Film Archive

Jahr

Filmstill The Gullspång Miracle

The Gullspång Miracle

Miraklet i Gullspång
Maria Fredriksson
Audience Competition 2023
Documentary Film
Sweden,
Norway,
Denmark
2023
108 minutes
Norwegian,
Swedish
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

In the Swedish town of Gullspång, Kari and May meet a woman who looks exactly like their sister Lita who died more than 30 years ago. No coincidence: Olaug was born on the same day as Lita in the rural north of Norway; a DNA test confirms that the two were born as twin sisters. The happy reunion with Kari, May and the rest of the family, though, soon shows the first cracks. At the age of 80, Olaug’s identity is shattered. Why did her parents give her away? Will she fit in with her new, deeply religious kin? She does not believe in divine revelations. Instead, she is haunted by Lita’s alleged suicide – and indeed her investigative research raises questions about the circumstances of that death.

At least at one point in the film, director Maria Fredriksson is audibly dumbfounded behind the camera. What starts as a feel-good film becomes a character study of identity, then a kind of true-crime and finally a mystery story. The direction takes it up a notch, sometimes to dramatic, sometimes to quite funny effect: The perfectly lighted country houses with portrait photos on the walls and the ironically suggestive use of music are reminiscent of “Twin Peaks.” Sometimes life writes the crazier plot twists.

Jan-Philipp Kohlmann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Maria Fredriksson
Script
Maria Fredriksson
Cinematographer
Pia Lehto
Editor
Mark Bukdahl, Orvar Anklew
Producer
Ina Holmqvist
Sound Design
Rune Hansen
Score
Jonas Colstrup
World Sales
Jenny Bohnhoff
Filmstill The Mother of All Lies

The Mother of All Lies

Kadib abyad
Asmae El Moudir
Audience Competition 2023
Documentary Film
Egypt,
Morocco,
Qatar,
Saudi Arabia
2023
97 minutes
Arabic
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

Traumas have often inspired filmmakers to contrast a documentary narrative with visual alienations. Asmae El Moudir chooses the form of a doll-populated miniature of the Casablanca neighbourhood where she grew up. In 1981, before she was born, a massacre took place there. The police and the Moroccan king’s military forces shot hundreds of participants of the so-called bread riots, who were protesting against continuously rising food prices. The detailed small-scale models – El Moudir’s father, a bricklayer, built the big versions with stone and cement! – may illustrate the events, but they also mark the distance to a history that lacks images and has long been concealed in Morocco.

The lack of images is mirrored in the family context. Why are there no childhood photos of her, the director wonders. Why does her mother finally present her with a single picture which, however, shows another girl? This film, cleverly constructed in every respect, finally gathers the family members around the miniatures of their neighbourhood. The constellation does not promise a collective truth, but, at least, a dispute of memories.

Jan-Philipp Kohlmann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Asmae El Moudir
Cinematographer
Hatem Nechi
Editor
Asmae El Moudir
Producer
Asmae El Moudir
Co-Producer
Mark Lotfy
Sound
Abdelaziz Glassine
Sound Design
Michael Fawzy
Score
Nass El Ghiwane
World Sales
Andrea Hock
Winner of: Golden Dove (Audience Competition)