Film Archive

Jahr

Media Name: 01774443-e71c-4d44-bb1f-8fd4360ed192.jpg

Flee

Flugt
Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
Denmark,
France,
Sweden,
Norway
2021
86 minutes
Danish,
Dari,
Russian,
English
Subtitles: 
English

For many years, Amin was unable to speak about the experience of his flight. It is only now that he finds the courage to open up to his schoolmate, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen. From earliest childhood Amin’s life was marked by political unrest in his native country of Afghanistan and soon by growing up without a permanent home. His painful memories are visualized in haunting animations, interwoven with documentary footage.

It’s a well-known fact that flight does not lead from point A to point B and then simply ends. Amin’s story, though, shows how rocky and tortuous it can really be, leading from Afghanistan via Russia, Estonia and a few other stations to Denmark. Only when his life is on a safe track with an upcoming wedding and a good career does he find the strength to talk about what he had to go through to be where he is today. In an almost psychoanalytical setting, the protagonist – lying down – talks about his past. The narrative moves in a spiral between then and now, allowing for frequent respites between the traumatic impressions that the poignant animation makes almost physically tangible. It’s no coincidence that “Flee” has already won multiple awards and is considered an “instant classic” even now.
Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Script
Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Amin
Editor
Janus Billeskov Jansen
Producer
Monica Hellström, Charlotte De La Gournerie, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Score
Uno Helmerson
Animation
Kenneth Ladekjær
World Sales
Shoshi Korman
Audience Award Competition 2021
Media Name: b67efa3f-d350-440f-bbda-f982aab72133.jpeg
Our Memory Belongs to Us
Rami Farah, Signe Byrge Sørensen
In the midst of a cruel conflict, Syrian activists place their hopes in the production of images. What stories do their recordings tell? What role do they play as testimonies?
Media Name: b67efa3f-d350-440f-bbda-f982aab72133.jpeg

Our Memory Belongs to Us

Frihed, håb og andre synder – Den syriske revolution 10 år senere
Rami Farah, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
Denmark,
France
2021
90 minutes
Arabic
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

The most valuable thing Yadan carries with him on his flight is a hard drive. It contains almost 13,000 videos recorded in 2011 and 2012 by him and other insurgents in Daraa, the “cradle” of the Syrian revolution. Eight years later, Yadan and two of his fellow travellers meet in a theatre in Paris to (re)confront the material. In the dialogue between the men and the images, a piece of the country’s history begins to take shape.

When peaceful protest turns into brutal war, a small group of civilians become the voice of Daraa. They film where there is no official coverage: at first in order to help the revolution into actual existence by their media representation, later to bear witness in an urgent plea for help to the international community. Against the human rights crimes of the government troops, against shelling and bombs – the camera is their weapon. The cinematic set-up becomes the starting point for a reflection about the meaning of images, then and now, and at the same time triggers a conversion of personal into collective memories. The protagonists’ reactions reveal how painful this process is: “Is the collection of the story worth all the violence that memory brings back?” is asked from offscreen. The film gives a decisive answer.
Sarina Lacaf

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Rami Farah, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Script
Dima Saber, Rami Farah, Lyana Saleh, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Cinematographer
Henrik Bohn Ipsen
Editor
Gladys Joujou
Producer
Signe Byrge Sørensen, Lyana Saleh, Anne Köhncke
Co-Producer
Reema Jarrar
Sound
Henrik Garnov
Score
Kinan Azmeh
Winner of: Leipziger Ring
Media Name: 27ae30bc-388b-4639-9a0f-12cfd643ec94.jpg

The Cars We Drove into Capitalism

The Cars We Drove into Capitalism
Georgi Bogdanov, Boris Missirkov
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
Bulgaria,
Croatia,
Czech Republic,
Denmark,
Germany
2021
93 minutes
Bulgarian,
Czech,
English,
German,
Norwegian,
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

A nostalgic trip into a past when buying a car constituted a lifetime’s work – especially for those Europeans who had a maximum of two handful of brands at their disposal. This cheerfully edited collection of auto biographies from socialist production evokes seemingly carefree times when the motorized vehicle was allowed to be simply a status symbol: free from ideological turf wars revolving around the climate crisis and mobility diets.

From Russia via Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to Germany and Norway, love stories between humans and Trabi, Moskvitch and Volga are captured on film. We meet protagonists who are fond of their beloved piece of tin, then or now, or have even amassed a considerable collection. There’s a couple who met and fell in love at a retro car exhibition and still drive the same model today. We meet a sexton who passes on his official car after 32 years of use. We make the acquaintance of a pin-up who always poses in front of vintage cars from the East. They all have a soft spot for these rickety rust buckets, because even though the products of the socialist car industry were usually slow, chunky, tedious to drive and to repair, they were all regarded as showpieces of a successful life. And there was one in almost every family: coveted, long longed-for, assiduously polished.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Georgi Bogdanov, Boris Missirkov
Script
Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov
Cinematographer
Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov
Editor
Emil Granicharov, Jacob Thuessen, Georgi Tenev
Producer
Martichka Bozhilova
Co-Producer
Tina Leeb, Miljenka Čogelja, Dana Budisavljević, Jiří Konečný, Sigrid Jonsson Dyekjær, Sascha Beier, Simone Baumann
Sound
Veselin Zografov