Berlin/EFM 2023

When she spoke to BDE, Autlook CEO Salma Abdalla was just back from Sundance where Estonian director Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood was rapturously received, winning the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary category. Abdalla outlines her slate at EFM 2023.

The German Films MD looks forward to a busy Berlinale in which locally produced (and co-produced) docs feature highly, with four new docs in Perspectives Deutsches Kino section for emerging filmmakers, and two Forum selections; veteran auteur’s Volker Koepp’s Leaving And Staying and Luís Alejandro Yero’s Calls From Moscow. That said, these are tough times for documentary in the German theatrical marketplace, she tells BDE.

The world has changed a lot since the launch, in February 2020, of DAE (Documentary Association of Europe). Three years ago, after we all waved goodbye to Berlinale, everything came to a shuddering Covid-induced halt. But like the rest of the doc industry, DAE founders Brigid O’Shea and Marion Schmidt rolled up their sleeves and got on with it, in their case building an organisation that would represent and lobby for the rights and interests of international documentary makers.

Doccers are well catered for at EFM 2023, Market chief Dennis Ruh and Doc Industry Co-ordinator Martina Baumgartner tell BDE. 20% of market screenings are docs, there’s an extensive programme of non-fiction talks, a new doc hub and, once again, a dedicated Archive Day. And a whopping 59 documentaries are screening at the festival. What’s more, professionals will get the answer to a fundamental question at EFM. Are documentary makers good people at heart?

Thirteen films have been selected for this year’s competition. For the first time in the history of the festival, all of them are world premieres. “This year’s selection is full of films deeply rooted in reality, but always with original perspectives, creative ideas and a courage to challenge the status quo of documentary cinema as well as the world at large,” says Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm. CPH:DOX takes place March 15-26 2023.

Leading sales outfit Deckert Distribution will be selling the recent Sundance title at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin, alongside Indian Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide (Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking at Sundance 2023) and Eastern Front by Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko, world-premiering in Berlinale Encounters. Deckert Distribution also welcomes new sales & acquisitions exec Tommaso Priante.

Roman Liubyi’s film concerns the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014, for which the Russians were responsible but have done everything they can to cover their tracks and shift the blame. “One of the central goals from the very beginning was [to show] the Russian media activity round it [the tragedy],” he tells BDE of his determination to examine how the Russian propaganda machine works.

Superpower by Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman to world premiere in Berlin. “In a festival that will take place one year after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, it is important to show the film that Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman made under such difficult conditions,” writes the festival. Additionally, Sur l’Adamant by Nicolas Philibert is selected for Main Competition.

Seven doc titles including Ukrainian Alisa Kovalenko’s We Will Not Fade Away, about five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine who are given brief respite from reality when they are sent on a Himalayan expedition. The Special title Kiss the Future documents how the Dublin band U2 were enlisted to help shine a light on the seemingly forgotten citizens of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.

The 28 films (10 docs) that make up the main programme of 53rd Berlinale Forum “celebrate the diversity of cinematic forms, approaches and narratives and explore the predicaments of the past and present in unflinching fashion,” writes the festival. The selection includes new docs by French Claire Simon, Polish Tomasz Wolski and Paris-based Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon.