Nordic Panorama

Following on from their Toxic Playground (2009), directors William Johansson Kalén and Lars Edman return to the Chilean town of Arica to continue their investigation into the poisoning of the town people, caused by Swedish waste dumped there in 1984. But this time the town has lawyers fighting its corner, as the filmmakers explain to Business Doc Europe.

A documentary about the great mass of contradictions that is Eurovision was always going to be a winner. But lob in an Icelandic grenade in the form of the BDSM-wearing anti-capitalist band Hatari who sing of hate, debauchery and the purposelessness of life, and you’ve got gold dust. A Song Called Hate director Anna Hildur talks to Business Doc Europe.

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.