Interviews

Sibiry Konate, from a small village in Burkina Faso, moved to Finland 10 years ago to pursue his dream to be a professional choreographer. For his friends and family back home he has now become a ‘rich European’ who could solve their many problems. But nobody wants to hear the truth, that Sibiry’s life consists of numerous mundane struggles and that money is never sufficient… Producer Ella Ruohonen discusses her new project with BDE.

The Finnish producer/director team of Jouko Aaltonen and Mervi Junkkonen pitched the intriguingly titled The Art of Reindeer Racing at FFA, about a shy young girl who finds a mentor in the form of a champion racer. “It's a story about coming-of-age and is also about the importance of a mentor in a young person's life,” commented director Junkkonen. “It demands an extra courage to come out of your shell and find your own voice ,and this is what my film is about.”

In Bresky’s latest film she tells the story of a group of Sámi artists who , back in the 1970s, formed a collective and became involved in protests against the building of a massive hydroelectric dam which threatened to obliterate their community. “I think I bring a part of Sámi culture, history and heritage and give it to the Sámi people,” Bresky reflects to BDE on one of her main goals in making the documentary.

After rave reviews at Hot Docs, Icelandic filmmaker Gaukur Úlfarsson’s new doc is in Nordic Competition at Nordisk Panorama 2023. He talks to BDE about the “near genius” artist and provocateur Ragnar Kjartansson who, in 2021, had the madcap idea to recreate American soap opera Santa Barbara in Russia. But then the war happened. “Putin didn’t just invade Ukraine. He also invaded this documentary. He invaded everything!” says Úlfarsson.

Now in her early 70s, Sigrun Gunnarsdóttir is one of the most admired artists currently working on the Faroe Islands. The simplicity of her paintings is deceptive. She uses allegory and symbolism in a subtle and disarming way. Co-director Marianna Mørkøre discusses her film, which includes stop-motion animation, with BDE. “We felt that if we were making a different kind of documentary,” she says.

In her directorial debut Walls, award-winning Polish actress Kasia Smutniak enters the red zone, a highly dangerous strip of forest along the Poland/Belarus border and which contains a group of desperate migrants trapped in political limbo. “I’m not a journalist. I’m not a reporter. I’m just a regular citizen that is trying to understand what is going on,” Smutniak tells Business Doc Europe of her motivation to make the film.

Life is Beautiful is the story of a life put on hold by international politics and rigid bureaucracy. The project, helmed by Mohamed Jabaly and based on his own experience of displacement, is being produced by Kristine Ann Skaret for Oslo-based Stray Dogs Norway. Business Doc Europe spoke to Skaret about the documentary, its urgency and its aims.

Piotr Śmiechowski, producer at Polish production company Telemark, discusses the new project December in which the final month of the year brings not only snow and frost to Europe but also migrants who are offered neither gifts nor welcome, and whose presence triggers “a battle between empathy and indifference,” he says. AJB DOC Industry runs 9-11 September.

The new documentary, world-premiering at AJB DOC, concerns two titans of football in the Balkans, specifically Sarajevo - Vahidin and Husref Musemić. “These are two knights who made not only FK Sarajevo famous, but also the city of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, even Yugoslavia,” enthuses co-director Edin Isanović to Business Doc Europe.

Sámi filmmaker Suvi West muses over why she decided to make her latest film Homecoming (Máhccan), a personal story about the return of Sámi artefacts long held in museums, to their homeland. There film is co-directed with Anssi Kömi. “I have been dealing a lot with representation,” she tells BDE. “So, I think this was one of the reasons why it felt so important to cover this story.”