The second and third night of documentary and short film festival Dokufest were marked with the immense amount of films shown and fast-pacing rhythm of the festival, which brought together artists and film-lovers to celebrate the event.

This year’s festival best kept secret is definitely the subtle political film programme, which is hiding under the shadow of other films’ exposure in the open air cinemas. One only has to look at the schedule twice to find the deeply interesting screenings of the special programme from Palestine, which mirror the horrors of war, or the casually forgotten photo exhibition “Afghanistan” by Balazs Gardi and Teru Kuwayama, which is displaying all week in the hammam. One might even do a bit of personal reflecting on the recent conflicts in Balkans, with the Croatian documentary about the war veterans “Bad Blue Boys,” showing tonight for the second time, or the Bosnian film “Interrogation” which is a reflection of war memories and trauma.

The most inspiring film I’ve seen so far has been one of the “Made in Palestine” documentaries, Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel Danniel’s piece “Arna’s Children”. It is an astonishing piece done for a long time, putting together pieces from 1992 and clips taken 7 or more years after. It is a story about a Jewish woman building a children’s theatre in order for the Palestinian children who experience daily losses to have a place to express their anger. Not soon after her death from cancer, the shine of the new hopes she built for the children living under occupation fade. Her son, Juliano Mer Khamis searches the children he himself taught in the theatre to see what have they become – and instead of Palestinian Romeos we find warriors, suicide-bombers and lonely men whose friends all have become martyrs.

On the third night you’ve missed three great things:

Igor Zupe started the evening at the ProCredit cinema with "Bachelors", a stand-art documentary about the Slovenian group of artists Irwin. It took the viewers into the philosophy and the conceptual art of this group of contemporary artists,  which if for nothing else should be easily recognized as a part of the art collective, NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst)  which among other things “constitutes” a state – a micronation,  a state not in space but globally spread out in time, without any exclusions.

We followed Irwin around their many exhibitions during four years that this film was filmed, as they paid homage to the Russian artist Malevich and tried to establish a distinctive Eastern European Art. Needless to say, the public was completely baffled and lost. They didn’t get to grasp Irwin’s work during the 53 minutes of the film, and although Zupe was present and readily available for debate, there was none. This was indeed disappointing, but very natural thing to happen. Although the festival director, Alirize Arenliu in the beginning mentioned that the film's premiere coincided with the declaration of Kosovo's independence, and then pressed play, you could sense that not many people in the audience connected it with the NSK state concept, introduced later on in the film. After being defeated by the audience who adamantly didn’t want to ask Zupe not even a single thing, Arenliu sarcastically commented “So everything’s clear, eh?”

 Watching Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc” in big screen accompanied by the soft melodic tunes of In the Nursery last night, reminded me once again all the reasons why come what may in technology, the big screen will never be replaced.

The emotion of watching the outstanding piece of art, the flawless performance of Maria Falconetti in the role of the persecuted Jeanne d’Arc, was the highlight of the evening. The film shown at Dokufest, shot in 1928, was a late-found, assumed an original copy of the Danish author’s silent film. To add to the amazement, In the Nursery, known for rescoring silent films, accompanied the film with beautiful melodies and took the audience on a trip of such emotional depth, proving the universality and the all-time value of this film. This time around the audience was completely blown off, amazed by the acting, the camera shots and taken feverishly by the violent ending of the film in riots and Jeanne’s death.

Just in front of the hospitality office, where during the day dozens of volunteers doze waiting to be ordered around into doing something useful, during the night crowds gather to listen and dance to the music played nightly by different DJs. Last night, Uki and Leg Off kept the crowds alive, dancing until it was almost impossible to walk.

 

The group “A wall is a screen”, young film and cinema activists from Hamburg, will turn the house walls in the streets of Prizren into cinema screens. Starting from Shadërvan square, they will take you on a tour through Prizren. The performers will show short movies on special places or places which become special through the movie projections. If one movie is finished, artists and audience will move on to the next place. For this unique city tour the entrance is free.

Even around three o’clock in the morning the small groups of young people kept singing while others got cozy around fires and made small talk and a lot of jokes. This in comparison to the loud music and the dancing would not seem as an efficient party – but it was a longer lasting one, that went well into the morning hours. This of course was enabled by the fact that the camp is far off the city, and surrounded by pretty scenery and relaxing nature, and at the same time the full possibility that even if you scream at top of your lungs, no one will mind besides the birds and the bears which we do have any around.