Muristek
Festival:The 19th CPH:DOX
Dates:March 23-April 3
About:More than 160 new and recent features are included in this first-class Danish nonfiction event.
Among the offerings:DOX:Award
GIRL GANGDirector: Susanne Regina MeuresA contemporary fairy tale about a 14-year-old influencer from Berlin and her biggest fan.
HIDE AND SEEKDirector: Victoria FioreFour furious years in one of Naples’ toughest neighborhoods, where all three generations of a single family live on the edge of the law.
HOLIDAYSDirector: Antoine CattinRussia’s record-high number of holidays are celebrated at an upbeat pace and with black humor in a lively mosaic of impressions from life in the vast, inscrutable country in the East.
INTO THE ICEDirector: Lars OstenfeldA grand, cinematic adventure on the Greenland ice sheet with three leading scientists in search of what the ice can tell us about our climate, our past and possible future.
OUTSIDEDirector: Olha ZhurbaAs a 13-year-old boy, he became the poster boy of the Ukrainian revolution, but now Roma is back on the streets with nothing in his pocket but a lighter and a knife.
THEY MADE US THE NIGHTDirector: Antonio HernándezSupernatural visions and indigenous folk myths intrude in an unpredictable and dreamlike film about a family living in the shadow of the apocalypse.
UNDER THE SKY SHELTERDirector: Diego AcostaA lone shepherd crosses rivers, forests, and cliffs with thousands of sheep, losing himself in the mountains while dreams appear like ghosts.
F:ACT Award
BLACK MAMBASDirector: Lena KarbeThe South African women of the Black Mambas fight against poachers and for women’s liberation and empowerment.
A FRENCH REVOLUTIONDirector: Emmanuel GrasA modern protest movement seen from the inside, observing the methods, aims, and inner contradictions of the French Yellow Vests.
THE DEALDirector: Chiara SambuchiInvestigative crime-documentary about how the arms of the Nigerian mafia reach far into Europe and use religious pressure to keep trafficked women in prostitution.
RULES OF WARDirector: Guido HendrikxSimple setup, complex film: a Red Cross delegate and a group of hardcore South Sudanese soldiers clash in their views of war and conflict.
THIS STOLEN COUNTRY OF MINEDirector: Marc WieseChinese mining in Ecuador’s mountains sets the stage for an epic battle between eco-guerrillas and a corrupt government.
Nordic:Dox
ALL THAT REMAINS TO BE SEENDirector: Julie Bezerra MadsenA blind mother and her seven-year-old son teach each other how to navigate the world as his vision slowly fades and a new life awaits.
DAUGHTERSDirector: Jenifer MalmqvistA sensitive and poignant film about three young girls’ grieving process after their mother’s suicide, told over a period of 10 years.
THE HAPPY WORKERDirector: John WebsterWith black humor and biting irony, the incredible story of how modern working life became its own worst enemy – and what we can do to change it.
JUST ANIMALSDirector: Saila Kivelä, Vesa KuosmanenAdrenaline-fueled activist animal welfare film told in the first person, about becoming politically aware – and about how your own idealism can turn against you when the world won’t listen.
KARAOKE PARADISEDirector: Einari PaakkanenA heartwarming feel-good film about how karaoke culture has taken hold where least expected: the notoriously introverted Finland.
THE LAST HUMANDirector: Ivalo FrankResearcher Minik Rosing’s landmark discovery of the first life contrasts with the melting ice masses in this tribute to Greenland, where life on Earth begins and ends.
NO PLACE LIKE HOMEDirector: Emilie BeckA young woman confronts her own story as an adopted child from Sri Lanka, expanding her existential quest into a detective hunt for the truth in a morass of forged documents, corruption, and family trauma.
New:Vision
PARKLAND OF DECAY AND FANTASYDirector: Chenliang ZhuTechnology and spirituality are parallel forces in an abandoned and possibly haunted Chinese amusement park taken over by outsider artists.
STINKING DAWNDirector: Gelitin, Liam GillickA Viennese exhibition space becomes the site of a collective project, where the boundaries between body and world dissolve in a delirious and darkly funny mirror image of civilization itself.
Next:Wave
KASH KASH: WITHOUT FEATHERS WE CAN’T LIVEDirector: Lea NajjarA vital, cinematic snapshot of Lebanon and its chaotic state, where the flat rooftops high above the city streets become a hopeful haven for people practicing the ritualistic pigeon sport Kash Hamam.
NO PLACE FOR YOU IN OUR TOWNDirector: Nikolay StefanovThe hard life of a hardcore football hooligan in a Bulgarian mining town where operations have long since shut down and the future looks bleak.
THE PAWNSHOPDirector: Łukasz KowalskiBlack docu-comedy from the largest pawn shop in Poland, where times are tough, bankruptcy looms, but then the two choleric proprietors get a bright idea.
SAMI’S ODYSSEYSDirector: Robin DimetIn Ethiopia’s labyrinthine capital, a recluse sits translating Greek and Roman myths on an ancient laptop as cosmic chaos presses in on him.
SPORTCAST 2Director: Sara SjölinSet to images of an old football match between Malmö and Helsingborg, the tragicomic story of a failed and destructive relationship with an ex-boyfriend.
Danish:Dox
AFTER LIFEDirector: Theis Mølstrøm ChristensenMette’s near-death experience was so overwhelming for her that she is trying to reconstruct it in virtual reality in order to share her experience with the world.
THE CAPTAIN’S HEARTDirector: Simon BangBeautiful hand-drawn animations tell the adventurous story of the filmmaker’s grandfather, an old-school ship captain and seafarer who spent 50 dramatic years at sea before facing up to family life.
MAKING LIFE COUNTDirector: Ulrik Einer Ehrhorn Gutt-NielsenA Danish baron travels to Rome to convince the Pope to defend the world’s animals before it is too late for himself to continue the fight.
NAKSKOV 1:50Director: Matilda MesterAn affectionate, locally rooted portrait of the Danish town of Nakskov as a miniature model in the ratio of 1:50.
NOBODY KNOWS CASPERDirector: Rene OdgaardA young man from Odense becomes a YouTube star, but where does the (self-)ironic staging end, and who is the real Casper when the webcam is off?
TALIBAN LANDDirector: Nagieb Khaja, Peter Eggert VesterlundA journalist travels around Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover to paint a portrait of the regime and its transition of power.
Special Premieres
FASHION BABYLONDirector: Gianluca MatarreseThe fashion world as seen by three insiders who share their ups and desperate downs with brutal honesty and liberating (self-)irony.
NOVOROSSIYADirector: Enrico Parenti, Luca GennariThe Ukrainian eastern fronts of Donetsk and Luhansk where the Russian army and pro-Russian separatists had been waging a war against Ukraine even before Putin’s full-scale invasion this year.
WIRECARD: THE BILLION EURO LIEDirector: Jono Bergmann, Benjamin BergmannGermany’s biggest financial scandal in a hard-hitting docu-thriller about big egos, billions of Euros, and shattered illusions.
Highlights
AFTER A REVOLUTIONDirector: Giovanni BuccominoA brother and sister, on opposite sides after the revolution in Libya, must find each other again and rebuild the country.
INTO MY NAMEDirector: Nicolò BassettiFour young Italian friends’ individual gender transitions, told with an overwhelming, natural sensibility.
RESTITUTION? AFRICA’S FIGHT FOR ITS ARTDirector: Nora PhilippeShould Western museums return works of art and cultural artifacts to Africa?
THE SCARS OF ALI BOULALADirector: Max ErikssonThe rush of total freedom came with a price for Swedish skateboard star Ali Boulala in the 1990s, when he unleashed his inner wildness in a frenzy of drugs, alcohol, and chaos.
THE TREASURE OF HIS YOUTH: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF PAOLO DI PAOLODirector: Bruce WeberA stylish and elegant film about the beauty and grandeur of post-war Italy, and about the photographer who portrayed it.
Sound & Vision
THE COMPUTER ACCENTDirector: Riel Roch-Decter, Sebastian PardoAmerican post-pop group YACHT embarks on a radical creative experiment: inviting a computer into the recording studio.
REWIND & PLAYDirector: Alain GomisThelonius Monk is on the loose on French TV in 1969, where the jazz giant takes down an arrogant journalist with cosmic attitude.
THE SUBHARCHORD: A FUTURE THAT NEVER HAPPENEDDirector: Ina PillatA charming trip on the trail of a sound generator from the GDR, of which only three exist in the world today – Cold War technology and retro-futuristic sounds from a future that could have been.
Artists & Auteurs
THE AFTERLIGHTDirector: Charlie ShackletonWhere does a movie character go when the film ends? Scenes from hundreds of feature films are spliced together in a single extant 35mm film print, destined to demonstrate its own transience.
BEATRIXDirector: Lilith Kraxner, Milena CzernovskyIt is summer, the days are long, and a young woman is home alone in an old villa in an enigmatic and atmospheric film from the twilight between documentary and fiction.
EL GRAN MOVIMIENTODirector: Kiro RussoA supernatural hybrid of dream and reality, in which a miner in an oxygen-starved metropolis is haunted by nightmares and a shamanistic ritual is the only way out.
I’M SO SORRYDirector: Liang ZhaoAbandoned, radioactive landscapes, and the ruins of power plants are possessed by a haunting power in this visually stunning and suggestive work.
PERFECT BOYFRIENDDirector: Kaori Kinoshita, Alain Della NegraTechnology and psychology merge in an ethnographic fiction-hybrid from modern Japan, where three adult men have fallen in love with a fictional character from a computer game.
CPH:Science
AI AT WARDirector: Florent MarcieA philosophical and paradoxical human adventure, with a robot as travel companion, exploring what AI can tell us about the darkest side of humanity.
CARBON: AN UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHYDirector: Daniella Ortega, Niobe ThompsonWith creative spirit and philosophical depth, the life story of carbon – born of the stars, present within ourselves, and with the power to create and destroy.
HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMICDirector: David FranceThe incredible story of the world’s biggest health science project: the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
THE INVISIBLE EXTINCTIONDirector: Steven Lawrence, Sarah SchenckThe extinction of healthy bacteria in our bodies could escalate a new global health crisis, but the field’s top two scientists are on the case, examining the impact microbiomes have on our wellbeing.
PLEISTOCENE PARKDirector: Luke Griswold-TergisA bumpy journey to the Siberian steppes, where a Russian geophysicist wants to restore the ecosystems of the Ice Age through radical rewilding.
UNSEEN SKIESDirector: Yaara Bou MelhemAmerican artist Trevor Paglen, who uses the most advanced technology to map surveillance, data flows, and the state’s monitoring of our lives, is about to launch the most ambitious project of his career.
Change Makers
BLUE/RED/DEPORTDirector: Lina LužytėWith a zest for life, an Afghan refugee throws himself into making a feature film in the Moria camp where he lives.
NAME OF THE GAMEDirector: Håvard BustnesIn Norway, the former leader of the Labour Party is attempting a political comeback after a #metoo case, but times have already changed.
ROBIN BANKDirector: Anna Giralt GrisDetective film about the hunt for the Spanish Robin Hood who stole half a million Euros from the banks and gave the money away before going underground.
SPANTON VS THE FRENCH POLICEDirector: Ovidie OvidieWhen two French police officers are accused of assaulting a Canadian woman, the system sides with the men, but then the first #metoo wave rolls and the case takes a major twist.