The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under Israeli military authority since 1967. After years of terrorist attacks, dozens of these heavily guarded checkpoints have been set up. From 2001 to 2003, director Yoav Shamir filmed and created an incredibly honest and moving verité record of various occurrences at these checkpoints. This experiential film conveys a saddening series of encounters between the humiliated Palestinians and the heavily armed, often very young soldiers, who sometimes feel uneasy in their commanding roles. But these men are often self-assured, too, apparently taking pleasure in intimidating the Palestinians, having them wait for hours in the burning sun or pouring rain. The tension is palpable when a large group of Palestinian people ignores the order to return and collectively pass the roadblocks. The general impression is one of an endless situation, in which people on both sides are forced into positions that leave little room for human dignity.

producers: Amit Breuer, Amythos Films & Edna & Elinor Kowarsky (Eden Productions)
camera: Yoav Shamir
editor: Era Lapid

festival info:
Winner of VPRO - Joris Ivens Award - IDFA, Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, The Netherlands, 2003/ Winner of Best Cinematography Award - DocAviv, The Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2004 / Winner of the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Features - San Francisco International Film Festival, USA, 2004 / Winner of Best Documentary Feature Award - HotDocs, Canadian International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2004 / Special Jury Mention, First Prize for Innovative Photography - Documenta Madrid International Documentary Festival, Spain, 2004 / Winner of the Special Documentary Award - Munich International Documentary Film Festival, Germany, 2004 / Winner of Best Documentary Award - Newport International Film Festival, USA, 2004/ Winner of Best Documentary Award - Calgary International Film Festival, Canada, 2004 / Winner of Best Documentary Award - Docupolis International Documentary Festival, Spain, 2004 / Winner of the Special Documentary Prize - Entrevues Film Festival Belfort, France, 2004 / Winner of the "Point of View" Prize, for Best Film - De Vista International Documentary Festival, Navarra, Spain, 2005 / Winner of Special Mention by the Jury - 4th RomaDocFest, Italy, 2005 / Winner of the "Magnolia" Award for Best Documentary in the Humanities - 11th Shanghai TV Festival, China, 2005

production info:
Eden Productions
84 Arlozorov street.,
Tel Aviv 62647, Israel
Tel: +972 3 5273403
Fax: +972 3 5236076
E-mail: eden_e@netvision.net.il

sales info:
First Hand Film
Schaffhauserstrasse 359,
8050 Zurich, Switzerland
Tel: +41 1 312 20 60
Fax: +41 1 312 20 80
E-mail: info@firsthandfilms.com
www.firsthandfilms.com

filmography:
Five Days, 2003

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In August 1989, having lived in Weimar in the German Democratic Republic, Kurt-Werner Schulz, Gundula Schafitel and their 6-year-old son were crossing Hungary on their way to the Western world. Like so many of their East German fellow compatriots, they were planning to cross the border illegally. However, they had no hope of succeeding if all three of them stayed together. This attempt failed tragically: the border-guard shot Kurt-Werner dead. A month later the Iron Curtain fell. The film investigates not only the family tragedy, but evokes the atmosphere of the times when it happened.

producer: János Vészi
screenplay: Péter Szalay
camera: Péter Szalay
editor: Péter Szalay
story editor: Ildikó Hidas, Ernő Nagy
sound: Lajos Pánczél

festival info:
Pál Schiffer Award - Budapest Hungarian Film Week, 2006 / Cracow Film Festival, 2006

production info:
Fórum Film Alapítvány
Solymosi Norbert
1145 Budapest, Róna u. 174.
Hungary
+ 36 1 220 5413
forumfilm@invitel.hu

filmography:
Hajóval a hegyekben., 1992 / Alsósófalvai anzix, 1997-1998 / Pillantások, 1998 / Téltemetés, 1999-2000 / ABA-feeling, 1997-2001 / "Csúnya betegség", 2003 / A vonat, 2004 / Drogzarándok, 2005

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After World War II, the Krnácˇ family moved from Central Slovakia to Sub- Carpathian Ukraine. After the territory came under Soviet rule, the family was forced to settle in Balgarka, a village in the Kazakhstan steppe, where they spent over forty years. After the break-up of the USSR, the family decided to leave Kazakhstan. In 2000, they sell the family house and set out on a journey to Slovakia, a country they know only from their parents´ stories. Their first attempts to find jobs and accommodation in Bratislava are not very successful. Looking for a place to settle they cross the country from east to west, but find only half-abandoned villages, closed factories and high unemployment. After a long quest, they settle down in the countryside. The parents start working on a local farm and the children enter high school. This new beginning is hard for all of them: the older family members feel uprooted and keep thinking of their lives back in Kazakhstan, the younger ones struggle to study and be accepted as equals. Filmed over a period of four years, the film is a warm personal portrait of multi-generational search for roots and for the future.

producer: Mario Homolka, David Čorba for LEON Productions
screenplay: Andrej Bán, Jaroslav Vojtek, Marek Leščák
camera: Jaroslav Vojtek
editor: Maroš Šlapeta
sound: Marek Lacena
music: Sergei Kiossya

festival info:
Czech Minister of Culture Award for the Best Film - 8th One World International Festival of Documentary Films, Prague, Czech Republic, 2006 / Krakow Film Festival, Poland, 2006

production and sales info:
LEON Productions
Tranovského 55
841 02 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
Tel: +00421 2 6453 3992, +421 905 609 173 (cell)
Fax: +00421 2 6446 2784
leon@leonproductions.sk
corba@leonproductions.sk
www.myzdes.sk

filmography:
Blind Belief, 1993 / If the Bell's Toll Were Magic, 1994 / Hair II, 1995 / Storm, 1995 / She Does Not Know Me, I Don´t Know Her..., 1996 / Stone by Stone, 1996 / Once in the East, 2000 / Unwanted Children, 2001 / Fish Tank, 2001 / Crazy Man, 2003

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Tarifa, a city in the south of Spain, is considered one of Europe's best beaches for surfing. Early in the morning, the wind-surfers sail across the clear blue sea and the first tourists are taking their places in the deck chairs. Just a few steps away dead bodies are being tossed up on the shore by crashing waves. They come when the moon is full and the sea is smooth, filled to the gunwales with ever-more people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa. Many cannot swim and have nothing except the clothes on their backs. And it doesn't take much for an overcrowded boat to capsize or sink, leading to a catastrophe. From a European perspective and with haunting images, the film takes a look at the people of Tarifa whose everyday life is influenced by the constant flow of illegal immigrants, searching for a better future in "fortress Europe".

producers: Samir, Valentin Greutert
screenplay: Joakim Demmer
camera: Hoyte van Hoytema
editor: Joakim Demmer, Natalie Barrey
music: Matthias Trippner, Mogwai

festival info:
SwissAmerican Film Festival, New York, USA, 2004 / Revelation Film Festival, Fremantle, Australia, 2004 / Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montreal, Canada, 2004 / The 8th Ismailia International Film Festival, Egypt, 2004 / Shoot Me Film Festival, Hague, the Netherlands, 2005

production info:
CH Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG
Zentralstrasse 156, CH-8003
Zürich, Switzerland
Tel: +41 1 456 30 20
Fax: +41 1 456 30 25
dvfilm@dschointventschr.ch
www.dschointventschr.ch

sales info:
Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin GmbH (dffb)
Jana Wolff
German Film & Television Academy (dffb)
Potsdamer Strasse 2
10785 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 30 2575 9152
Fax: +49 30 25 759162
wolff@dffb.de
www.dffb.de

filmography:
Flieger, 1998 / Kita, 1999 / Vergehen, 1999 / Unborn, 2000 / Play-Off, 2001 / Zehn Argumente Gegen Gelb, 2002

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Economic depression and political chaos force Tajik men to become migrant laborers, working - many of them in Russia - in unsafe conditions for uncertain wages. Staying away for years, they sometimes form new families away from home. Tajik women are left on their own to provide for their dependants, and in some cases, enter polygamous marriages to feed themselves and their families. Like Penelope, the wife of the mythical hero Odysseus, these women spend large parts of their lives waiting for their husbands to return. The men working abroad and the women left behind face the same fate: hard work and abuse of human rights. This film allows the viewer to experience the hardships of migrant laborers through the eyes of both women and men.

screenplay: Georgii Dzalaev, Aloudin Abdoolloev
camera: Georgii Dzalaev

festival info:
Cracow Film Festival, Poland, 2006 / One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic, 2006

production and sales info:
Elena Vitenberg
Manager of Gender Montage
Institute for Social and Gender Policy
Mokhovaya str. 15
St. Petersburg, 191028, Russia
Tel: +7812 346 7068
E-mail: vitenberg@lfond.spb.ru
www.genderpolicy.ru

Phoebe Schreiner
Program Officer
Network Women's Program
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
USA
Tel: +1 212 548 0162
Fax: + 1 212 548 4616
Email: women@sorosny.org

filmography:
Who are We?, 1989 / Sweet, Sweet Home, 1998 / Noah's Arch, 1999 / At the Same Time With a Century, 2000 / Live Containers, 2002 / Transfiguration, 2003 / Before the Thunderstorm, 2005

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Bosnia 2005. Ten years have passed since the Dayton Peace Agreement, which brought the war to an end, but more than a million Bosnians are still waiting to return to their former homes. Among them are the last ethnic Bosnian refugees in Hungary, who in 1992 were freed from the institute for the mentally ill in Jakes, which was located right on the front line of the war. "Since then my life has collapsed like a house of cards", says Pandur, the self-appointed leader of a group of 28 people from Jakes. "Since I came here my life has become hell. Really. Not just for me but for everybody. We are locked in all day and are only let out for breakfast and dinner." For the inhabitants of this refugee camp for the mentally handicapped in Debrecen life passes in bleak boredom. The inactivity and monotony of the days kills their lust for life and these people, who are abandoned to their fate, are slowly giving up hope that they will ever return home.

producer: Gábor Péter Németh
camera: Gábor Horkai, Viktor Németh, Ákos Gulyás
music: Szabolcs Szőke
editor: Bori Kriza, Balázs Féjja

production info:
Metaforum Film
Hungary
Balázs Wízner
Október 6. utca 3
Budapest
1051 Hungary
Tel: +3601 411 1245
Fax: +3601 411 1244
+ 36 30 250 20 54 (cell)
wizner@socio.mta.hu

filmography:
Édes otthon, 1999 / Ki tud többet Kádár Jánosról - Vetélkedô Kazincbarcikán, 2000 / Másik Magyar Válogatott, 2001 / Világbajnok, 2002 / Elszakítva, 2002 / Gyertyaláng, 2003 / A Fekete portré Fekete János bankárról, 2004

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