East Silver Caravan Travels to South Africa

Auk Nr 8, Estonia, Ukraine, 2010, 95 min, HD, Creative, Personal View, Social Issues

In the heart of a once thriving Ukrainian coal-mining region everybody digs – retirees, unemployed miners and even the children. Years ago, the town's desperate residents decided to start mining illegally; they excavate everywhere!!! The story focuses on the Sikanov family, which has three children. 15-year-old Yura, the grandson of a powerful Soviet plant director, is the head of the family working as a miner in the illegal pit. Most Jura wants to run his own cafe somewhere far from home, but the responsibility for the two sisters and looming economic crisis pushes his dreams in the distant future.

Lobotoomia, Belarus, Estonia, Germany, Poland, 2010, 57 min, Digi Beta, Creative, Current Affairs, Politics, Social Issues

Lobotomy is Yuri Khashchavatski's personal indictment of the Russian media's brainwashing tactics. Taking the recent war between Russia and Georgia as a point of departure, he illustrates how far removed actual events were from the conflict as it was reported on Russian state television. The director's own voice drives the argument, but journalists, military experts and politicians also have their say. The film intersperses interviews (live or via Skype) with archive footage that is, in turn, contrasted with amateur clips found on the Internet. Khashchavatski contends that "Montage is a powerful and insidious weapon." And he would be the one to know, because in addition to directing the film, he also edited it and its highly effective audio mix. He is a master of the art of irony as well. This personal account by the director suggests that the Russian state is not being governed according to democratic principles, but by a Mafia-style hierarchy.

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.

Lumea vazuta de Ion B., Romania, 2009, 60 min, HD, Arts and Culture, Portrait

Ion B. is a 62 year-old homeless man. His bed is a filthy foam mattress at the bottom of a garbage chute. Ion sorts through the daily household garbage of the block, avidly reading the books, magazines and newspapers he finds. Since the 70s he has been creating collages from them that he calls "my films".

Manuál na výrobu teroristy, Czech Republic, 2010, 92 min, Beta SP, DV, DVD, Politics, Social Issues, Youth Documentary

In the Basque region of Navarra, the director - a stranger - stops passers by next to pieces of political graffiti, letting them explain what they mean and why they were painted. A feature-length documentary about repression, the anti-terrorist act and the events that happen within our common borders.