Doc Alliance Selection

This poetic documentary shows the different faces of Armenia through several heroes and heroines, with their dreams and aspirations at the centre of the film's narrative. A 60-year-old hospital lift operator dreams of going into space, a man from the countryside seeks a bride, and two young queer girls want to live their lives despite homophobic sentiments. The directing duo treats their protagonists with respect and empathy, viewing their lives and dreams through the cultural background of Armenia. The whole country becomes the fifth dreamer.“Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan have created an elegant and mysterious feature debut about a complex and contradictory country where archaic traditions coexist with a generation of young adults who dream of revolution.” (Muriel del Don)---Source:https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/424434/

In this intimate film, the director presents a portrait of her father, Jean-René, who left his native Réunion at the age of 17 to work in France. Jean-René talks about his experiences, his homesickness, and his unclear cultural identity. In doing so, he also engages in a dialogue with her daughter, who is similarly dealing with her mixed ethnicity. The visually suggestive story of a father and daughter becomes a metaphor for ambivalence and post/colonial heritage. “I wish I knew where my ancestors hailed from. All I know is that they were dispossessed from their land. But in my dreams, they manage to escape to the upper reaches of the island where a wild nature persists.” — Erika Etangsalé

After completing seminary training, a graduate becomes a priest in the Orthodox Church only if he marries or becomes a monk. Vitalij and Łukasz delay this moment, living in a shared flat surrounded by books where they devote themselves to their hobbies – philosophical discussions and choral singing. This sensitively composed documentary explores non-conforming friendships that develop within a conforming institution. On the one hand are the pressures caused by expectations tied to social function, on the other is the individualistic experience of the joy of merely existing in the interim, especially when it finds support in the family and among close people.“Will the bond between the protagonists turn out stronger than their religious obligations?”---Source: https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/online-cinema/film/3547-light-years/

The directing duo meets and talks to veterans of the Portuguese colonial war to record their memories, experiences, and feelings. But it’s not just about the storytelling – it’s about meeting and sharing them. The interviews are interspersed with archival footage, suggesting that the film is not just a nostalgic spectacle, but a reflection on war and the price of peace in general.“There is a continuum, we are aware that, looking at history, peace is almost a utopia, and we took those images for one thing because it was the war that went on over the years and which seems to haunt us, which is very old and visceral.” — Marta Ramos---Source: https://comunidadeculturaearte.com/entrevista-jose-oliveira-e-marta-ramos-para-fazer-um-filme-tem-de-haver-um-compromisso-com-alguma-realidade/

Director Nataša Urban left her native Serbia many years ago. But now, through her father’s travel diary and conversations with family and loved ones, she returns to the places where she grew up and which have since become ravaged mementos of the war in former Yugoslavia. Human and concrete remains are all that are left in the villages where the author used to walk with her parents. The overwhelming history of the Balkan peninsula is eating away at the smaller, family ones – happy memories of childhood are overpowered by what has been dredged up from the uncovered mass graves. Looking at the bloody images of Yugoslav history is as painful as looking directly at a solar eclipse.“Then, in order to cover it up, they destroyed the POW camp in 1992, one year after they set it up. And people would come to pick the bricks from a nearby village, on tractors to take the bricks to use them to build a church in that nearby village.”

An eccentric Polish couple owns one of the largest pawnshops in Europe, where together with three dedicated employees they try to earn a living every single day. They buy and sell almost anything you can imagine: religious relics, sex books, mammoth teeth, you name it. At the same time, they’re also highly valued members of their Silesian small-town community where they’re seen by their fellow citizens as good Samaritans and therapists. This tragicomic film, which uses the at-times absurd and diverse pawnshop as an example, thematizes the socio-economic problems of the Polish border: from poverty and a lack of jobs to alcoholism and domestic violence.“It's the kind of tragicomic gaze that makes this film such a pleasure to watch, and the fact that the titular pawnshop is located on Perseverance Street really does say it all.” (Marta Bałaga)---Source: https://www.cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/423793/