Five new projects (see below) were pitched August 14 during Cinelink’s Docu Rough Cut Boutique, the regional platform dedicated to upcoming documentaries at advanced editing stage. Organised in three modules (Budapest, Sofia, and Sarajevo) the projects will compete for a slew of cash and in-kind prizes. This year’s crop of projects were from Hungary, Croatia, Ukraine, Romania and Georgia.
“The projects [in 2023] are different not only in story of course, but in style. And that’s what we also want to give – a kind of message to filmmakers,” Docu Rough Cut Boutique head Rada Sešic told Business Doc Europe during the pitch session. “We want to support different formats of documentary cinema…and give a lot of freedom to the filmmakers. They combine fictional parts, animation, archive and everything. So we have a range of styles across these five projects. We also want to support newcomers, new names. So among them are some people who have very little experience, maybe on a national level but not on international level. But they have something to say that is interesting and relevant, and they know how to say it.”
“We take films and projects from the Caucasus, Ukraine, Moldova to the Balkans. The filmmakers are very talented, passionate. They invest so much of their life in each project. There are so many interesting and relevant stories to be told, and the world wants to know the stories, but there was always some kind of problem to give the, the last touch to films in order for them to reach an international audience,” Sešic added.
The five projects compete for the following prizes:
- Avanpost Award in kind post-production services worth €20,000
- CAT&Docs Award €2,000
- HBO Max Award €2,000
- DOK Leipzig Preview Award invitation to present a project at DOK Leipzig 2023
- Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival/ AJB DOC award €2,000
- East Silver Caravan Award in kind distribution service worth €3,500
- CineLink Impact AwardCross-section award for CineLink Work in progress & Docu Rough Cut Boutique Think-Film Impact Production €20,000 in kind
DOC ROUGH CUT BOUTIQUE SELECTIONS 2023
- Your Life Without Me by Anna Rubi. Hungary/Sweden. 75 mins. Producer: Áron Szentpéteri. Production Company: Somnus Film. Co-production company: Cinenic Film. MAGDI (70), a strong-willed but lonely caregiver, faces a daunting reality as she grows older: if she were to pass away, her disabled son, FERI (39), would be left to the inhumane conditions of the Hungarian state care system, and would quickly follow her. Determined to secure a dignified future for Feri, Magdi unites with a group of mothers in the same situation…
- Pavilion 6 by Goran Dević. Croatia. 65 mins. Producer: Hrvoje Osvadić. Production Company: 15th Art Productions. As the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine brings a glimmer of hope through candid conversations with people waiting in line for vaccination, this globally relatable film reveals the disorientation and scepticism that permeate our collective experience. Serving as collective therapy for the post-COVID era, this humorous and humane snapshot of a unique moment in time uncovers the threads of resilience and connection that bind us, reminding us of our common humanity in the face of unprecedented challenges.
- Alice On & Off by Isabela von Tent. Romania. 90 mins. Production Company: Luna Films. Shot over the course of ten years, the story revolves around 16-year-old ALICE, who becomes a mother to ARISTO, a child conceived out of her deep affection for DORIAN, despite their remarkable 35-year age difference. However, their trajectories quickly separate, compelling Alice to make the heart-wrenching choice of parting ways with Dorian and Aristo. Confronted with fear and isolation, Alice seeks refuge and solace by expressing herself through painting, with a video chat camera as her witness. In this process, she not only finds comfort but also rediscovers love. Mirroring her parents’ actions, Alice sporadically appears in Aristo’s life throughout the years, following a similar pattern.
- Dad’s Lullaby by Lesia Diak. Ukraine/Romania. 74 mins. Producers: Lesia Diak, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan. Production companies: FilmWays, DramaFree. Serhiy returns home after serving as commander for 3 years in the war between Ukraine and Russia. He carried the weight and responsibility of other people’s lives. Now he finds himself torn between two battles – one to cope with his past, another to bond with his wife Nadiia and their three sons. The veteran is trying to cherish happy moments with his family. In late evenings he is opening up to the filmmaker about war…Reality starts to crumble when the couple start expecting a baby daughter as the war trauma, overwhelming, forces Serhiy to realize he can’t handle a family life anymore. As a large-scale Russian invasion breaks out, Serhiy is compelled to defend Ukraine on the frontline. “Dad’s Lullaby” is a story about the aftermath of war.
- Adelina: Symphony of Longing and Estrangement by Rati Tsiteladze. Georgia. 90 mins. Producer: Olga Slusareva. Production company: ArtWay Film. An intimate journey into the world and minds of two lost souls, mother and daughter, who have become outcasts, one in the centre of Europe and the other in a tiny village in Georgia.
“I think it’s very important to give a hand to filmmakers from the region because the budgets are very for documentaries. They don’t get support very often for development or for research. It’s hard to make a documentary in Southeast Europe,” Sešic added to BDE.
“So we founded this platform 13 years ago to choose five exquisite projects told with very interesting cinematic language and to be helped over the period of several months with the mentors coming from different countries to really support them, get them to a high quality level and [ready] for the international markets. That’s why, in Sarajevo, we invite decision makers to come here to see that these projects get real visibility.”
