24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Dvalemodus
director: Mattias De Craene, Bieke Depoorter
original title: Dvalemodus
year: 2017
running time: 9 min.
synopsis
A majestic mountain range rises over a Norwegian town engulfed in darkness. The stormy sea laps at its shores. A thick snow is falling. The town’s inhabitants, almost motionless in their existence, are like creatures in hibernation. The camera’s static shots resembling photographs are woven together into an experimental documentary on life in Skaland.
biography
Photographer and member of Magnum Photos Bieke Depoorter (1986) has published three books. Her first short film was made in cooperation with Belgian musician and audiovisual artist Mattias De Craene (1989).
more about film
| director: | Mattias De Craene, Bieke Depoorter |
| producer: | Fabian Driehorst |
| photography: | Bieke Depoorter |
| editing: | Grégoire Verbeke, Nina De Vroome |
| music: | Mattias De Craene |
| sound: | Nina De Vroome |
other films in the section
The goal the protagonist of the film has set for himself seems impossible to him: to contact his former partner in order to see his own son. On a deeper level, this video essay on what is and isn't possible unifies the footage it uses - videos freely accessible on YouTube and a monochromatic yellow filter through which they are presented.
Impossibility
Leonardo Barbuy
Peru / 2019 / 9 min.
section: Short Joy
European Premiere
During the day, Oxana paints frames as a man; at night, she puts on her female skin. Oxana is a transsexual living in Moldova, where even expressions of tolerance towards sexual minorities can be dangerous. This short film is an intimate look at gender and at the social isolation of people denied to right to their own identity.
In the Frame
Ion Gnatiuc, Artiom Zavadovsky
Moldova, Romania, Germany, France / 2018 / 17 min.
section: Short Joy
Central European Premiere
After a dam flooded a village in northern Iran, one island remained. There’s a grave on it. On a hill above the new lake, an old woman looks out at it. An intimate look at the daily routine of an Iranian woman who has survived modestly for twelve years alone in a house at the base of the mountain. She waits for permission to visit the island.
Lotus
Mohammadreza Vatandoust
Iran / 2018 / 13 min.
section: Short Joy
European Premiere
Saudi Arabian cinema only recently emerged from thirty-five years of being an underground phenomenon. Before it was legalized, Bentley Brown used his childhood home movie camera to record filmmakers working in the town of Jeddah. The film’s melancholy mood is underscored by the voiceover of the women who form most of the film crew.
First Feature
Bentley Brown
Saudi Arabia / 2018 / 14 min.
section: Short Joy
European Premiere
Two elderly gays spice up their relationship with a series of sex games that include a quirky game of father and son. The protagonists not only talk about their sexual habits, but also even demonstrate them for the dispassionate camera. Depictions of intimacy in film are once again pushed to their limits.
Coming Of Age
Jan Soldat
Germany / 2016 / 13 min.
section: Short Joy
Czech Premiere
The film is a skit on the parallels between a caretaker and a security guard embodied by the character of a young man who keeps watching over everything all the time. Repetitive and automated everyday tasks are accentuated by monotonous aesthetics of the camera and a slow-moving pace, introducing the audience into the world of Korean pragmatic mentality and sense of responsibility.
On Guard
Jeamin Cha
South Korea / 2018 / 18 min.
section: Short Joy
European Premiere
A humorous conceptual game based on a simple idea – filming amateur swimmers as they get ready to jump from a 10-meter platform. The short scenes are a mixture of slapstick, miniature psychological portraits, and aesthetic studies of physical and verbal expressions and courage.
Ten Meter Tower
Maximilien Van Aertryck, Axel Danielson
Sweden / 2016 / 16 min.
section: Short Joy
Czech Premiere
At the funeral of her grandmother, Yanlin, a young Chinese girl, learns that the deceased was a medium – and was possessed by a spirit named Gong. The film is Yanlin’s personal confessional – she never believed in the existence of miracles, but is now becoming interested in the world of spiritualism and finding out who Gong was in order to understand her grandmother better.
Beyond the World
Yanlin Li
United Kingdom / 2018 / 16 min.
section: Short Joy
World Premiere
The Memory Atlas refers to the unfinished work of Aby Warburg, a mentally ill German art historian. A surrealistic flow of ideas from his authentic writings from his stay in the Bellevue psychiatric hospital in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland commingles with the medical records of his psychotic states, tracing the border between madness and genius in one zoom out.
The Memory Atlas
Domenico Centrone
Belgium, Italy / 2019 / 10 min.
section: Short Joy
World Premiere
A compulsory stay in a Seoul facility known as Hanawon serves to prepare North Korean defectors for life under capitalism. Eight people tell of their experiences from their new lives, highlighting the challenges and prejudices that they must face in the completely different system. Their authentic testimonies are heard against the background of scenes of the bustling megalopolis.
Hanawon
Romain Champalaune
Netherlands / 2019 / 15 min.
section: Short Joy
World Premiere
The camera enters an office. The receptionist answers the telephone, her co-workers drink coffee during their break and talk about their plans. Later, there is a meeting. The stiffness of the situation reveals a hidden story. What exactly took place from June 2015 to September 2016 in the government building in Amsterdam?
Stand-by Office
Randa Maroufi
Lebanon, France, Netherlands, Romania / 2017 / 13 min.
section: Short Joy
East European Premiere
In a single take lasting several minutes, the film shows the village of Hladivode (whose names means “Cooling Waters”) near Sarajevo. After a slow tracking shot across an orchard, the camera zooms out to show a group of men engaged in conversation. They are filling in the bullet holes on a ruined building – a reminder of the recent events in the Balkan peninsula’s turbulent history.
Cooling Waters
Jonas Scheu
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland / 2015 / 8 min.
section: Short Joy
European Premiere
