01/06/2021 - The leading Croatian gathering will host 84 documentary films across its 12 sections

The ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 17^th edition, which will run from 13-20 June at several locations in the Croatian capital: at the SC Cinema, at the &TD Theatre and the MM Centre of the Student Centre in Zagreb, and at the Tuškanac Open Air Cinema. The major documentary event, which is one of the leading such gatherings in the Balkans, will this year host 84 documentaries across its 12 varied sections. A total of 38 films will be participating in the two official competitions – International and Regional – to try to win the festival’s Big Stamp Award, while up-and-coming directors under 35 years of age will also be eligible for the Small Stamp Award. This year’s festival programme was presented by festival director and main programmer Nenad Puhovski along with executive producer Petra Blašković.

Puhovski mentioned during the presentation: “After last year’s successful festival as a special edition at the beginning of autumn, we are extremely glad that we have found a way to bring current documentary production closer to our audience this year. It is inconceivable that the documentaries presented by ZagrebDox for the 17^th year in a row would not be consumed in cinemas – then we would not be able to exchange the attitudes, perspectives or emotions that the films have aroused in us. We are happy, after a long period of isolation and the past few challenging months, to have the opportunity to present films and thus offer the audience content, encourage communication and enable them (for now), at least through the cinema screen, to slip into some more distant parts of the world.”

Eighteen documentaries, including Oscar-nominated titles and winners of prestigious festivals such as IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Tribeca and Sundance, make up the ZagrebDox International Competition. The feature-length titles are: Downstream to Kinshasa [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Dieudo Hamadi (Congo/France/Belgium), The Earth Is Blue as an Orange [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iryna Tsilyk
film profile] by Iryna Tsilyk (Ukraine/Lithuania), Garage People [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Natalija Yefimkina (Germany), The Mole Agent [+see also:
film review
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interview: Maite Alberdi
film profile] by Maite Alberdi (Chile/USA/Germany/Netherlands/Spain), Lonely Rock [+see also:
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film profile] by Alejandro Telémaco Tarraf (Argentina/Mexico/Qatar/UK), Radiograph of a Family [+see also:
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film profile] by Firouzeh Khosrovani (Norway/Iran/Switzerland), Socks on Fire by Bo McGuire (USA), Taming the Garden [+see also:
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interview: Salomé Jashi
film profile] by Salomé Jashi (Switzerland/Germany/Georgia), Wake Up on Mars [+see also:
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interview: Dea Gjinovci
film profile] by Dea Gjinovci (Switzerland/France) and White on White [+see also:
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film profile] by Viera Čákanyová (Slovakia/Czech Republic).

There are also 20 titles that make up the Regional Competition of ZagrebDox, 11 of which are Croatian documentaries of various lengths. In detail, the feature-length films include A Rifle and a Bag [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Isabella Rinaldi, Cristina Hanes and Arya Rothe (India/Romania/Italy/Qatar), Colors of Tobi [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Alexa Bakony
film profile] by Alexa Bakony (Hungary), Hold Me Right [+see also:
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interview: Danijela Stajnfeld
film profile] by Danijela Stajnfeld (Serbia/USA), Holy Father [+see also:
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film profile] by Andrei Dăscălescu (Romania), House of Dolls [+see also:
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film profile] by Tudor Platon (Romania), Love Around the World [+see also:
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film profile] by Anđela Rostuhar and Davor Rostuhar (Germany/Croatia), Punta Sacra [+see also:
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interview: Francesca Mazzoleni
film profile] by Francesca Mazzoleni (Italy), Tales from the Prison Cell [+see also:
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film profile] by Ábel Visky (Hungary/Croatia/UK) and The Wire [+see also:
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interview: Tiha K Gudac
film profile] by Tiha K Gudac (Croatia/Belgium).

As always, ZagrebDox will offer more sections than just the competitive ones, and this year, the sidebars include Masters of Dox, Controversial Dox, State of Affairs and Teen Dox. The festival also features the Love section, curated by Nenad Puhovski, and the Thriller Dox section, curated by Vladan Petković. Swiss theatre and film director Milo Rau will have a retrospective dedicated to his work, while a programme curated by Diane Nenadić will feature documentary titles by local directors created over the past five decades, and an Author’s Evening with Rajko Grlić, who chairs the festival’s international jury, is being organised.

Blašković underlined: “We are especially pleased to be hosting numerous Croatian and foreign filmmakers this year, who will tell us more about their films in Q&As after the screenings. Traditionally, after the closing of the festival and the awards ceremony, on Sunday 20 June, our visitors will be able to see the ‘Best of Fest’, with the award-winning films from this year’s ZagrebDox, as well as additional screenings of the most sought-after movies of the festival.”

ZagrebDox takes place with the support of the City of Zagreb and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, and ZagrebDox Pro with the support of the Creative Europe – MEDIA sub-programme.