This poetic and very sophisticated documentary is divided into three chapters, in three Rooms. In each of them, the atmosphere is determined by one predominant emotion. With very few words but with lots of eloquent cinematic means, the film speaks about basic emotional and mental states. In the first Room, we follow young boys, obedient cadets at a military school in St. Petersburg. These children of thirteen or fourteen are not here by choice: most of them come from dysfunctional families. Just by observing their morning rituals, the school's rigid discipline and their way of interacting, one gets a notion of their enormous solitude. One of the boys shifts the story to the second Room - Breathing - where we witness the doomed lives of the people of Grozny. The last Room - Remembering - crosses the Chechen border into the neighbouring province of Ingushetia, where people fight out their own tragedy. With a keen eye for detail, especially human faces, and with precise timing, the director successfully creates remarkable, emotionally loaded scenes.

producers: Kristina Pervilä / Millennium Film
co-producer: Pirjo Honkasalo / Baabeli
screenplay: Pirjo Honkasalo
camera: Pirjo Honkasalo
editor: Niels Pagh Anderson, Pirjo Honkasalo
music: Sanna Salmenkallio

festival info:
The Human Rights Film Network Award, The Lina Mangiacapre Award, EIUC Special Mention - Mostra Intrenazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, Venice, Italy, 2004 / First prize (shared) - cph:dox Documentary Film Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004 / Amnesty International Award - IDFA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2004 / Grand Prix - Zagreb Dox International Documentary Film Festival, 2005 / Vera Prize - 8th Annual Documentary and Short Film Festival Vera, Aland, Finland, 2005 / Main Prize in Finnish Competition - Tampere International Short Film Festival, 2005 / ACTA Prize by Signis, Fuena Prize "Visión Artistica" - Festival Internacional de Cine del Mar del Plata, 2005 / FIPRESCI Award - Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Images of the 21st Century, Greece, 2005 / Seeds of War Award - Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, NC, USA, 2005 / Special Mention in category Best International Film - DocAviv, Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, Israel, 2005 / Arie & Bozena Zweig Innovation Award - Chicago International Documentary Festival, 2005 / Best Director Award - One World Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic, 2005 / Grand Prix - 19th Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2005 / Grand Prix Golden Apricot for Best Documentary Film - Golden Apricot International Film Festival, Yerevan, Armenia, 2005 / Special Mention for Documentary Film - ANONIMUL International Film Festival, Romania, 2005 / First Prize - VII Festival Internacional De Cine y Video / Derechos Humanos, DerHumALC, Santiago del Estero, Argentine, 2005 / Prix Italia TV Documentaries (Current Affairs) - Prix Italia, Milan, Italy, 2005 / Eurodok Award 2006

production and sales info:
Millennium Film Oy
Koskikartanontie 12
75530 Nurmes
Tel. +358 13 -5110 100
Fax. +358 13- 5110 111
millennium@millenniumfilm.fi
kristiina.pervila@millenniumfilm.fi
www.millenniumfilm.fi

filmography:
Arento, 1968 / Their Age, 1976 / The Sign of Danger, 1978 / Two Forces, 1979 / Flame Top, 1980 / 250 Grams, 1983 / Da Capo, 1985 / Leonardo's Windows, 1986 / Mysterion, 1991 / Tanjuska and the Seven Devils, 1993 / The Cinderella of Tallinn, 1995 / Atman, 1996 / Fire-Eater, 1998 / Darkness, 2000

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An intimate and emotional record of four years in the life of Miché, a charming, precocious yet troubled teenage girl growing into womanhood in post-Apartheid South Africa. Living with her mother and grandmother in Bonteheuwel, a "colored" township outside Cape Town, she has to face not only life in a community troubled by gangsterism and drug abuse, but also what it means to break the unbearable cycle of emotional and physical violence imprisoning her own family. Miché's mother Valencia is an ex-Struggle activist, now an unemployed single mother, HIV positive and about to give birth to her third child. Deeply affected by the world she has grown up in and dominated by unresolved conflicts with her own mother Amy, she increasingly shifts responsibility for her own problems onto Miché. Just entering high school, Miché is in many ways an ordinary innocent girl: she has her ears pierced for the first time, hosts her first dancing party, and finds her first boyfriend. Yet her home situation forces her to bear the responsibility not only for her mother's anger and general health, but also for the emotional well-being of her younger siblings. Torn between leaving home to escape abuse and protecting those she loves, she takes a wrong turning - before finally learning to make sense of her mother, her grandmother and the world she lives in.

producer: Neil Brandt
camera: François Verster
editor: Peter Neal
music: Peter Coyte

festival info:
Best Documentary - Cape Town World Cinema Festival, 2005 / Best Documentary - Zimbabwe International Film Festival, 2006 / The Jury's Special Mention - Norwegian Film Festival, 2006 / Official Selection at INPUT, Taipei, 2006 / Premio Diocesi di Milano 2006 - Milan Africa, Asia & Latin America Festival

production info:
Luna Films
2 Westmeath Ave
Parkview 2192
Johannesburg
2193 South Africa
Tel: +27 83 4113063
Fax: +27 11 4825419
info@themothershouse.co.za www.themothershouse.co.za

sales info:
Maëlle Guenegues
Doc & Co
13 rue Portefoin
Paris F-75003, France
Tel: +33 1 42 77 56 87
Fax: +33 1 42 77 36 56
doc@doc-co.com
www.doc-co.com

filmography:
Pavement Aristocrats 1998 / The Story of "Mbube", 1999 / The Man who Would Kill Kitchener, 1999 / The Granite war, 2000 / Guilty, 2001 / A Lion's Trail, 2002 / When the War is Over, 2002

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Cerro Rico was the largest silver find in the history of the Americas; mines have operated there since the 16th century. Today, 9,000 Potosi miners work there every day, with primitive means of protection and equipment. 14-year-old Basilio and his 12-year-old brother Bernardino work shifts that can last up to 24 hours. Many have been killed in accidents and the boys are well aware of the dangers of working in the mines. Seeking safety in the dangerous conditions, Bolivian miners honor the devil. They call him "Tio" or "Uncle" and fervently believe he is the sole ruler of the underworld with the power to protect and destroy. The miners have constructed hundreds of devil's chambers and make frequent offerings of alcohol, coca leaves and cigarettes to Tio, who if treated well, may reveal a silver seam providing wealth and security. The boys are scared of the work, but the little money they make is needed to support their mother and younger sister and to buy school clothing. Despite - or because of - their poverty, Basilio and Bernardino see education as their only way out.

producers: Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani
camera: Richard Ladkani
editor: Kief Davidson
music: Leonardo Heiblum and András Solis

festival info:
Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Netherlands, 2005 / Silver Hugo Best Documentary - Chicago Film Festival, USA, 2005 / FIPRESCI Prize International Film Critic Award - Hot Docs, Toronto, Canada, 2005 / Best Documentary, Spirit of Freedom Award - Jerusalem Film Festival, 2005 / Best Documentary Filmmakers, Special Mention - Tribeca Film Festival, New York, USA, 2006 / Best Documentary - Woodstock Film Festival, 2006.

production info:
Urban Landscapes Productions and La Mita Loca Films
office@thedevilsminer.com

sales info:
DOC & CO
Catherine LeClef
13 rue Portefoin
75003 Paris
Tel. +33 1 42 77 89 65, Fax +33 1 42 77 36 56
doc@doc-co.com
www.doc-co.com

filmography:
Kief Davidson:
Minor Details, 1998 / Exotic Islands, 2002, TV Series

Richard Ladkani:
Mein Vietnam - Land und kein Krieg, 2004, TV

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Open adoption means that the biological mother does not want to or cannot bring up her unborn child, whom she entrusts to the care of adoptive parents whom she herself knows and accepts. This film is about the sometimes shocking and dramatic process of open adoption. The waiting, the nerve-racking and joyful minutes, hours and weeks of preparation, the tribulations of the adopting family. And of course the struggle the mother goes through whether she should give up altogether, and whether she is capable of giving up what is the most sacred for every parent: their own child. The participants in open adoption are not enemies. They are simply mothers who make a decision in order to protect the child.

producer: Zsuzsanna G. Hollósi, Gábor Varga, György Dobray
camera: Tamás Andor, György Dobray
music: Elemér Balázs
editor: Gábor Marinkás
sound: András Vámosi
production company: Filmplus Kft.

production info:
Filmplus Kft.
Tel.: + 36 1 460 80 60
György Dobray
Tel.: + 36 1 2125872
brekeke@t-online.hu
gyorgy2000@t-online.hu

filmography:
Az áldozat, 1979 / Vérszerzôdés, 1982 / Szerelem elsô vérig, 1985 / Szerelem második vérig, 1987 / A mi ügyünk I-II., 1988 / Szálka hal nélkül I-VI., TV sorozat, 1988 / K1 - Film a prostituáltakról, 1989 / K2 - Az éjszakai lányok, 1990 / Szerelmes szívek, 1992 / Radioaktív BUÉK, 1995 / Szerelem utolsó vérig, 2001

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9 year-old Punam Tamang lives in the city of Bhaktapur, Nepal. Punam's mother died when she was only five. She was left with her father, her two-year-old brother Krishna and her newborn sister Rabina. The Tamang children see little of their father because he works from sunrise to sunset in a rice factory, in order to earn enough money for their school fees. At home Punam assumes the roles of head of the family, caregiver and homemaker. Among Punam's friends, her family is still a lucky minority: in Nepal, 60% of children cannot afford to go to school at all. Many of her playmates had to abandon their studies and games to work in a stone quarry or brick-making factory to help their families get by. The film captures the hard work of the children, as well as Punam's dreams and hopes. She dreams of becoming a teacher and helping other children to study. Currently, one out of three children in Nepal is a child laborer.

producer: Lucian Muntean, Natasa Stankovic
screenplay: Lucian Muntean, Natasa Stankovic
camera: Lucian Muntean
editor: Natasa Stankovic
sound: Vladimir Moritz

festival info:
Special Award For Cinematography, Special Award for Humanity, Special Award for Artistic Merit - International Film Festival of Slav Countries, Moscow, Russia - 2006 / First Prize - Human Rights International Competition, Audience Award - Shooting Europe, The European Short Film Festival, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2006 / Special Mention - Hamburg Short Film Festival - Mob & Friese Children's Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany, 2006 /The Prize Perspective, UNICEF Moldova - CRONOGRAF International Film Festival of Documentary Film, Chisinau, Moldova, 2006

production and sales info:
Lucian Muntean & Natasa Stankovic
Lasla Gala 34
Novi Sad
21000 Serbia
Tel: +381 214 207 53
Fax: +381 216 367 476
lunaris@eunet.yu

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The Mansi children at the boarding school in the small town of Ivdel' - the northernmost town in Sverdlovsk region, 535 kilometers from Ekaterinburg - are waiting impatiently for the winter break. They are eager to return to their native village, where there are no televisions or computer games. It takes a whole day to cover a hundred and fifty kilometers in a weather-beaten lorry, through forests and snow-covered plains. Yet nothing is better than home, where you can go sledging, jump off the roof into the snow, or play cards with grandmother in the bleak light of the kerosene lamp all evening long. Witnessing the everyday life of Treskol'e villagers, this meditative and attentive film carries the viewers across both time and space. The laconic routine is interrupted by accidents which punctuate the predictable passage of time: a child burns himself, a car falls through the ice, somebody gets lost in the woods. The self-appointed shaman advises the locals to leave the village - too few families cannot make a living any longer. The holidays are a short break from town life for the children - will any of them decide to return for good?

producers: Natalia Zheltukhina, Grigory Libergal
screenplay: Marina Razbezhkina
camera: Irina Uralskaya, Ivan Alferov
editor: Yuri Geddert
sound: Viktor Brus

festival info:
Message to Man, International Documentary, Short and Animated Films Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2006

production and sales info:
Studio RISK-FILM
Likhov pereulok 4-1
Moscow 127051, Russia
Tel: + 7 495 2094066, Tel/Fax: + 7 495 209 4055
movie@riskstudio.ru
film@riskstudio.ru

filmography:
And Love Him Deep in Your Heart, 1990 / Assumption, 1991 / The Concert Upon the Listeners' Claim, 1991 / And Man Is Playing Trumpet, 1994 / The Strange Freedom of Existence, 1995 / Underground, 1998 / Gennady Aigi, 2001 / The Harvest Time, 2004

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This documentary, which started out as a portrait of Vierka, a talented young Roma singer, suddenly turns into a drama about two different views of "the truth". The story begins with an encounter between well-known Roma singer Ida Kelarová, living in the Czech Republic, and Vierka Berkyová from Lucˇenec, Slovakia, whose musical talent astonishes everyone who hears her sing. When Ida decides to help the young talent, a new period begins in the life of the Berky family. The idea of coexistence was originally envisioned as an idyll in which two families would share a home with all its attendant joys and cares. But one day the Berkys suddenly disappear without trace. For director and cameraman Miroslav Janek, the documentary changes into a drama with two differing versions of the truth - each one keenly and passionately experienced. The director searches to uncover the hidden, partly unacknowledged and partly incompatible, ideas about the meaning of life and visions of success and the future.

producer: Richard Němec
screenplay: Miroslav Janek
camera: Miroslav Janek
music: traditional and contemporary Romany music

festival info:
Best Czech Document Award - 9th International Documentary Festival in Jihlava, Czech Republic, 2005 / Honorary Mention - One World, 8th International Human Rights Documentary Festival, Prague, Czech Republic, 2006 / Cracow Film Festival, Poland, 2006

production and sales info:
VERBASCUM
Černá 6
110 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Tel: + 420 224 930 077
Fax: + 420 224 930 384
verbascum@email.cz
www.verbascum.cz

filmography:
Visitor, 1983 / Heroes, 1983 / The Caprices of Marianne, 1983 / Little City in Space, 1984 / The Fantastic Adventures of the Count of St. Germain, 1984 / U Film Society, 1985 / Kippers, 1988 / Now I Lay Me, 1988 / Seven Ten Nectiny, 1993 / On Kralik And the Guests, 1995 / Paradise On Earth, 1996 / The Unseen, 1996 / Opera Baroque, 1997 / The Last Slav, 1997 / Who Is Jiri Kralik, 1997 / Hamsa, 1998 / Previanti, 1998 / Man and His Master, 1999 / Battle For Life, 2000 / Crimson Sails, 2001 / Romeo and Juliette, 2003 / Beauty and the Beast, 2003 / The Second Memory, 2003 / Peace to Their Souls, 2004 / Kha-Chee-Pae 2005

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