Martijn te Pas

On February 5, Docpoint (Helsinki) will screen In Spring, a joyful silent film depicting life in Kyiv in 1929, to raise funds for the Ukrainian Docudays festival. It will be accompanied by a live score composed and performed by Ukrainian Roksana Smirnova and Misha Kalinin. Leading doc consultant Martijn te Pas appeals to more European festivals to programme this film for Ukraine, and interviews musicians Roksana and Misha for BDE.

Director Hogir Hirori talks to Business Doc Europe about the genesis of his latest doc Sabaya, the abduction of Yazidi women and girls for exploitation as sex slaves, and the stoic local heroes who work tirelessly to free them from captivity.

Swedish directors Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri profile the troubled actor Björn Andrésen, who found early fame as the 15-year old muse (and object of both fascination and desire) for Dirk Bogarde in Visconti’s classic adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.

Interlaced with no frills interviews we see in 100 UP the daily lives of seven centenarians with quite extraordinary life stories.

Álvarez’s observational black-and-white film intimately documents the intense sessions of a reading group who meet in a Buenos Aires café.