Hot Docs 24

In Malta, abortion is illegal, almost without exception. In Italy, a single woman cannot have IVF treatment, while only a small number of European countries allow for euthanasia or assisted suicide. So it is not surprising that Europe has seen a boom in cross-border “medical tourism” over recent years, a phenomenon that Greek director Elina Psykou examines in her feature doc Stray Bodies, selected for EFP’s Changing Face of Europe programme. Psykou talks to BDE.

Incest remains very much a taboo subject - this much can be deduced from the impressive documentary Such a Resounding Silence, in which victims are given the chance to talk about the abuse they suffered. The film is empowering in conveying the incredible resilience and mental strength of the protagonists, and also enables co-director Emmanuelle Béart - herself a victim of childhood incest who at one point wants to quit the project - to keep going.

It may not be a hugely original premise - to invite (very) old people to talk about their lives and former partners - but Echo of Life is nevertheless a wondrous experience that touches your soul. It is a poetic reflection on life and love which indicates that, by the end, we remember what really matters, and shows how important (shared) memories are in a person's life.

Eco-warrior Chris Clark, the protagonist of The Outpost, was the kind of maverick you expect to find in a Werner Herzog movie or an epic 19th Century novel, a visionary who would attempt to put on a Pink Floyd concert in the Amazon rain forest so as to convince the Brazilian government to set up a nature reserve. “We shared the fact that we were ‘out-of-era’ idealists […who…] shared the same discomfort with the contemporary world,” director Morabito tells BDE of his friend and subject.

Jana is one of a small number of Protestant pastors in Slovenia. But while her faith remains intact, she begins to question her commitment to life as a cleric as she is increasingly sidelined by the Church authorities. At the same time, her marriage is under severe strain, and she further confides to director Prettner, in the most candid of terms, of childhood sexual abuse that she suffered. “We spent two hours a day when we were driving, and in the car she revealed the most intimate stuff,” the director tells BDE.

Norwegian Democrazy may focus ostensibly on Lars Thorsen and Fanny Bråten, a pair of objectionable Quran-burning anti-Islam extremists, but the raison d’etre of the film is to explore the difficult overlap between ‘free speech’ and ‘hate speech’ and how modern democracy is geared up to deal with this. “He knows exactly how far it can go and how far it cannot go,” co-director Kjøge Rønning says of the ‘free speech’ dilemma that Thorsen is all too keen to exploit.

In Limits of Europe, Czech journalist Sasha Uhlová sets out to experience what it’s like to be an Eastern European economic migrant in the West, working impossibly long hours for low wages and leaving behind her partner, four kids and seriously ill father - just as so many economic migrants are forced to do. The film “is a mirror reflecting the world we live in even though we have a habit of turning a blind eye to what is happening in it,” says director Apolena Rychlíková.

24 hours after 10 Hot Docs programmers exited the festival en masse, the Canadian doc fest unveiled its selection of 168 documentaries representing 64 countries, featuring 51 world and 32 international premieres. The 2024 festival will open April 25 with the international premiere of Luther: Never Too Much, directed by award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter. Hot Docs 2024 runs April 25 to May 5, promising “an unparalleled celebration of non-fiction storytelling on a global scale.”

European Film Promotion (EFP) and Hot Docs announced March 26 the nine titles selected for this year’s annual Changing Face of Europe programme which seeks “to illustrate and examine a new and contemporary Europe from a cultural, social, geo-political and economic perspective.” Hot Docs – Canadian International Documentary Festival, takes place 25 April – 5 May 2024.