Viktor Portel’s The Investigator
The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival comes to Sarajevo with eight new doc projects for its 2021 Docu Talents from the East programme, surpassing the aggregate figure of 200 amassed over the past 17 years.
Three of this year’s projects are presented by professionals selected for the Czech festival’s EMERGING PRODUCERS programme. These are the Polish Comrades, produced by Anna Gawlita; Don’t Worry Sari (Hungary), produced by Sara Laszlo, and the Bianca Oana-produced Boxing With Myself (Romania).
In Boxing With Myself, directed by Andreiana Mihail, after 15 years of collaboration, a gallerist and one of the pioneers of experimental art within Europe explore their relationship through an honest and blunt narration of the real life of an artist. “Ion Grigorescu is 75 years old and I simply wanted to film him in order to be synchronized with what he creates and what inspires him, to be able to document and archive his ideas and his personal and professional life,” says the director.
In Don’t Worry Sari! a transgenerational psychotherapy comes to life through situative scenes, dreams and archive footage. “After my mother’s death I was left with the task of aborting the process she was put into so I don’t live and pass on this paralyzing anxiety of life,” says director Sári Haragonics. “To be able to do that I needed to ask for external help, because I can’t see the connections anymore from the inside. So, I decided to do all this in a transgenerational psychotherapy. This is what this film is about.”
In her pitch for Comrades, in which three young Italians with an intrinsic belief in communism and its reformative powers must face their own growing pains, Polish director Joanna Janikowska elaborated on the project’s development.
“I met my protagonists in Bologna during my studies. I come from Poland, the post-socialist country, so I was fascinated by those young people who believed in communism, which in my country is not only discredited, but even illegal,” she said.
“By telling their story, I want to speak about the modern world and about many problems shared by many 20-30 year-olds,” she continued of how the ideology her subjects hold to, and the organizations they belong to, fail to solve any of their problems. “My protagonists [are] so young, talented, funny, and often naive…Comrades for me is a universal story about growing up, about first serious life experiences and about disillusionment, but also it’s about the joy of spending time together, even if it’s spent at political rallies and on painting graffiti with caricatures of Western politicians…”
In Freedom Squared, a young space medicine scientist goes to Vostok Station (Antarctica), the coldest point on the planet, to observe how the lack of sunlight affects eyesight. But when left alone at the station, lack of communication sharpens his imagination as well. Are we ready for long space flights spiritually as well as physically?
“Our film is about the meeting of oneself in conditions of prolonged isolation. According to the UN research, in 2020, due to the pandemic, 2.6 billion people were isolated. It’s almost a third of the global population. The isolation caused the escalation of suicides, cases of domestic violence and family conflicts. Obviously, loneliness in isolation has become a serious challenge for humanity,” says director Anastasia Zverkova, before asking, “Is a human-being ready to conquer space not only technically, but also spiritually? Maybe the way to deep space lies through inner space? Definitely, it’s the right time to think about it.”
In Mira Erdevicki’s One More Question (UK/Czech Republic) three UK-based empowered Roma protagonists – a lawyer, a policeman and a student – document the fallout of Brexit in their own personal dramas, filming themselves over the past year just as the legal status of many Roma immigrants to the UK has become uncertain.
Producer Lucie Wenigerova of UK Spring Pictures told during the Sarajevo pitch how the film will mark one of the first depictions of Roma characters who are not on the margins of European societies. “On the contrary, these are empowered individuals and we see them as they empower others. This is an impact documentary. We are making an impact documentary and our aim is to break down the negative stereotypes and the vilification of Roma that is still so prevalent in media everywhere. But there is also a universal story. A story of three brave individuals who have overcome racism in their own lives and who are now determined to help others at a time of adversity.”
Živilė Mičiulytė’s The Cabinet details the work of two investigative journalists segregated from others in an isolated office – as if in a cabinet. Their research examines corruption among politicians and suspicious ties between the Prime Minister and businessmen, as they fight for media freedom which authorities are trying little by little to restrict.
“The concept of post-truth is also important in this work,” comments director Mičiulytė in her notes for the film. “Post-truth society is relating to circumstances in which people respond more to feelings and beliefs than to facts. I believe that strong investigative journalism (when facts are more important than emotions) can help to combat post-truth itself and all politicians who manipulate post-truth facts.”
In Viktor Portel’s The Investigator (pictured), Vladimir Dzuro, a former Czech investigator at the Hague Tribunal embarks on a real and metaphorical journey through the Balkans, visiting places where the war crimes happened nearly 30 years ago. Can justice be brought in from the outside, the film asks.
In his director’s statement, Portel points out how the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia sentenced a mere hundred key actors within the conflict. “However, it naturally also had an indisputable symbolical dimension. With the benefit of hindsight, it is legitimate to ask what this huge international intervention brought us. I am far from challenging the meaningfulness of establishing the Tribunal as such; however, since it was said many times that its goal was to investigate the particular crimes to bring the reconciliation of the individual nations, we need to ask what consequences this gigantic international intervention had and how it recreated the landscape of the multi-ethnic and multinational conflict.”
Svetoslav Draganov’s Snescha and Franz tells the story of the huge love affair between a 19-year-old Bulgarian woman and an 18-year old Austrian man. After they marry, he develops a wander lust, desperate to see the world, while she wants to stay home and raise their growing family. He visits Iran and Pamir, the city of Bamako in Mali and, after buying a house in Austria on credit, sets of on a bicycle tour going through Tibet. But after he leaves for Pakistan, he never comes back…
“I remember I was 10 already, when I learned that Uncle Franz wanted to make a bicycle tour all over China. Mom said that Aunt Snescha with tears in her eyes was trying to convince him not to go. Then, during the years, I found his super 8 mm films and his letter to Snescha and their kids,” notes director Draganov of the Bulgarian/Austrian production. “The centre of the story-line will be the story of Snescha, a woman who was in the shadow of her beloved man and who, after his tragic death, had to learn to see the world in colour again.”
