The film programme of DOK.fest München. At the cinema. At home.

3 to 14 May 2023 at the Munich venues
8 to 21 May 2023 @home

As always, DOK.fest München opens the view out to the world: with 130 of the best and most current international documentaries from 55 countries. Our goal is the greatest possible participation in our films, which is why we bring them to the big screen in Munich cinemas as well as to home screens throughout Germany: DOK.fest stays dual.

Please enter the festival edition you would like to find out more about a film in the year field.

DOK.international Main Competition

MELTING SOULS – NORILSK – L'ETREINTE DE GLACE (France 2017, François-Xavier Destors). Cut off from the world, the town of Norilsk lies in the deepest Siberian north. Against all odds, it rose up from the foundations of a gulag. In this environment everything is possible. Surrounded by ice, the inhabitants find their own means of escape.

#The Places you call Home, #Hero's Journey, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

OVER THE LIMIT (Finland, Germany, Poland 2017, Marta Prus). She takes a bow after every competition with a smile on her face, yet beyond public view Rita tends to be serious. Day after day she stoically endures her trainer’s harsh tone. The pressure that the Russian gymnast is under is immense.

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Hero's Journey, #Ganz großes Kino!, #DOK.4teens

THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS (Denmark 2017, Simon Lereng Wilmont). 10-year-old Oleg lives with his beloved grandmother in eastern Ukraine close to the front line. His everyday life is dictated by war. The film vividly shows what it means to be a child in times of conflict and to have to grow up fast.

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Nominees DOK.fest Award of SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit, #Love will find us, #Hero's Journey, #DOK.4teens, #coming of age

Student Award

KREATURA (Deutschland 2017, Viki Alexander). A young woman is searching. She wanders through film images that could equally be dream or reality. She is looking for her brother who she thinks she doesn’t know. Or, in the end, is she searching for herself, for her creature, her creation, her being?

#Who am I?, #Hero's Journey, #for Cinephiles, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

Retrospective DOK.network Africa

RODINA HEISST HEIMAT – RODINA MEANS HOME (Deutschland 1992, Helga Reidemeister). In RODINA HEISST HEIMAT, Helga Reidemeister observes a Soviet regiment’s withdrawal from the former border region of the GDR over six months in 1991 and follows some of the soldiers back to their homes.

#The Places you call Home, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

DOK.panorama

FOTBAL INFINIT – INFINITE FOOTBALL (Romania 2018, Corneliu Porumboiu). “The round thing has to go in the square thing,” the coach Helmut Schulte once pronounced. Laurențiu Ginghină’s take on this is visionary. He would like to revolutionise football and its rules. He discusses this with his friend, the Romanian filmmaker and football fan Corneliu Porumboiu.

#Sports – Sweat, Blood and Tears, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

LOVE IS POTATOES – LIEFDE IS AARDAPPELEN (Netherlands 2017, Aliona van der Horst). How can a family history be reconstructed when communication is not possible? After the death of her mother, the filmmaker travels to her home village in Russia and tells not only the story of her family through personal found footage but also that of the Stalin era.

#The Places you call Home, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Looking Back

MINIATURE FOR PIANO – MINIATURA ZA PIANO (Bulgaria 2017, Eldora Traykova). Four elderly country doctors in Bulgaria care for their patients with utter dedication and recount their eventful lives. In black and white images and to the music of P.I. Tschaikowski, the panorama of a meaningful existence melancholically unfolds.

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Hero's Journey

TRANSPARENT WORLD – PROZRACHNY MIR (Georgia 2017, Vato Kuntsev). Life is not only about giving birth to a child, it is about the responsibility that new life brings into our existence, that the child will be brought up as a legitimate person. Right-minded parents will gracefully share the duty of being patient and loyal to their child. Today Beka is 26 years old... His father taught him his profession. Beka makes art photography and a film about a physicist and composer. He had his first photo exhibition recently. The father's patience and understanding helped him to introduce his son to adult life and make him believe in his own talent.

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Nominees DOK.fest Award of SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit, #Hero's Journey, #DOK.4teens

WHEN THE WAR COMES (Croatia, Czech Republic 2018, Jan Gebert). “Heil Fatherland!” Led by their spiritual leader, Peter Švrček, 200 youths train every weekend for the next world war. Jan Gebert’s eye-opening documentary exposes a pervasive shift to the right in Eastern Europe.

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Human Stains

Munich Premieres

IMPREZA – DAS FEST – IMPREZA – THE CELEBRATION (Deutschland 2017, Alexandra Wesolowski). “I don't want Europe to remain a community of values: it should be a monetary union again,” declares a relative in Alexandra Wesolowski’s intimate family portrait that offers deep insights into Polish society and deals with Europe’s shift to the right.

#Nominees FFF Documentary Talent Award, #The Places you call Home, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

WIR TRÄUMTEN VOM FRÜHLING – MY RUSSIAN SPRING (Deutschland, Russland 2017, Xenia Sigalova). Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a young adult, Xenia Sigalova went with her parents to the West. Almost two decades later she returns and hardly recognises her home country. Nowadays she is a filmmaker – what has happened to her friends?

#The Places you call Home, #Nominees FFF Documentary Talent Award, #Looking Back, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

BEST OF FESTS

IN PRAISE OF NOTHING – IN PRAISE OF NOTHING (Croatia, France, Serbia 2017, Boris Mitic). Captivating images of nothingness, the wistfully indulgent music of the Tiger Lilies and Iggy Pop’s laconically recited nursery rhymes are condensed into Boris Mitic’s subtle and ironically philosophical essay. Nothing could be more fascinating! Behold!

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #for Cinephiles

THE FAMILY – DRUZINA (Austria 2017, Rok Biček). Matej becomes a father. But new family life proves difficult, something that may be exacerbated by Matej’s family background: his mother and brother have disabilities; he assumed responsibility from an early age. A film about curses – and blessings? – family.

#coming of age, #Love will find us, #Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus

THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING – DRUGA STRANA SVEGA (France, Qatar, Serbia 2017, Mila Turajlic). “I don’t know – this country isn’t normal.” For years Srbijanka Turajlic has campaigned against political injustice from her home in Belgrade. Her daughter, Mila creates an extremely intimate portrayal of her and tells the story of her turbulent homeland of Serbia.

#Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus, #Looking Back

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