Interviews

The idea for Swedish Goran Hugo Olsson’s new feature doc, screening Out of Competition, came after he was given access to public TV archives, when he realised just how much material there was about Palestine and Israel. All the time, he says, there were idealists on both sides trying hard to come up with models for co-existence in the region, the director laments to Business Doc Europe. “It’s a takeaway that so many people had these ideas and we could have been in a totally different situation…All the people who are most aggressive, most violent - they have prevailed.”

Filmmakers Blair Young and Carla J Easton set out to explain why pop history has never given Scottish girl bands their full due, despite the list of acts being long and compelling. “Practically every band in the documentary merit their own documentary,” Young points out how difficult it was to fit in all the material they gathered. The filmmakers set their sights high. “We always wanted it to feel like the greatest mixtape your friend had ever given you of music you’ve never heard of - and to represent that visually,” says Easton.

Small kids, small problems. Big kids, big problems. But then again, parents aren't always without fault. For as long as the Kolbas family can remember, father Silvestar has recorded the process of them growing up, warts and all. A decade ago he decided to turn the footage into a movie, continuing to record his family's ongoing evolution. “I believed that it would be a charming, fun and fluffy film, and not that it would turn into a drama. At that time, it did not seem that family relations would become so complicated," the director tells BDE.

Polish master Tomasz Wolski returns with another archive-based doc, this time telling the story of Polish Jew Leopold Trepper, head of the legendary Soviet Red Orchestra and one of the most active spies of the WWII era. “The Big Chief will serve as a compelling narrative delving into the tumultuous and intricate era through which our fathers and grandparents navigated,” says producer Anna Gawlita of the Polish Kijora Film.

Romanian Paula Onet’s new feature doc project tells of Stefania who, after emerging from 15 years of self-induced amnesia, uses dance and imagination to reconnect with her past, with others, and especially with her mother. “I genuinely believe that art cures, art is therapeutic, art is healing,” producer Ada Solomon tells BDE. “And this is the vital element of this project - to engage the audience into a beautiful, almost magical journey of healing with the help of dance and collective movement.”

Hungarian producer Julianna Ugrin discusses her feature doc project Give Love Create, about the ground-breaking scientist and biotech entrepreneur Gyula Dékány, a man dedicated to discovering cures for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. “His journey is marked by a relentless drive that transcends societal expectations and personal boundaries,” Ugrin explains to BDE.

UXO stands for unexploded ordnance, of which 1.6 million tons were dumped in the Baltic Sea during the World Wars. These range from bombs and explosives to mustard gas, TNT, white phosphorus and arsenic. “This film offers a poetic exploration of an entirely unexplored and little-known ecological, historical, economic, and, in a certain sense, philosophical problem,” producer Dagne Vildziunaite tells BDE of her urgent new doc project.

In After the Storm Francesco Rufini looks at amber from an anthropological perspective, examining the everyday lives, struggles and dreams of the people who work with it, but also the rich culture and history of the Lithuanian region where it is found. “Moreover, it tells a story that connects us with nature and our planet, in which people are patiently waiting to take what is offered to them - instead of taking it by force,” producer Valdemar Albert Lovci tells BDE.

Ukrainian Lesia Diak follows commander Serhiy as he returns to his family in Kyiv from the Eastern frontline, even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022. He is deeply traumatised, but so is Diak, who has also had to deal with the break-up of her own relationship with a Ukrainian war veteran. And very soon, Serhiy turns the camera on her. “Dad’s Lullaby is a film about damage, the invisible damage of war, reflected in personal relationships,” the director tells BDE.

In Anna Rubi’s feature doc debut, a group of mothers and caregivers led by the redoubtable Magdi take on the Hungarian state to claim their statutory right to support in the form of care homes for the disabled, in the process securing a dignified future for their sons and daughters after they have passed away. “This is such a unique story. It's my duty to communicate it to an audience,” the director tells BDE. “In a way the story chose me.”