FESTIVALS

On the Margins of ZagrebDox

One of the reasons for the success of ZagrebDox festival may be that its founding coincided with a rising popularity of documentary film, and although the author could not see all the 99 films, he singles out films like White diamond by Werner Herzog, a noble film poem about the British plane constructor Dorrington, and the Swedish film Compadre about the unusual friendship of a rich Swede and a poor Peruvian. Most films directly address social issues, but mostly through personal destinies — in the impressive Pictures from the corner the author Jasmila Žbanić summarizes a grim account of the generation that was forced to spend the best years of their lives in Sarajevo, under a shower of grenades. Many films introduce the figure of the author into the world featured on the screen, and this same procedure is also used by the British author Nick Broomfield in his film about a serial killer Aileen (co-author is J. Churchill), which in the end expresses compassion towards the heroine getting executed. Among the films from different countries (Denmark, Czech...) those that stand out are British and Israeli documentary films about the issue of divorce in Iran and Israel. It seems that Iranian women are in a somewhat better social position than Israeli women (they fight their husbands in court, sometimes even successfully, they are using their children in argumentation...). Lom’s The Abduction of Brides in Kyrgyzstan indicates the complexity of such acquisition of brides that even many Kyrgyzstan women consider a legitimate wedding method. However, while some marriages seem to have turned out well, the film talks about an abducted bride who had killed herself. Extremely satisfied with the quality of the festival, the author complements the founder Puhovski and announces that he is prepared to build a tent in front of the Tuškanac cinema for the next festival so as to witness as many projections as possible.

Petar Krelja