Film Archive

Filmstill A Provincial Hospital

A Provincial Hospital

A Provincial Hospital
Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
Panorama Middle and Eastern Europe 2022
Documentary Film
Bulgaria,
Germany
2022
110 minutes
Bulgarian
Subtitles: 
English

Kyustendil, a city in the Bulgarian mountains, was hit hard by Covid. The local hospital is probably a reasonably representative microcosm of how the medical staff dealt with the worst consequences of the pandemic. Ten years after his debut “Sofia’s Last Ambulance” (DOK Leipzig 2012), Ilian Metev returns with another film about a national health system that opposes the virus with gallows humour and individual commitment.

Metev himself was stuck in London during the shooting, monitoring from afar as co-director Teneva and her colleague Chertov collected the material and edited it alone. The focus is on the hospital staff. And if there is one main protagonist among the countless members of the cast, it’s Dr. Popov. Warm-hearted and always ready with a quip, we even often see him without a mask – the other employees are usually hidden behind protective gear. They all share a tough sense of humour to get them through the days and nights. The logistical challenges of such a film project also crop up: The people with the cameras are frequently mentioned and addressed. In this emergency community of patients, doctors and film crew they seem to be always ready to joke. But death, up in the intensive care unit, is very close.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
Script
Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
Cinematographer
Ivan Chertov
Editor
Ilian Metev
Producer
Martichka Bozhilova, Ilian Metev, Ingmar Trost
Sound
Zlatina Teneva
Sound Design
Ivan Andreev, Adrian Lo
World Sales
Marcella Jelić
Nominated for: MDR Film Prize
Re-Visions 2020
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Pa Tak
Hanna Nordholt, Fritz Steingrobe
Inspired by the media theorist Friedrich Kittler, this experimental homage celebrates three poets and their passion for sound recording: Rilke, Burroughs and Pynchon.
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Pa Tak

Pa Tak
Hanna Nordholt, Fritz Steingrobe
Re-Visions 2020
Animated Film
Germany
2002
4 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

A collage in black and white, positive and negative, with dancing lyrics, skipping thoughts and ambling sounds. Inspired by the media theorist Friedrich Kittler, this experimental homage celebrates three poets and their passion for sound recording devices: Thomas Pynchon (thought recorder), William S. Burroughs (tape recorder) and Rainer Maria Rilke (phonograph).

Ralph Eue

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Hanna Nordholt, Fritz Steingrobe
Script
Fritz Steingrobe, Hanna Nordholt
Cinematographer
Fritz Steingrobe, Hanna Nordholt
Editor
Fritz Steingrobe, Hanna Nordholt
Producer
Fritz Steingrobe, Hanna Nordholt
Score
Fritz Steingrobe, Hanna Nordholt
Animation
Fritz Steingrobe, Hanna Nordholt
German Competition 2021
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Dust of Modern Life
Franziska von Stenglin
Liem lives in one of the remote regions of Vietnam and belongs to the ethnic minority of the Sedang. Together with friends he sets out into the jungle, on the trail of his ancestors.
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Dust of Modern Life

Pa va hêng
Franziska von Stenglin
German Competition 2021
Documentary Film
France,
Germany
2021
82 minutes
Sedang,
Vietnamese
Subtitles: 
English

Liem belongs to the ethnic minority of the Sedang and lives in a remote region of Vietnam. The observing camera succinctly sketches a daily routine that’s marked more by surviving than by living. With his friends, he prepares for an expedition into the jungle, where the young men want to take time out, continue the tradition of their ancestors, become hunters and gatherers. The more twisting their paths, the deeper the film seems to enter into a different sphere.

We get to know Liem doing everyday activities. Carrying the baby in a sling, he cooks, hangs out the laundry, goes to the field. The giant loudspeakers fixed to the streetlights fill his village with official news and advertising. In his stilt house, Liem prefers to listen to Vietnamese pop music. Soon we feel the rhythm, the unique beat of this life. When Liem and his friends set out in rubber sandals and carrying backpacks, the camera follows close behind, takes their perspective. Shot on Super 16, the film captures the green tones of the Vietnamese Central Highlands, the images develop a mesmerizing depth. The rustling of leaves, the buzzing of insects, birdsong and permanent rain come together in a melodious soundscape. Suddenly time seems to stand still, the separation between screen and auditorium is lifted.
Anke Leweke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Franziska von Stenglin
Cinematographer
Lucie Baudinaud
Editor
Zuniel Kim, Marylou Vergez
Producer
Lucas Tothe, Franziska von Stenglin
Co-Producer
Cinegrell, Umlaut Films
Sound
Christian Wittmoser, Nguyen Ngoc Tân
Score
Thomas Höhl
Retrospective 2021
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Paradise and Melting Pot
Herbert Viktor
Clean, neat, busy, enterprising – the Federal German view observes in Israel similarities to the FRG of the economic miracle years. A statement of sympathy.
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Paradise and Melting Pot

Paradies und Feuerofen
Herbert Viktor
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
FRG
1958
78 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Designed as a travelogue about Israel, Herbert Viktor emphasizes similarities to the FRG of the economic miracle years in his film: clean, neat, busy, enterprising. Haifa, for example, is described as having evolved from a “meeting place for Arabic caravans and robber bands” to the most modern port of the Levant. Viktor also pays tribute to the welcoming culture for the persecuted of the world, but omits to elucidate on the fates that lie behind them. The film, spiced up by staged intermezzi to become a statement of sympathy, was released in Federal German cinemas in 1959 under the patronage of Willy Brandt. It was not allowed on Israeli screens before 1962, when the death sentence against Adolf Eichmann had been upheld by the court of appeal.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Herbert Viktor
Script
Herbert Viktor
Cinematographer
Heinz Hölscher
Editor
Ludolf Grisebach
Producer
Helmut Wisser
Sound
Reginald Beuthner
Score
Bernhard Eichhorn
Narrator
Herbert Viktor
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2023
Filmstill Paskutinis
Paskutinis
Vladislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas
In the Lithuanian SSR, a film artist looks back on centuries of Baltic history from a different perspective, opening up a space for pain and grief.
Filmstill Paskutinis

Paskutinis

Paskutinis
Vladislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2023
Fictional Film
USSR
1970
9 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

SOS – help! A clear and simple visual language to disturbing sounds. The distinguished Lithuanian film and theatre director Vladislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas condenses the violent, centuries-long history of the Baltic in timeless metaphors. The naked, vulnerable human being is at the centre of this filmic exploration. The space opens up to pain and grief.

Konstantin Wiesinger

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Vladislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas
Script
Vladislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
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Patatap
Cornelia Friederike Müller aka CFM
An app assigns a sound and a graphic element to every letter on the computer keyboard. In a live improvisation, the Leipzig artist CFM uses them to create patterns and breaks.
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Patatap

Patatap
Cornelia Friederike Müller aka CFM
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Live Performance
UK
2021
4 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

An app that assigns a sound and a connected graphic element to every letter of the computer keyboard forms the basis of this live improvisation by CFM. The game of patterns and breaks uses different sound-form combinations from Jono Brandel’s kit to create rhythms, loops and music as well as a video to accompany them.

Cornelia Friederike Müller aka CFM

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Cornelia Friederike Müller aka CFM
Sound
Plaid
Artistic Design
Jono Brandel
Soul-Things 2022
Filmstill Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly
Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly
A collage whose sounds seem indefinable and yet organic. Pauline Oliveros’s piece needs no images; they intuitively appear by themselves before our inner eye.
Filmstill Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly

Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly

Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly
Soul-Things 2022
Acoustical Film
USA
1967
8 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

A purely acoustic collage whose sounds seem by nature indefinable and yet somehow organic. They mesmerise us, occasionally make us shiver at some unknown thing. Gravity seems to be suspended. This piece needs no images, because they will intuitively materialise before our inner eye like thousands of hallucinations.

Malte Stein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Score
Pauline Oliveros
Extended Reality 2023
Filmstill Pause
Pause
Michal Shoshan
A journey into the vast expanse of the void: If you engage with the game and do not take too long a break, you can uncover hidden secrets and find your own path in the middle of nowhere.
2020
Filmstill Pause

Pause

Pause
Michal Shoshan
Extended Reality 2023
XR
Israel
2020
20 minutes
English

In this indie game we embark on a journey into the vast expanse of the void. If you like, you can contemplate, rest, observe yourself. If you feel like moving, you can navigate the white space step by step – or just take a break … But not for too long! Or you will miss the chance to uncover hidden secrets and find your own path in the middle of nowhere.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Michal Shoshan
Interactive Design
Michal Shoshan
Artistic Design
Michal Shoshan
Coding
Michael Berelejis
Sound Design
Shahar Shirly
Score
Shahar Shirly
Director
Michal Shoshan
Kids DOK 2021
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Pepe and the World of Insects
Bernadette Hauke
Insects may not be cute, but they’re very exciting, Pepe thinks. He knows that many insect species are dying out because they are robbed of their habitats. He wants to change that!
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Pepe and the World of Insects

Pepe und die Welt der Insekten
Bernadette Hauke
Kids DOK 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2020
25 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Insects aren’t cute and often not beautiful, but very exciting, Pepe thinks. His favourite animals are dragonflies, which can control their four wings individually and take off faster than a jet plane. But where do you still find these flying wonders? Pepe knows that many insects are dying out in Germany because they are robbed of their habitats. He wants to change that!

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Bernadette Hauke
Cinematographer
Luana Knipfer
Editor
Sonja Baeger
Producer
Matthias Kringe
Sound
Moritz Kerst, Tom Claudon
International Competition 2022
Filmstill Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist
Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist
Corine Shawi
Corine Shawi’s father spends four years in various hospitals – a time in which the state of emergency becomes routine. A description of a status quo and a testimony to resignation and renewal.
Filmstill Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist

Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist

Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist
Corine Shawi
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Lebanon
2022
73 minutes
Arabic,
French
Subtitles: 
English

Corine Shawi’s father spends four years in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities in Beirut because of sudden paralysis – a time in which the state of emergency becomes routine and filming becomes a strategy: in search of the right balance of closeness and distance, in search of one’s own position in the structure. Shawi sets herself the task of documenting, putting herself in the picture, keeping the family together and at the same time recording movements and changes.

Family life shifts to the sickrooms. The radio plays, the mother smokes countless cigarettes on the balcony, her eyes and fingers graze figures of saints, she attends Holy Mass in the various facilities and shares her worries about an adult son with her husband and daughter. They argue, laugh and sometimes dance around the sickbed. Between the family capsule and drifting through the city – Beirut, night, cemeteries, sensualities –, the filmmaker inserts interview sequences with her siblings, staged on the backseat of a moving car. Attempts to cope and to draw borders, loneliness in company. Brief moments when wishes and projections of mobility are experimentally translated into virtual space – a gauging of possibilities. A touching description of a status quo and a testimony to resignation and renewal.
Djamila Grandits

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Corine Shawi
Cinematographer
Corine Shawi
Editor
Halim Sabbagh, Corine Shawi
Producer
Myriam Sassine, Corine Shawi
Co-Producer
Jana Wehbe
Sound
Lama Sawaya
Score
Joh Dagher
Nominated for: Prize of the Interreligious Jury, FIPRESCI Prize
Filmstill Persona

Persona

Gakjil
Sujin Moon
International Competition Short Film 2022
Animated Film
South Korea
2022
6 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Magic mobile on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? A young woman slips into a second skin. She goes out, drinks bubble tea with her friends. Selfies are made. The mood is cheerful. But once back home, she and her outward skin melt into each other; a self dissolves. Her own reflection becomes a chimera. A surreal body horror animation about beauty ideals and the compulsion to fit in.

Anke Leweke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Sujin Moon
Cinematographer
Sujin Moon
Editor
Sujin Moon
Producer
Sujin Moon
Sound
Sujin Moon
Score
Sujin Moon
Winner of: Silver Dove (International Competition Short Film)
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Petra’s Adventure
Petra’s Adventure
Ingrid Reschke
Petra accurately notes down the events of a special day, tells us about a paperchase and a sailing boat ride. One of the first Film Academy productions, smoothly directed.
Filmstill Petra’s Adventure

Petra’s Adventure

Petras Erlebnis
Ingrid Reschke
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1956
6 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Petra looks back on an eventful day: Together with other kids she went on a paperchase, solved a few small tasks and coordinated with her assigned partner. There were some adventures, but also a classroom situation set up in a meadow where one’s knowledge of the local flora was tested. In the end, they all boarded sailing boats and glided off into an atmospheric evening. A protocol in letters, accurately drawn up at the Potsdam Pioneer House, serves as the framework for one of the first completed films of the newly founded German Academy of Film Art in Babelsberg.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ingrid Reschke
Script
Ingrid Reschke
Cinematographer
Kurt Marks
Producer
Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst
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Philippe Arthuys: Boîte à musique

Philippe Arthuys: Boîte à musique
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Acoustical Film
France
1957
3 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Echoes, filters and rhythmic montage turn sound fragments into an audio piece about a seemingly wilful music box. Philippe Arthuys – a film composer for luminaries like Rivette and Godard and a filmmaker himself – varies the tempo from stuttering to quietly breathing, making sound particles emerge suddenly from the depths of space and disappear again. A cinematic mini-drama for the ears.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Score
Philippe Arthuys
Filmstill Photophobia

Photophobia

Photophobia
Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
Panorama: Central and Eastern Europe 2023
Documentary Film
Slovakia,
Czech Republic,
Ukraine
2023
71 minutes
Ukrainian,
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

12-year-old Nikita and his family have been staying in an underground station in Kharkiv for weeks. The place promises protection from Russian attacks, but there is not much distraction down here. The glaring lights and provisionally furnished carriages create a surreal to dreary atmosphere, pets roam the aisles, an aging musician plays songs on his guitar.

Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík condense the first months of the war in Ukraine into an oppressive but not hopeless narrative, because the station is also a place of encounters. Niki soon meets Vika, who is his age and who coaxes the lethargic boy out of his shell. Together they roam the underworld, but while Vika is permitted to go to the surface at least once in a while, Niki’s radius of movement ends at the stairs on which sunlight falls occasionally. And yet an outside exists which the two directors make visible by Super 8 shots scattered in between. They show a damaged Kharkiv: destroyed vehicles, a charred bed, provisionally protected monuments. “Photophobia” is a hybrid, introspective film that manages to find something like tender romance in an unreal situation.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
Script
Marek Leščák, Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
Cinematographer
Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
Editor
Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík, Martin Piga
Producer
Ivan Ostrochovský, Albert Malinovský, Katarína Tomková, Tomáš Michálek, Kristýna Michálek Květová
Co-Producer
Helena Osvaldová, Denis Ivanov, Jakub Mahler, Pavol Pekarčík
Sound
Dušan Kozák, Jakub Jurásek
Sound Design
Jakub Jurásek
Score
Roman Kurhan, Michal Novinski
World Sales
Michaela Čajková
Nominated for: MDR Film Prize, Film Prize Leipziger Ring
Hommage Peter Mettler 2023
Filmstill Picture of Light
Picture of Light
Peter Mettler
The film crew sets out to look for the northern lights. Equipped with an ingenious special camera, they surrender themselves to waiting, the conditions and the people they meet.
Filmstill Picture of Light

Picture of Light

Picture of Light
Peter Mettler
Hommage Peter Mettler 2023
Documentary Film
Canada
1994
87 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
German

Peter Mettler sets out to look for northern lights with photographer Andreas Züst and a small film crew. In order to be able to capture this miracle of nature on film in the first place, the team has built a special camera that has to withstand the extreme climate conditions. On location, they patiently surrender to the state of waiting. They are in the border region between the geographical north and the populated south. The formal structure of the film, on the other hand, shifts between trance-like essay and analytical research trip. And the filmmaker is left with the fundamental question of whether the experience of this spectacular natural phenomenon can be filmed at all.

Annina Wettstein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Peter Mettler
Script
Peter Mettler
Cinematographer
Peter Mettler
Editor
Peter Mettler, Mike Munn
Producer
Andreas Züst, Peter Mettler, A. Gill
Sound Design
Peter Mettler, Peter Bräker, A. Gill, Leon Johnson, Gaston Kyriazi
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Pink Mao

Pink Mao
Tang Han
German Competition Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
China,
Germany
2020
22 minutes
Chinese
Subtitles: 
English

Why do we see certain colours even when they aren’t there? Chinese director Tang Han meticulously analyses the 100 Yuan bill, which carries a portrait of Mao Zedong, and finds that – despite official representations and general perception – the note is pink rather than red. In a serious tone and colourful, merry images she also casually upsets any number of other entrenched notions about digitalization, globalization, capitalism and gender.

Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tang Han
Script
Tang Han
Editor
Tang Han
Producer
Tang Han
Sound
Tang Han
Winner of: Silver Dove (German Competition Short Film)