Interviews

Welcome to Jutland, home of the Goths, not the Vikings. In Frigge Fri’s film, set in a small Danish backwater town, three young friends, immensely loyal to one another, like the same music, the same clothes, the same jokes. But then one falls in love with an outsider. Suddenly, the bonds between them threaten to break. Director Fri explains more to BDE.

The young director’s debut feature doc shows the most unlikely of heroes trying to break a world record by playing the shoot ‘em up arcade game Gyruss for 100 hours non-stop, all with the support of his friends. Business Doc Europe thinks of some questions and shoots ‘em Hedegaard’s way.

Imagine you’re a young man living and working in Sweden. Suddenly, you’re told you can’t stay in the country. You are deported almost overnight to Afghanistan where you know no-one, and with no means of escape. This is the fate of Abolfazl, the subject of the new doc by Swedish-based Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Yasaman Sharifmanesh, who speaks to BDE.

“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.