Film Archive

Jahr

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The Crossing

Die Odyssee
Florence Miailhe
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Animated Film
Czech Republic,
France,
Germany
2020
84 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

A country that could be anywhere, not precisely localized and yet everywhere. It’s a beautiful summer’s day when the life of siblings Kyona and Adriel changes forever. Their village is raided, destroyed and set on fire. The whole family is forced to flee and experiences many real and surreal situations on their tracks across a whole continent to finally arrive, perhaps, at a more peaceful place.

At the start of the film, Kyona leafs through a sketchbook, takes stock of her life and talks about the end of her childhood. It is only later that the siblings even realize that they are refugees, that like many others they are making their way to the border for a variety of reasons: natural disasters, the consequences of climate change, war, persecution. The two children come across dangerous and helpful people, are separated and find each other again. This feature-length animation, realized in oil on glass, relies on the rapid interplay between fantasy and reality, taking us, on the one hand, into a fictitious, non-real world. But on the other hand, the places, names, situations remind us of familiar things. They show fleeing, exile, setting out as a universal experience.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Florence Miailhe
Script
Florence Miailhe, Marie Desplechin
Editor
Nassim Gordji Tehrani, Julie Dupré
Producer
Dora Benoussilio
Co-Producer
Luc Camilli, Ralf Kukula, Martin Vandas, Alena Vandasoá
Sound
Florian Marquardt
Score
Andreas Moisa, Philipp Kümpel
Animation
Marta Szymańska, Zuzana Studená, Anna Paděrová, Eva Skurská, Polina Kazak, Lucie Sunková, Urte Zintler, Paola de Sousa, Ewa Łuczków, Anita Brüvere, Aurore Peuffier, David Martin, Marie Juin, Valentine Delqueux, Aline Helmcke
Winner of: Gedanken Aufschluss Prize
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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
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For a Fistful of Fries

Poulet frites
Jean Libon, Yves Hinant
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
France,
Belgium
2021
100 minutes
French,
Urdu,
Bengali,
English
Subtitles: 
English

In Belgium and France, the documentary series “Strip-Tease” is real cult viewing. The creators of the TV production have now used more than twenty-year-old material to make a crime documentary in dirty black and white. The Brussels CID are investigating a murder case: A casual prostitute was killed in her flat. The discovery of a few French fries enables them to track down the perpetrator. True Crime.

The dead woman’s name was Kalima Sissou. Very quickly, the investigation focuses on her former boyfriend Alain, and so, in authentic, raw images, we watch Inspector Lemoine and his colleagues at work: at the crime scene, interrogating witnesses and, naturally, cross-examining the main suspect. Despite the serious character of the events, Jean Libon and Yves Hinant’s offbeat mixture of dark thriller and absurd reality comedy does not lack (black) humour. Shot in a simple cinéma-vérité style, the film does not embellish on what it shows. The creative and conceptual model is, of course, the series “Strip-Tease”, co-developed by Libon in 1985 and widely known for the unconventional, blunt and politically incorrect manner in which it tackled even delicate subjects. “For a Fistful of Fries” continues in this vein and takes us very close to the often incredibly profane action.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jean Libon, Yves Hinant
Editor
Anouk Zivy
Producer
Bertrand Faivre, François Clerc
World Sales
Clémentine Hugot
Audience Award Competition 2020
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Forgotten Lands
Amélie Cabocel
This moving portrait of the filmmaker’s grandmother is also an intelligent reflection of the unique ability of photography to record and pass on echoes of a life lived.
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Forgotten Lands

Les Blanches Terres
Amélie Cabocel
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
France
2019
93 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English, German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

Michelle, 86 years old, is an equally obstinate and touching widow and filmmaker Amélie Cabocel’s grandmother. Michelle lives alone in a big house in a lonely area of Lorraine and is probably completely unaware that with every fibre of her existence she bears witness to a vanishing age. But when Amélie tries to persuade her to take part in a photographic and exhibition project, she resolutely makes it her own.

Michelle spends her leisurely days reading the obituaries in the local weekly regularly and with great concentration, making long phone calls to the few surviving “cousins” and leafing patiently through the carefully guarded photo albums in which her memories are preserved. Beyond her private life, these albums and folders are also an eloquent fund of an everyday culture about to disappear. When Michelle’s granddaughter wants to produce a film and an exhibition based on this material, the old lady catches the bug and, with her headstrong personality, adds fuel to an already challenging enterprise. “Forgotten Lands” is the moving portrait of a grandmother from the familiar perspective of her granddaughter, but also an intelligent reflection on the unique ability of photography to record echoes of a life lived.
Ralph Eue

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Amélie Cabocel
Cinematographer
Gautier Gumpper
Editor
Gautier Gumpper
Producer
Milana Christitch
Sound
Grégory Pernet, Nicolas Rhode, Vivien Roche, Martin Sadoux, Jérémy Vernerey
Score
Pascal Doumange
Audience Award Competition 2021
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Garage, Engines & Men
Claire Simon
In the local garage, two mechanics – one trained and one apprentice superhero of everyday life – keep the engines of a Provençal village community running.
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Garage, Engines & Men

Garage, des moteurs et des hommes
Claire Simon
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
France
2021
71 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

Life without a car has become unthinkable in the country. This also goes for the sleepy village of Claviers in Provence, where Claire Simon went to school and her daughter experienced her first love with the baker’s son. Pensioners and tourists dominate the place today, and the bakery has long since given up. But the heart of the village continues to beat: in the garage. This is where the day-to-day dramas take place, where the weal and woe of its citizens are decided.

Christophe Scalia’s empire is one of men who accept women only as bystanders. Nevertheless, the mechanic and his apprentice, Romaric Rousselle, are quite willing to allow Claire Simon to watch their every move as they handle shock absorbers, spark plugs and brake pads, to listen to their every bantering conversation. They are completely absorbed in their role, turning into superheroes responsible not just for the proper functioning of all the two- and four-wheel vehicles that are so important in the country, but also of the entire village. This is where local politics and family planning, generational conflicts and the economy are discussed, occasionally accompanied by music from Coppola’s “The Godfather” which Christophe has set as his mobile phone ringtone. To make everyday life look more exciting than any fiction through patient observation, that is the miracle of Claire Simon’s documentary work.
Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Claire Simon
Script
Claire Simon
Cinematographer
Claire Simon
Editor
Luc Forveille
Producer
Rebecca Houzel
Sound
Frédéric Buy
Score
Nicolas Repac
Audience Award Competition 2021
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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?
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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
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The Good Soldier

Le bon soldat
Silvina Landsmann
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
France,
Germany,
Israel
2021
88 minutes
English,
Hebrew
Subtitles: 
English, German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

The NGO “Breaking the Silence” – BtS for short – consists of veteran Israeli soldiers who, by collecting personal accounts of their memories, want to raise awareness of everyday military life and the treatment of the population in the Occupied Territories. Director Silvina Landsmann’s film allows us a look behind the scenes of a contested group with a controversial approach in the midst of a conflict that’s been smouldering for more than 70 years.

What makes a good soldier? The ability to execute orders without scruples, or the consideration of higher moral goals when dealing with the enemy? For many members of BtS, the latter was only possible after active military service. In their work, they engage with operations and acts that in retrospect seem wrong to them. They address the Israeli population and foreign media with videos, lectures and city tours. The streets of Hebron are the site of frequent clashes between BtS, Israeli settlers and the army. On the political level, too, the organisation is harshly criticized. They are accused of fabricating stories, damaging Israel’s reputation and playing into the hands of anti-Semites. Landsmann observes with a cinematic, sober eye how the group struggles internally and externally to find its voice.
Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Silvina Landsmann
Cinematographer
Silvina Landsmann
Editor
Tal Shefi
Producer
Silvina Landsmann, Pierre-Olivier Bardet
Co-Producer
Christoph Menardi
Sound
Ami Arad, Guy Barkay, Nadir Fleishman, Zohar Cheppa, Tully Chen