ZagrebDox Tuesday

Global journeys through collective and personal memories, insightful discussions and conversations with the authors of new Croatian films on regional themes marked the first day of the 20^th anniversary ZagrebDox, which continues today at Kaptol Boutique Cinema & Bar from 2 p.m. According to the already well-known custom, the honour of opening the second day of the festival belongs to a free screening in theatre 2, where you can see Sybilla Tuxen’s Silent Sun of Russia from the Teen Dox section – a work about the current living conditions and dreams of rebellious young Russian women who, after the outbreak of the war, no longer see the future in their homeland.

At 3 p.m. in theatre 4 in Regional Competition, Flotation (dir. Eluned Zoë Aiano, Alesandra Tatić) is screened – an empathetic and humorous anthropological–ethnographic film about the Marković family from Majdanpek, a Serbian mining town in the Bor district, which, apart from copper, is also known by nurturing fantastic traditional beliefs. At the same time, the Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson) is shown in theatre 5, a modern classic from the segment My Fave Dox, in which the established documentarian and cinematographer, famous for her photography of films about Snowden and Assange and awarded at Sundance, takes an archival, collaged and autobiographical look back at her rich career, but also on the relationship between documentarians and their subjects, objectivity and interventionism, and unfiltered reality and shaped narratives.

At 15:30 in theatre 1, this year’s Green Dox, a programme introduced last year dedicated to the relationship between man and nature, begins. Sebastian Mulder’s And a Happy New Year, the best youth documentary at the Amsterdam IDFA, is a powerful critique of fireworks from the (GoPro) perspective of traumatized dogs, while As the Tide Comes In (dir. Juan Palacios, Sofie Husum Johannesen) follows the last farmer of the Danish island of Mandø in the Wadden Sea who is under the influence of climate change. The portrait of this microcosm is accompanied by masterful shots of a peculiar landscape. In theatre 3, at that time, the second and last chance is offered for a short film potpourri from the Festival Hits section: At That Very Moment, Silk Threads and An Asian Ghost Story. At 4:00 p.m. (theatre 2), the rerun of Landshaft is scheduled.

The segment of controversial documentaries continues at 5 p.m. in theatre 4 with Maria Fredriksson’s Scandinavian The Gullspång Miracle, a film with excellent editing and mise-en-scène sensibility that tells an unusual identity drama about three women who, after an incredible discovery, search for (some type of) truth. In International Competition (theatre 5) after the short Au Revoir, Pugs (dir. Brett Allen Smith), the author’s reconstruction of his own (pseudo) memories with the help of film and digital recordings, animation, video games, nostalgia and family interactions, Monogamia by ZagrebDox’s ‘recidivist’, the award-winning Israeli author Ohad Milstein, takes us into the marriages of the director himself and his parents, that is, into the spouses’ attempts to maintain or regain their former love.

At 17:30 in theatre 1, also in International Competition, we are watching The Mother of All Lies by the young Moroccan director Asma El Moudir, another self-portrait of an exceptional, this time slightly surreal appearance (assisted by puppets) that reflects on the personal and collective past hidden behind the veil of family-directed oblivion which, as an extremely striking film character, is played by the author’s grandmother. In theatre 3, the audience will be able to talk with Petra Seliškar (among the devotees of the documentary genre, known for Grandmothers of the Revolution) after the screening of her film Body from Regional Competition, which introduces us to Urška Ristić and her struggle with rare autoimmune diseases. The film combines intimate conversations, personal archives and creative visuals to explore the mysteries of the human body through art and friendship, taking us on a journey of healing and self-acceptance.

After the eagerly awaited Literary Groupie (6 p.m., theatre 2) and Nikica Marović, the author of the film portrait of the well-read writer and columnist Željko Špoljar / Pavle Svirac, produced by Factum, which not only talks about his successes, but also social attitudes and private life of this intriguingly ‘unadapted’ appearance of the domestic cultural scene.

At 7 p.m. (theatre 4), on the occasion of the screening of her film In Transit (Regional Competition) about the Rijeka railway station as a stop on the migrant route and a young woman who fights for better living conditions in that improvised residence, we talk to Lucija Brkić. This short work is paired with the feature-length observational work Another Day (dir. Eneos Çarka), which is centred around a duo of Albanian street performers in Italy. The State of Affairs section, also starting at 7 p.m. (theatre 5), features Intercepted by Ukrainian-Canadian director Oksana Karpovych, winner of two special awards at the Berlinale. The film is based on the phone calls of Russian soldiers who, from the Ukrainian frontline, convey to their families the impressions of destruction, resistance, illusions, madness, disappointment, robbery, war crimes, propaganda and suspicion.

New film by multimedia artist Renata Poljak Woods That Sing (7:30 p.m., theatre 1, Regional Competition) with a conversation with the author is an unmissable treat on festival Tuesday. The media-diverse testimonies of four female partisans who look back on war and post-war experiences are not only a monument to the anti-fascist struggle, but also an exploration of hidden female principles in well-known historical events. Although at the same time the screening of the film Three Promises by Palestinian Yousef Srouji, whose mother’s home recordings were found, prompted him to relive his childhood with her in the environment of Israeli retaliation in the 2000s, more agile visitors could still catch the new ZagrebDoXXL panel on the subject after Woods That Sing “How to achieve peace in Gaza?”, which will follow Srouji’s film, with the participation of Nina Čolović, Božo Kovačević and Amer A. Sham, moderated by Dina Pokrajac.

At 8 p.m. (theatre 2), again in Regional Competition and also with a conversation with the authors, you should not miss Cabin Pressure (dir. Eszter Nagy, Sára Czira), a story about the unusual path to (co)parenthood of a heterosexual Hungarian woman and a homosexual Russian who overcome cultural and age differences in Barcelona on the way to the desired family life.

At 21:00 in theatre 4 in International Competition it’s the turn of While the Green Grass Grows, Peter Mettler’s epic, visually unforgettable, demanding but fulfilling film diary/essay about rivers, death, existentialism and transcendence. For those who missed them yesterday, the films I Would Rather Be a Stone, Ana Hušman’s latest work, which is intensively discussed in film circles, and Breadcrumb Trail by Katarina Lukec are being shown simultaneously in theatre 5. At 21:30 (theatre 1), fans of music documentaries are offered another opportunity for Kultur Shock and Srdjan Gina Jevđević in Grandpa Guru by Silvio Mirošničenko.

The 20^th ZagrebDox Tuesday ends with A Wolfpack Called Ernesto, a poignant work about the position of young victims and perpetrators in the harsh world of Mexican criminal organizations and the wide availability of weapons. The director Everardo González, who makes the film by placing the camera behind the back of the head of the protagonist, is considered one of the most significant contemporary Latin American documentarians.

Under the mentorship of Lucie Kon and Sead Kreševljaković and moderated by Robert Tomić Zuber, ZagrebDox Pro begins today, bringing together filmmakers who, through the analysis of seven submitted projects, case studies, group and individual discussions, round tables, special screenings and masterclasses, are looking for excellence. This year’s edition focuses on in-depth research into limited-run documentary series.

Tickets can be purchased in presale and during the Festival at the box office of the Kaptol Boutique Cinema (Kaptol Centre, Nova Ves 17), at the ticket machines in the lobby of the cinema and online at www.kaptolcinema.hr

ZagrebDox takes place with the support of the City of Zagreb, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Kultura nova Foundation, Croatian Film Directors Guild and the City of Zagreb Tourist Board.