Sarajevo Film Festival (11-18 August 2023) has just published the programme of the Documentary Film competition. We are delighted to see that some of our alumni films, which previously participated in different IDF programs, have made it to the selection.
Rada Šešić, programmer of the Competition Programme said about this years selection: "Films are in many ways inspiring to viewers and even when they present very traumatic truths, they carry within them the energy of positivity. What is important for me as a programmer is to feel the author's signature in every film, that we as viewers understand the viewpoint of the director and not just observe the life stories of the selected heroes of the film”,
These films will be competing for the Heart of Sarajevo Award 2023:
DOCUMENTARY FILM 2023
1. BODY
Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, 2023, 91 min.
Director: Petra Seliškar
IDF activities: Ex Oriente Film 2015, East Doc Forum 2016
BODY is a unique and poetic journey into the most unknown areas of the self, through the testimony of Urška, who spent twenty years struggling between life and death. A professional piano player and a former fashion model, Urška had everything going for her until she was struck by illness. Recovering from encephalitis, she had to get to know herself again and learn to live: to walk, to recognise her daughter, to understand – and love – her body, which seems to want to destroy her.
2. BOTTLEMEN
Serbia, Slovenia, 2023, 84 min.
Director: Nemanja Vojinović
IDF activities: Ex Oriente Film 2018, East Doc Forum 2019
On the outskirts of Belgrade, one of the largest landfills in Europe sprawls across the remains of the ancient Vinča civilization. Plastic bottle collectors, a.k.a. “Bottlemen”, eke out a difficult living in this toxic landscape. Now, their vibrant community is facing new and greater threats. Faced with the imminent privatisation of the landfill, an entire community of bottlemen is brought to a dead end, trapped in the gap between technological modernisation and an inadequate social care system. While the environmental impact of the landfill’s modernisation is unknown, the fragile community of collectors will have to face their uncertain destiny on their own.
3. SILENCE OF REASON
Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, 2023, 63 min.
Director: Kumjana Novakova
Built solely from forensic visual archive and testimonies, Silence of Reason acts as a memory itself: elusive, fluid, rejecting framing, moving in all directions, spatial and temporal. The singular experiences of violence and torture to women from the Foča rape camps during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina become our own collective memories, surpassing time and space.
IDF activities: East Silver Caravan 2023
4. NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS
Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar, 2023, 100 min.
Director: Mila Turajlić
Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels takes us on an archival road trip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. The film traces the birth of the Non-Aligned movement, examining how a global project of political emancipation was constituted by the cinematic image. Together with Ciné-Guerrilas, the film forms a documentary diptych.
IDF activities: Ex Oriente Film 2016, East Doc Forum 2017
5. ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS
Ukraine, France, 2023, 8 min.
Director: Marta Smerechynska
What to take, what to leave? How important are material possessions when you're trying to save your life? Packages from Ukraine – filled with everything and nothing – wait patiently under a bridge to be found, while a voice stirs memories of frivolous and treasured personal effects, in an apparent heart-breaking farewell letter to Kyiv.
IDF activities: East Silver Market 2023
6. WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY
Ukraine, France, Poland, USA, 2023, 100 min.
Director: Alisa Kovalenko
A group of teenagers from Donbas are entering adulthood, and dream of conquering the world. Although they can hear gunshots and explosions in the distance, they do not lose hope. They rebel, ride on the waves of adventure, walk into minefields, and sunbathe by a local lake. They dream of escaping not only from the war but also-like teenagers all over the world-from the boredom of living in a small town. Then, unexpectedly, an opportunity arises for them to embark on a long journey all the way to Nepal. Will their dream of conquering the world come true?
IDF activities: East Doc Forum 2021, East Silver Market 2023, Silver Eye Award 2023
STUDENT FILM 2023
7. FALLING by Anna Gyimesi (Hungary, 2023, 17 min.)
IDF activities: East Silver Market 2023, East Silver Caravan 2023
The complete documentary programme of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival you can check here.