Interviews

It is one of those songs that has entered the global consciousness, part holy/part horny (to paraphrase a key character in the film) and owned by everyone. Both a virus and a modern prayer, soaring heavenward when sung by some, or rendered vulgar when used to gain popular acclaim (or indeed sell a Hollywood movie). Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine discuss Leonard Cohen and his extraordinary song with BDE.

On a trip to the Balkans, Amsterdam-based filmmaker Stefan Pavlovic encountered a local fisherman, Zdravko, by a lake. Their friendship would become the nucleus of his first feature film Looking for Horses, which won the Special Jury Award in Sarajevo Doc Competition.

Filmmaker Vlad Petri discusses his powerful and visually enthralling hybrid short doc about the trauma of war, as suffered by a young Romanian soldier serving in Afghanistan and the wounded Afghan child that he encounters. The film received a Sarajevo Documentary Competition Special Jury Mention during the award ceremony on August 19.

Of course, Turkish siblings Zeynep and Mahmut are not ‘terrible’ at all. They’re smart, articulate and ambitious, but denied at each turn by religious and societal conservatism. Brother Ahmet, who returned to the family house after a 20-year absence, chronicles their lives as they seek independence and/or emancipation. He explains more to BDE. (Human Rights Award, Sarajevo Doc Comp)

By any standards, Sofija Sonja Vujanović led a remarkable life. Sonja was a Marxist partisan fighter in Yugoslavia during WW2. She was captured and tortured by the Nazis and ended up as a political prisoner in Auschwitz. Somehow, she survived. The director explains more to Business Doc Europe. (Winner: Heart of Sarajevo Best Doc)

In her beautiful and lyrical short documentary set on a remote Adriatic island, Croatian visual artist Tanja Deman delivers a wake-up call to a world that continues to sleepwalk towards environmental catastrophe caused by climate change. The filmmaker talks to Business Doc Europe.

At first sight, Szani, Tina and Emese, the three young women who together make up the self-monikered Divas gang, may seem vacuous and little deserving of analysis. But beneath the make-up, the social media chit chat and myriad fears about appearance lie three human souls whose stories are both vital and worthy of telling. Director Máté Kőrösi explains to BDE.

When award-winning Bosnian filmmaker Srđan Šarenac heard about a prison in the tiny Brazilian city of Pirajui which organizes beauty contests for its female inmates, he was determined that this would be his next project, and was equally determined to use it to campaign for progressive prison reform across Europe. He explains more to Business Doc Europe.

For Polish director Paweł Łoziński, what started off as mere curiosity turned into an obsession. For two and half years he interviewed passers-by from his balcony, discussing their problems, asking them what they thought was the meaning of life, inviting them to be a hero in his film. His resulting doc world-premiered this week in Locarno Semaine de la critique.

Once again, documentaries are in the ascendant at the 27th Sarajevo FF running August 13-20. Core to the doc offer is a competition of 16 films, eight of which are world prems, and 16 new projects from Central, Eastern and South-east Europe, chosen for their wide international appeal and distribution potential. Industry manager Maša Marković explains the doc component to BDE.