Festival One World Romania, coorganized with the Czech Centre in Romania, is associated with the Czech human rights film festival One World (Jeden svet). The festival represented by the respected documentary filmmaker Alexandru Solomon is held under the auspices of the former Czech Republic President, Vaclav Havel. Alongside, Czech politician Karel Schwarzenberg, writer and political activist Elie Wiesel and Romanian disident Radu Filipescu are the guarantees for this year’s festival.
4th One World Romania, Bucharest
March 16 – 21, 2011
Selected East Silver films in the programme of One World Romania:
All That Glitters
Director: Kudrna Tomáš
Producer: Kudrna Tomáš
Production company: Armada Films, Czech TV
Mlčeti zlato , Czech Republic, 2010, 90 min, HD, Environmental, Personal View, Politics, Social Issues
Situated at the crossroads of global interests, Kyrgyzstan reflects the political rivalry between Russian and American influence, reveals the religious rivalry between Christianity and Islam, and lies between the economic predominance of China and Russia. All That Glitters examines how strange capitalism and democracy can be when introduced to a former Soviet country, where people who were never given autonomy are suddenly expected to make their own financial and political decisions.
East Silver 2010 / East Silver Caravan 2010 / Silver Eye Nominee 2010
Donation Addiction
Director: Heineking, jr. Lutz
Producer: Dilger Ute
Production company: Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln - Cologne Academy of Media Arts
Spendensucht, Germany, 2008, 18 min, DV, Mockumentary
A film about people who are so uncompromisingly driven in their quest to do good, that they become a burden to society.
Family Instinct
Director: Gauja Andris
Producer: Melberga Madara
Production company: Fa Filma
Ģimenes lietas, Latvia, 2010, 58 min, HD, Drama doc, Portrait, Social Issues
"Family Instinct" is a film about incest - an illegal act, social taboo and a violation of religious norms. Zanda is a 28-year-old woman, worn out by hard work. Surrounded by poverty and despair, she is trying to survive with her two children in a god-forsaken Latvian village. Her hardships can be traced back to living in a relationship with her brother Valdis. When Valdis is put in jail, the local community forces her to make a difficult choice: to stay with him or with her children. Despite her ill fortune, she manages to express her love for the children, still hoping to save her family. The film offers a tragicomic but highly authentic insight into the bleak reality of Latvian countryside today.
East Silver 2010 / East Silver Caravan 2010 / Docu Talents from the East 2010 / Silver Eye Nominee 2010 / Silver Eye Winner 2010
Little Bride
Director: Dobrucki Leszek
Producer: Ślesicka Katarzyna
Production company: Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing
Przyrzeczona, Poland, 2010, 14 min, Digi Beta, Human Rights, Music, Social Issues
There is about 2.5 million Turkish minority members in Germany. Every year there is at least a dozen of Turkish women beaten to death by their husbands or other family members. The actual scale of those crimes in Germany, where law and order are so highly valued, is unknown — according to the official data, in Turkey there are committed more than 300 so-called honor killings annually and 40% of wives are violence victims. A Turkish girl was sent to Germany and forced to marry when she was 13 years old. Soon after that, her hell has begun; she was beaten and abused in different ways. After several years she managed to run away; she has been hiding until now – only because of that she is able to tell us her life story.
My Perestroika
Director: Hessman Robin
Producer: Hessman Robin, Wexler Rachel
Production company: Red Square Production, Bungalow Town Productions, ITVS International, American Documentary / POV, YLE - Finnish Broadcasting Company
Moje Perestrojka , United Kingdom, USA, 2010, 87 min, Beta, History, Society
"My Perestroika" follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionments of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.
Pit-hole
Director: Stejskal Jiří
Producer: Stejskal Jiří
Production company: Baltic Film and Media School
Jáma, Estonia, 2010, 23 min, Beta SP, Human Rights, Personal View, Society
"Pit-Hole" or "Jama" is a story about one unusual Kiev family fighting against real estate lawlesness. Nataliya, the head of the family, is trying to preserve the family village house, now surrounded by modern living quarters. Besides that she has to take care of her four children, two husbands and a little herd of mischievous goats...
Pit No. 8
Director: Kaat Marianna
Producer: Kaat Marianna
Production company: Baltic Film Production, Interfilm Production Studio
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.
East Silver 2010 / East Silver Caravan 2010 / Docu Talents from the East 2010 / Silver Eye Nominee 2010
Rediscovering Pape
Director: Royo Maria
Producer: Royo Maria
Production company: En Pasant Films
Rediscovering Pape, Poland, Spain, 2009, 26 min, HD, Personal View, Portrait, Youth Documentary
Director Maria Royo attempts to reconcile her memories of a close childhood relationship to her great-grandfather, with the discovery of his past as a Nazi official. In this heartfelt documentary, Maria travels through Europe to trace her great-grandfather's footsteps, break her family's silence, and discover the true nature of complicated choices.
Romanes
Director: Krautgasser Annja
Producer: Burger-Utzer Brigitta
Production company: sixpackfilm
Romové , Austria, 2009, 16 min, Digi Beta, Creative, Experimental, Society
The camp, home to Roma and located in Rome’s Centocello neighborhood, represents normality. The world outside is a “hobby” and they don’t know precisely what it is. Or it’s a dream that fills out their reality. Reality is for them a dreary life of poverty and even worse prospects for employment. For this reason the young people who are given an opportunity to work with cameras and ask the questions in this video project tend to depict themselves while dreaming. Or actively shaping a social role they grow out of in their play with and in front of the camera rather than (re)presenting it as their personal fate.
The Flood
Director: Dević Goran
Producer: Dević Goran, Osvadić Hrvoje
Production company: Petnaesta umjetnost
Poplava, Croatia, 2010, 41 min, Digi Beta, Environmental, Personal View, Portrait
Kosinj and neighboring villages, passive parts of Lika are tormented by floods every twenty years or so, due to heavy rains and snow melting. Villages, couple of kilometers away from river Lika are under water. The whole region becomes one huge lake where the only communication mean is by boats. Film follows stories of two volunteers - during the flood, each of them becomes the only link with the rest of the world for their respective communities, Serbian and Croatian.
The Corlat Valley
Director: Lucon Stephane
Producer: Comeaga Cristian
Production company: Domino Film
Valea Corlatului , Romania, 2010, 89 min, Beta SP, Social Issues
A car moves along an uneven country lane lined by the ghostly silhouettes of almost 200 houses, passing by a shop and then a church, and reaches a tiny wooden bridge which spans a narrow body of water, the river Corlat, the “frontier” between two Romanian counties. This village does not feature on any map, it’s a village with no name that is being denied the right to its own identity. Because most of the inhabitants are Roma, it is known as “Tziganie” (Gypsyland). In fact, it's just a place without electricity and water supply with 700 people officially registered, other 200 people without any official address, and many children without hope of ever receiving an identity card. However the authorities are trying to solve Corlat Valley problem.
After the Revolution
Director: Calciu Laurentiu
Producer: Wolfe Murray Rupert
Production company: Productive International Invest SRL
După Revoluţie , Romania, 2010, 90 min, DVD, Archive , History, Politics, Society
The film observes the situation in Bucharest in the period immediately following the 1989 revolution - a period of continual street protests against a government that took over from the Communist Party a bit too smoothly. You can see ordinary people talking passionately on the streets, filmed with patience and humour. Context and structure is provided by the political leaders and journalists, and the hurried (and heavily disputed) election. The 1990 election itself is covered in a crowded polling station and concludes with a press conference by the international election monitors who appear shocked by the amount of ‘irregularities’ they have seen.
Thieves by Law
Director: Gentelev Alexander
Producer: Baumann Simone, Klein Sasha
Production company: LE Vision Film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH
Ganavim Ba' Hok , Germany, Israel, Spain, 2010, 91 min, Digi Beta, Politics, Portrait, Social Issues
Made famous by the feature film "Eastern Promises", former heads of Russia’s criminal underworld, the Vori v zakone, ("Thieves By Law") share their story for the first time with the world. The thugs who transformed into reputable businessmen reveal in the most intimate detail how they came to influence Russia's economy as it emerged from decades of Soviet rule, and how they used their vast wealth to build up a political base in a land that once treated them as common criminals. Now with a strong base at home, they are eager to embark on a new crusade to spread their influence over the rest of the world.
