At the press conference held on July 22nd in Prizren, The International Documentary and Film Festival DOKUFEST 2009 announced its full slate of films for the Festival taking place from August 3rd until August 9th, 2009 in Prizren, Kosovo. 

 The films screening in INTERNATIONAL  COMPETITION are:

FIXER - THE TAKING OF AJMAL NAQSHBADI / USA (Dir: Ian Olds)
Twenty-four-year-old Ajmal Naqshbandi is a "fixer" hired by foreign journalists to facilitate the gathering of news stories. In 2007 he was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

BORIS RYZHY / NLD (Dir: Aliona van der Horst)
Boris is a film about poetry, the Russian mafia, suicide, love, and the years of Perestroika.

LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT / USA (Dir: Petr Lom)
Exclusive access film about President Ahmadinejad of Iran and what life is like under his regime. Film takes the purportedly 10 million letters that Iranians have written to President Ahmadinejad.

THE WAY WE GET BY / USA (Dir: Aron Gaudet)
A seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters; senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq.

MUEZZIN / AUT (Dir: Sebastian Brameshuber)
A film about the recent phenomenon: the Turkish call to prayer contests. Each year the country’s muezzins compete, and their powerful expressiveness proves that muezzins are a special kind of artists.

DEFAMATION / ISR (Dir: Yoav Shamir)
What is anti-Semitism today, two generations after the Holocaust? Director Yoav Shamir travels the world in search of the most modern manifestations of the “oldest hatred", and comes up with startling answers.

RENÉ / CZE (Dir: Helena Treštíková)
Rene's life has been captured on camera since he was seventeen.  Rene's personal developments are recorded against the backdrop of significant political transformations taking place in Central Europe.

THE ONE MAN VILLAGE / LEB (Dir: Simon El Habre)
Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village Ain el-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. A humorous film observing the life in quasi ghost village reflecting on the collective and individual memory.

VOICES FROM EL SAYED / ISR (Dir: Oded Adomi Leshem)
In the picturesque Israeli Negev desert lays the Bedouin village of El-Sayed. It has the largest percentage of deaf people in the world. Through generations a unique sign language has evolved there.

THE SOUND OF INSECTS – RECORD OF A MUMMY / CHE (Dir: Peter Liechti)
The incredible story of how the mummified corpse of a 40-year-old man was discovered by a hunter.

LEFT BEHIND / DEU (Dir: Fabian Daub and Andreas Gräfenstein)
In Waldenburg, situated in the Lower Silesian Coalfield, all mines are closed down. Lukasz and his elder friend Jacek have been digging coal at their own risk for several years now.

BRONX PRINCESS / USA (Dir: Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed)
Rocky, a bright and confident teenager from the Bronx, is preparing for college. After high school graduation, she visits her father in Ghana—a trip that forces her to examine her headstrong ways.

PASSAGES / CAN (Dir: Marrie Josee-Saint-Pierre)
It was with great enthusiasm that I found out that I was expecting my first child, but I never expected my labor would turn into a nightmare.

LESSONS FROM THE NIGHT / AUS (Dir: Adrian Francis)
As dusk approaches and workers stream out of the city, Maia, a Bulgarian immigrant is about to begin her day.

MA BAR / UK (Dir: Finlay Pretsell and Adrian McDowall)
Bench Pressing isn’t a hobby for 73 year old Bill McFadyen – it’s a way of life. Stranraer’s very own bench press champion is on a quest to be the best in the world...

12 NOTES DOWN / DEN (Dir: Andreas Koefoed)
14-year-old Jorgis is a gifted choir boy, the star voice of the Royal Chapel Choir. A few weeks before the choir's biggest concert, his vocal coach delivers a shocking note: Jorgis' voice is starting to break.

PRESIDIO MODELO / CAN (Dir: Pablo Alvarez-Mesa)
The walls in the prison crumble revealing a past that has been covered by layers of thick yellow paint. Pain when left unvisited turns into amnesia; history cannot absolve everything.

BETWEEN DREAMS / FIN (Dir: Iris Olsson)
Traveling by train across the Trans-Siberian landscape, passengers in a third-class sleeping car share their dreams, both hopeful and haunting.

SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES / UK (Dir: Eva Weber)
In this companion piece to City of Cranes, anonymous crane operators muse about their unique occupation while the camera voyeuristically captures London scenes.

CHINA'S WILD WEST / UK (Dir: Urszula Pontikos)
Every winter the Yurungkash River in western China dries up, revealing an expanse of river-worn stones. There, hidden within the rock, lies a buried treasure forty times more valuable than gold—jade.

Jury members for the INTERNATIONAL DOCS COMPETITION are:
Ben Kempas – Cinematographer and documentary filmmaker, Germany
Erica Ginsberg – Executive Director of Docs In Progress, USA
Oliver Sertić – Film Selector, Croatia
Phil Collins – conceptual Artist, Scotland
Xhevdet Bajraj – poet, Kosovo

 The films screening in BALKAN DOCS COMPETITION are:

GOLESHOVO / BGR/UK (Dir: Ilian Metev)
This is a tale about the death of Goleshovo, a forgotten town in the mountains of Bulgaria.

THE CAVIAR CONNECTION / SER (Dir: Dragan Nikolić )
Pa Drnda was the only Danube King of Caviar. When Drnda had to retire due to illness, the Rats brothers moved to live by the river, trying to reach their father's golden moments.

THREE / HRV (Dir: Goran Dević)
"Do we still need to keep talking about the war?" is the motto of this documentary by Goran Dević, who conducted confessional interviews with three men actively involved in the conflict in former Yugoslavia.

ALBANIA - A HISTORY IN PICTURES / ALB (Dir: Roland Sejko and Mauro Brescia)
A history of Albania from its independence to the fall of communism through the historical film archives.

IF YOU ARE WATCHING THIS, MUM / BHZ (Dir: Mustafa Mustafić and Dario Novalić)
In agreement with the Government of Italy, in 1992- 95 children from the "Ljubica Ivezic" orphanage left the besieged Sarajevo.

GOODBYE, HOW ARE YOU? / SER (Dir: Boris Mitić)
A “satirical-vérité narration” documentary fairy tale about a hero of our time who would die for what he believes in, but doesn’t believe in anything anymore

LETTER TO A CHILD / SVN (Dir Vlado Škafar)
Children bring intimate conversations with unknown people about their lives and stay in this world. In the center is the question of the child and childhood as the basis for human thinking about life.

BATHERS / GRC (Dir: Eva Stefani)
The film follows a summer season in the lives of a group of retired Greek men and women who are regular visitors at various Greek spa towns.

SISTERS OF LILITH / TUR (Dir: Emel Çelebi)
Three women who live in harmony with nature, not succumbing to anyone with the force they draw off their labour in nature: a shepherd, a fisher and a farmer. This is a song of praise for their strength.

RESCUE IN ALBANIA / RKS (Dir: Alush Gashi)
A story told by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, who speak about the nobility of the Albanian people who put their own lives in danger in order to save those of their visitors.

MURI I KALTËRT, DERA E KUQE / RKS (Dir: Yll Citaku and Alban Muja)
We have no streets names. Even if street names exist we are not using them. How people in this town get directed? 

L.A. UNFINISHED / HRV (Dir: Igor Mirković)
This is the story of making a fake historical painting: a parody portrait of twenty-two people in different roles at the moment of signing a peace agreement in Berlin.

CASH AND MARRY / MKD (Dir: Atanas Georgiev)
A Young man from Balkan goes to Austria on student-visas. Instead of returning home, to an uncertain future of countries in transition, he pays money for an Austrian ‘wife’, to get an Austrian citizenship.

LOST SONGS OF ANATOLIA / TUR (Dir: Nezih Ünen)
This journey shows how music and culture is derived from life, geography and work, an exploration of how Anatolia’s versatile cultures takes place on a basis of music, dance and rituals.

SEE YOU AT THE EIFFEL TOWER / BGR (Dir: Valentin Valchev)
The filmmakers Joris Ivens and Marion Michelle travel in Post-World War II Europe. Bulgarian filmmaker Valentin Valchev and his crew set out on a journey through post-Communist Eastern Europe.

Jury members for the BALKAN  DOCS COMPETITION are:
Can Dündar – Journalist, Turkey
Eva Weber – Filmmaker, Germany
Skender Sherifi – Writer, Belgium

 The films screening in INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION are:

GJAKOVA 726 / RKS (Dir: Blerta Basholli and Artan Korenica)
Set on 1980-1999 events in Gjakova, the most war torn town from the war in Kosovo. Based on a true story the film is a drama told by Vigan, a 17 year old boy who takes the responsibility for his family.

GROBARI / POL (Dir: Bartelic Cierlica)
In July 1995 in a small mountain town Srebrenica, on the southern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina took place the biggest genocide since World War II. It is a reflection on the darkest period of former Yugoslavia.

PASEO / ESP (Dir: Arturo Ruiz Serrano)
Gabino has never declared his love to a woman.

THE GRASS SNAKE / AZE (Directors: Khayyam Abdoullayev and Elmaddin Aliyev)
The film is about two blind men going begging at a side of the road running along the oil wells. 

DOLOR / ICE (Dir: Valdimar Jóhannsson)
The film deals with unexpected and unexplainable loss. Due to an accident, the life of a happy family turns into a larger-than-life tragedy. The film is based on a tale retold by Wilhelm Grimm.

SHORESH & SHIRIN / DEU (Dir: Katrin Gebbe)
In the Iraq war a boy saves his little sister’s life. After many years he wants to save her again – against her wishes.

ALICE-PARIS / CHE (Dir: Stefan Muggli)
Alice wants to study photography in Paris. Her father Werner takes no stock in her artistic aspiration and even hides the positive answer to her admission.

SHORT TERM 12 / USA (Dir: Destin Daniel Cretton)
Inside the gates of Short Term 12, fights and blow-ups happen daily.

KITES KNOW NO CHASTITY / IRA (Dir: Hooshmand Varaei)
Betrayal and Punishment.

BANKA / RKS (Dir: Jeton Budima)
The hero looks for the folder which distinguishes from the others with its red colour, and which contains the plan for an important bank robbery in Kosova.

RENOVATION / DEU (Dir: Paul Negoescu)
The events of Renovare revolve around three personal stories with as background the renovation of a family's appartement.

THE DINER / HUN (Dir: Karchi Perlmann)
Vacsora explores Hungary’s current state of schizophrenia. Set in the shadows of the Budapest riots in the fall of 2006, this intimate family tale draws impish parallels to the psychosis of a nation that feeds on itself.

1/2 / SVN (Dir: Slobodan Maksimović)
 ½ bathtubs, ½ shutter, ½ balcony … this is where Nikša lives. Only a thin wall is separating him and Clara his neighbours.

HOUSEHOLD GODS / CHE (Dir: Vaughan Pilikian)
Alone at home, but haunted by other voices: six people in six rooms, somewhere in London.

MONSIEUR SÉLAVY / CHE (Dir: Peter Volkart)
A journey in which space and time coordinates become a bit tangled...

RECYCLE DIARY / TUR (Dir: Efe Conker)
The precession of an object which seems unnecessary in life.

EVERYDAY, EVERYDAY / MYS (Dir: Tan Chui Mui)
Sook Chen quit her job. She decided to go to Peru. Ma could not understand why. In fact, he could never understand what Sook Chen wants.

DEAD DOG / UK (Dir: Edward Jeffreys)
A man sets out with his girlfriend to confront the local gamekeeper when his beloved dog goes missing.

THE EMPLOYMENT / ARG (Dir: Santiago Bou Grasso)
A man wakes up in the morning and hurries to his work.

THE DESIRE / MEX (Dir: Marie Benito)
Ana, a fifty year old woman falls into a depression when her husband leaves her. One day she decides to go out of this depression and starts changes from the outside to the inside.

NURMOO / FIN (Dir: Harri J. Rantala)
It is the last summer before the world is set a blaze in 1939. In a small village of Southern Ostrobotnia called Nurmoo a team is getting ready to challenge the nations of the world in a wrestling match.

SHENJTORJA / ALB (Dir: Eno Milkani)
Two young people with dreams, full of energy, are made for each other, but the mentality of the society where they live would not accept their being together.

BES / DEU (Dir: Daniela Roos)
Bes and his family are supposed to be deported the next morning back to Kosovo.

SHAME / TUR (Dir: Hasan Gündüz)
Does human body and mind belong to a person or society?

TRUTH OR DARE / FIN (Dir: Mikko Kuparinen)
Minna and Pasi are an ordinary couple in their forties, except the fact that they both have been having an affair with another person for some time already.

SKETCHES / ITL (Dir: Daniel Baldotto)
A beautiful and attractive young girl initiates a game of seduction with her neighbor, a solitary painter who hides a secret.

I ONLY WATCH / ESP (Dir: Gorka Cornejo)
Julia and Eduardo are married and they look like a conventional couple.

GROWN UP / ISR (Dir: Dana Neuberg)
In the confusing time between childhood and adolescence, fifteen year old Shira discovers the world of sexuality, jealousy and seduction.

Jury members for the INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION are:
Jukka Pekka Lakso –director of Tampere Film Festival, Finland
Doruntina Basha – script writer, Kosovo
Claudia Siefen – Film critic, Germany

 The films screening in GREEN DOCS COMPETITION are:

HOME / FRA (Dir: Yann Arthus-Bertrand)
In 200.000 years on earth humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it’s also too late to be a pessimist...

ADDICTED TO PLASTIC / CAN (Dir: Ian Connacher)
The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability.

PEACE WITH SEALS / CZE (Dir: Novák Miloslav)
The massive decline in the seal population in the Mediterranean ocean is the springboard for a series of questions about the future of both animals and humanity.

A SEA CHANGE / USA (Dir: Barbara Ettinger)
Imagine a world without fish. Climate change affects more than the air we breathe. With near unanimity, scientists predict this will lead to an increase in ocean acidity, a state that will last for millions of years.

H2OIL / CAN (Dir: Shannon Walsh)
Ever wonder where America gets most of its oil? If you thought it was Saudi Arabia or Iraq you are wrong. America’s biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canada’s oil sands located under Alberta’s pristine boreal forests.

Jury members for the GREEN DOCS COMPETITION are:
Casey Cooper Johnson – producer, documentary filmmaker, and political satirist, USA
Eliza Hoxha – Architect and singer, Kosovo
Ilda Mara – executive director of “Argjiro”, Albania

 NATIONAL COMPETITION

AUREOLA E SHTHURUR / RKS (Dir: Shota Bukoshi)
TRE MINUTA VETMI / RKS (Dir: Visar Krusha)
ARTRECIKLAZA / RKS (Dir: Alsid Saiti)
PORTRETI FAMILJES / ALB (Dir: Gledis Bica)
DILEMA / RKS (Dir: Bengi Muzbeg, Edis Potori)
ANTENA / ALB (Dir: Gentian Koçi)
HISTORIA E NJË TELEVIZORI / RKS (Dir: Fitim Shala)
1 DITË, 2 PICA, 1 SUPERMEN / RKS (Dir: Valjet Rexhepi)
MASHTRUESIT / RKS (Dir: Dalmat Dobra)
KU ËSHTË DEMOKRACIA? / RKS (Dir: Resul Jusufi)

 

The films screening in ‘LARA LARA’ COMPETITION – DOKUKIDS are divided into two categories:

 6 to 12 year old
MYRIAM'S BROKEN PICTURE / EST (Dir: Priit Tender)
ME AND MY MONSTER / CHE (Dir: Claudia Röthlin)
CABARET / ESP (Dir: Marc Riba dhe Anna Solanas)
SIGNALIS / CHE (Dir: Adrian Fluckiger)
THE STORY OF LETTER C / ESP (Dir: Carlos Navarro)
LOVE CHILD / SWE (Dir: Daniel Wirtberg)
LEILA / BF (Dir: Children from Burkina Faso)
13 to 17 year old
FEAR / ARG (Dir: Agustin Graham)
THE EMPLOYMENT / ARG (Dir: Santiago Bou Grasso)
MILBE / DEU (Dir: Karl Tebbe)
LËVIZ ME MUA / RKS (Dir: Koperativa and Handikos)
ORGESTICULANISMUS / BEL (Dir: Mathieu Labaye)
L'ENVELOPPE / BEL (Dir: Delphine Hermans)
12 NOTES DOWN/ DEN (Dir: Andreas Koefoed)

Jury members for the ‘LARA LARA’ and ‘SORRA PRIZE’ COMPETITION are:
Rita Bekqeli – the winner of first edition of ‘Sorra Prize’, DokuKids 2008
Andrra Nurkollari – ballerina and film lover
Tesa Kabashi – film lover

Special Programmes are:
 VIEW FROM THE WORLD
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love / USA (Dir: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)
Burma VJ – Reporting from a closed country / DEN (Dir: Anders Høgsbro Østergaard)
Bloody Mondays & Strawberry Pies / NDL (Dir: Coco Schrijber)
The Glass House / IRA (Dir: Hamid Rahmanian)
Episode 3 - Enjoy Poverty / NDL (Dir: Renzo Martens)
Alone in Four Walls / DEU (Dir: Alexandra Westmeier)
Patti Smith - Dream of Life / USA (Dir: Steven Sebring)
This way up / FRA (Dir: Georgi Lazarevski)
Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies / MEX (Dir: Yulene Olaizola)
Waltz with Bashir / ISR (Dir: Ari Folman)

 

RETROSPECTIVE KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI
From the City of Lodz
Station
Curriculum Vitae
Hospital
Seven Women of Different Ages
From a Night Porter’s Point of View

BRANDING KOSOVO
Rexhai Surroi / RKS (Dir: Antigona Qena)
Berries from Brod / NDL (Dir: Erik Fusco)
Branding Kosovo / ITL (Dir: Diego Hurtado de Mendoza)
Kosovo, Year Zero / ITL (Dir: Niccolò Patriarca)
Spring in Kosovo / ALB (Dir: Erion Kadilli dhe Tommaso Bertani)
The Trial / IRL (Dir: John Murphy dhe Rob O'Reilly)

MADE IN PORTUGAL
Another Country (Dir: Sérgio Tréfaut)
Bab Sebta (Dir: Pedro Pinho dhe Frederico Lobo)
Letters to a Dictator (Dir: Inês de Medeiros)
Our Beloved Month of August (Dir: Miguel Gomes)
Ruins (Dir: Manuel Mozos)
Territories (Dir: Monica Baptista)
Via de Acesso (Dir: Nathalie Mansoux)

TOFIFEST LOVES DOKUFEST
According to plan / (Dir: Tadeusz Śliwa)
Brother is Waiting at the End of the Road / (Dir: Waldemar Grzesik)
Cigarette / (Dir: Tomek Matuszak)
Gotta Love / (Dir: Karol Wasilka)
Hat / (Dir: Agnieszka Smoczyńska)
Late at Night / (Dir: Przemek Komorniczak dhe Jacek Banach)
Loop / (Dir: Maciej Majchrzak)
Rabies / (Director: Jacek Czapnik)
Road to Happiness / (Director: Tomasz Szafranski)
Streetlight Man / (Dir: Mateusz Rakowicz)
X2 / (Dir: Bartosz Paduch)

RETROSPECTIVE SAM SPIEGEL FILM SCHOOL
Diet Leibovich / ISR (Dir: Avishag Leibovich)
Diploma / ISR (Dir: Yaelle Kayam)
The Substitute / ISR (Dir: Talya Lavie)
Shred of Hope / ISR (Dir: Tom Shoval)
Tolya / ISR (Dir: Rodeon Brodsky)

INTERNATIONAL DOC CHALLENGE
Beautiful Reasons
Dark Material
Forty Foot
Fragile Ground
Ghosts
The Greasy Pole
A Healing Art
Lorelei Lee
Nagashima
Pipe Dream
Time Well Spent
The Violin Maker
Wu Tang Gran

KINOSTUDIO ‘SHQIPËRIA E RE’ 1975-1995
Zana dhe Miri (Dir: Vlash Droboniku, Tomi Vaso)
Zhgarravinat (Dir: Bujar Kapexhiu)
Gjethja (Dir: Artur Muharremi)
Elkana dhe dallëndyshja (Dir: Majlinda Agolli)
Plumb Ballit (Dir: Gazmend Leka)
Dy vëllezërit dhe ujku (Dir: Boris Ikonomi)
Kush e meriton (Dir: Xhovalin Delia)
Sipas kapelës kokën, (Dir: Shaqir Veseli)
Balada e Druvarit(Dir: Rikarda Nova)
 
RETROSPEKTIVA ‘STEFAN TAÇI’ 1975 – 1995
Veza e Rralle (1988)
Kompozimi (1992)
Fantazisti (1993)
Fidani (1989)
Mall (1993)
Requiem (1994)
Gjera qe nuk ndryshojne (1995)
Triptik (1994)
Sizifiane (1995)

‘RED AND YELLOW ELEPHANT’ – ANIMATEKA children’s program.

 

DOKUFEST, The International Documentary and Short Film Festival, is the largest film event in Kosovo. The Festival is organized in August in the picturesque and historical town of Prizren which attracts numerous international and regional artists. In this annually organized festival films are screened twice a day in two open air cinemas as well as in two regular cinemas. Except for its films, the festival is also well-known for lively nights after the screening. Various events happen within the scope of the festival: workshops, DokuPhoto exhibitions, festival camping, concerts, which altogether turn the city into a charming place to be.

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