Against the Wind by Tatyana Soboleva
Ji.hlava IDFF has announced the European projects for its New Visions Forum 2021, the financing, co-production and networking event “dedicated to supporting European documentary production in its diversity and creativity.” Eleven projects in development and ten projects in (post-)production including feature docs, fiction films with doc aspects, hybrid/experimental films, cinema expanded, VR/AR and live docs.
The event will take place both online and in-person on October 28 (projects in development) and October 29 (projects in production and post-production) during the 25th Ji.hlava IDFF. On the same dates the festival will present the New Visions Forum: US, for Stateside projects.
“In our selection process, we focused on the artistic vision of the project, its originality and author-driven character, visual style and fresh spirit, international potential in terms of financing and development of collaboration, openness for sharing the project with other partners, as well as diverse modes of distribution,” say event organisers.
Selected projects will be presented by the director-producer pair along with a preview of the upcoming film. The presenters will be provided industry accreditations for the 25th Jihlava IDFF and will be invited to join the festival’s Matchmaking Accelerator featuring several hundred accredited film professionals – festival representatives, curators, distributors, sales agents, commissioning editors and journalists from across the world, confirm the festival.
The Ji.hlava New Visions Forum will be accompany the New Visions 2021 Market (October 27–30, 2021). The projects for the Market will also be selected from received submissions and also have an opportunity to take part in the Ji.hlava Matchmaking Accelerator.
PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT
Against the Wind (doc)
Director/producer: Tatyana Soboleva. Production Company: Dostoevsky Dok. Runtime: 75’. Country: Russia. Estimated date of premiere: September 6, 2023. Synopsis: The Nogai people are descendants of the Golden Horde who are living in the Southern Caucasus of Russia. They experience issues of language loss, identity loss, and lately, an ecological disaster. Formerly lush and green, today the Nogai steppe is turning into a desert. In the autumn, the team led by a simple woman named Gulfira goes deep into the new desert for several months. Every day they walk for many kilometres under the icy, sandy wind and plant branches of Juzgun – a shrub with long roots that can stop the sand. Will Gulfira survive in this battle for the homeland, or will the Nogai land disappear along with its people?
Beautiful Void (doc, experimental, cinema expanded)
Director: Andris Gauja. Producers: Andris Gauja, Elza Gauja. Production Company: Riverbed. Runtime: 60’. Countries: Latvia, Estonia. Estimated date of premiere: Spring 2024. Synopsis: Several very different characters – a pioneering physicist, an acclaimed minimalist composer, an intensive care doctor and a crematorium director – each in their own way find a strikingly similar answer to the cliché question: what is the universe made of? According to them, the ultimate source of reality is essentially empty space, which spontaneously manifests what we call matter in a magical display.
Intruders (doc)
Director: David Krøyer. Producer: Thor Hampus Bank. Production Company: GotFat Productions. Runtime: 85’. Country: Denmark. Estimated date of premiere: November 1, 2022. Synopsis: By following the battles of five different people, all battling different invasive species in their own local environments, we get to know them, the unwelcome species, and the landscape that they want to protect from uncontrolled evolution. Nature is an open battlefield, and these people know it. They will do whatever it takes to protect the landscape from the intruders. This film is a documentation of different hunts for different invasive species, a study of what it means to be invasive, and a modern perspective on nature in the Anthropocene era.
It’s Not Your Fault (hybrid)
Director: Paula Ďurinová. Producer: Matej Sotník. Production Company: GUČA. Runtime: 80’. Countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany. Estimated date of premiere: November 11, 2023. Synopsis: An essay on collective anxiety and the problems triggered by life in a fast and performance-oriented society. Through young Eliana, the director’s alter ego, we follow the story of burnout, work retraining and healing of a human soul using radical forms of therapeutic strategies. Everyday life blends into the reality of dream spaces – “emotional incubators”, where the individual becomes collective. And the film becomes a part of the personal journey of the author as well as a hero of the story. We are situated in Berlin, representing the generic and business area of metropolitan cities in Europe.
Kafila (doc)
Director/producer: Isaac Stillwell. Production Company: Kolophon. Runtime: 80’. Countries: France, Morocco. Estimated date of premiere: September 1, 2023. Synopsis: Kafila is an expedition: a journey from the edges of the desert to the Atlas Mountains. With the Library of Naciria a collective of artists and scientists discover an entry point into a network of interconnecting stories present in the landscape. Journeying through the remains of former civilisations, the experience of the film connects a voyage on foot over the course of several months, and encounters in the present moment, with the stories of the library. We are following the paths of travellers in time: an investigation into seeing how societies change, transform and adapt.
Listening Centre (doc)
Director: Carlotta Berti. Producer: Michelangelo Ferrara. Production Company: R For REAL. Runtime: 90’. Country: Italy. Estimated date of premiere: June 1, 2023. Synopsis: Never leaving the ex-convent in which the Listening Centre is based, the camera follows listening sessions, internal meetings, and the training in listening of new volunteers. The film focuses on the power of listening as a social, spiritual and artistic act – an antidote to the current pandemic of loneliness. The Centre’s visitors, who want to feel seen, welcome the camera as a way to reinforce the acceptance they seek. The listening sessions reveal a shocking and yet relatable social picture, made of voices that are not easily accessed, and that would otherwise remain unheard.
Nistru. The Irreversible Flow of Life (doc, VR+AR+Live docs)
Director: Iurie Tocmas. Producer: Ieva Ūbele. Production Company: Baltic Balkan Productions. Runtime: 90’/52’. Countries: Latvia, Moldova. Estimated date of premiere: January 10, 2024. Synopsis: The river Nistru has been the unifying element of nations residing on its banks for thousands of years. Yet recently it has also become a border within a frozen conflict between Moldova and an unrecognised breakaway state – Transnistria. The future of an entire nation depends on whether the people residing on the riverbanks will learn to see how the state of the river reflects their lives. In the film, the river Nistru serves as a metaphor for both time and fate, the mirror of human life and self-reflection and finally as a magic talisman, which is an indispensable part of mythical journeys.
One Of Us (doc)
Director: Rachel Close. Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin. Production Company: Manifest Film. Runtime: 90’. Country: Romania. Estimated date of premiere: January 15, 2024. Synopsis: 30 years on, having been adopted by a Canadian couple, Mihaela returns to Romania in search of her birth family. We come to learn that Mihaela’s story is connected in some way to the filmmaker, Rachel. In this participatory documentary, psychological transference between subject and filmmaker is explored and utilised as a storytelling device. Where does one woman’s narrative end and the other’s begin? The line is not always clear. The film will dance between subjective and objective realities and illuminate the cathartic potential of self-authorship.
The Soil of the Namib (VR + AR + Live doc)
Director: Christian Zipfel. Producer: Alina Schäfers. Production Company: TIME PRINTS. Runtime: 25’. Country: Germany. Estimated date of premiere: August 20, 2022. Synopsis: Narrowness with no way to escape. Predominant darkness. Only a few small lights cast shadows and slightly enlighten the surroundings. Shattering noises of machines and tools in use. Dust is in the thin air, and rocks keep coming loose. The atmosphere is menacing, suspenseful and at the same time fascinating. Like moles, the small miners are digging ever deeper into the mountains. The soil of the Namib is an essayistic 360° documentary in three chapters about illegal mining in Namibia, contextualized with historic colonialism and contemporary economic globalization.
Crossed the Desert with a Gun in Hand (doc, hybrid)
Director: Laurence Garret. Producers: Clémentine Mourão-Ferreira, Christophe Gougeon. Production Company: so-cle, Acqua alta. Runtime: 85’. Countries: France, Italy, Mexico. Estimated date of premiere: March 4, 2023. Synopsis: This is the story of a man who, in his late 30s, has already lived several lives. Rock band singer in Salt Lake City. Dealer. Former Marine in Iraq. Discharged from the Army before leaving for Afghanistan. Terrorism suspect. Hitman for the Tijuana cartels. On the verge of suicide. He is now finishing law school at San Diego University. Daniel Torres shares his adventures with his friend Erasmo in a road movie from Utah National Park to the Mexican frontier. An intimate story, funny and sensitive, far from the clichés of virility. A documentary epic shot like a fiction film.
Youth (fiction with documentary aspects, hybrid)
Director: Mariana Gaivão. Producer: Pedro Fernandes Duarte. Production Company: Primeira Idade. Runtime: 80’. Countries: Portugal, Germany, France, Czech Republic. Estimated date of premiere: July 1, 2023. Synopsis: Matias is a Portuguese teenager growing up in Lisbon, with no connection to the German nationality of his father. In the summer of his 16th birthday, Matias finds the memories of his grandfather Gerald, in the form of an old photo album titled “Jugend” (“Youth”). In one of the most striking photos, Gerald, then also 16, wears a Nazi uniform, and looks disturbingly like Matias. Over the 80 years that separate them, a bridge emerges, triggering a long journey across Europe, itself haunted by the amnesiac resurgence of nationalism, echoing the too recent history of the old continent.
PROJECTS IN PRODUCTION & POSTPRODUCTION
Guest Worker (doc)
Director: Matej Bobrik. Producer: Agnieszka Skulski. Production Company: Koi Studio. Runtime: 75’. Country: Poland. Estimated date of premiere: November 11, 2023. Synopsis: Nikesh is 13 years old and came to Poland with his parents, Shiv and Shushila, a few years ago in search of work and a better life. Nikesh is already building his life in Warsaw – here, he has friends and lives like a young European. His dad wants to raise his son as a Nepalese and does everything he can to provide for the family. As a result, Shiv’s life comes down to working several jobs and constant confrontations with his son. Shiv is torn between his wife, who cannot imagine growing old in Poland, and his son, who cannot imagine growing up in Nepal.
Hard Exit (doc)
Director: Carmen Torres. Producer: Marta Andreu. Production Company: Walden. Runtime: 79’. Estimated date of premiere: February 10, 2022. Country: Spain. Synopsis: Tota has fallen in love with Mana, a younger woman who believes in and practices open relationships, which is a new world for Tota, challenging to handle. They are at the height of their romance when, suddenly, Mana leaves her. In the film, Tota is going through her mourning process. In the meantime, the filmmaker-character relationship unveils a deep, loving long-lasting friendship between us. Hard Exit is about lesbianism and feminism, transforming relationships, love, broken hearts and remaining friendships. It is about the idea that life goes on and, in the end, somehow everything is overcome.
Hyperion Has Escaped (fiction with documentary aspects, hybrid)
Director: Arnaud Gerber. Producer: Arnaud Gerber. Production Company: Arnaud Gerber. Runtime: 110’. Estimated date of premiere: February 3, 2022. Country: Germany. Synopsis: Based on Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion, the Hermit in Greece, this is a filmic variation about our times, their battles, disillusions and remaining hopes. Mixing fiction, web footage of demos around the world and documentary, Hyperion Has Escaped reinterprets a mythical figure (Hyperion) and launches him into our reality in order to confront him with its madness and violence. Beginning as an elegy, making many detours in the absurd and ending almost as a child’s joke about eternity, it is also an invitation to build a new alliance with nature.
MARA (doc, hybrid)
Director: Sasha Kulak. Producers: Louis Beaudemont, Ksenia Gorenstein. Production Company: Les Steppes Productions. Runtime: 62’. Estimated date of premiere: January 2021. Genre: Countries: Belarus, France, UK. Synopsis: Mara is a hybrid documentary essay that takes us on a journey into the fear that took over Belarus. The narrative invites the viewer to join Mara while she watches the story unfold. Haunted by the scenes on the street, she is caught between facing her reality and escaping into her dreams. Mara guides us through the events that changed the life of thousands of women like her. To impersonate this never-ending nightmare, Ira, a young woman, dresses as Mara – a female spirit in Slavic culture who comes to people in their sleep to bring them dreams or nightmares.
Modern Flat (doc, cinema expanded)
Director: Dainius Liškevičius. Producer: Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė. Production Company: Just a moment. Runtime: 86’. Estimated date of premiere: February 28, 2022. Country: Lithuania. Synopsis: The story of the film is based on the artist’s home videos and documentary material covering a decade of his creative work. The author presents his apartment as a living space and the main character of the film. By engaging his entire family in the project, he creates a new micro-social model of his home, where they all act according to self-imposed rules. Events that take place are both casual and creative: the living space becomes a stage, routine becomes performance and the other way round, art projects become family entertainment, as well as a radical transformation of the home.
Necropolis (doc)
Director: Keren Alexander. Producers: Kobi Mizrahi, Niklas Kullström. Production Company: KM Productions, Hillstream Pictures. Runtime: 75’. Estimated date of premiere: February 2, 2023. Countries: Israel, Finland. Synopsis: Necropolis follows the construction of massive underground burial tunnels excavated deep under the biggest Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. This ambitious construction site will serve as background to our cinematic journey; we’ll observe sorrowful mourners, Palestinian builders, and Ultra-Orthodox morticians roaming around the spectacular monument. The lively collage they create together shows the eternal struggle of Jerusalem between the high and the low, progress and tradition, manual labour, and sacred work. This is a film about a city of contrasts, about death and the life surrounding it.
Taurophilia (fiction with doc aspects, experimental, short)
Director: Francesco Montagner. Producer: Veronika Kührová. Production Company: Analog Vision. Runtime: 15’. Estimated date of premiere: September 1, 2022. Countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia. Synopsis: Through rhythmic re-composition of fragmented images, semi-surreal situations are explored in a documentary style of observation of a man’s obsession with a powerful animal, the black horned bull, and the Spanish process of taxidermy through which he attempts to embody its beauty and strength, turning into a Minotaur. The subdued basement space in which the man meticulously studies the motionless flesh of the animal is preceded by a sunlit, empty arena in Spain, the stage in which the bull is presented in its full glory before facing man.
The Cabinet (doc)
Director: Živilė Mičiulytė. Producer: Stasys Baltakis. Production Company: Film Jam. Runtime: 60’. Estimated date of premiere: December 1, 2021. Country: Lithuania. Synopsis: In Lithuania, two investigative journalists work segregated from others in an isolated office as if in a cabinet. This cabinet is the only location in the film. It seems that they are in the cabinet, like they are closed, separated from others, even from the other journalists. It’s a slow and minimalistic film. It’s not a film about one specific journalistic research; this film presents a monotonous and nervous atmosphere in this cabinet. The boundaries between truth and falsehood begin to overlap, journalists experience the betrayal of a colleague, the office becomes sweltering and unpleasant.
The Visit and a Secret Garden (doc)
Director: Irene M. Borrego. Producers: Irene M. Borrego, Renata Sancho, Mariangela Mondolo-Burghard. Production Company: 59 en Conserva, Cedro Plátano, Lda. Runtime: 65’. Estimated date of premiere: February 2022. Countries: Spain, Portugal. Synopsis: Little is known about the figure of Isabel Santaló, an old artist, today fallen into oblivion. But occasionally some visitors come to her flat. Through them and the voice of Antonio López (Dream of Light, Víctor Erice), the only painter who remembers her, we shape a multifaceted film. This is a cinematic portrait, which well into the film takes a surprising turn. A film that reflects on memory and oblivion, art and the creative process; posing the question of what it means to be an artist and a woman.
Who Is Missing Today? (doc)
Director: Květa Přibylová. Producer: Jitka Kotrlová. Production Company: Frame Films. Runtime: 70’. Estimated date of premiere: September 30, 2023. Country: Czech Republic. Synopsis: Lively situations, concentrated observations, authentic diaries from scientific expeditions and animations create a distinctive feature-length documentary about the fragile and vital links between man, birds, and the landscape. Through the renowned ornithologist Luboš Peške, we observe the changes in these links that affect the life and death of birds – on the level of individuals, populations, and species. Tension emerges between human capability to have a relationship only with one particular individual and the fact that for survival of the species, the individual means nothing.
