Caravan Films at Visions du Réel – Festival and Market

Koniec Rosji , Poland, 2010, 72 min, Digi Beta, Society

Alexei is a nineteen year old recruit being flown in to perform his military service on the frontier of northern Russia. The base is one of few such remaining outposts on the Arctic Ocean. There are five other seasoned and long serving soldiers stationed here, each with their own personal story or secret that has caused them to retreat from the real world. Their training and breaking in of the new arrival is sometimes humorous, at times harsh. Gradually, they each reveal something of themselves in their daily interactions and private moments as they continue their absurd duty in this snow covered no man's land, hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement.

Ilja , Slovak Republic, 2010, 30 min, Digi Beta, Creative, Music, Portrait

A film manual on how not to get pulled down by communism or by ones own death or The last days of Ilja Zeljenka, the most famous music composer of the second half of the 20th Century, known for auditioning his forbbiden cantata for two reciters "Auswitch".

East Silver 2010 / East Silver Caravan 2010

Vše pro dobro světa a Nošovic , Czech Republic, 2010, 82 min, 35 mm, Creative, Personal View, Social Issues

An original portrait of a Czech village that houses a giant car plant built by South Korea's Hyundai. Before the village turned into an industrial zone, many of the landowners had no intention of selling their plots of land... Not until many of them faced pressure from their neighbours who had accepted approx. EUR 4000 in compensation and not until they received death threats. Using nine protagonists, the film paints a portrait of a village changed beyond recognition. A humorous yet compelling film about a field that yields cars.

East Silver 2010 / East Silver Caravan 2010 / SILVER EYE NOMINEE 2010 / DOCU TALENTS FROM THE EAST 2010

Zachraňte Edwardse , Czech Republic, 2010, 80 min, Beta SP, Health, Society

For the purposes of this film, Edwards is a child; a long-awaited child of a loving couple, a child struck with a terrible and fatal mistake at conception. Edwards had an extra chromosome, one more than the exact number required for the development of a healthy baby. This flaw causes severe developmental disorders that cannot support life. The condition was first described by American medical scientist John Alexander Edwards, hence the name Edwards Syndrome. Considering modern prenatal diagnostics, it is very uncommon for such children to be born. In the majority of cases, the pregnancy is terminated. The parents of this child decided otherwise. The film follows the struggle of the parents to save a child who was buried by many long before being born.

Suvenýry , Latvia, USA, 2010, 90 min, DV, Drama doc, Portrait, Social Issues

Lyrical, intimate, and sometimes humorous, "Souvenirs" is a eulogy in film of a Veteran whose Post Traumatic Stress Disorder case is actively under review by the Veterans' Affairs office 8 years after his suicide. Ivars ‘Andy’ Pelecis was a man who wanted to move on. Andy survived the Vietnam War physically, but lived without recognition of his war related mental illness until the day he took his own life in 2002. After 30 years of struggling to ‘survive the peace’ through alcohol, and ten stays in the locked ward at hospital, Andy’s case was reopened by his social workers. Mara Pelecis, Andy’s daughter, seeks to reveal her dad’s real story that was hidden from her as a child. She continues to ask the question of ‘Why he was the way he was?’

Hotel Rai , Bulgaria, 2010, 54 min, Beta SP, Human Rights, Social Issues, Society

The young Demir dreams of a wedding. But his Roma tower block at the outskirts of a provincial town in Bulgaria is no place for romance. 25 years ago it had all it takes for panel socialist heaven: from parquet floors to intercom, the coveted hot water central, street lamps, benches under murmuring apple trees. Someone called the place Paradise Hotel – and the name stuck. But now? The parquet disappeared. The water stopped. The lights went off. And if you cross the field behind Paradise Hotel, you will see Bozhidar “The God Given” who protects everyone from evil and excessive happiness in a documentary about panel integration, love, misery, a lot of dreams, a little lyrics and one Gypsy wedding.

EAST SILVER 2010 / SILVER EYE NOMINEE 2010 / EAST SILVER CARAVAN 2010

Betonni faraoni , Bulgaria, 2010, 47 min, Beta SP, Anthropology, Arts and Culture, Society

Welcome to the picturesque world of the Kalderash Roma – a closed community of no more than 1 million people all over the world. "Concrete Pharaohs" take us on a journey into the lifestyle and traditions of the most hidden and intriguing Roma communities. A charismatic Gypsy baron will walk us through his stories and his new house. We will learn the hot trends in Roma tombstone design. We will go down into the underground homes of African granite, furnished with beds, wardrobes, stereos and a charged cell phone – a direct line to the other world. A celebration of life and afterlife in all of their manifestations.