16th Sarajevo Film Festival presents Competition Programme - Documentaries 2010

Canadian documentary maker Peter Wintonick once said: "Making documentaries is like falling in love. The first stage comes in that beautiful moment when you think up an idea for a film. It’s like spying the muse across the room. Love at first sight". Indeed, many films that we'll see in the competition program are labours involving a passionate, long relationship of five or six years, during which makers are filming their characters or just spending time with them in order to understand them better and go deeper into their story. Several films in this year's selection show an intriguing process in finding a proper, engaging cinematic approach to tell life stories that really matter or slices of reality that have an extremely  great significance for the people involved.

What does that show in terms of documentary making in the region? I would say – several positive developments. Firstly, that research is taken very seriously as an important part of making a film and secondly, that film makers succeed to reach foreign or national funds that allow them to have extended research and an elaborate shooting period and post production process, which delivers serious results. (Read more here!)

Competition Programme - Documentaries 2010:

WORLD PREMIERES
 
CYCLES / CIKLUSI
Croatia, 2010, DigiBeta, Colour, 54 min.
Director and screenplay: Vladimir Gojun
Joško is 24 and has a malignant tumor. His best friend is completely healthy and captures the most intimate moments of that exhausting struggle on camera. Sometimes those are not the most convenient moments for Joško, yet sometimes they prove to be the most efficient therapy for both of them.
 
THE FLOOD / POPLAVA
Croatia, 2010, DigiBeta, Colour, 40 min.
Director and screenplay: Goran Dević
Kosinj and neighboring villages, passive parts of Lika are tormented by floods every twenty years or so, due to heavy rains and snow melting. Villages, couple of kilometers away from river Lika are under water. The whole region becomes one huge lake where the only communication mean is by boats. Film follows stories of two volunteers  - during the flood, each of them becomes the only link with the rest of the world for their respective communities, Serbian and Croatian. Slavko, Croatian veteran from the last war considers the flood of biblical proportion to be the God's punishment for all our sins. Bigger the sin, higher the water. Milan, veteran volunteer from the Serbian village is the only one in his area with the small child, and he is thinking aloud as to how everyone expects some help and assistance while there is no one when others need it. Film follows human and inter-religious relations in one small community under completely unusual circumstances.

MILA SEEKING SENIDA / MILA TRAŽI SENIDU
Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia  2010, DigiBeta, Colour, 83 min.
Director and screenplay:  Robert Zuber
Mila Janković (Senida Bećirović) is a girl who went missing in May 1992 when Serb military forces entered into her birth place Caparde, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Around fifty inhabitants, her mother Senada (25) and older sister Sanda (3) among them, went missing or were killed. For sixteen years it was believed that then nine months old Senida lived to the same fate. Memorial to victims missing and killed in the neighboring village Hajvazi with Senida’s name carved in stands as a proof to that belief. Still, Senida’s story continues. In 1993 wee Senida is placed in the Belgrade based family Jankovic, home of Zivko and Zivana. Raised in an affluent, urban and orthodox family, Senida gets a new name- Mila Janković.

THE SEAMSTRESSES / SHIVACKITE
Macedonia, Germany, 2010, HD CAM (HDTV), Colour, 30 min.
Director and screenplay: Biljana Garvanlieva
Talented people like artists or writers who stayed have one choice only: work as seamstresses. Eriela, Beti and Vesna are seamstresses in the small town of Stip. If they wanted to afford one of their handmade blouses, it would cost them a months salary. While the women are fully employed, their men are less fortunate and find themselves unemployed after the collapse of communism. A situation with a lot of potential conflict for the couples. The men find it hard to be dependent financially on their women, when they used to proudly provide for the family. Alongside the textile industry the film tells the parable of the children of Macedonia after the collapse of communism and takes a look behind the curtains of globalization.

TWELVE NEIGHBOURS / ODOS SFAKTIRIAS  
Greece, 2009, Beta Sp, Colour, 52 min.
Director: Marianna Economou
Daphne dances tango on her own, Giannis experiences the end of his 40 year old spice business, Koula dispenses funeral offerings to all, the poet philosophizes. Aziz, the Kurd, loves the old lady opposite, Katina guards a disused scarf factory, Cacoyiannis rehearses Lysistrata, the drug addict would rather die… Twelve very different 'worlds' co exist in a small street in Athens. Despite the dramatic social and economic changes that this underprivileged inner city area undergoes , a sense of neighborhood still exists. The 'different' doesn't seem so threatening and people find ways to accept each other.

YEARS EATEN BY LIONS / GODINE KOJE SU POJELI LAVOVI
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2010, Beta Sp, Colour and B&W, 61 min
Director and screenplay: Boro Kontić
Author of this film has been collecting for years examples of unprofessional journalism during the war in ex-Yugoslavia territory (1991 – 1995), especially those examples speaking of war agitation, propaganda and hate speech. From June 2009 director follows, with the camera, the developments related to announced criminal charges of the Independent Society of Journalists of Serbia against the unknown persons – journalists responsible for the war agitation and propaganda at the Serbian Prosecution Office for war crimes. This is the first actual attempt to raise the issue of responsibility of journalists who were war agitators as a public issue. At the same time, from June 2009 to May 2010, the author visited people throughout the region who were in one way or another included in the war propaganda, trying to find an answer to questions: „Where are the war propaganda journalists today and what are they doing?“ i.e. „Does this question means anything nowadays in these communities“?

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES

HARD LINES / SORSOD BORSOD
Hungary, 2009, HD CAM (HDTV), Colour, 54 min.
Director: Istvan Nagy
Screenplay: Nora Ruszkai
Coming from completely different backgrounds Peti and Robi wouldn't have met at all. They are like fire and water but, after becoming juvenile offenders, they both were sent to the same Juvenile Probation Supervision Office. Taking them as examples, our film examines the effectiveness of a Western European modell of juvenile court sanction in the socially stratified region of Borsod county. Could an institute help if parental responsibility has failed?

KAPITALISM: OUR IMPROVED FORMULA / KAPITALISM: RETETA NOASTRA SECRETA
Romania, France, Belgium, 2010, HD CAM (HDTV), Colour, 74 min.
Director: Alexandru Solomon
Imagine Ceausescu would come back 20 years after he was overthrown and executed. That he would start comparing the state in which he left Romania for us, with the current state of affairs. Imagine the former Communist dictator would understand it is some of his dearest and nearest who built Capitalism and that – generally – Romanians think only about money, cars and consumption. The proposal might seem absurd or funny – and it is. Because how else is post-communist reality? I prefer to see it as a comedy. Anyway, there’s nothing more we can change about it. At least we should know something about our capitalists. And I think Europe should know something about them. Romanian billionaires are now expanding their businesses abroad. After Eastern European countries joined the EU, our secret recipe might be adopted throughout the continent.

KICK OFF
Austria, 2009, Beta Sp, kolor, 94 min.
Director and screenplay: Hüseyin Tabak
The Prater Stadium in Vienna. Thirty thousand spectators are watching Austria play Turkey. At half time there’s a very special item on the programme. Footballers in bright red strip, faces that are unfamiliar to even the keenest fan, jog onto the pitch. “It’s a proud moment for me”, says the stadium announcer, “to present a very special team today. Courageous men who’ve fought their way back from the edge with the help of football. They will be representing Austria at the Homeless Street Soccer World Cup in Australia.”

MARRIED TO THE CAMERA / KAMERAYLA IZDIVAC
Turkey, 2010, Mini DV, Colour, 52 min.
Director: Doga Kilcioglu
This is a film which shows us the unknown faces of TV world through a very popular TV program in Turkey called “Marriage with Esra Erol”. This program aims to marry people in front of the camera. “Married to the Camera” focuses on some characters: a popular presenter who feels very much at ease on stage but prays for good luck in the backstage; a director whispering in her earphone to guide her in order to make the show more lively, more exciting; a peculiar spectator whose job is to criticize the people who come to marry; audience dancing and clapping when ordered; and a young man dancing to hip hop music without ever being in a disco all his life… all looking for a glimpse of hope in the hallways of that huge TV studio. And a lot of characters that seem to be there accidentally : a boxer with his gloves, a belly dancer, a 75 year old grand-dad looking for a wife to live the autumn of his life in a nursing home…

MICA AND THE STORIES AROUND HER / MICA I OKOLNE PRIČE
Serbia, 2010, Mini DV, Colour, 37 min.
Director and screenplay: Milan Nikodijević
Milica Ostojić a.k.a. Mica Trofrtaljka or Mica Davorika a singer from Milićevci near Čačak (Serbia) by singing the song ” Davorike, dajke” became a big star of new underground music in the seventies in former Yugoslavija. Forgotten for years, she returned to the scene in the film ”Preaty village, preaty flame”, saying the historical sentence: “Shut up mate, erotica”.

PARADISE HOTEL / HOTEL RAI
Bulgaria, 2010, Beta Sp, Colour, 55 min.
Director and screenplay: Sophia Tzavella
The young Demir dreams of a wedding. But his tower block at the outskirts of a provincial town in Bulgaria is no place for romance. 25 years ago it had all it takes for panel socialist heaven: from parquet floors to intercom, the coveted hot water central, street lamps, benches under murmuring apple trees. Someone called the place Paradise Hotel – and the name stuck. But with the years the block gradually changed. The parquet disappeared. The water stopped. The lights went off. But each of the 1 500 inhabitants has a plan how to get back the dream of Paradise Lost.

A STAR IS BORN / ZVIJEZDA JE ROĐENA 
Serbia, 2009, HD CAM (HDTV), Colour, 75 min.
Director and screenplay: Vanja Kovačević
This is a film about fulfilling your dreams. This is a film about war against your self and victory. This is a film about music, but above all this is a film about rhythm. Vanja is 29 years old and a professional filmmaker. Playing the drums in a band was her childhood dream - now she makes it come true. Inspired by the DECEMBERISTS' song "I was Meant for the Stage" Vanja issues herself an ultimatum by scheduling a concert: She has nine and half months of tough rehearsal, doubts, hopes, desperation and euphoria.

B&H PREMIERES

THE LONG ROAD THROUGH BALKAN HISTORY / DUGO PUTOVANJE KROZ ISTORIJU, HISTORIJU I POVIJEST BALKANA
Serbia, 2010, Beta Sp, Colour and B&W, 58 min.
Director: Željko Mirković
Screenplay: Dušan Gajić, Željko Mirković
Two writers, Miljenko Jergovic from Croatia and Marko Vidojkovic from Serbia, share the driving in a Yugo, the ultimate symbol of their common past, and drive it from one end to the other of the road once known as the "Highway of Brotherhood and Unity". It is a journey through the past, present and future…from Slovenia to Macedonia, via Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. Our two drivers aim to look at their common past, find out how history has set them apart, ask where the present is leading them - and have a lot of fun while they are about it. As the Yugo dodges lorries, fast cars and queues at endless border controls Miljenko and Marko take a wry look at the state of the Balkans.

MURID / MOURIDIS
Cyprus, 2010, Beta Sp, Colour, 52 min.
Director: Yeliz Shukri
Screenplay: Yeliz Shukri, Simon Bacheli
Murid (The Sheikh's Follower) is the story of 30 year-old American Chris Collins, who as a wayward, rock music-obsessed 15 year-old found himself drawn into a deeply mystical Islamic sect, led by the powerfully charismatic Sheikh Nazim Al Kibrisli (of Cypriot origin). Chris' conversion to Islam is encouraged by his "spiritual shopper" mother. However, his father, an engineer for the US military, who was "almost never at home", has no say in the matter. Chris goes through a dramatic change of character instigated by both the Sheikh and the fellow followers he now spends the majority of his time with. The Sheikh renames him Allahudin, and instructs him to marry an equally young and attractive Fatima, who lives with her parents in Shleiden, a small town in northern Germany. The Sheikh also tells Allahudin that he is "more than just a follower" and implies that he is destined for great things with the sect.

TOGETHER / ZAJEDNO
Croatia, 2009, DigiBeta, Colour, 87 min.
Director and screenplay: Nenad Puhovski
What is it that keeps people together? "Somebody gets on my nerves and I still love them," says Ratka about her lesbian partner Milka. "When I saw that she could clean around the house and iron clothes, I said, that's it!" is Vlado's disarming disclosure about his wife Marija, who, like himself, is mentally handicapped. "I don't know what he sees in me, I'm not a beauty," admits Branka when asked about Kreso's love for her. Director Nenad Puhovski tries to get to the heart of love and desire through five very different stories about people who are, were, or want to be in a relationship.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ION B / LUMEA VAZUTA DE ION B
Romania, 2009, DigiBeta, Colour, 61 min.
Director: Alexander Nanau
The film starts in 2008. Ion B is a 62 year-old homeless man. His bed was a filthy foam mattress at the bottom of a garbage chute, in a block of flats located in a neighbourhood in Bucharest. In exchange for sorting their refuse, the landlords allowed Ion to live in the garbage room. In this “home” Ion sorted through the daily household garbage of the block, avidly reading the books, magazines and newspapers that people threw away. When he was young, Ion dreamed of becoming a film director. In the 70’s he started creating collages that he refers to as “my films”. But they were a secret collection of art he shared only with those people he considered clever enough to enjoy and understand his craft.The film shows the journey and transformation of Ion B from tramp to internationally acclaimed artist Ion Barladeanu.