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The journey can be uncomfortable for the viewer at times, and one questions just what the subject, film critic, Kamil Fila is getting out of the exercise, but Martin Mareček’s film, which world-premiered in Ji.hlava, is also absorbing and very watchable.

Seven new feature projects looking for festival premieres, gap financing and distribution partners, and developed in collaboration with top training initiatives from across Europe and international partner markets, were presented during DOK Industry this week. The session was moderated by DOX BOX’s Laura Kloeckner and DAE topper Brigid O’Shea.

Festival to run May 13-22 in cinemas before going online May 25-June 5 2022. The 18th edition, which ran in September 2021, programmed 140 films in cinemas and 128 films online selling a combined total of 134,000 tickets. A new partnership with Łódź FIlm School is one of many initiatives that will strengthen the festival's Industry activities, director Artur Liebhart tells Business Doc Europe.

An affectionate, insightful and at times moving examination of memory and sight, Betula Pendula, world-premiering at Ji.hlava, follows Thomas Wellner (credited as co-director), who lost his sight at childhood, as he revisits childhood locations and starts to vividly recall moments, shapes, colours, smells and other memories from his past.

Visions du Réel Industry has sent out a reminder of its Oct 31 deadline for the 2022 VdR–Development Lab, dedicated to projects from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Submissions are still open for films & projects for Visions du Réel plus Industry 2022, with a first deadline of November 8. The festival runs 7-17 April 2022.

Panel discussions and masterclasses presented by national and international experts will take place 10–14 November, and will provide insight into reviving the film industry in a world shaken and transformed by the pandemic, examine the kind of projects supported by the Sundance Institute, and will underline the steps necessary to complete a debut feature-length doc.

The gentle and respectful underlying sense of humour permeating Russian-born Aleksey Lapin’s playful portrait of a village near the Ukrainian border, where he used to spend every summer as a youngster, helps prevent this hybrid documentary from being cruel or critical. The fact that locals enter into the spirit of the film serves to give it warmth, insight and a helping of generosity.

Family, heritage, religion and identity are playfully but astutely examined in Cléo Cohen’s DOK Leipzig International Competition world-prem May God Be With You (Que Dieu te protège), as the young filmmaker attempts to tackle her identity crisis and try and get a sense of herself within the context of her family story.

Andrei Kutsila’s powerful, moving and engrossing film When Flowers Are Not Silent looks at the aftermath of protests in Belarus against the country’s long-standing leader Alexander Lukashenka - who in 2020 claimed more than 80% of all votes - after the European Union, local opposition and a large part of the population called foul on the election results.

During the opening ceremony of Ji.hlava IDFF 2021 the first awards were handed out. The winner of the Short Joy section, traditionally chosen by DAFilms viewers is Open Mountain by Maria Rojas Arias. APA World Excellence Award was given to French producer Jacques Bidou. The Best Documentary Book Award went to The Taste of Mulberries/Travel Message of the Wizard’s Apprentice by Miloslav Nevrlý.