.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Anton Cla
Producer
Anton Cla
Sound
Milan Van Doren
Animation
Anton Cla
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Extended Reality 2023
Filmstill Draw for Change: We Exist, We Resist
Draw for Change: We Exist, We Resist
Mariana Cadenas Sangronis
Maremoto is a young Mexican illustrator and visual creator, but first and foremost a sensible artist. We follow her daily fight against sexism, fear and anxiety.
2023
Filmstill Draw for Change: We Exist, We Resist

Draw for Change: We Exist, We Resist

Draw for Change: Existimos, resistimos
Mariana Cadenas Sangronis
Extended Reality 2023
XR
Belgium
2023
15 minutes
Spanish,
English,
French,
Dutch

Femicides are daily in Mexico. We follow Maremoto in her fight against sexism, fear and anxiety. She is an illustrator and visual creator, but first and foremost a sensible artist. This VR experience is inspired by her art, her search for identity, her self-empowerment, her way of making herself and others aware of their own bodies and of finding allies in the struggle for change.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Concept
Mariana Cadenas Sangronis
Producer
Evelien De Graef, Hanne Phlypo, Michel Denis, Kris De Boeck, Patrick Vandenbroeck
Production Company
Clin d’oeil films, Castar, Benuts Flanders
Animation
Camille Chailloux, Eline Mollet, Daaf Wouters
VR Developer
Nicolas Corson, Jonathan Massin, Milan Gerard, Pierre Lacasse
VFX Artist
Boris Gortz, Manon Martin
Sound Design
Walter Fiorini
Key Collaborator
Mar Maremoto
Director
Mariana Cadenas Sangronis
Cinematographer
Jimi Abidts
Filmstill Drijf

Drijf

Drijf
Levi Stoops
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
Belgium
2023
15 minutes
Dutch
Subtitles: 
English

She and him, naked on the holiday seas in the bright sun. It may sound idyllic, but it is hell for Aurora and Jeremy. In search of funny dolphins, the two are paddling without orientation in the limitless expanse of water, no land in sight. Complete with dangers from above and below in the shape of heat and sharks. And at the centre of events is a near-defunct relationship. The roles are well-practised and grating, uptight lust is satisfied only solo.

Instead of roaring waves, it is above all the relentless silence of the sea surrounding them that provides the tension of the film. It is occasionally released in brilliant miniatures, for example a witty argument, or clumsy physical comedy. Another time, we are shocked by action-filled horror moments triggering absurd chain reactions. Whether it is the glaring light on the brutally calm water and the clueless couple, the visual fumes of decay one can almost smell, or a super dynamic dive – Levi Stoops’ direction is magnificent and timed with utmost precision.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Levi Stoops
Script
Levi Stoops
Cinematographer
Camiel Hermans, Sarah Menheere, Karolien Raeymaekers, Levi Stoops
Editor
Levi Stoops
Producer
Annemie Degryse
Sound
Paulo Rietjens, Arnout Colaert
Sound Design
Paulo Rietjens
Score
Mick Lemaire
Animation
Camiel Hermans, Sarah Menheere, Karolien Raeymaekers, Levi Stoops
World Sales
Annabel Sebag
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Filmstill Extended Presences

Extended Presences

Cinzas e nuvens
Margaux Dauby
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Portugal,
Belgium
2023
12 minutes
Portuguese (Portugal)
Subtitles: 
English, German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

The gaze is firmly fixed on the horizon and distant tree lines, distinguishing natural from smoke clouds. Seasonal work for Portuguese women who observe the landscape from behind the glass panes of fire lookout towers, radio always in reach to report wildfires immediately upon discovery. While the boundary of the visible blurs in the grain of the analogue film stock, Dina, Adriana, Ana Paula, Helena, Luisa, Cristina, Dulce, Lídia, Inês, Fátima, Francisca and Vera emerge as agents of anticipation, modern-day seers whose gentle but persistent peering reaches beyond the burning world. Meanwhile, their male colleagues monitor the situation on computer screens. Poetical textures of waiting and wokeness. The female vision is sharpened and has expectations from the not yet visible future.

Jan Künemund

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Margaux Dauby
Cinematographer
Margaux Dauby, Afonso Marmelo
Editor
Raul Domingues
Producer
Margaux Dauby
Co-Producer
Roxanne Gaucherand
Sound
Margaux Dauby
Sound Design
Margaux Dauby, Paulo Lima, Selia Çakir
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill Keep
Keep
Andrei Câmpan, Ramona Kristo
Countless chunks of stone are lying around. A red-haired boy assembles them to build many impressive towers. One by one, the towers are made to shine again.
Filmstill Keep

Keep

Hou
Andrei Câmpan, Ramona Kristo
Kids DOK 2023
Animated Film
Romania,
Belgium
2023
9 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

So many stones are lying around. They used to belong to something whole that was broken. A red-haired boy sets about sorting, joining and stacking them. Little by little, the countless chunks turn into many impressive towers. We follow the boy’s path as he makes one tower after the other shine again.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Andrei Câmpan, Ramona Kristo
Script
Ramona Kristo
Cinematographer
Andrei Câmpan
Editor
Adèle Coulloudon, Horia Manolache
Producer
Anca Elena Manolache
Co-Producer
Ramona Kristo
Sound
Victor Mihailescu
Sound Design
Victor Mihailescu
Score
Victor Mihailescu
Animation
Adèle Coulloudon, Andrei Câmpan, Andrei Berculescu, Ana-Maria Trăistaru, Geo Dibu
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill Leonie, Skeet & the Piglets
Leonie, Skeet & the Piglets
Jip Heijenga
Leonie helps where she can on her parents’ farm. She wants to be a pig-farmer when she grows up. When they are forced to give up the farm, Leonie says goodbye to her dream.
Filmstill Leonie, Skeet & the Piglets

Leonie, Skeet & the Piglets

Leonie, Skeet & de biggen
Jip Heijenga
Kids DOK 2023
Documentary Film
Belgium
2023
15 minutes
Dutch
Subtitles: 
English

Leonie’s greatest dream is to become a pig-farmer. She spends a lot of time with her cat Skeet on her parents’ farm and helps where she can: taking care of the piglets or loading the pigs onto the truck to the slaughterhouse. But new laws make her parents give up the farm. The last pigs disappear and Leonie must say goodbye to her dream.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jip Heijenga
Script
Jip Heijenga
Cinematographer
Michael De Moor
Editor
Amber van Acker
Producer
Sofie Van Noten
Sound
Frans Wouters, Yannis Van Den Ecker, Stijn d'Alleine
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill Planet B
Planet B
Pieter Van Eecke
How do you grow up on a planet that is being destroyed by humanity? The two friends Bo and Luca are enthusiastic climate activists whom the film follows for four years.
Filmstill Planet B

Planet B

Planet B
Pieter Van Eecke
Kids DOK 2023
Documentary Film
Belgium,
Netherlands
2023
78 minutes
Dutch
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

How do you grow up on a planet that is being destroyed by humanity? This film looks for answers to this urgent question and introduces us to Bo and Luca. The close friends are enthusiastic climate activists, connected by their commitment. We follow the two teenagers for four years on their contradictory and surprising path to adulthood.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Pieter Van Eecke
Cinematographer
Johan Legraie
Editor
Sandrine Deegen
Producer
Hanne Phlypo
Co-Producer
Katja Draaijer
Sound
Olmo van Straalen, Mark Glynne
Score
David Poltrock
World Sales
Marcella Jelić
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill Skate the City
Skate the City
Lies Van der Auwera
Pippa and Victoria are avid skaters. But there are “NO SKATING” signs at every corner. A street contest is needed to find allies and take back the streets.
Filmstill Skate the City

Skate the City

Skate the City
Lies Van der Auwera
Kids DOK 2023
Documentary Film
Belgium
2023
15 minutes
Dutch
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

Pippa and Victoria’s favourite pastime is skating. But there are new frustrating “NO SKATING” signs cropping up everywhere in the city. The two refuse to let this get them down and forge a plan to take back the city. They want to organise a street contest to find more allies – and to finally skate again!

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Lies Van der Auwera
Cinematographer
Jef Van de Langenbergh
Editor
Leen Anthonissen
Producer
Katleen Goossens
Co-Producer
Wim AH Goossens
Sound
Sarah Vanheuckelom
Sound Design
Marius Heuser
Score
Mick Lemaire
-
Manu Van Hove
Filmstill Smoke of the Fire

Smoke of the Fire

O fumo do fogo
Daryna Mamaisur
Panorama: Central and Eastern Europe 2023
Documentary Film
Portugal,
Ukraine,
Belgium,
Hungary
2023
22 minutes
Portuguese (Portugal),
Ukrainian
Subtitles: 
English

Learning a foreign language is like creating another self. How can you speak it without losing your own sound, without dissolving completely in it – and still be heard and noticed? This film is a charming and intellectually fastidious attempt to navigate the complexities of language, identity and trauma.

To do this, the filmmaker resorts to her own biography. Because Russia invaded Ukraine when Daryna Mamaisur, who comes from Kyiv, was in Portugal for a Doc Nomads graduate course. Home and the search for it became the defining factors of this work, as well as the traumatic situation of only being able to “witness” the difficult situation from a distance. She, the Ukrainian in Portugal, learns Portuguese. She lets the new words for “war,” “explosion” and “attack” roll off her tongue. She compares them with the soft, intimate sound of her native language, with the sound of Kyiv. Friends send audio and visual recordings from Ukraine which, combined with animations, become a multilayered essay and finally a testimony – for the resilience of language and culture, no matter where they are spoken and lived, and not least for the power of the artistic documentary, which can make speech and sound possible.

Victoria Leshchenko

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Daryna Mamaisur
Cinematographer
Shaheen Ahmed, Daryna Mamaisur, Svitlana Vostrikova
Editor
Daryna Mamaisur
Producer
Frederik Nicolai, Daryna Mamaisur
Sound
Ghada Fikri, Juliette Menthonnex, Tetiana Usova
Sound Design
Anna Khvyl
World Sales
Valentina Zalevska
Filmstill Tale of the Three Flames

Tale of the Three Flames

As três chamas
Juliette Menthonnex
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Portugal,
Hungary,
Belgium,
Switzerland
2023
21 minutes
Portuguese (Portugal),
Spanish,
Dutch
Subtitles: 
English

“See you next year!” a Portuguese fire warden says as he dismantles his control equipment at the end of the season. Humans and nature in southern Europe may be used to forest fires, but that does not change the facts: The ever more massive conflagrations are caused by climate change. We have long been living in the age of fire.

In the Portuguese interior, a forest fire has just devastated a large area. Wounded nature is silent, not a single bird is heard, only the wind that makes the charred tree trunks rustle. But the vegetation recovers astonishingly fast. Where all life seemed to be gone, greenery soon sprouts from the ruined trees. The residents of the affected region are engaged in the reconstruction with great respect for their natural environment. Because plants, too, are sentient creatures. In quiet, almost melancholic, but also hopeful images, the film pays tribute to the strength of the trees and illustrates how essential it would be for humanity to learn to live in harmony with nature again.

Annina Wettstein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Juliette Menthonnex
Cinematographer
Ilona Szekeres, Sergio da Costa
Editor
Antoine Flahaut, Juliette Menthonnex
Producer
Véronique Vergari, Victor Candeias, Agnès Boutruche
Sound
Juliette Menthonnex
Sound Design
Yatoni Roy Cantu
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill What’s in That Crate?
What’s in That Crate?
Bram Algoed
The turbulent journey of a huge crate never seems to end. It keeps getting smaller and smaller, and everyone has their own idea of what may be hidden inside. An elephant, a lion, or perhaps a bear after all?
Filmstill What’s in That Crate?

What’s in That Crate?

Wat zit er in die kist?
Bram Algoed
Kids DOK 2023
Animated Film
Belgium
2023
9 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

The multicoloured, turbulent journey of a huge crate never seems to end. Whatever could it contain? An elephant, a lion, a bear? First it’s loaded onto a plane, then a ship. Then it goes up the mountains in a train, and over hill and dale on a bus. The crate keeps getting smaller and smaller and everyone has their own idea of what may be hidden inside. But mum’s the word!

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Bram Algoed
Script
Bram Algoed, Pieter Gaudesaboos
Cinematographer
Bram Algoed
Editor
Bram Algoed
Producer
Brecht Van Elslande
Sound
David Kamp
Sound Design
David Kamp
Score
Boris Zeebroek
Animation
Eno Swinnen, Jeroen Ceulebrouck, William Lebrun