Davide Abbatescianni

Inspired by the wild popularity of American WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in India, two brothers create their own wrestling league. Assembling a band of aspiring wrestlers, they put at stake money, social acceptance and love, in pursuit of a daring dream. This is the premise of The Dirty Dream, pitched at CPH:DOX 2024 and helmed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh who were Oscar-nominated filmmakers for their 2021 doc Writing with Fire.

At CPH:DOX 2024, BAFTA- and Emmy-nominated director Ursula Macfarlane (The Lost Sons, Untouchable, Charlie Hebdo: 3 Days That Shook Paris) and award-winning producer Mandy Chang pitched their new feature, whose working title is The Second Woman. One of the buzziest projects presented at this year’s edition, it promises to be a radical, provocative documentary built around a legendary 24-hour play starring actor Ruth Wilson.

At CPH:DOX 2024, Business Doc Europe attended the WIP presentation of John Webster’s new doc Burnt Heart. In it, a group of Finnish firefighters form a specialist brigade to prepare for the large wildfires of the future. They travel to Portugal to learn from their elite colleagues already fighting on the frontlines of our climate emergency. He defined Burnt Earth as “a character-driven story about very relatable, ordinary people doing something extraordinary.”

At Forum, director Juan Alvaro Hein pitched his new project, a western documentary revolving around fatherhood and identity as experienced by three Danish-Argentinian gauchos. Hein described his film to the Copenhagen audience as “a simple but significant story of human connection” depicting “the downfall of nature and [of a] culture.”

On March 18, CPH:DOX 2024 hosted the DISCO Network’s Independence Project presentation and workshop, which advocates for independent documentaries across culture, society, and democracy. The 90-minute event, titled “Our Declaration of Independence,” saw the participation of Beadie Finzi, Director of Doc Society, and Jad Abi-Khalil, Executive Director of Lebanon-based cultural association for Arab Cinema Aflamuna (formerly known as Beirut DC).

Italian director Leone Balduzzi discusses his debut feature Sting Like A Bee, about a group of teens growing up in the south of Italy. The project started life as a piece of branded content for Piaggio bikes. “Quite spontaneously, all the topics of the documentary – including sex, AIDS and homosexuality – emerged. These [topics] originated together [with the kids]. To some extent, it’s been like a social experiment,” the filmmaker tells BDE.

Swedish doc debutant Loran Batti talks to BDE about his deeply intimate debut G - 21 Scenes from Gottsunda, set in Uppsala’s notorious titular suburb. In the film, Batti grapples with the desire to move away, but is torn by loyalty to his childhood friends who lead a criminal life. “Speaking about the spiritual and the human aspect, it was so hard for me to keep distant from the film, the project, the place and the subject,” he tells BDE.

In the 1970s the island of Mykonos emerged as a symbol of hope, freedom and self-expression, thus becoming for many a true “Paradise on Earth.” The sweeping transformations of the iconic Greek island take centre stage in Steve Krikris’ new project, presented as a work-in-progress at Agora. “Super Paradise is a project about the transformation of an island,” said Krikris. “It was a hidden gem, back then. Now it’s a major destination for mass tourism.”

At Agora 2024, director Eirini Vourloumis and producer Leonidas Liambeys of Greek outfit Boulis Films presented on stage their new Docs in Progress project. The team billed The Secrets of the Owl as “a portrait of Athens told through the lives of three taxi drivers,” as “they roam the streets but dream of nature, acting and singing.” 

During the 2024 Agora, Sophie Shevardnadze presented her Docs in Progress project, titled Eduard. The debut feature of the Tbilisi-born filmmaker is an unprecedented portrait of Eduard Shevardnadze, a man who held power in Georgia for an extended period of time and couldn’t let go of it without bloodshed. The work is particularly poignant for the director as she is, herself, the granddaughter of the former Georgian leader.