CROATIA / 14th ZagrebDox

The 14th ZagrebDox, the largest documentary festival in the Balkans, was held in the Croatian capital from February 25^th to March 4^th. The opening film was Marta Prus’ “Over the Limit”, following a 20-year-old Russian gymnast hoping to win an Olympic medal. The film won the “Small Stamp” for the best film made by someone under 35.

In all, 125 documentaries were shown during 14 sessions. 38 films competed in the international section, 17 in the regional. In the international section, Talal Derki’s German-Lebanese-Syrian co-production “Of Fathers and Sons” won the “Big Stamp” for best film. Mila Turajlić’s Serbian-French-Qatari co-production “The Other Side of Everything” won the regional equivalent.

This year, “In Focus: New Europe” discussed issues common to post-communist societies in eastern, south-eastern and central Europe. This section also showed Croatia’s relations with countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic. In addition, “Restart”, one of Croatia’s most active production companies, screened films from its documentary film school.

During ZagrebDox there was a retrospective of French director Claire Simon’s films. Croatian documentary film-maker Boris Poljak also benefited from a special focus.

Finally, ZagrebDox Pro awarded one project out of the 12 submitted with €2,000. Representatives from the Croatian and Slovenian public TV channels, HTV and RTV Slovenija, were among those awarding this prize.

Sources: Croatia Week, Cineuropa