The European Competition 2016

Production: ES 2015

The film is set in Spain in 1975. After a long dictatorship comes the transition to democracy. During his televised holiday message to the nation, the king of Spain unexpectedly expresses his most personal thoughts. Antonio Antón has created a very inventive and at the same time politically explosive short film, which is going to surprise any viewer. 

Production: SE 2016

100 years ago the great war broke out, bringing death, suffering, and sorrow. Soldiers, weapons, and explosives – we know this perfectly well. The war, however, also brought something completely different, something not talked about at all. Swedish director Freja Andersson has made a visually compelling documentary with elements of experimental cinema, and has shared an entirely different perspective on the issues of war. A year ago her film “Stories From the Wars” was presented at Szczecin European Film Festival.

Production: BE 2016

“Do you remember that night? The empty glasses, empty bottles, the broken glasses, the blown up buildings. People yelling, people on the floor, while you were there sitting in your damned living room. Does that tell you something? Everything started with a dream, a dream of oblivion. They dreamt of getting out of their bodies, to reach an eternal light, in an absolute well-being.” Antonin Blanc has created an oneiric documentary film that borders on the experimental. The film’s screening at this year’s Szczecin Film Festival will mark its world premiere.

Production: SE 2016

Sarah is a young director and has just been invited to a film festival that will present her film. The girl goes on an unforgettable bus trip, hoping for exciting political discussions and friendship. The conversations, however, are cut short whenever the protagonist brings up the occupation of Palestine. She then decides to talk with her dead father through a particularly noisy phone line. “The Bus Trip” is an exceptional motion picture that splendidly combines documentary and animated sequences.

Production: FR 2016

A complicated birth in a French maternity hospital provides a perfect opportunity to explore the notion of cinematic realism and the transformative effect of the filming of phenomena. The director delves cleverly into areas of cinema history and family history. Simon Welch’s film is both an interesting documentary and an experimental film with elements of humour, exceptionally accurate metacinematic observations, as well as philosophical remarks.

Production: PL/MX/CU 2015

Casa Blanca is a small, picturesque fishing town located by the Havana Bay. The viewer may get the impression that time has stopped there. The inhabitants go about their lives at their own pace and make a living mainly from fishing. The sick, elderly mother lives with her mentally handicapped son Vladimir in an overcrowded tenement house occupied by multiple families. When the woman succumbs further to illness, the troublesome Vladimir becomes her only caregiver. The film depicts the complicated relationship between mother and son, one which is also full of love and sacrifice. “Casa Blanca” is an intimate story of a family that is in a critical situation. The film received the Golden Hobby-Horse and the Silver Horn at the 55th Krakow Film Festival.

Production: IT 2016

Vittorio Antonacci’s film is a warm story filled with humour and music, about a travelling band. We observe the musicians’ behaviour while on the road, their nomadic ways, customs, unorthodox ideas, and hierarchy that exists within the group. The protagonists compete against other bands when visiting a variety of festivals. Their true purpose in life is music and sharing it with others.

Production: UK 2016

Gonçalo Almeida’s work is an intriguing blend of documentary and mystery film. The director creates an engaging study on the spiritual heritage of the people of Gambia. The titular Condrong is a mysterious spirit that cannot be seen, but whose presence is felt. The consistent black-and-white aesthetics add to the extraordinary mood of this motion picture, which is not bereft of a sense of dread and unease. “Condrong” is a deeply metaphysical story of the human need and longing for that which is invisible to the eye.

Production: FR 2015

A film about searching suburban landscapes. About drifting along an empty diagonal and its urban areas at the end of a hot summer. A few chance encounters. Warehouses, roundabouts, coloured logos. An exploration into the “frozen waters” of everyday life. Guillaume Ballandras’ film is an interesting combination of documentary and experimental cinema. It also features comedic elements that evoke an involuntary smile, as well as associations with avant-garde and surrealism.

Production: FR 2015

The film’s events unfold in the heart of a ruined factory facing the port of Patras in Greece. Wahid and Mortez, two of fifty other Afghanis who have miraculously avoided the atrocities taking place in their homeland, are trying their luck in getting across to Italy. They are both constantly dreaming of a better life in Europe. While hiding from acts of repression at the hands of the police, the protagonists have to face the spirits that haunt the derelict factory.

Production: DE 2016

“This is the third and most interesting part of my life” says Mr. Schürmann. The protagonist is wandering through corridors in search of new tasks. In the past, Mr. Schürmann loved to read, take pictures, and film. His new world is entirely different – it is a clean and cold atmosphere of a hospital whose patients never leave. For two months Mr. Schürmann has been living in a closed home for people suffering from dementia. He lives by the rule that there must be mutual support. The director has made a warm, moving, and occasionally humorous story about elderly people who only have each other.

Production: DK 2016

“How Long, Not Long” is a fresh hybrid of documentary cinema, animation, and experimental film. A visual journey that encourages considerations on universal belonging, global citizenship not confined to a city, region, or state borders. Thoughts on these important topics are necessary in times when xenophobia, nationalism, and intolerance are a daily occurrence.

Production: ES 2016

The film opens with an absorbing shot of an old, white film projector being consumed by flames. Mark John Ostrowski’s picture tells the story of an old filmmaker’s daughter, who faces a very serious dilemma: what to do with the father’s legacy? The young woman has to know, however, that only a radical creative act will make her the true heir to the unexpected wealth. Mark John Ostrowski made a feature-length documentary film with deep, metacinematic reflection, offering insight into the quandaries of being a filmmaker.

Production: UK 2016

This film is an evocative and shocking story of one man, Samuel Houston, who had been a political prisoner during the military dictatorship in Chile. The protagonist’s account of the events will leave no-one indifferent; it reveals a terrifying and cruel world of a bloody regime that shows no mercy to divergent individuals. The work is universal and constitutes a clear warning against dictatorships and totalitarianism of any kind. Oliver Hardcastle made his film in an intriguing animated style.

Production: FR/IT 2016

This extraordinary film depicts the events of an archeological expedition form the 1920s, on the tracks of the elephas falconeri – a dwarf elephant, a creature that existed but is nonetheless reminiscent of the legendary Cyclops. Théodore Kracklite found the creature’s fossilised skulls in the undersea caverns of Sicily. The film revisits the well-known myth from Homer’s “Iliad,” which grows to the rank of a metaphor of the modern ecological crisis and serves as a reminder of the massive extinction of species.

Production: UA 2015

Yesterday was a time of peace, today has come a time of war. What if all the world's military could resolve conflicts through music and not by playing with other people's lives? An intriguing short musical documentary, where an orchestra plays solemnly while shocking footage of post-war ruins appear on screen. An unambiguously pacifistic message is conveyed by every shot.

Production: FI/SY 2016

Aleppo is a city in north-western Syria, located about 50 km south of the border with Turkey. Today it is considered to be the most dangerous and restless city in the world. Its inhabitants live in a state of constant fear and threat. Their existence can be compared to sitting on a time bomb. Juuso Lavonen and Vesa Rajala have produced an unusually disturbing short documentary about a Syrian-born Finnish citizen  who delivers humanitarian aid to the city's children. It would be no exaggeration to call him a “secular saint.” The film is an unforgettable journey into the heart of true hell.

Production: DE 2016

As a young girl, Monica used to dream of becoming a hairdresser. Unfortunately, her life went differently from what she had planned. Things went wrong. She became a victim of human trafficking and has been forced into prostitution. In the form of an intimate interview, the picture tells her dramatic story. The film is based on a real conversation.

Production: RO/MD 2016

Everyday, many people around the world close their eyes never to open them again. In Eastern Europe there is a holiday dedicated to them – Pastele Blajinilor. It is a blend of two traditions: Christian and pagan. People visit the graves of their dearly departed and hold feasts as if the dead were still with them. In recent years this form of celebrating has been criticised in the media, some of its elements being vulgar and grotesque. But what if we were to look a little deeper? Olga Lucovnicova has made an amazing documentary film that makes the viewer familiar with this peculiar tradition.

Production: PL 2015

Paulina Skibińska’s film is an interesting mixture of documentary film and experimental elements. The director creates a unique depiction of a search that is taking place in-between two worlds – an ice desert and an underwater world. The entire story is told from various perspectives: from the view of the rescue team, of the diver who enters the ice-covered reality, and of the ordinary people waiting on the shore. The rare juxtaposition of images establish the pace and extraordinary atmosphere of the film. The picture has been produced as part of the „Pierwszy Dokument” program and has been screened at many international and Polish festivals (Camden, Saint Petersburg, Sundance Film Festival, Wrocław, Poznań).

Production: BE 2015

At a marketplace in Yerevan, an immensely charming merchant takes us on a remarkable journey and shares not only his fruit and vegetables, but most of all – his story. Accompanied by birds we discover this man’s extraordinary life filled with almost all the colours of Armenia. The French director, in a fascinating and nearly fable-like way, has blended documentary film and animation, and the result also features elements specific to travel films.

Production: PL/IT 2016

Love is a net that traps the mind but she’s not the only one. Vittoria, the protagonist, learned to make fishing nets as a very young girl and now – from the perspective of old age – she is trying to tell us that we all swim in a sea that is full of them. These nets are the social norms, the toxic relationships, and our own preconceptions, among other things. How do they determine our lives? Where do we go when we need to gasp for air? Gloria Kurnik and Giulia Di Battista have made a highly original and philosophically rich documentary film.

Production: TR 2015

In this country you are obliged to prove your sexual orientation in order to avoid military service. If one is feminine enough for the decision-makers, one can be certified as having a mental disorder that makes you unfit for the military (the word “rotten” in Turkish is used to describe these people). This short documentary film, a poignant satire aimed against a conservative society, received the award for best Balkan film at DocuTiFF in Tirana (2016). The director proposes a very interesting and somewhat snide look at a society that stigmatises homosexuals.

Production: PL/PS 2015

The film is about a family from Gaza that enters social conflict right after the war. Everything in the surroundings has changed – the buildings don't look like they used to, and neither do the people. Mohammed Almughanni's documentary film is an interesting and dramatic depiction of life in the Gaza Strip. It is also an intimate portrait of the family of Wael and Isra Alnamla, who have been psychologically scarred by the war. The entire conflict is portrayed through their eyes. The film is a Polish-Palestinian co-production.

Production: TR/RU 2015

The people of the Black Sea region are different. The hard and unusual conditions of life are dictated by the wilderness. Existence is a real challenge that takes place between two vast spaces: the sea and the sky. Some of the inhabitants have exciting ideas and create all sorts of inventions. Bilal Atasoy, 83, is a retired religious leader living in an amazing, complex house on a cliff, and he feels as if living in the sky. Metin is 57 and lives in Çamlıhemşin (a town in the Rize province, Turkey) with his family. There is a river between his house and the road; the man crosses it by using an iron wire. He knows that it’s dangerous, but he is unafraid and sees it as completely normal. “Sıra Dışı İnsanlar” takes us into the world of extraordinary people and picturesque locations.

Production: NO 2015

“Six degrees of separation” is the theory according to which we are all connected by 6 steps of acquaintance or less. This documentary constitutes an insightful observation into a small-town society and puts this theory to the test. It also takes us on a trip through the States, one that we are unlikely to have ever experienced. What is important here are the chance encounters that determine the path one will be taking. Trond Kvig Andreassen’s film is amusing, full of accurate observations, although it is occasionally cruel.

Production: DE/CZ 2015

“The Burden of Proof” is a mid-length documentary film that depicts the complicated European procedure of obtaining refugee status by immigrants. Nations that acknowledge the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have the moral obligation to provide asylum to all who suffer oppression. Unfortunately, practice is much less optimistic. Numerous countries come up with complex procedures that make it difficult to accept foreigners, who are often treated as intruders.

Production: UK/PL 2015

“The Deal” is a short animated story about arranging marriages in the 1950s and 60s set in the eastern Polish borderland. The script is based on a part of Mikołaj Smyk’s diary - the author’s grandfather. The objects used in the animation, such as an authentic headscarf, Polish and Russian books, the copy of Mikołaj Smyk’s diary and photographs help situate the story in its original environment and express the atmosphere of the times. The film is a very personal contemplation on the intricacies of memory and the items that evoke memories.

Production: ES 2016

In 1973 Carl Sagan, renowned American astronomer and promoter of science, created a special plaque for NASA which was to help in space exploration during the Pioneer 10 mission. It was the first message of humankind addressed to extraterrestrial civilisations. Today, four decades later, the world is composing a new collective message. Boris Kozlov’s film is a rare combination of documentary, animation, and experimental film, which may intrigue not only the lovers of astrophysics. The picture has been presented at many international festivals (USA, London, Spain, Germany, Italy, Mexico).

Production: FI/ES 2016

Belgian artist Louis de Cordier has bought a piece of land located above the snow line in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain. De Cordier wants to build an underground library and a seed bank for genetically unmodified plants. The location at 2000 metres above sea level, minor temperature fluctuations and dry climate slow erosion down. The architecture of the buildings has been inspired by the design language of Buckminster Fuller, American architect and theoretician. An intriguing documentary with elements of experimental film.

Production: SI/HR 2016

The film talks about the experiences tackling the issues associated with paranormal phonomena. In this picture, the creators have used audio reportages about refugees staying in the European Union. In an unconventional way the film connects elements of the ever-so-fashionable found footage style (in a way that exhibits a hint of parody) and of mystery film. Fans of “The Twilight Zone” or “The X-Files” will not be disappointed. References to supernatural phenomena and popular productions do not lack ironic perspective.

Production: DE 2015

The bullet holes of war are omnipresent. Especially now, when Germany is becoming a magnet thst attracts war refugees, these scars should be reminded of. Mute stones suddenly start screaming and bursting into the modern, peaceful reality of Berlin. It transpires that the echoes of the Second World War can still be heard in the streets of the German capital. In a very evocative way, using digital effects, the film shows how history influences present times.

Production: FR 2015

Memories from remote times, the ghost towns of the American West are full of stories and legends. “West Empire” is a short documentary film which takes the viewer deep inside the hearts of these cities bonded with the mining era, where few people still live. The inhabitants of these areas located throughout American deserts exist beyond time. Their only priority is the search of freedom. In the film we will listen to the stories of these people, their frank confessions provoking reflection upon the mechanisms that govern modern society. What characterises the film are the beautiful shots of American outskirts, and Western-like stylistics.

Production: FI/IT 2016

“Wreck” was made in 2014-2015 at a refugee boat graveyard on Lampedusa, an Italian island believed to be one of the most wonderful nuggets of the Mediterranean Sea and a symbol of European paradise. It is an uncanny story about a strange metamorphosis, where garbage becomes useful. A story about useless objects that unexpectedly gain value.