Film Archive

Jahr

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A Black Jesus

A Black Jesus
Luca Lucchesi
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
Germany
2020
92 minutes
English,
French,
Italian
Subtitles: 
English

In Siculiana, a small Sicilian town full of flaking facades, religiosity is lived out as a matter of course. And of course the figure of Jesus Christ worshipped here is black, and always has been. However, some people cannot get used to their dark-skinned neighbours in the refugee camp. The camera accompanies locals and stranded people along their paths, which often lead to the church, but not necessarily together, and draws a kind of map of the city in black-on-black contrasts.

It’s become quiet in Siculiana, a local says. He’s not referring to the loud demonstrations against the Villa Sikania, now converted into a refugee reception camp. And certainly not to the colourful flurry of activity that grips the city every year as the faithful prepare for the feast of the Finding of the Cross. That’s when they hang up the “Benvenuti” sign. But who exactly is welcomed here? The pomp and circumstance of the festivities are at the centre of this filmic portrait of a community in which the alleged common ground is disintegrating into voice and skin tones: between the black people from abroad and the black man on the cross who – according to an elderly lady – was forced to “darken” himself in order to incorporate human sins. Between an aging city stylised to the point of becoming scenery and God’s newly arrived children who promise a future and who could bring new life into the alleys.
Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Luca Lucchesi
Script
Hella Wenders, Luca Lucchesi
Cinematographer
Luca Lucchesi
Editor
Luca Lucchesi, Edoardo Morabito
Producer
Léa Germain, Wim Wenders
Co-Producer
Eric Friedler, Silke Schütze
Sound
Francesco Vitaliti
Score
Roy Paci
World Sales
Christa Auderlitzky
Broadcaster
Eric Friedler
Funder
Nordmedia
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A New Shift

Nová šichta
Jindřich Andrš
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
Czech Republic
2020
90 minutes
Czech
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

For Tomáš the mine is the centre of his life, along with soccer, his kids and the cosy after-work beer. The 44-year-old has worked as a miner for 21 years, until the mine was closed down for economic reasons. Tomáš then re-trains as a coder in the appropriately named educational programme “New Shift”. What he doesn’t know yet is that his new skills alone won’t get him out of the crisis. A film about a tug-of-war with fate and the employment market.

In the constant ups and downs of looking for a job Tomáš shows impressive stamina, despite critical voices around him. His hopeful attitude repeatedly gets him in the local news as a positive example of successful reintegration – long before success is even remotely on the horizon. Jindřich Andrš’ first feature-length film is an equally quiet and thrilling observation. He gently follows his loveable protagonist and manages to present the tricky job situation with dignity and empathy. What emerges clearly is that unemployment and lack of jobs have long ceased to be phenomena that only occur on the fringes of our societies. They are part of a normality that the majority of people must cope with.
Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jindřich Andrš
Script
Jindřich Andrš
Cinematographer
Tomáš Frkal
Editor
Lukáš Janičík
Producer
Miloš Lochman, Augustina Micková
Co-Producer
FAMU, Studio Bystrouška, Czech Television
Sound
Šimon Herrmann
Score
Eliška Cílková
Winner of: Golden Dove (Audience Competition), MDR Film Prize
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Areum Married

Parkkangareum gyeolhonhada
Areum Parkkang
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
South Korea
2019
86 minutes
English,
French,
Korean
Subtitles: 
English

A few years after her marriage to Seongman, Areum decides to go to France to study and finally make the kind of films that are not possible in Korea. Seongman, however, has nothing to do in France and, as he doesn’t understand French, is sliding into depression. A joint project is to help against homesickness. They open the one-table restaurant “Oegil” to provide South Korean expats with culinary memories of home.

Of course, this means that Areum has no time left for filmmaking. When she gets pregnant, massive chaos is looming. After the birth she finally focuses on her studies and Seongman takes over as house husband – a role that overwhelms him so much that he goes on strike. In this challenging everyday life, she must assert herself as a woman, artist, mother and spouse. The feminist narrative determines the point of view from which Areum Parkkang, in this second part of her autobiographical film project, examines her own life, its comedy, tragedy and planning uncertainty. The tone is charming throughout, and the energy of her reflective self-observation is infectious. Areum lets us participate head-on in her back and forth as an independent filmmaker between festival pitchings, homesickness and the baby change unit.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Areum Parkkang
Script
Areum Parkkang, Moonkyung Kim
Cinematographer
Areum Parkkang, Seong Heo
Editor
Areum Parkkang
Producer
Moonkyung Kim
Sound
Nayoon Lim
Score
Lang Lee, De_bong
Animation
Areum Parkkang
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Bulletproof

Bulletproof
Todd Chandler
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
USA
2020
83 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

At American high schools, the threat of school shootings has become omnipresent. In addition to regular drills of how to act in case of assault, security forces and metal detectors are now part of everyday life in the schools. In the name of security, a whole industry is busy developing bulletproof hoodies and blackboards, arming teachers and installing ever more surveillance devices. Is this prevention? Or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

While cheerleaders rehearse, basketball teams play and homecoming queens are crowned, adults in the background prepare for the emergency: What to do if a school is attacked – from inside or outside? Behaviour and meditation training to prevent violence in the first place are one thing. More money, however, is spent on armament. The so-called security industry has long entered the school market. Todd Chandler’s restrained observation takes a look at the arms and service industries and the media, at social psychologists as well as teachers. He cleverly focuses not on individual schools and incidents but rather on how a whole system responds to a threat.
Marie Kloos

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Todd Chandler
Cinematographer
Emily Topper
Editor
Todd Chandler, Shannon Kennedy
Producer
Danielle Varga, Todd Chandler
Sound
Ryan Billia
Score
Troy Herion
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)
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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
Audience Award Competition 2020
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A Lonely City
Nicola Graef
There’s no better place for a lonely life than Berlin. A portrait of a city with its diverse inhabitants, which strikes the right notes far away from any hullabaloo.
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A Lonely City

Eine einsame Stadt
Nicola Graef
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
Germany
2019
90 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Loneliness has many faces in Berlin. Young and old are afflicted by it, men, women, single and married people. It’s normal. Nonetheless there’s a stigma attached to this mixture of emotions that makes sufferers stay silent. Director Nicola Graef tries a different approach in her film: She lets the lonely inhabitants of the capital city speak, listens. The result is varied and quite often surprising.

Berlin is a city for extroverts, Tessa thinks. The young woman’s mind, however, is on the opposite site. The consequence is loneliness and that “is quite draining”, she says. 85-year-old Efraim, a photographer and flaneur, has found a confident way to deal with those nagging feelings: He’s “not the type for marriage” anyway. Artist Thomas, on the other hand, suffers from the end of a long-term love affair and wonders whether “the icing sugar is all kissed away by the age of 50”, but also says: “There is a market for everything, even for broken cars.” Poised and affectionate, we move through the expanses of the city in Graef’s film, where stories sprout like weeds between the cobblestones. From the corner pub to the artist’s studio, from the parks to the sports club and, time and again, into the silent flats – she encounters her witnesses to emptiness everywhere. Their reports are moving, but they never make us feel hopeless.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Nicola Graef
Cinematographer
Alexander Rott, Philip Koepsell
Editor
Kai Minierski
Producer
Susanne Brand, Nicola Graef
Co-Producer
ARTE Deutschland TV GmbH, SWR Südwestrundfunk
Sound
Simon Hückstädt, Matthias Kreitschmann, Carsten Kramer, Luc Brocker, Alexey Fedorov, Oliver Drüppel, Zora Butzke
Score
George Kochbeck
Commissioning Editor
Gudrun Hanke-El Ghomri, Catherine Le Goff
Audience Award Competition 2020
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Faith and Branko
Catherine Harte
Faith loves music and Branko loves Faith. The two set out on a turbulent journey as a music duo and married couple. But alas, the first cracks in their romantic bliss soon appear.
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Faith and Branko

Faith and Branko
Catherine Harte
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
Serbia,
UK
2020
82 minutes
English,
Serbian
Subtitles: 
English

It begins like a classic “girl meets boy” story: Faith, a charismatic accordion player from Great Britain, travels to Serbia to learn about Roma folk music. She meets the violinist Branko, who is instantly smitten. They quickly marry and form a band. But with musical success their love dwindles. A turbulent story of expectations, disappointments and the dream of happiness.

Faith enters into Branko’s life in an almost disturbingly casual way. She doesn’t seem to be bothered by the new country, the sceptical family and the cultural differences. Branko on the other hand adores his new wife and boldly enters a new world. They are a big hit as a duo – travelling around the world and playing bigger and bigger venues. But while Faith feels as happy as a lark, Branko seems like an uprooted tree. Instead of dealing with their differences they keep moving on rapidly, until one ruthless step follows the next. Catherine Harte has produced a captivating and very intimate portrait of this contradictory couple. Relentlessly close and yet compassionate, the film develops an impressive pull you don’t want to resist.
Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Catherine Harte
Cinematographer
Catherine Harte
Editor
Dragan Von Petrovic, Ljubodrag Starovlah
Producer
Snezana Van Houwelingen, Catherine Harte
Sound
Zoran Maksimovic
Funder
Film Center Serbia
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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
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What Remains on the Way

Lo que queda en el camino
Jakob Krese, Danilo do Carmo
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
Brazil,
Germany,
Mexico
2021
93 minutes
Spanish
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

In 2018, thousands of people from Latin America set out together, fleeing from a lack of perspective, poverty and violence to the U.S. Among them Lilian, a single mother from Guatemala, who found the courage to leave her violent husband. The caravan was her only chance to achieve this act of strength. Nevertheless: 4,000 kilometres with four small children, walking, hitchhiking and travelling north on “La Bestia”, the freight train, are still extremely perilous.

The film contrasts the media coverage with a sensitive view that deliberately focuses on one family. It registers inconceivable hardships, but also great helpfulness, Lilian’s power of endurance and her ability to make the exertions seem like an adventure trip for her children – at least occasionally. Despite this lightness, though, the struggle remains as present as the fact that the US is simultaneously building a wall to prevent anyone from crossing the border. When Lilian and her children reach the border after weeks of fear, she breaks down. Suddenly the question arises whether her goal is really this rich country. Isn’t it rather about finally standing up to male dominance and traditional gender roles? It’s very obvious that one thing remained on Lilian’s arduous way: Fear has yielded to a new self-confidence.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jakob Krese, Danilo do Carmo
Cinematographer
Arne Büttner, Danilo do Carmo
Editor
Sofia A. Machado
Producer
Annika Mayer
Co-Producer
Bruna Epiphanio
Winner of: Honourable Mention (in the frames of the DEFA Sponsoring Prize)
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
Audience Award Competition 2020
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Robin’s Hood
Jasmin Baumgartner
Robin, president of the Vienna football club RSV, loves his “dirty rotten bunch”. Passion is his recipe. That goes for moral courage, discipline and parties.
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Robin’s Hood

Robin’s Hood
Jasmin Baumgartner
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
Austria
2020
93 minutes
English,
German,
Serbian
Subtitles: 
German

Fluctuation at the Vienna football club RSV is high. Coach Robin, who once hosted parties at the Prater sauna, sees his club as a political project, too: Players from various birth nations come together in his “dirty rotten bunch”. Athletic highlights are quite often followed by relegation, discipline and excess are cheek by jowl at RSV. Director Jasmin Baumgartner has followed Robin and his team over several years.

“My players are like my kids”, Robin says. And kids can be exhausting. They are caught with joints by the police on their way to the Slovenian training camp or prefer to go to the casino instead of completing their training units. But even president Robin isn’t averse to parties. On the sidelines of the amateur league it can get boozy and often rough: Opposing fans insult and discriminate against black athletes in particular. A behaviour for which Robin has no patience at all. He sees it this way: “If we integrate the super sweet Muslim fraction in our club, with our Serbian nationalists, uneducated Austrians and our Muslim-hating Congolese players, then we’ll not only be promoted to the fourth division. We’ll even stop the rise of the right-wing nationalists.”
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jasmin Baumgartner
Cinematographer
Anna Hawliczek, Olga Kosanovic
Editor
Matthias Writze
Producer
Jasmin Baumgartner
Co-Producer
Dominic Spitaler
Score
Nvie Motho
Winner of: Gedanken Aufschluss Prize
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The Balcony Movie

Film balkonowy
Paweł Łoziński
Competition for the Audience Award 2021
Documentary Film
Poland
2021
100 minutes
Polish,
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

The whole world, captured on a somewhat dreary pavement in Warsaw. For two years, director Paweł Łoziński stood on the balcony of his flat with his camera and watched the people passing below from up there. The ones he saw and persuaded to talk are young and old, neighbours or simply passers-by. The filmmaker addresses them, asks questions, listens and creates a space for conversations that rarely happen between strangers.

How do passers-by react when they are filmed from a balcony and addressed, stopped from above? Do they walk on, shaking their heads? Or are they willing to engage in dialogue? This place and this staged opportunity seem perfect for making a film that reflects its own premises, because apparently people feel a rather strong need to talk about themselves from this unusual position. Whether hurrying or strolling, happy or thoughtful, posing or quite natural: Each of the participants who happen to come into view reveals something special. Every encounter, however unpremeditated, turns out to be unique. Some expectations of a certain type of person are disappointed, because hardly anyone can be pigeonholed. Łoziński’s experiment invites us to pause, to wait until the world steps into the camera’s field of view.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Paweł Łoziński
Script
Paweł Łoziński
Cinematographer
Paweł Łoziński
Editor
Paweł Łoziński, Piasek & Wójcik
Producer
Paweł Łoziński, Agnieszka Mankiewicz, Izabela Lopuch
Sound
Paweł Łoziński, Franciszek Kozłowski
Score
Jan Duszyński
World Sales
Katarzyna Wilk
Winner of: MDR Film Prize