Interviews

“First, I am Salvadorean. I am also a feminist and a documentary director,” Celina Escher establishes her credentials at the start of her interview with Business Doc Europe. In telling the story of Teodora Vásquez, who was sentenced to 30 years in jail after losing her baby when 9 months pregnant, the film highlights the hypocrisy and class prejudice surrounding El Salvador’s abortion laws.

Follow You Home is the closely focused story of two brothers from Afghanistan making a new life for themselves in Denmark. One, Popal, is already firmly established in the country. He has been granted asylum and is thriving in his new home. His younger brother, Darmal, 18, is much less secure. The director explains more to BDE.

We may live in an era of fake news and rapidly declining trust in media sources but Writing With Fire (sold internationally by Autlook and in the US by Submarine) reminds us of just how vital journalism can be in protecting democracy and human rights. The film won the Al Jazeera Balkans Programme Department Jury Award at AJB DOC.

Before he begins a 23-month prison sentence, a Muslim veteran of the war in the Balkans sets a series of tasks for his three sons, each of whom goes through a significant personal evolution over the subsequent two-year period. The film received a Special Mention from the Jury of AJB DOC Competition. Director Francesco Montagner talks to Business Doc Europe.

In his AJB DOC Competition film, Swedish docmaker Magnus Gertten tells a gripping story of waiting, hoping and familial devotion…and betrayal. He explains all to Business Doc Europe.

Bosnian sculptor Adis Elias Fejzić is a man rooted both in the past and the present, dedicated to reviving the Bosnian art of stećak (or tombstone) carving to create contemporary memorials dedicated to universal human values. The film’s co-director Dragan Stanimirović chisels responses to questions posed by Business Doc Europe.

It’s a marriage made on two continents, and a film put together across multiple time zones. A Marriage: Love In The Time Of The Internet (in AJB DOC Competition) is the new documentary by Czech director Kateřina Hager, made in collaboration with Emmy award winning Pakistani director Asad Faruqi. Hager bonds with Business Doc Europe.

Al Jazeera commissioning editor and executive producer Sammy Darbashi talks to Business Doc Europe about The House Prison, a tale of a wall and therefore a tale of separation, for which only three shooting days were authorized by Israeli authorities. The film is selected for the AJB DOC’s competition section.

On the face of it, Wait For Me is about as straightforward as it gets. What could be simpler than filming your parents looking after your grandmother for a weekend? Well, think again. Because grannie, a 96-year-old former 2WW partisan captain, is as sharp as a pin, and the business of caring is one that director Damir Markovina’s mother is finding increasingly stressful. The filmmaker tells more to Business Doc Europe.

Screening in the festival’s new SMART DOC section, Pašić’s film tells the story of a Muslim family that was incarcerated in the Heliodrom and Žepče concentration camps (for males and females respectively) during the Balkans War nearly 30 years ago. The director explains to BDE how such a film is important both as a historical document but also a form of therapy for the individuals who are finally given the opportunity to tell their story.