Thessaloniki 2024

During the 2024 Agora, Sophie Shevardnadze presented her Docs in Progress project, titled Eduard. The debut feature of the Tbilisi-born filmmaker is an unprecedented portrait of Eduard Shevardnadze, a man who held power in Georgia for an extended period of time and couldn’t let go of it without bloodshed. The work is particularly poignant for the director as she is, herself, the granddaughter of the former Georgian leader.

Produced by Maja Medić and Ena Bajraktarević for Serbian outfit Marienbad Films, Kafka in Belgrade is the working title of one of the feature docs in development pitched at this year’s Thessaloniki Agora. In it, director Maša Nešković unravels her past and that of her filmmaker stepfather, as they navigate together “the maze of memory and identity.”

Filmmaker Sergej Kreso and Doxy Films (NL) producer Harmen Jalvingh pitched their new feature-length doc project, Dark Blue River. Two industry veterans with over 20 years of experience in the non-fiction business, Kreso and Jalvingh had previously pitched Here We Move Here We Groove at the Greek gathering in 2017. In his latest effort, Kreso returns to a place very dear to him - namely the Neretva river, within the eastern part of the Adriatic basin.

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 which world-premieres in Thessaloniki before its international premiere at CPH:DOX. Psykou talks to BDE.

When some Japanese people decide, for whatever reason, to “reset” their lives, they turn to the “night-movers” who help them disappear (as Hartmann and Mori’s feature doc suggests) into thin air. Hartmann describes it as “an emotional human drama film.” It’s not intended as a dry investigative documentary. The director talks of trying to “understand what it means when you run away - but also what it means when you are left behind.”

Sold by France-based agency Stranger Film Sales, the Balkans-based story of profound gender transformation represents a “powerful depiction of patriarchal dominance,” say filmmakers Kristine Nrecaj and Birthe Templin. The film, which was pitched as a work-in-progress during DOK Leipzig, world premieres March 8 - International Women’s Day - in Thessaloniki’s Open Horizon’s section.

BDE speaks to the makers of the French-Indian coming-of-age doc Until I Fly, which world-premieres at Thessaloniki 2024. Filmed over a number of years, the picture follows Veeru, a charismatic boy born to an Indian mother and a Nepalese father living in an intolerant Himalayan village. “Veeru saw me first as an old man, then he perceived me as a brother and then I sort of became his friend… Meanwhile, Kanishka became a sort of elder sister,” co-director Shetty tells of the directors’ close relationship with their subject.

Ahead of the 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, Business Doc Europe chatted to Angeliki Vergou, Head of Agora. Agora is the gathering’s “developmental branch” unfolding both on site and virtually. The Greek industry event focuses on showcasing stories and filmmakers from the neighbouring region through a series of dedicated initiatives such as the Pitching Forum and the Docs in Progress section.

By day the forest on the eastern border of Poland is blissful and magical for a young family living in their fairytale-like cottage. But at it offers clear evidence of Europe’s terrible humanitarian crisis. “The refugees are hidden in the shelter of the night. We hear their voices coming from the woods. We have this glimpse of a feeling that we can only get at night,” director Lidia Duda tells BDE of her film which world-premieres in Thessaloniki.

Between 1945 and 1975 hundreds of tuberculosis sufferers in an Athens hospital were buried in unmarked graves in the hospital grounds. After hearing of this discovery, Greek director Marianna Economou was determined to reconstruct many of their identities. “I felt I had to tell this story, there was no [other] way. These people were coming out of ‘oblivion’ after 80 years telling me, ‘here we are, make a film about our lives,’” she tells BDE.