Not a Statue
Cameroon, Germany
The sacred statue Ngonnso, which represents the founder of the Nso people, was looted from Cameroon to Germany a hundred years ago during the German colonial period. It has been in the possession of the Ethnological Museum ever since, while Nso people have been asking for decades for its return. The film accompanies filmmaker and activist Sylvie Vernyuy Njobati in her fight for the restitution of the Ngonnso. With the hashtag #BringBackNgonnso, Sylvie is using social media to put public pressure on the German museum to return the statue. Sylvie is not interested in long negotiations, because time is working against her: Her grandfather's generation, which wants nothing more than the return of the Ngonnso, is getting older day by day. The film tells Sylvie’s personal story of how she became aware about Ngonnso through her grandfather and how she starts her campaign which then quickly turns her into the negotiation partner for museum officials. She experiences backlashes from German bureaucracy and from patriarchal structures within her own community and finally succeeds with her quest: last year, the museum decided to return Ngonnso back to the Nso people in Cameroon which is to happen until the end of this year.
Creative Team
Sylvie Vernyuy Njobati, born 1991, is a documentary filmmaker and organiser of artistic and cultural events in Bamenda and Yaoundé, Cameroon. She is the founder of Sysy House of Fame and established a project to empower women in the film industry in Cameroon. During an artist residency at Goethe-Institut Cameroon, she realised the short documentary THE TWIST OF RETURN. NOT A STATUE will be her debut feature documentary.
Marc Sebastian Eils, born 1990, studied International Development Studies in Vienna and Documentary Filmmaking at the self-organised film school filmArche in Berlin. His latest short documentary GERMANY IS A TRAMPOLINE follows two young men before and after their deportation from Germany. NOT A STATUE will be his debut feature documentary.
The Violent Skin - La Piel Violenta
Costa Rica, Spain
After my father’s sudden death, I embark on a journey to reconnect with my estranged uncle Sergio, a lonely jaguar hunter living in the remote arid mountains of northern Costa Rica. Armed with my camera, I venture into the untamed wilderness to confront the inherited violence of our masculinity.
Deep inside the jungle, I witness his profound love for the natural world and a contradictory instinct to possess it. Why is it that our masculinity is rooted and fueled by exerting power over others?
A life-threatening heart surgery confronts Sergio with the fragility of his life and brings him to the realization that he no longer has the finger on the trigger. My lens as director captures a newfound vulnerability as he questions his own relationship with nature, and in that process, reflects contradictions about my own way of feeling like a man. “The Violent Skin” voices concerns of a generation that has inherited a world in flames.
By exploring the complex interplay between identity, tradition, and the environment, this thought provoking documentary challenges viewers to examine their own place in the world and the legacy they leave for future generations.
Creative Team
André Robert is a queer documentary filmmaker, producer and cinematographer born in San José, Costa Rica. He studied Film & Television Production from Loyola Marymount University (USA) and two Master's Degrees in Documentary Filmmaking and Project Management from Pompeu Fabra University (Spain). His production company, Malcriada Films, specializes in independent films from Latin American filmmakers with transgressive narratives and underrepresented voices. At the moment, André is finalizing his debut feature length documentary "The Violent Skin" in co-production with Spanish producer Lluis Miñarro.
María José is a producer and director. She studies literature and film in Paul Valéry, in Paris, France. Works during those years as a production assistant in numerous short films and directs his first documentary: "The wall of the federated". She returned to Costa Rica in 2015 for finishing his bachelor's degree in Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication in the University of Costa Rica, from which he graduated from in 2018. Produces and directs the short film "Rodrigo y el tren" (Rodrigo and the train), which participates in the Muestra Iberoamericana of Short films. She is a graduate of the Bachelor's Degree in Strategic communication and production and defends his thesis around the theme of the female-gaze and women directors Costarican cinema. At a professional level, María José has worked as assistant director, script editor and producer in numerous projects in Latin America and Spain. She is currently dedicated to the development of authorial film projects and is in the Master's Degree in Creative Documentary Filmmaking at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, in the framework of which she is developing her first creative documentary feature film "Susurran las raíces" (The Roots Whisper).
Lluís Miñarro is a Spanish director and producer who received the City of Barcelona Award in 2010. His production company, Eddie Saeta has produced 40 original films, receiving 120 awards at the most important international film festivals, including the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2010. As a producer, Lluís Miñarro has collaborated with directors such as Manoel de Oliveira, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Albert Serra, Lisandro Alonso, Naomi Kawase, Jose Luis Guerín, Marc Recha, Javier Rebollo, Fabrizio Ferraro, among others. Miñarro has directed the documentaries Familystrip (2009) and Blow Horn (2009) and the fiction feature films Stella Cadente (2014) and Love Me Not (2019).
Delta
Greece
In the Delta of the river Pinios, a small community of coastal fishermen fight with nature’s forces. Kostas and Yiorgos have been friends since they were young, they meet at their fishing huts, help each other and chat. Even though they have retired, they continue fishing for financial reasons, but mainly because they love the sea. The passage from the sea to the river is dangerous so most of the fishermen, dock their boats at the port of Stomio, while a few prefer the river. Yiorgos’ two brothers lost their lives there during in a storm and even now, he is getting sentimental about it.
At the port, the other fishermen comment on current events or complain about the dolphins, who eat their catch and tear their nets. Yiannis, is about to retire and wonders how many fishermen will remain as it is a hard job with low income and the problem with the dolphin makes it worse. It seems that the area will soon be deserted by the fishermen who respect the environment and give a unique character around.
The river is constantly moving and changes the landscape highlighting how momentary humans are, comparing to nature’s eternity. The passing of time leaves its mark and we witness their anxieties and struggle. We fish with them and dive in their world, which is full of peace & quiet with the only artificial sound, that of the boat's engine. It is a mosaic of different characters who despite all their difficulties, maintain their sense of humor.
Creative Team
She has a PhD in Cinema Studies (University of Athens), a Master’s Degree in Audiovisual & Cinema (Nouvelle Sorbonne Paris III), Degree in TV & Cinema Directing (Stavrakos Cinema School, Athens), English Literature (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki) and Interior Design (Dimitrelis School of Arts). So far, she has created 6 short films. All of them were internationally awarded. She is a Sarajevo Film Festival talent alumni (2016) and her script “Hansel” was at the Pitch Lab of the same festival. In 2018, her script “Lost & Found” won the Greek Film Academy Award at the Short Film Fund competition. She works at the University of Athens where she teaches Cinema and is in development of her first feature documentary.
Maria Kounavi attended the Intensive Editing Workshop at New York University (Spring 1999). Since then she has edited several short fiction films, documentaries and TV Series. Additionally, she has been working as a freelancer editor for the past seven years at Vice Greece.
Ioanna Petinaraki has graduated from the Film Studies Department of the AUTH Thessaloniki and she is working as a producer. She is a Talents Sarajevo & IDFA academy alumna. In 2017 she started her own production company under the name "Moving Rooster Productions”. In 2018 the feature documentary "Back to the top", which she produced with the support of the Greek Film Centre, had its world premiere at 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, where it won the Fischer Audience Award and the ERT Award. She has also received a grant as an artist supporting her work, from the NGO “Art-Works", supported by the SNF (Stavros Niarchos Foundation). In 2022, the short film “5pm seaside”, which she co-produced, premiered at Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival and was screened in festivals such as Palm Springs and Diagonale Austria, where it won the best short film award. Also, her short film "Magma" premiered at the Drama International Short Film Festival, where it won Best Cinematography and Best Original Music. It also won the Silver Athena Prize at the Athens International Film Festival and had its international premiere at PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival).
Funeralzzi
Ukraine, Italy
Natasha and Sergei are an ordinary migrant family in the business of dealing with extraordinary circumstances. They are the Italian branch of Funeralia - a transnational Ukrainian company that took up a much-needed niche - returning deceased migrants back to Ukraine. In their family-like style, they call themselves “funeraltsi” – meaning the people of Funeralia. Natasha (45), a former ballet choreographer from Kyiv takes up major hard work, washes and dresses the bodies and does paperwork, giving generous emotional support to families in each case. Sergei (58) says this job is too hard, and drives Natasha to their clients and transports the bodies. They live from month to month in a shared accommodation on the outskirts of Milan, and spend most days in their black minivan. They think of their job as a higher mission. They are always together and always alone: their work and their relationship is their home.
As the war breaks out Natasha is sick-worried and unable to reach her disabled father stranded in the occupied territory. Natasha’s story cannot be separated from the stories of her clients who in Italy are mostly women, caretakers and cleaners. The war also spills into every repatriation job they now take, especially as Natasha's own father dies. Each case is more personal and more difficult, catalysing ever more questions about the final place of rest as the ultimate home in times when it is torn by war and changed forever.
Creative Team
Olena Fedyuk was born and grew up in Ukraine but in the last 20 years has been moving around Europe pursuing her professional interest – research in gendered migration flows, migrant labor, and the moral economy of migration. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the Central European University in Budapest. Since 2012, she’s turned to film as a medium for both research and outreach, and a way to grasp humor and contradictions of migration stories. Both of the films are not about migration per se but about people who have embarked on complicated life journeys, both emotionally and geographically.
Olena’s previous films include Road of a migrant (2015) and Olha’s Italian Diary (2020).
Polina grew up in a Ukrainian family in Moldova and emigrated in 2005 first to the US, then London, Budapest and Berlin - her current base. She is a specialist of Eastern Europe (UCL, UK) who after a career in public policy turned to visual storytelling in 2015.
Polina produced No Country for the Poor (HU/DE 2017, 52’ SWR/ARTE), produced, directed and filmed You Have to Be Here to Believe (DE 2022, 50’ OneWorld, WatchDocs 2023), as well as filmed a number of narrative shorts as DOP (including Suite, DE/2021, Winner of German Generations Film Award). She is currently working on Funeralzzi (doc feature in production) and researching for a docu series about European ideological refugees.
In 2022 she co-founded Studio Onaleap - a film and visual media production house focused on stories that explore and amplify universal humanism and justice.
Mykola Bezkrovnyi is a Ukrainian editor and director. He is currently studying at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi University of Theatre, Cinema and Television.
Mykola previously worked on many music videos, commercials, short fiction films and documentaries. The main inspiration for making films is telling incredible stories that can echo in many human hearts.
One Day I Wish to See You Happy
Ukraine, France
Max, a filmmaker that only made one film 12 years ago, is disappointed with his life and his commercials' editor job. Dealing with a crisis, he escapes to the garage, repairing his ancient Volkswagen by himself. To remain close to him, his wife Maryna takes up a camera and starts to film him. When the Russian invasion in Ukraine turns their lives upside down and consumes the whole country in the unspeakable tragedy, Max and Maryna separate for several months. When Maryna comes back to Kyiv, in the background of the new chapter of their marriage there are constant missile strikes, power outages and threat of nuclear catastrophe. But the couple come to discover their own meaning of happiness. One Day I Wish to See You Happy is a portrait of family and relationship during the wartime, where the process of filmmaking itself is a language of love.
Creative Team
Maryna is a young Ukrainian indie documentary film-director. She completed her studies at National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (Kyiv, Ukraine) and initially was trained as an architect. Maryna combines her own artistic practice with pedagogical activity. In 2020 she founded own one-year school for young artists, Shcrab Visual Arts School. As an educator, Maryna has experience of collaboration with Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, School of Visual Communication, Maibutni Democratic School. Her experience with these organizations lied in designing short or long term art courses and mentoring. At this moment, Maryna’s filmography includes short documentaries. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Florent is the founder, executive producer and manager of VraiVrai Films created in 2011. He has produced around thirty documentary films that have been selected and awarded in numerous festivals around the world - Berlinale Forum, Visions du réel, Hot Docs Toronto... The editorial line that he has instilled in VraiVrai Films bears witness to his roots in Saintonge, a mainly rural territory where he grew up, and to his experience in Cameroon and Syria for several years. This experience led him to question the stakes of the relations between the North and the South, still deeply marked by the history of slavery and colonization, and the evolutions of the rural world. He is particularly sensitive to film projects which offer an intimate and political look at these societal issues.
Dear Helen/I'm already them - Mert én ők vagyok már / Dear Helen
Hungary
I am the only member from my family who is able to travel with my Holocaust survivor grandmother from Budapest to the yearly Generation Forums in Ravensbrück former Concentration Camp. We stay there at houses, which used to serve as female SS guards’ accomodation. Artists come to perform, young people listen to survivors, we remember, days are devoted to memories. Although I am there to support my grandmother, it seems she is much stronger than me. But how do I deal with this location, spending summers in a death camp? How can I balance my feelings in between hate for this place and overcoming the unbearable memories of my grandmother’s past that all became part of mine?
I grew up with the knowledge of a horrible trauma that happened to my family 78 years ago. Almost everyone perished of my family in concentrations camps. One of the only survivors is my Grandma. I know every single details. She is 95 years old now. We have a very special bond between us since my childhood. I follow her everywhere she goes even if it is painful for me. Will the Holocaust Memorial event in 2021 bring an end to my painful journeys and let me live in the present?
"Dear Helen- I am already them" is a film-letter, an experimental docu-diary, dedicated to my great-grandmother Helen, who perished in Rechlin KZ, in the arms of my grandma.
Creative Team
Diana Groó is a DLA, film director, script writer, and university teacher. Since 2014, she has been teaching at METU, where she became head of department in 2017 and university docent in 2022 as well as the head of Film and Media Studies. Her main professional interest is the relationship between documentary and fiction in films. She is founder of Katapult Film Studio and co-founder of DunaDOCK Masterclass. Her films won several Hungarian and international awards.
EFA-nominated producer and founder in 2011 of Éclipse Film, focusing on creative documentaries for the Hungarian and international markets. She has produced A Woman Captured, Easy Lessons and The Next Guardian, screened, nominated and awarded at festivals including Sundance, IDFA, Locarno, Hot Docs and Sheffield. In 2019 she was selected to Producers on the Move in Cannes. Since 2013 she teaches at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Documentary MA studies and is working on her doctoral thesis there. A Eurodoc and an EAVE graduate, president of the Hungarian Documentary Association (MADOKE), founder of Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) and a member of the Hungarian and the European Film Academy. Holy Dilemma is her first film as producer and director.
Ghetto Chicken (Gettó Csirke)
Hungary
A 17-year-old guy from Szeged explodes as a rapper in just a few months, going from a pub gig to millions of YouTube views. Marcell Szirmai (Pogany Indulo) quits high school, moves out of his family home to Budapest and takes a deep dive into his career. His daily life is dominated by drugs, partying and an intense social media presence.
How he influences his own generation, and what this microcosm and its participants are like from the inside. What path does he tread, and how does he navigate through the changes? How drugs and stress affect his performance as he becomes more famous and the stakes rise?
Cinematic footage is as much a part of Ghetto Chicken as an Instagram live, alternating between intimate family scenes and crowded concerts as a Gen Z coming of age story unfolds.
Creative Team
I've been a journalist for 12 years and started documentary filmmaking when I was working as a television news editor. I directed a TV documentary about four artists who were real rebels under communism. 2 years later, I also directed a short documentary with a journalist whose career was ruined by politics. I now report for Deutsche Welle, and last year I won a prestigious Hungarian media prize for videos showing different faces of war.
László and Speakeasy are involved in filming documentaries, social and cultural projects, works with a number of NGOs, commercial clients, and recently with fiction projects as well. His first feature-length documentary as a producer ULTRA was co-produced by HBO Europe and was in the selection for the best documentaries for the EFA in 2017. László's second feature length doc, Ghetto Balboa won the Hungarian Film Award for best documentary in 2019.
Ádám has been working as a video journalist focusing on Hungarian underground music and portrait-related short videos since 2014. Working with larger crews, he became interested in producing. Since successfully selling their first independent documentary to HBO, his goal is to help the workflow as a documentary film producer.
How did I end up here?
I try to reconstruct the timeline and memories of my early childhood years, spent alone with my grandparents, hoping to understand my parent’s decision to periodically leave me behind in an environment where my mother was abused, inevitably confronting personal as well as transgenerational trauma.
Márton Dorottya - director
Eduardo Saraiva - editor
Mangos
After months of non stop rains, a small village in Sinaloa, Mexico becomes an isolated island surrounded by newly formed rivers. After the disappearance of one of its inhabitants; a rumor begins that anyone who attempts to leave the island will be killed by the drug cartel. An intimate and hypnotic journey into the life of a town forced to find new ways if they are to survive.
Ben Guez - director
Tin Dirdamal - producer, editor
The wind blows where it pleases
How does Eszter, a 37-year old woman living in Budapest, reconcile loving God with loving women?
Andreea Udrea - director
Ana Vijdea - producer
Steps of Domonkos
Domonkos is a 27-year-old ever-single man who recently sobered up from severe drug addiction and now he starts a journey towards romantic and sexual intimacy which has been lacking all his life.
Réka Pinczés - director
Bohdan Herkaliuk - producer
Anna Tóth - co-producer
Flóra Erdélyi - editor
