Festival films

The first prison in Russia for those sentenced to life – a single cell. “Prisoner Boris Bezotechestvo. Life sentence. Article 102. Triple murder”. Boris is communing with a God who is indifferent to his fate. He prays, but is not a believer. His words fill the air of the cell. He talks and listens to himself. The space within the cell consumes him. His world is four walls and the view from the window. The prison physically thrusts the prisoner into Time. A long succession of days and nights allotted to him, after which comes “hell” or “heaven”.

This is the story of the rise of Khanty-Mansiysk, a Siberian region over 3,000 kilometers from Moscow, a cold and inhospitable place which has become something of an economic Eden. The region stores about 60% of Russian oil resources under its soil. Thousands of workers, better paid than anywhere in Russia, flock to the region to extract the oil, generating an economic and social revolution. Thanks to this financial wealth, the local governor has the means to promote infrastructures and cultural activities, hoping to seduce the new arrivals into staying in this hostile place. This El Dorado is a metaphor for the whole of Russia, but on a small scale. Khanty-Mansiysk is at the source of power in Russia and at the source of Russia’s power in the world. A place that bears the over-sized ambition of the new Russian era.

About Face is the heartrending story of a young Alaskan woman facing down the demons of her past. When Gwen was nine months old, her mentally distraught mother placed her in a campfire, leaving her physically and emotionally scarred for life. We travel with Gwen across Alaska and the United States for five years, as she searches for answers, faces her past, tracks down her mother, and moves forward in life to heal and forgive. Beautifully filmed against the stark beauty of Alaska, our compelling heroine reaches deep into our souls.

The group Active Member was formed in 1992. B.D. Foxmoor and Sadahzinia live in Perama, near Athens, where they make their music and lyrics, in an effort to resist social decadence in a creative way. They named their hip hop “low bap”, created their own record label, 8ctagon, and started the NOsponsors movement in order to protect their integrity as much as possible. This documentary is about the story behind the group’s name. What does it mean to be active? How can one manage to be and stay active? Is it even possible nowadays? Following B.D. Foxmoor’s everyday steps, the documentary presents his opinions about life, his relation to the system and his contact with his fans.

One million Afghans are estimated to be addicted to drugs, especially heroin. Alarmingly, 40% of these are women and children. Addicted in Afghanistan is an observational documentary that explores the heartbreaking reality behind the headlines as seen through the eyes of Jabar and Zahir, two 15-year-old drug addicts living in Kabul.

The documentary presents the lives of three extraordinary African women from different social levels and origins determined to bring about radical transformations in their day-to-day realities: Kenyan attorney and reputed lawyer Njoki Ndung’u; Phuti Ragophala, the committed school principal of a remote South African village; and Zimbabwean housewife/entrepreneur, Amai Rosie. Three women in very different settings reflect on their achievements and failures, the reasons for their commitment, their individual stories, the setting in which their leadership is inscribed, their own transformations as women being key to interpreting their power. What resistances do they have to overcome? And the most important question: Is Africa ready for women to assume power?

All Boys looks at the social and individual impact of the boy porn industry. It shows men in Europe’s boy porn business struggling with commerciality and the passing beauty of youth, poverty and the loneliness of gay consumers. Gay porn is the fastest growing segment of the entertainment business. The film consists of complementing episodes that expose the production chain of Eastern European boy porn.

A series of portraits of those who live outside the walls of the three monasteries of Patmos of those who feel the anguish of cultural poverty experienced by every country from the moment it unreservedly accepts tourist development – and Patmos is no exception. At the same time, the film examines those who live within the walls of the great monastery which has for centuries regulated the island’s economic and cultural development; those who donned the black cassock of the monk and sought the answer to the eternal question, choosing a life far from worldly things. Two worlds that are diametrically opposed, each with its own aspirations and visions. Two worlds, however, that are converging dangerously in a forced coexistence. The one desperately trying to bring a past that is full of legends and incense into the present, and the other feeling the weariness, the satiety and the loneliness that follows the accumulation of the summer profit. A small community that is changing and breaking down without putting up the slightest resistance.

The portrait of a woman who is desperately trying to understand the perplexing condition that controls her son. A journey through different countries and cultures, where every stopover opens a new path into the depths of autism – and places her son in a strikingly different perspective as it reaches the end. Autism has neither a known cause nor cure but it affects one child in every 150. The film deals with autism in a deeply comprehensive way, as the growing global issue it has become.

This documentary portrait of the most famous founder of Polish cinema was made by four students of the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing. Their observations, captured on the filming location of Katyn in late of 2006 and early 2007, combined with the fragments of the director’s monologue make an original picture, different from the familiar and popular image of Andrzej Wajda promoted by the media.

Anthrax War is an investigative documentary about the 2001 US anthrax attacks, dead scientists and the dark secrets of germ war research. Filmmaker Bob Coen probes troubling questions still surrounding the FBI’s investigation of the 21st Century’s first act of biological terrorism. The search for answers takes him from secret labs in the United States to the United Kingdom, then to the edge of Siberia and Southern Africa. He penetrates what he comes to call the “biological warfare mafia” and uncovers the development of terrifying new weapons – genetically mutated germs, some with the ability to target specific ethnic groups. He also discovers that since the anthrax attacks germ war research has become big business and that a growing number of scientists working in this underworld are dying under mysterious circumstances.

A film about how the local population of Tanzania has been evicted to make way for the creation of the world’s most famous nature reserves. Set in the famous Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater, the film explores how the parks came to be and how western perceptions about nature radically altered both the East African landscape and society. The film focuses on the people who “shouldn’t be there” not only because their voices are rarely heard but also because they are still being antagonized and excluded, while the tourist industry is rapidly depleting the area’s natural resources.

In his last film, made with Marceline Loridan, Joris Ivens turns his camera on his own life and the changes in the world. After The Mistral, A Tale of the Wind is his second attempt to film the invisible: the wind. On location in China, Ivens and Loridan try to capture the wind as a natural phenomenon and as a metaphor for the constant changes in culture and society. In 1988 the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Joris Ivens received the Golden Lion for Career Achievement.

India is rapidly becoming the world’s baby factory. It’s one of the few countries in the world which authorizes payment for surrogacy. For €10,000, you can undergo fertility treatment and in vitro fertilization, and then have the resulting embryos implanted in a surrogate mother. Nine months later, you return and collect your new baby. On the surface, it seems to be a win-win scenario. Infertile couples get to have a baby while impoverished women receive enough money to pay for their own children’s schooling or buy a small house. But with so many ethical issues at play, can surrogacy really be treated like any other business?

The world’s biggest fruit company is on trial in the USA for poisoning its workers! For the first time in history, a small US law firm is representing Nicaraguan workers who are all infertile because of the toxic pesticides the fruit-corporation used on their banana plantations. Does a small law firm stand a chance against the power of a multi-billion dollar corporation? And will you ever eat bananas again after watching this revealing film? A David and Goliath battle in every way.

In India, there are still 2,000 mobile cinemas, one of which is “Battu’s Bioscope”, a colorful vehicle, containing an old Soviet projector, a few white cloth sheets, and several kilometers of celluloid film. Mr. Battu drives slowly along the sun-scorched roads of India, his quarrelsome assistant Mama at his side and the young Amit sitting on top of the truck, announcing the next show through a loudspeaker. The elderly Battu is an idealist who things you can change people by showing them films. The film crew accompanies his team from Calcutta to the distant Orissa province. This is the dwelling place of primitive tribes, whose way of life hasn’t changed for thousands of years. After years of trying, Mr. Battu has finally been issued a permit to show a film to these people who do not even know cinema exists.

Ten days of preparation for the Monte Carlo Rally. The two Polish drivers battle with the technical shortcomings of the Polish Fiat 125. They do not finish the race. An allegory of the country’s industrial and economic problems.

A man and a woman live their lives separated by a wall and do not know of each other’s existence. He imagines a wonderful city behind the wall and tries desperately to get to it. To her, however, the wall is no obstacle. She lives in harmony with her surroundings. Then, one day, the wall comes down.

In Belarus, the totalitarian regime cracks down on all opposition. Anyone criticising the dictator risks imprisonment and torture. Belarusian Waltz is the incredible story of the performance artist Alexander Pushkin, who is one of very few who is not scared. Facing grave consequences he organizes public happenings that mock president Lukashenka. Through his art and sense of humor we take a deep dive into the soul of the Belarusian people.

A commissioned film about the Lubin copper mines.

The documentary reveals for the first time the enormous scandal that concerns illegal billboard advertising in Greece. It investigates the corruption, interests and large amounts of money at stake, but mainly it focuses on the human dimension of the problem, following the struggle for justice of a father whose son was killed by an illegal billboard. Illegal billboards are only one symptom of the broader problem of road safety in this country, which has evolved into a civil war involving mayors, politicians and advertising companies. As is mentioned in the film: “The victims of car accidents during the last 50 years in Greece have exceeded the number of dead from all the wars the country was involved in during the 20th century.”