Film Archive

Kids DOK 2020
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Dad Magnet
Daphne van den Blink
When Kwinten’s Dad has to go on a naval mission for three months it’s hard. Kwinten plays in nature, counts the days and tries to get used to missing him.
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Dad Magnet

Papamagneet
Daphne van den Blink
Kids DOK 2020
Documentary Film
Belgium
2020
17 minutes
Dutch
Subtitles: 
German

Kwinten is proud of his Dad who is the commander of a naval ship. But a new mission takes his Dad to sea again for three months. Kwinten waits for postcards and counts the days. His best friend now lives in another town, but fortunately comes to visit. Coping with missing his father isn’t easy for Kwinten. Seeing him again is all the more wonderful, though.

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Daphne van den Blink
Cinematographer
Jonathan Wannyn
Editor
Febe Simoens
Producer
Magalie Dierick, Emmy Oost
Sound
Kwinten Van Laethem, Gedeon Depauw
Score
Stijn Dickel
Funder
Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF)
German Competition 2022
Filmstill Daniel Richter
Daniel Richter
Pepe Danquart
Three years with Daniel Richter: Pepe Danquart opens the door to the famous painter’s studio for us and draws a multifaceted and knowledgeable portrait of the political artist.
Filmstill Daniel Richter

Daniel Richter

Daniel Richter
Pepe Danquart
German Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Germany
2022
117 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Few artist portraits give us the privilege of getting as close to the painter as if we had free access to his studio. Over a period of three years, Pepe Danquart got to accompany the painter Daniel Richter, watching him paint, negotiate with his gallerist, talk to his publisher and joke with fellow artist Jonathan Meese. Danquart interviews collectors, attends auctions and even visits record shops.

From all this the complex image of an artist emerges who appreciates the abstract as much as the figurative and who seems to be searching constantly for the meaning of his work. Daniel Richter’s paintings fetch top prices on the art market – an aspect that neither Pepe Danquart nor the painter leave out, but that is, fortunately, not the focus here. Openings, auctions and gala dinners structure the narrative, but its heart is Richter’s studio, where we see him as a craftsman, a restless doer, who reflects surprisingly frankly and self-deprecatingly on his work, which to him is always also a political act. He talks about the process of creation, the effect, meaning and significance of his paintings, makes clear statements and, notwithstanding a certain amount of craving for recognition, ultimately doesn’t take himself more seriously than necessary.
Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Pepe Danquart
Cinematographer
Daniel Gottschalk, Marvin Hesse
Editor
Toni Froschhammer
Producer
Vanessa Nöcker, Benjamin Seikel
Co-Producer
Annegret Weitkämper-Krug
Sound
Andre Zacher, Etienne Haug, Kai Ziarkowski, Tobias Welmering, Krischan Rudolph
Score
Ramon Kramer
World Sales
Dietmar Güntsche
Nominated for: VER.DI Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness
Camera Lucida 2022
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Danube
Agustina Pérez Rial
This brilliantly executed montage of historical footage and personal assumptions condenses into a possible history of events at the 9th Mar del Plata International Film Festival in 1968.
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Danube

Danubio
Agustina Pérez Rial
Camera Lucida 2022
Documentary Film
Argentina
2021
62 minutes
Spanish,
English,
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

Argentine director Agustina Pérez Rial’s debut feature-length film about the ninth edition of the International Film Festival in her native city of Mar del Plata from 1968 seems to find an uncommonly balanced solution to the primal dilemma of documentary storytelling. In an impressively brilliant montage of archive material, a story is constructed which, according to the director herself, is not necessarily true, but realistic.

Historical black and white photos of captivating beauty, film footage from various sources and documents from the now open archives of the surveillance authorities of the time are counteracted by a supposed witness report – de facto a female voice from offscreen. Pérez Rial is in subtle and intelligent control of her cinematic tools, pulling out all the stops: documentary and fiction, historical and contemporary, aesthetic, trivia and anecdotes. On the one hand, the meticulously researched facts unearth a forgotten microfacet of the Cold War, complete with militarisation, persecution and paranoia. On the other hand, they show a film festival as a node of ideologies and describe it as a highly politicised place. This opens unexpected spaces of reflection for the role assigned to such a cultural event – historical or current.
Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Agustina Pérez Rial
Script
Paulina Bettendorff
Cinematographer
Pupeto Mastropasqua
Editor
Natalia Labaké
Producer
Agustina Pérez Rial
Co-Producer
Fiørd estudio, En otro orden de cosas
Sound
Manuel Embalse
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Dark Matter

Dark Matter
Viktor Brim
German Competition Short Film 2020
Documentary Film
Germany,
Russia
2020
19 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Quiet, dark shots of nocturnal fog, of a mine, a dump truck or a wreck, of huge earth craters and new surface contours created by excavation. Raw material extraction, economisation and exploitation of nature are the themes of this visual study. It’s accompanied by an unobtrusive, but threatening and assertive sound that underlines the mystic quality of the images. Post-industrial landscapes become post-apocalyptic.

Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Viktor Brim
Cinematographer
David Schittek
Editor
Viktor Brim
Producer
Viktor Brim
Sound
Danila Lipatov
Filmstill Days of Fishing

Days of Fishing

Jours de pêche
Benjamin Grinand, Lucien Lepoutre
Competition for the Audience Award Short Film 2022
Documentary Film
Belgium
2021
16 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

Somewhere on an ocean the crew of a fish trawler go about their work day and night. Every step must be perfect, every movement automatically leads to the next. Heavy chains have to be secured, nets reeled in, fish swiftly gutted and packed with ice into large boxes. A cigarette is always dangling from the lips and hopefully there’s always something left in the jar of chocolate cream. The camera moves in the same rolling beat as the ship in the waves.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Benjamin Grinand, Lucien Lepoutre
Cinematographer
Benjamin Grinand, Lucien Lepoutre
Editor
Joséphine Doublet
Producer
Vincent Canart
Sound
Lucien Lepoutre, Benjamin Grinand
Time to Act! 2022
Filmstill Dead Sea Dying
Dead Sea Dying
Rebecca Zehr, Katharina Rabl
A visually powerful dystopian parable about a society that seems to be paralysed with shock as it faces the imminent destruction of its natural resources.
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Dead Sea Dying

Dead Sea Dying
Rebecca Zehr, Katharina Rabl
Time to Act! 2022
Documentary Film
Germany
2019
30 minutes
English,
Hebrew
Subtitles: 
English

A cinematic journey to the lowest point on earth, in the course of which the universal story of creation, responsibility and doom unfolds. The film was shot at the shores of the Dead Sea, where God once destroyed Sodom and Gomorra to punish the sins of humanity. The waters of the lake have been receding for decades. What’s left are salty crusts, deserted spas and dangerous sinkholes. The ambiguous but never obtrusive montage interweaves the biblical tale of Lot’s wife, who turned into a pillar of salt, with the disconcerting question of why we, as allegedly rational beings, react to the current crises by going into a state of shock instead of taking action.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Rebecca Zehr, Katharina Rabl
Script
Rebecca Zehr, Katharina Rabl
Cinematographer
Manuel Lübbers
Editor
Melanie Jilg
Producer
Rebecca Zehr, Katharina Rabl
Narrator
Mona Vojacek Koper
Retrospective 2023
Filmstill Deadlock
Deadlock
Ferenc Rófusz
“It’s all over.” The worst possible fate for opponents of the regime, underlaid by a reference to “The Unkown Soldier” by The Doors. Radically simple and maximally impressive.
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Deadlock

Holtpont
Ferenc Rófusz
Retrospective 2023
Animated Film
Hungary
1982
4 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

An execution illustrated from the point of view of the condemned man, with a musical reference to the song “The Unknown Soldier” by The Doors. Ferenc Rófusz’s film may not have been a direct statement about the roughly 200 death sentences issued against all manner of opponents of the regime in Hungary after the uprising, but its poignancy speaks for itself.

Katharina Franck, Andreas Kötzing

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ferenc Rófusz
Cinematographer
Zoltán Bacsó, József Gujdár
Editor
Kaim Katalin
Producer
Olga Auguszt
Sound
Zsebényi Béla
Kids DOK 2023
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Dede Is Dead
Philippe Kastner
One day the dachshund lady Dede dies. The little boy mourns her and doesn’t know how to deal with this feeling. In the end he discovers that Dede is dead, but not completely gone.
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Dede Is Dead

Deniska umřela
Philippe Kastner
Kids DOK 2023
Animated Film
Czech Republic
2023
9 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

The dachshund lady Dede has grown old and dies. We are aware that even the most beloved pet won’t live forever. But when it finally happens, it’s hard to take. The boy in this story has trouble dealing with his grief. In the end he discovers that Dede is dead, but not completely gone.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Philippe Kastner
Script
Philippe Kastner
Cinematographer
Philippe Kastner
Editor
Prokop Prčík
Producer
Tomáš Šimon
Sound
Dávid Procházka
Score
Philippe Kastner
Animation
Philippe Kastner
World Sales
Georg Gruber
German Distributor
Georg Gruber
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Deep in Time’s Crevasse

Au fond de la crevasse des temps
Romulus Balazs
International Competition Short Film 2020
Documentary Film
France
2020
29 minutes
French,
Romanian
Subtitles: 
English

How can we visualise the past without perceiving it too much as a historical fact? This film uses a clever combination of archival material and oral history to bring memories of a transgenerative trauma and the associated pain to the surface. What seems to be the past becomes visible in countless points of contact with the present. It’s a simple, touching treatment of the incomprehensible consequences of a historical crime.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Romulus Balazs
Producer
Romulus Balazs
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Delikado

Delikado
Karl Malakunas
Time to Act! 2022
Documentary Film
USA,
UK,
Philippines,
China,
Australia
2022
94 minutes
English,
Filipino
Subtitles: 
English

On the island of Palawan in the Philippine archipelago, more and more rainforest is falling victim to the saws. The clearances have long been illegal but are protected and even initiated by President Duterte’s corrupt regime. Local resistance is forming. A group of courageous men around a determined human rights lawyer decide to react. They sneak into the forests to take away the logging teams’ chainsaws, cars and boats. This exciting film, constructed like a thriller, follows them on their dangerous missions, which they call “meta-legal”. But the price is high: Some of the activists pay for their resistance with their lives.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Karl Malakunas
Cinematographer
Tom Bannigan
Editor
Michael Collins, Eric Daniel Metzgar
Producer
Marty Syjuco, Michael Collins, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala
Score
Nainita Desai
World Sales
Jenny Bohnhoff
Filmstill Deliverance

Deliverance

Descarrego
Joana Claude
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Brazil
2023
10 minutes
Portuguese (Brazil)
Subtitles: 
English

A fairly shabby, dark, three-part wardrobe in a hallway: About ten years have passed since Joana Claude suffered sexual violence when it was assembled. Now the time has come to not only disassemble it. Instead, Joana sets out to destroy the artefact of pain completely. The gesture is made with fervour, tearing out the shelves and doors looks like retroactive resistance, what was pent up finds an outlet. At the same time, the ritual is characterised by gradual escalation: At first the director speaks of her relationship with her parents – a big sweat stain on her back already beginning to show –, in the end everything is in flames. The act is short, it lasts only a few minutes. And yet it allows an intimate insight that acquires a universal, strength-giving character as it unfolds.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Joana Claude
Script
Joana Claude
Cinematographer
Letícia Batista
Editor
João Maria
Producer
Maria Alencar, Joana Claude
Sound
Catharine Pimentel
Sound Design
Nicolau Domingues
Extended Reality: DOK Neuland 2020
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The Droner
Karl Russell
Complete darkness, sensory overload is turned off. Sound takes over the lead and makes stories emerge. They play exclusively in our own heads.
2020
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The Droner

Der Dröhner
Karl Russell
Extended Reality 2020
-
Germany
2020
7 minutes
without dialogue

Complete darkness. Our concentration turns to the spherical sounds around us. Basses wander through our body, triggering images, emotions. The sensory overload which usually has us so firmly in its grip is turned off. Sound – improvised and modulated interactively – takes the lead. Stories emerge. And all this exclusively in our own heads.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Karl Russell
Retrospective 2022
Filmstill Dialogue
Dialogue
Róża Berger-Fiedler
A young officer opens the doors to the National People’s Army and to his close family. While his life is full of variety, others must play second fiddle.
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Dialogue

Dialog
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Retrospective 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1978
27 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“Won’t make it today, hope you don’t mind.” A casual call, the husband will be late again, not to be expected before eight. He is an officer in the National People’s Army, still young, but with a lot of postings under his belt, always accompanied by his wife. She has resigned herself to her fate, while he flourishes enviably in his profession. Róża Berger-Fiedler spends most of the time by his side, following him in brisk cuts from appointment to appointment. Talking is required and demanded constantly: to representatives of the Soviet armed forces, young recruits, subordinates. Words come easy to him, but not everything runs smoothly.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Script
Róża Berger-Fiedler
Cinematographer
Hans-Eberhard Leupold
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Score
Peter Gotthardt
Audience Award Competition 2021
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Dida
Nikola Ilić, Corina Schwingruber Ilić
Nikola lives between two countries and three women: mother, wife and grandmother. When big changes lie ahead, the roles are redistributed. With great charm and humour.
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Dida

Dida
Nikola Ilić, Corina Schwingruber Ilić
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
Switzerland
2021
78 minutes
German,
Serbian
Subtitles: 
English

Nikola is a son, husband and grandson who teams up with his wife Corina to make a film about this. At its centre is his mother Dida who, due to a learning disability, has always been dependent on Nikola’s grandmother and lives with her in a small two-room flat. So far, so good. But Granny is getting old and Dida longs for independence. So it’s up to Nikola, who suddenly finds himself in charge. A charming look at a family in transition.

It’s a constant back and forth, as the couple live in Switzerland while mother Dida and Granny Dobrila live in Belgrade. No sooner have Corina and Nikola stepped out of the bus in one place when they find themselves on the return journey. Or is it the outward journey? Grandmother and daughter are a functional-dysfunctional team – one of them the brain, the other the executing body. The fact that Dida is much more than a shadow of her carer becomes apparent when Dobrila increasingly withdraws into an observer’s position. How can the grandson take over his grandmother’s duties without trading his own independence for that of his mother? The two directors succeed in making a touching film about the inescapable changes in their family without slipping into heaviness, working with lots of humour and a camera that seems to be present under any circumstances.
Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Nikola Ilić, Corina Schwingruber Ilić
Cinematographer
Nikola Ilić, Corina Schwingruber Ilić, Pablo Ferro Živanović
Editor
Myriam Flury
Producer
Franziska Sonder, Karin Koch
Sound
Vladimir Rakić, Ivan Antić
Score
Heidi Happy
World Sales
Raffaella Pontarelli
Winner of: Golden Dove (Audience Competition)
German Competition Short Film 2020
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Due to Legal Reasons This Film Is Called Breaking Bert
Anne Isensee
Most accidents happen at home. Thus the appeal to one’s personal political responsibility comes as a surprise. Randomly reading a Brecht text inspires to take action.
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Due to Legal Reasons This Film Is Called Breaking Bert

Dieser Film heißt aus rechtlichen Gründen Breaking Bert
Anne Isensee
German Competition Short Film 2020
Animated Film
Germany
2020
5 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Most accidents happen at home. Thus a likeable, jazz-loving drawn figure is unprepared for an appeal to his own political responsibility. A random Brecht reading spurs her to do something – at the very least so as not to end up on the wrong track or wrong side of things. Pointed, tidy, and full of humour and affection for human dithering, Anne Isensee questions the illusion of a permanent contradiction in reality.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Anne Isensee
Script
Anne Isensee
Editor
Anne Isensee
Producer
Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Lorena Junghans
Sound
Jonathan Hamann, Irma Heinig
Score
Franziska May
Animation
Anne Isensee
Narrator
Anne Isensee
Animation Perspectives 2023
Filmstill Due to Legal Reasons This Film Is Called Breaking Bert
Due to Legal Reasons This Film Is Called Breaking Bert
Anne Isensee
Most accidents happen at home, sometimes in the form of a text by Brecht that unexpectedly appeals to one’s own political responsibility. Something, anything must be done!
Filmstill Due to Legal Reasons This Film Is Called Breaking Bert

Due to Legal Reasons This Film Is Called Breaking Bert

Dieser Film heißt aus rechtlichen Gründen Breaking Bert
Anne Isensee
Animation Perspectives 2023
Animated Film
Germany
2020
5 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Most accidents happen at home. That is where a jazz-loving drawn figure is unexpectedly re-confronted with a text by Bertolt Brecht that brings an appeal to their own political responsibility. Something at least must be done to avoid ending up on the wrong side. A trenchant, tidy contemplation that shows some understanding for human indecision.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Anne Isensee
Script
Anne Isensee
Editor
Anne Isensee
Producer
Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Lorena Junghans
Sound
Jonathan Hamann, Irma Heinig
Score
Franziska May
Animation
Anne Isensee
Narrator
Anne Isensee