Another Man’s Diary | Ukraine
director Olexandr Tkachenko | producer Illia Gladshtein | production company Phalanstery Films
Drafted as a soldier, pacifist vegetarian cinematographer Dmytro Dokunov goes to war to live through the most extreme footage of his life. With his mobile camera always on, Dmytro is filming the entire experience of war, desperately trying to preserve his humanity. What kind of man will he return?
Archive. Box#64 | Ukraine
director Eva Dzhyshyashvili | producer Natalia Libet | production company 2Brave Productions
The image of archives and personal stories of people, who collect and store archival data, blend depicting the experience of accumulated knowledge highlighting the bridge between the past and the present. Yet, it raises the question: can knowledge alone prevent future tragedies, or is there more needed to avert them?
Artworks in Agony | Latvia/Lithuania
directors Elizabete Gricmane, Ramune Rakauskaite | producers Uldis Cekulis, Paula Jansone, Arunas Matelis, | production companies VFS Films/Studio Nominum
In the Soviet era of Latvia, a bohemian rock’n’roll musician defies the daily life, using music as a powerful tool for cultural resistance and chasing personal freedom, becoming an iconic symbol of alternative music scene and independence.
Brothers in the Hunt | Latvia
director Ieva Ozolina | producer Madara Melberga | production company Fa Filma
After long term prison, ex Soviet criminals decided to go legal. The debt collection agency they established is more effective than everyone could expect, maybe because they use methods they learned in the stormy 90ties to get things done. They take cases from common men who got cheated by big private companies. Where is the balance in justice?
Cecilia’s Project | Poland/Sweden
director Edward Porembny | producers Edward Porembny, Magnus Paulsson | production companies AMP Polska Edward Porembny/Solid Entertainment AB
Cecilia Brinch Sand, about whom I was making development for my forthcoming film, had committed suicide. It had happened the day before, on Friday. Cecilia was 42 years old, a beautiful woman, she had money and a 15-year-old son, she turns into an elite soldier fighting on the Kurdish or Ukrainian front and she was supposed to marry her loving partner on Saturday. Instead, Cecilia walked into a half-frozen river Ätran in her family town of Falkenberg and drowned. From that moment I knew I had to finish this film and that the question of why I was making it will be the second storyline of the movie.
Divia | Ukraine/Poland
director Dmytro Hreshko | producers Polina Herman, Glib Lukianets | production companies UP UA STUDIO/Gogol Film
Divia is an observational documentary about the catastrophic impact on Ukraine’s environment as a result of the Russian invasion and how nature is resisting and recovering from this aggression.
Eros and Thanatos | Ukraine
director Dmytro Tiazhlov | producer Ella Shtyka | production company Indie Media Polis
Albert and Vova are ordinary Ukrainians, but the time comes and they turn into the leaders of thoughts and the most unconventional Ukrainian musicians. We follow their creative journey in search of “zeitgeist” at the background of revolution, pandemia and war.
House of Ants | Poland
director Katarzyna Kultys | producer Adam Ślesicki | production company FILM FRAME
A portrait of a relationship between a mother and her 14-year-old son who repeatedly oversteps her boundaries, bringing home species after species – ants, cockroaches, spiders, scorpions, and snakes.
How to Talk to Lydia? | Germany/Moldova/Georgia
director Rusudan Gaprindashvili | producers Hans Gralke, Anna Dziapshipa | production companies Black Market Film Production/Sakdoc
How to Talk to Lydia? takes us to a German warehouse where Moldovan guest workers depend on “Lydia,” a hidden AI system, to manage supermarket supply chains. As their reliance on this artificial mind deepens, profound questions of ethics and consequences emerge, challenging their perception of the world they inhabit.
If Everyone Just Leaves | Sweden
COMING SOON project
directors Karin Wegsjö, Nazira Abzalova | producer Karin Wegsjö | production company KW production ab
This is a film about finding home, but also about losing one. It tells the story of Nazira and her family. As their love for the community is put to the test by increasing gun violence, they must make the ultimate decision. The film highlights the changing landscape of Sweden.
In the Winds of the Icefields (wt) | Estonia
director Mihkel Oksmann | producer Hõbe Ilus | production company Sui
86-years-old fervent ice sailor is crafting his last ice yacht. When the filmmaker goes to capture his grandfather engineering this utopian vessel, the latter asks him to jump on the boat with him instead. The race against time begins. If only there was ice.
Once We Were Heroes | Finland/Poland
director Oliwia Tonteri | producers Aino Halonen, Kamil Skałkowski | production companies Kompot/Kalejdoskop Film
Once We Were Heroes is a documentary about a vanishing world and its inhabitants.
18-year-old Dorota, her coal miner father Szczepan and his two colleagues Andrzej and Wojtek take us into the Polish mining region. Community’s livelihood and values are on a collision course with the rest of the world.
Podnieks On Podnieks. A Wtness Of History | Latvia
COMING SOON project
directors Antra Cilinska, Anna Viduleja | producer Antra Cilinska | production company Juris Podnieks Studio
A biographical recreation of the life of the outstanding Latvian documentary film maker Juris Podnieks through his diaries, combined with the addition of his original filmed material and interviews, revealing a time full of intense events at the end of the 20th century.
Sacrum and Profanum in Pievenai | Lithuania
director Giedrė Beinoriūtė | producer Jurga Gluskinienė | production company Monoklis
Pievėnai is a small village in western Lithuania, famous for the ancient theatrical tradition of keeping a vigil in the church overnight on Easter Eve to await the resurrection of Christ, reminiscent of medieval mysteries. By observing the preparations of the local community for the vigil and immersing the audience in Easter night, the filmmakers raise questions about the relationship between the sacred and the mundane in the life of modern man.
The First Swallow | Georgia
directors Joanna Roj, Sandro Wysocki | producer Glib Lukianets | production company Gogol Film
In the high mountains of Georgia, 14-year-old Nino is offered to start a professional boxing career. Her dream is not enthusiastically welcomed by the small village community.
The Misfit | Finland
director Miikka Poutiainen | producers Miikka Poutiainen, Sami Salminen | production company PinkAgency Productions
Hyperactive city girl (24) is living from techno beat at the edge of alienation from society. Because of adversities in life she ends up on a distant island in an old cabin once inhabited by a mythical hermit. It starts a journey towards facing her worst fears and intergenerational curses.
Totem | Estonia
director/producer Birgit Rosenberg | production company Door 2 Produciton
Russian speaking inhabitants of Estonian border area gather to protect the Soviet monument tank and everything it symbolizes.
Up in the Air | Ukraine/Czechia/Lithuania
COMING SOON project
director/producer Oksana Syhareva | production company Private entrepreneur Syhareva Oksana
Young Ukrainian circus acrobats developing their skills and performance up in the air. First, a century-old circus building and local government officials challenge the path to their dreams. Now the war took away their home and they set off for a journey to tell the world about themselves.
Vanessa (wt) | Sweden
directors Åsa Ekman, Martina Iverus, Oscar Hedin | producers Marina-Evelina Cracana, Oscar Hedin | production company Film and Tell
Vanessa is a coming-of-age film about an assertive young woman’s pursuit of independence and belonging after surviving a brain tumor that has shaken her sense of identity and cast a shadow of uncertainty over her future.
Voice/Over | Czechia
director Bálint Révész | producers Radovan Síbrt, Viki Réka Kiss | production company PINK
Voice/Over is a political satire, a playful ride into the inventive and uncanny realm of political manipulation and populism.
War in Chornobyl | Ukraine/Lithuania
director Oleksiy Radynski | producers Lyuba Knorozok, Jurga Dikčiuvienė-Kaye | production companies Kinotron Group/STUDIJA KINEMA
The survivors of the Russian occupation of Chornobyl Exclusion Zone share first-hand accounts of this unprecedented act of nuclear terror. As their stories unfold, they’re coming to terms with the permanent threat of a renewed Russian attempt to invade the radioactively contaminated Zone, that can lead to an apocalyptic scenario.
We Are the Granddaughters Of The Witches You Couldn’t Burn (wt) | Georgia
director Mariam Chachia | producer Sophio Bendiashvili | production companies OpyoDoc/Enkeny Films
Filmmaker Mariam Chachia follows the journey of Tatia, who, at the age of 24, successfully challenged the system against Georgian patriarchal society. However, in a surprising turn of events, seven years later, Tatia finds herself at the center of a new court case, fighting against a larger system of injustices.
When Harmattan Blows | Poland
COMING SOON project
director/producer Edyta Wroblewska | production company SK Film Studio
Barbara, a young woman from Ghana, despite traumatic experiences from her childhood, didn’t give up on her dreams. Now in order to move forward, she has to face demons of the past.
Yalla Yalla | Lithuania
director Mindaugas Survila | producer Giedrė Žickytė | production company Moonmakers
In a small Lithuanian town looms a former-prison-turned-migration-centre. For the first time in history, its spaces are populated with migrant men. Their past lives and future hopes float like dreams, forming a poetic meditation on eternal movement and change.
