16 films will be screened in the documentary competition at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, June 29 - July 7, 2012.
More information about documentaries in the competition can be found HERE.
Polish Illusions
Director: Dammas Jacob, Renner Helge
Producer: Dammas Jacob, Renner Helge
Production company: graniza polska, graniza deutschland, graniza denmark, ARTE G.E.I.E., TVP S.A., Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, 2012, 85 min, HD, Creative, Society
A multi-plot story about an American pilot who has ‘gone wild East’ in Poland, his young Polish apprentice, and an aging magician fighting for his career. All three men try to find their place in a time of change in small-town Poland.Darłowo is a typical Polish seaside resort, but some of its inhabitants are not typical at all. Mark Buller (51), a retired US Army helicopter pilot, has settled here in search of freedom. He has bought a nice house with property large enough for his army truck collection. The only thing that is missing in his life is a wife.Mark finds help in young local Michał (20), alias ‘Mike’, who dreams of leaving to a far-away country like ‘America’. Instead America has come to Mike, and Mike accompanies the American in his search for a wife as Mark’s friend, translator and driver. Eventually young Mike has to reconsider his own future in the town.For almost 50 years Jan Konstantynow (82), alias ‘Lucjano’, has been a part of Darłowo’s cultural programme. But the aging, yet stubborn, magician must face that the times have changed. His stage, the local culture house, has been taken over by a new director who favors more contemporary forms of entertainment than the slightly forgotten art of illusions. While Mark, Mike and Jan are struggling to find their place in the town, Darłowo is going through a time of modernization. New ways of tourism have replaced fishing and farming as the main source of income.
Sofia's Last Ambulance
Director: Metev Ilian
Production company: Nukleus Film, SIA, Sutor Kolonko
Poslednata lineika na Sofia , Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, 75 min, Beta SP, Digi Beta, DVD, Personal View, Portrait, Social Issues, Society
In a city where 13 ambulances struggle to serve a burgeoning population of several million, 47-year old Krassi Yordanov is our unlikely hero: chain-smoking and saving lives in a non-stop 48-hour shift. Krassi is the emergency doctor on one of Sofia’s last ambulances and today is the worst day of his life. This is a film about the regular working day of Dr. Krassi, nurse Mila and driver Plamen, a team working on an ambulance in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Struggling against an avalanche of absurdities in a crumbling medical system and scarcely earning enough to make a living, these three are simply trying to do what they do best – save lives.
Trains of Thoughts
Director: Novotny Timo
Producer: Gehmacher Ulrich
Production company: Orbrock Filmproduktion GmbH
Trains of Thoughts , Austria, 89 min, 35 mm, Anthropology, Arts and Culture, Creative, Experimental, Music, Social Issues, Society, Travel
Trains of Thoughts is an audiovisual essay, which reflects upon and compares metro systems around the world. It is an exploration of a world inside the world as well as feelings, fascination, obsession, fear and themes – of survival, control and silence – that revolve it.
Two Nil
Director: Abrahám Pavel
Producer: Abrahám Pavel, Bojar Tomáš
Production company: Cinema Arsenal, i/o post, HBO Czech Republic
Dva nula , Czech Republic, 2012, 108 min, DCP, Creative, Society
At a football stadium in the very heart of Prague the biggest Czech football match of the year is about to take place. The live broadcast begins. This time however, the twenty-two film cameras are not aimed at the pitch, but at the stands. They record how various people experience this one shared event. An astonished kid from the football prep team, a bettor who has put thousands of crowns on the match result, or a member of the security service who is there to assure a smooth running of the event: they all experience it differently. A distinguished literary critic, who is not really interested in football, a lady who takes care of what goes on in the VIP lounge, or disoriented Italian tourists who just stare disbelievingly at it all: they each have a different attitude too. Each camera presents a unique and authentic insight into the different levels of the stands, as well as the different levels of today’s society. Each character represents a unique version of the same match. As Hannah Arendt says: “Only where things can be seen by many in a variety of aspects without changing their identity, so that those who are gathered around them know they see sameness in utter diversity, can worldly reality truly and reliably appear.”
