Film Archive

Matinee Saxon State Archive 2022
Filmstill [An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]
[An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]
The self-taught nature filmmaker Ingeborg Tölke inspired broad audiences with her technical skills and her lifelong connection to flora and fauna.
Filmstill [An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]

[An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]

[Interview mit Ingeborg Tölke]
Matinee Sächsisches Staatsarchiv 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1963
7 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Ingeborg Tölke recaps her filmic biography, explains its elaborate technical conditions and talks about future core themes. She was presumably responsible for several short intermission films for Deutscher Fernsehfunk as well as a commissioned educational film. Until old age, she explored the possibilities of macro shots and time-lapse technology, which became her trademark.

Konstantin Wiesinger

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF)
Extended Reality 2022
Filmstill [Posthuman Wombs]
[Posthuman Wombs]
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
This auto-theoretical essay explores the womb of a posthuman, questioning stereotypical ideas of pregnancy and speculating about non-binary reproduction scenarios.
Filmstill [Posthuman Wombs]

[Posthuman Wombs]

[Posthuman Wombs]
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
Extended Reality 2022
XR
Germany,
Netherlands,
Switzerland
2021
20 minutes
English

The stereotypical idea of pregnancy is a challenge for persons who do not define themselves as female only. This auto-theoretical essay explores the future of the family and non-binary reproduction scenarios in which all bodies can become pregnant. We travel into the womb of a posthuman and follow speculations about the de-feminisation of childbearing.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
Animation
Lisa Kaschubat, Manuel Tozzi
VR Developer
Ambrus Ivanyos
3D Artist
Lisa Kaschubat, Manuel Tozzi, Danielle Williams
Creative Technologist
Ambrus Ivanyos
Sound
Malu Peeters
Script
Anna Fries
Score
Malu Peeters
Performer
Brandy Butler, Anna Fries, Olivia Hyunsin Kim, Ncube as Bibi, Fercha Pombo, Kübra Uzun, Wheelymum
Director
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
Doc Alliance Award 2022
Filmstill 5 Dreamers and a Horse
5 Dreamers and a Horse
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan
Four people embody the contrasting faces of Armenia today. However different their dreams may be, they are all about freedom and self-determination.
Filmstill 5 Dreamers and a Horse

5 Dreamers and a Horse

5 yerazoghnery yev dzin
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan
Doc Alliance Award 2022
Documentary Film
Armenia,
Germany
2022
82 minutes
Armenian
Subtitles: 
English

The four people introduced by Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan in their debut feature-length film embody the contrasting faces of Armenia today. Some of them are making plans for the future that might even be realised, others strive for seemingly unattainable ideals. What unites them all is the dream of a self-determined life – a near-impossibility in a country where the government tries to control everything and everyone.

Melania, in her mid-sixties, works as a lift operator in a Yerevan hospital and longs for a late career as a cosmonaut. In a way, she seems to be an anachronistic remnant of the Soviet age. The deep country, still ruled by ancient traditions and ideas of happiness, is represented by the farmer Karen, who is looking for the best of all possible wives. And Amasia and Sona own the night over the roofs of the capital. They are part of a new generation ready to fight for a future in which some liberties can be obtained despite a suffocating patriarchy. Occasionally amused, but never judgmental, the two filmmakers watch their native country dream.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan
Cinematographer
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan, Andranik Sahakyan
Editor
Federico Delpero Bejar
Producer
Vahagn Khachatryan
Co-Producer
Eva Blondiau
Sound
Jonathan Darch
Score
Avet Terteryan, Rafael Tunyan
Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Filmstill A Bunch of Amateurs
A Bunch of Amateurs
Kim Hopkins
Dwindling membership, a crumbling club house, penniless coffers: The “Bradford Movie Makers” have seen better days. The funny and touching portrait of a band of film buffs.
Filmstill A Bunch of Amateurs

A Bunch of Amateurs

A Bunch of Amateurs
Kim Hopkins
Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Documentary Film
UK
2022
95 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

Dwindling membership, a crumbling club house, penniless coffers: The “Bradford Movie Makers” have seen better days. The active club members, most of them fairly advanced in years, sit there, basking in blissful memories and not mincing their words when they pick at the others’ film ideas over multiple cups of tea. Cineastes have met here every Monday since 1932 and can be proud of a ninety-year history including countless amateur films of all genres.

The “club”, as insiders call it, is a typical British working class film club: watching films together on a regular basis and spending every free minute on elaborate shoots including stunt riders and green screens. But the old veterans are beginning to get frail, the occasional death must be mourned. And then the pandemic comes on top of all this, darkening the only bright spot of the week. But it also brings unexpected surprises … Kim Hopkins manages the feat, despite a number of tragic-sad occasions, of avoiding the tear-jerker trap and gives us equally astonishing and funny insights into this pastime that’s far more than just a hobby. This quiet, funny and touching portrait of a band of film buffs – male and female – pays tribute to the need we all have to spend time together.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kim Hopkins
Cinematographer
Kim Hopkins
Editor
Leah Marino
Producer
Margareta Szabo, Kim Hopkins
Sound
Margareta Szabo
Score
Terence Dunn
World Sales
Jenny Bohnhoff
International Competition 2022
Filmstill A Hawk as Big as a Horse
A Hawk as Big as a Horse
Sasha Kulak
In the periphery of Moscow, transgender ornithologist Lydia works at realising her dream to make the “Twin Peaks” universe more and more manifest in her life.
Filmstill A Hawk as Big as a Horse

A Hawk as Big as a Horse

Yastreb razmerom s loshad’
Sasha Kulak
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
France
2022
74 minutes
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

A blue wooden house at the edge of the forest, lonely, but not peaceful and quiet. This is where Lydia lives, a transgender ornithologist who presents herself in high heels and a pearl necklace one day, in cargo pants and functional wear the next. Director Sasha Kulak calls her film a documentary fairy tale, and the borders between reality and fiction are blurred indeed, because Lydia loves play, staging, the uncanny – and David Lynch.

Lydia has watched “Twin Peaks” more than thirty times, its characters and plots have long since spilled over into Shcherbinka, a small town south of Moscow. She claims to find bodies in the underbrush and even Lynch’s “Red Room” has been replicated under the roof of her house. Now she’s facing a new challenge: the creation of Lara, a lifelike silicone doll whose voice also guides us through Kulak’s cinematic tale. Lydia works hard at realising her dreams, but she is equally passionate about studying birds and the so-called Nezhulyas, shy eyeless creatures that are exceedingly cuddly and have tantric potential. “A Hawk as Big as a Horse” becomes a vehicle of Lydia’s visions, using three-dimensional animation and various cinematic techniques to open a portal to a very specific fantasy.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Sasha Kulak
Cinematographer
Sasha Kulak
Editor
Sasha Kulak
Producer
Louis Beaudemont
Sound
Andrei Dergatchev
Score
Iakov Mironchev
Animation
Elizaveta Federmesser
Winner of: Special Mention (International Competition)
Filmstill A Life Like Any Other

A Life Like Any Other

Une vie comme une autre
Faustine Cros
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Belgium,
France
2022
68 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

Over many years, the director’s father filmed his family life almost obsessively. His daughter’s birth, his son’s first steps, and always Valérie, the young mother. An impressive fund of material which their now grown-up daughter Faustine appropriates to tell quite a different story: that of a woman who sees her role as a mother and its demands take away her freedom step by step.

In the here and now, the director observes her parents in the big empty house in the country: her hyperactive father who is constantly tinkering with something, and her chain-smoking mother who sits at the kitchen table and whose sharp mind can only be surmised from her eyes. What happened? What happened to the energetic and independent young make-up artist? The one who admires witches and wants to take a trip around the world. The one who could easily earn her own living but still gives up her job. “The gaze is important”, the now 60-year-old Valérie tells her daughter once while applying make-up. Yes, the gaze is important. And with her film, director Faustine Cros counters the gaze directed at her mother over all those years with a new narrative.
Marie Kloos

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Faustine Cros
Cinematographer
Faustine Cros, Jean-Louis Cros
Editor
Faustine Cros, Cédric Zoenen
Producer
Julie Freres, Camille Laemlé
Co-Producer
Sound Image Culture, Centre de l'Audiovisuel à Bruxelles (CBA), RTBF
Sound
Faustine Cros
Score
Ferdinand Cros
World Sales
Anna Berthollet
Winner of: Prize of the Interreligious Jury, Silver Dove (International Competition)
Filmstill A Night Song

A Night Song

Le chant de la nuit
Félix Lamarche
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Canada
2022
45 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

A patient camera glides over the everyday objects: still lives on the wall, flowers in the vase, a swaying drop light. The sun enters the cosy home where Noëlla sits smoking at her laptop, playing Solitaire. The situation is hopeless. She’s going to lose against the computer once again. All the while her son-in-law, Pierre, is organising everything she needs, pragmatic and friendly: breakfast, the (last) doctor’s visit – and then the transfer.

Because Noëlla intends to die, and she is determined. Pierre conscientiously manages the paperwork and invites her loved ones to say goodbye. They bring photos and chat with the protagonist who is about to depart this life and who waves one last time before the doctor administers the deadly dose. Bye bye, that’s it. Dying can be so unexcited. This slowed-down, minute study of time very gradually acquires a completely different meaning from what one assumed at first. How one would love to see the onetakes from the beginning again. Félix Lamarche’s unpretentious observation evolves into a metaphor of life. Noëlla’s insistent head-on gaze from the screen into the viewers’ eyes will always be unforgettable.
Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Félix Lamarche
Cinematographer
Félix Lamarche
Editor
René Roberge
Producer
Félix Lamarche
Sound
Samuel Gagnon-Thibodeau
World Sales
Robin Miranda das Neves
Nominated for: FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Interreligious Jury
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
Soul-Things 2022
Filmstill A Quiet Week in the House
A Quiet Week in the House
Jan Švankmajer
Symbols from the depths of our soul follow their own logic. With the help of a dream machine, a man is confronted with the personal myths that he has long carried around subconsciously.
Filmstill A Quiet Week in the House

A Quiet Week in the House

Tichý týden v domě
Jan Švankmajer
Soul-Things 2022
Experimental Film
Czechoslovakia
1969
20 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

In keeping with the inscrutability of their existence, a very special logic seems to be needed to decode symbols from the depths of our soul. Švankmajer uses a kind of home-made dream machine to confront the protagonist with the personal myths that he has carried around subconsciously throughout his life and that even as an adult make him suffer like a helpless kid.

Malte Stein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jan Švankmajer
Script
Jan Švankmajer
Cinematographer
Svatopluk Malý, Karel Suzan
Editor
Helena Lebdusková
Producer
Erna Kmínková, Jirí Vanek
Animation
Zdenek Sob
Slowenian Animation 2022
Filmstill A War of Words or Respectful Silence?
A War of Words or Respectful Silence?
Leo Černic
A film commissioned for a school education programme. The goal of this programme is to teach children about their own history and that of their country.
Filmstill A War of Words or Respectful Silence?

A War of Words or Respectful Silence?

Vojna besed ali spoštljiva tišina?
Leo Černic
Slowenian Animation 2022
Animated Film
Slovenia,
Italy
2020
2 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

A film commissioned for a school education programme. The goal of this programme is to teach children about their own history and that of their country – especially on the background of the recent wars. The hope is that this knowledge will also be applied to the future, that it will bring colour to the black and white, a smile to the gloom.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Leo Černic
Script
Leo Černic
Editor
Leo Černic
Producer
Mateja Zorn
Sound
Samo Jurca
Animation
Leo Černic
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Ablinga
Ablinga
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
A Lithuanian village destroyed by the Wehrmacht is reborn as a forest of sculptures. This film poem commemorates the murdered ones and calls for peace.
Filmstill Ablinga

Ablinga

Ablinga
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1977
13 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Nothing is left of the Lithuanian village of Ablinga. Destroyed by Wehrmacht soldiers in 1941, a forest of sculptures was erected in 1972 to commemorate those who once lived here. Larger than life, the carved wooden monuments rise to the sky. In national poet Justinas Marcinkevičius’s poem they wake up again, share some last secrets and become connecting links on a timeline that knows violence and dreams of peace. Dagnija Osite-Krüger’s montage is bold, playful and sometimes brutal, her concern credible and strong. Within a few minutes, “Ablinga” puts a spell on us, becoming a monument to German guilt and the memory of the murdered ones.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Script
Dagnija Osite-Krüger
Cinematographer
Leonid Krainenkow
Editor
Werner Wendt
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound Design
Peter Gotthardt
Animation Perspectives 2022
Filmstill About AIVA – Director’s Short Cut
About AIVA – Director’s Short Cut
Veneta Androva
Who is the clever mind behind “AIVA”, the absolutely incredible AI novelty everyone talks about? An avatar with a female voice introduces themselves as the inventor.
Filmstill About AIVA – Director’s Short Cut

About AIVA – Director’s Short Cut

About AIVA – Director’s Short Cut
Veneta Androva
Animation Perspectives 2022
Animated Film
Germany
2020
3 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

Who is the clever mind behind “AIVA”, the absolutely incredible AI novelty that everyone talks about and wants to have? An avatar with a female voice, unfolding in two dimensions like a pattern, praises their successful multi-million-pound project. Answers are not provided, just another ghastly feedback loop of artificiality.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Veneta Androva
Editor
Veneta Androva
Producer
Veneta Androva
Animation
Veneta Androva
Filmstill One of Us Now

One of Us Now

Achshav at ahat mishelanu
Maya Steinberg
German Competition Short Film 2022
Documentary Film
Germany,
Israel
2022
30 minutes
Hebrew,
English
Subtitles: 
English

Maya Steinberg is a secular Israeli. Her father, however, had a late religious awakening. He will not appear in her film. Instead, the young director approaches his faith and her lack of understanding for it through a visit to the gravesite of rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Galilee, where she spends a few weeks, observing believers, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, and wondering: Is there a place here for women? And can there be a place for queer women?

Marie Kloos

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Maya Steinberg
Cinematographer
Eline Gehring, Maya Steinberg
Editor
Maya Steinberg
Producer
Maya Steinberg
Sound
Eline Gehring, Maya Steinberg
Sound Design
Manuela Schininá
Score
Sivan Levy
Animation Perspectives 2022
Filmstill AIVA
AIVA
Veneta Androva
AIVA is an artist animated by algorithms. But first and foremost, she is the chillingly limited male tech vision of what more diversity in the arts could look like.
Filmstill AIVA

AIVA

AIVA
Veneta Androva
Animation Perspectives 2022
Animated Film
Germany
2020
13 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

AIVA is an artist animated by algorithms. But first and foremost, she is the tech vision of male IT commitment to more diversity in the arts. Which is why AIVA prefers the “portrait” format in her paintings. An “art documentary” lets us share her creative process and fulfils every stereotype at hand. With unerring wit, Veneta Androva mirrors actual conditions in her computer animated science fiction.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Veneta Androva
Script
Veneta Androva
Editor
Veneta Androva
Producer
Veneta Androva
Score
Nadia D’Alò, Benedikt Frey
Animation
Veneta Androva
Narrator
Vivienne Pettitt
Extended Reality 2022
Filmstill All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost
All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost
Mélanie Courtinat
In a deserted city text fragments float over a sea of flowers: the story of a woman who refused to leave her home after a disaster.
2022
Filmstill All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost

All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost

All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost
Mélanie Courtinat
Extended Reality 2022
XR
France
2022
10 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

In the middle of a deserted city of concrete and fog, text fragments float over a sea of flowers. This is the story of a woman who refused to leave her home after a disaster. The game of tension and ignorance, suggestion and concreteness leaves room for projections: We are confronted with our own fears before the plot is resolved.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Mélanie Courtinat
Score
Yatoni
Director
Mélanie Courtinat
Filmstill Anhell69

Anhell69

Anhell69
Theo Montoya
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Colombia,
France,
Germany,
Romania
2022
75 minutes
Spanish
Subtitles: 
English

Theo Montoya draws on casting outtakes, melancholy observations of daily life and decadent party impressions from his friends to create a morbid and yet tender portrait of a young, queer generation in Colombia. In a country marked by violence and repression they can hardly imagine their future, but maintain a close, almost loving relationship with death.

This was meant to be a fiction film: a ghost story in which the dead no longer find cemetery space and consequently coexist with the living, including having sexual relationships – which the state rigorously forbids and persecutes. A clandestine nocturnal subculture emerges where erotic desires for which daylight means annihilation can be acted out. A week after Montoya found his leading actor for the project, the latter died of a heroin overdose. More deaths among his friends follow. They are the ghosts haunting the film that was ultimately made. It retains its dystopian character, but the dangers it portrays are quite real: For these young people, they are part of everyday life in Medellín, which is still deep in the shadow of Pablo Escobar and where the search for pleasure and human warmth takes one through labyrinthine abysses.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Theo Montoya
Script
Theo Montoya
Cinematographer
Theo Montoya
Editor
Matthieu Taponier, Delia Oniga, Theo Montoya
Producer
Theo Montoya, Juan Pablo Castrillón, Bianca Oana, David Hurst
Co-Producer
Balthasar Busmann, Maximilian Haslberger
Sound
Eloisa Arcila Fernandez, Estephany Cano
Sound Design
Marius Leftărache, Victor Miu
Score
Vlad Feneșan, Marius Leftărache
Winner of: Golden Dove (International Competition)