IMS at CPH:DOX 2023

This year, CPH:DOX and IMS will present a wide range of films with a focus on topics such as life during wartime, sexual harassment, struggles of media, and a vast number of networking events for filmmakers participating in CPH:DOX. We are proudly presenting films, filmmakers and film stakeholders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Palestine, Tunisia and Ukraine. 

Link to CPH:DOX Programme: CPH:DOX Dokumentar Filmfestival 2023 – 15. marts – 26. marts (cphdox.dk)

FILM SCREENINGS 

IRAQ 
BAGHDAD ON FIRE 
Karrar Al-Azzawi / Iraq, Norway / 2023 / 65 min / World Premiere / nominated for F:ACT AWARD 

A burning insider account of the hopes and dreams of Iraqi youth, led by a 19-year-old woman who faces the enormous consequences of fighting for democracy, freedom and a future. 

March 20, 19:30 Empire Bio 
March 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq. On this occasion, after the world premiere, you can meet Aida Al-Kaisy, who is a journalist at the leading Iraqi online media JUMMAR, in conversation with a journalist at Dagbladet Information, Waleed Safi and the director of the film, Karrar Al-Azzawi. The conversation is moderated by opinion editor at Politiken, Lotte Folke Kaarsholm. 

March 22, 14:45 Cinemateket 

LEBANON 
THE SECRET GARDEN 
Nour Ouayda / Lebanon / 2023 / 27 min / World Premiere / Nominated for NEW:VISION AWARD 

An adventure in eight chapters about a secret garden on the outskirts of an unnamed town, which one day wakes up overgrown with new and unknown plant species. 

March 22, 19:00 Cinemateket
Meet the director Nour Ouayda 

March 24, 16:30 Kunsthal Charlottenborg 

MOROCCO 
FRAGMENTS FROM HEAVEN 
Adnane Baraka / Morocco, France / 2022 / 84 min 

Cosmic film from the deserts of Morocco, where nomads search for meteorites under the dome of the sky to sell them to science. A profound, existential experience that fills the cinema screen as few other films. 

March 19, 21:45 Cinemateket
Meet the director Adnane Baraka 

March 26, 19:00 Cinemateket 

PALESTINE 
FORAGERS
Jumana Manna / Palestine / 2022 / 66 min 

A rebellious, liberating and surprisingly humorous perspective on the conflict between Palestine and Israel told by Palestinians who defy Israeli laws to pick akkoub – a tasty herb that is essential to any local recipe. 

March 21, 14:30 Cinemateket
Meet director Jumana Manna 

March 26, 17:00 Vester Vov Vov 

SYRIA 
UNDER THE SKY OF DAMASCUS 
Ali Wajheed, Heba Khaled, Talal Derki / Denmark, Germany, United States, Syria / 2023 / 90 min 

A group of young Syrian women gather to perform a play in the country’s devastated capital which continues to be haunted by violence – not least against women – in a new film co-directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Talal Derki. 

March 19, 21:00 Empire Bio
Meet the film’s three directors Heba Khaled, Talal Derki and Ali Wajheed in a short conversation after the film’s premiere. 

March 25, 21:45 Empire Bio 

TUNISIA 
UNDER THE FIG TREES 
Erige Sehiri / Tunisia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Qatar / 2022 / 92 min 

Charming and warm Cannes hit where a Tunisian fig plantation becomes a microcosm of conflict, flirtation and gossip across genders and generations over the course of a single summer day. A docu-fiction with fruit pickers in every role, and a solid candidate for debut film of the year. 

March 17, 16:30 Cinemateket 

March 25, 14:30 Gloria Biograf 

BELARUS 
MOTHERLAND 
Alexander Mihalkovich, Hanna Badziaka / Sweden, Ukraine, Norway / 2023 / 92 min / World Premiere / nominated for DOX:AWARD

Dark and monumental film from Belarus, where corruption and a brutal military culture push young people to choose sides. A film in two tracks, from rave parties in heavy industrial wastelands to the neo-nationalism of post-Soviet society. 

March 16, 21:15 Gloria Biograf

March 22, 16:45 Empire Bio

March 24, 14:30 Grand Teatret

UKRAINE 
20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL 
Mstyslav Chernov / Ukraine / 2023 / 94 min / European Premiere / nominated for F:ACT Award 

An unflinching and vital inside account of Russia’s war in Ukraine, shot in the besieged city of Mariupol by the only journalists left. Courageous, meticulous and with glimpses of hope and humanity amid the devastation. 

March 16/3, 20:00 Bremen  

After the premiere, you can meet the Red Cross’ secretary general Anders Ladekarl and regional director at International Media Support Gulnara Akhundova in a conversation about Ukraine here and now: What is the status of the emergency aid efforts and what risks do journalists continue to live under? The conversation is moderated by opinion editor at Politiken Lotte Folke Kaarsholm. 

March 23, 17:00 Empire Bio  

March 25, 16:30 Cinemateket 

AFGHANISTAN 
THE ETILAAT ROZ 
Abbas Rezaie / Afghanistan / 2022 / 92 min 

Join the newsroom of Afghanistan’s largest newspaper as the Taliban took power. A highly dramatic day-by-day account of a group of courageous journalists’ struggle for democracy, freedom and life itself. 

March 17, 16:15 Cinemateket 
Meet the film’s protagonist, editor-in-chief of Etilaat Roz, Zaki Daryabi, in conversation with Nagieb Khaja, Danish-Afghan journalist and filmmaker, and Wahida Faizi, Gender Advisor at International Media Support about freedom of expression and the conditions for especially female journalists in Afghanistan. 

March 20, 21:15 Kunsthal Charlottenborg 

INSIDE KABUL 
Caroline Gillet, Denis Walgenwitz / France, Denmark / 2023 / 30 min 

Simple and beautifully animated audio diary about two Afghan women’s very different choices and reactions when the Taliban reentered Afghanistan and ruled the country and its people – told by the two women themselves. 

March 19, 10:00, Cinemateket

March 20, 12:00, Cinemateket  

March 26, 11:30, Cinemateket 

IRAN 
A SENSE OF PLACE 
Mohammadreza Farzad, Shirin Barghnavard, Mina Keshavarz, Azin Faizabadi, Pooya Abbasian & Afsaneh Salari / Iran / World Premiere  

In the collective documentary programme ‘A Sense of Place’, six Iranian filmmakers tell stories of places in Iran or in exile. The programme is created by producer Afsun Moshiry in partnership with The Wim Wenders Foundation, and the films have been developed in close collaboration with producer Wim Wenders. Producers: Afsun Moshiry, Hamidreza Pejman, Co-producer: Baptiste Bertin, Marc Collin, Kim El Moumen, in collaboration with Wim Wenders Foundation 

The project also contains an artist talk with Wim Wenders and Afsun Moshiry, see more here. 

As well as an audio walk and film screening of ‘Silver City Revisited’ (1969), see more here. 

March 18, 15:00 Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Meet the Iranian directors and Wim Wenders  

March 26, 16:15 Kunsthal Charlottenborg 

F:ACT AWARD 

Together with the Danish Union of Journalists, IMS sponsors this year’s F:ACT Award. The award honours films that operate in the space where investigative journalism and documentary film meet. The award will be presented at the CPH:DOX Award show on March 24, 2023 by Jesper Højberg (IMS) and Tine Johanssen (DJ). 

Nominated films:  

• 20 days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov / Ukraine
• Victim/suspect, Nancy Schwartzman / USA 
• Praying for Armageddon, Tonje Hessen Schei / Norway 
• Baghdad on fire, Karrar Al-Azzawi / Irak, Norway 
• Blix, birds & bombs, Greta Stocklassa / Sweden 
• Seven winthers in Iran, Steffi Niederzoll / Germany 
• Deep rising, Matthieu Rytz / USA 
• The hostage takers, Puk Damsgaard & Søren Klovborg / Denmark 
• Breaking social, Fredrik Gertten / Sweden  
• Phantom Parrot, Kate Stonehill / UK 
• Beyond utopia, Madeleine Gavin, USA 

INDUSTRY:

CPH:FORUM 

At CPH:FORUM, top producers and highly acknowledged directors from all over the world take the stage to pitch 30 carefully selected projects of documentary features and series in the intersection of non-fiction, fiction, visual art, journalism and science.  

CHANGE 

CHANGE is our development co-production training program in collaboration with CPH:DOX and EAVE, featuring projects from the European Eastern Partnership countries (EaP) – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.  

Committing to the power of documentary to catalyse change, the ambition of CHANGE is to increase equality and access to the international film market, and to stimulate inter-regional co-production with the European Eastern Partnership countries. As a part of this overall mission, eight projects developed by CHANGE will be presented for the first time at CPH:FORUM 2023 to the international industry. The Copenhagen pitch will be a culmination of a 6-month long training program, consisting of three residential workshops, the first two of which took place in Tbilisi, Georgia in October 2022 and in Chișinău, Moldova in January 2023, the third to be held in Copenhagen in March 2023 in partnership with the National Film School of Denmark. 

The selected projects for the 2022/2023 edition are: 

• A Bit of a Stranger, prod. Anna Kapustina, dir. Svitlana Lishchynska, Ukraine 
• Boxes from Georgia, prod. Tiko Nadirashvili, dir. Gvantsa Meparishvili, Georgia 
• How Long is the Echo, prod. Yelizaveta Petrosyan, dir. Merri Mkrtchyan, Armenia 
• Kartli, prod. Ketevan Kipiani, dir. Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel, Georgia 
• Here, Between This Sea And Those Mountains, prod. Irina Gelashvili, dir. Keti Machavariani, Georgia 
• MEMO ’94, prod. Anna Palenchuk, dir. Kornii Hrytsiuk, Ukraine 
• Strange Sea, prod. Aysel Akhundova, dir. Lala Aliyeva, Azerbaijan 
• Flow by Belarusian filmmakers DocWave 

CUBA&ALASKA (UKRAINE) 

Two young paramedic women Cuba and Alaska live on the edge in the war-torn Kharkiv region – their mission is to save lives while sharing good humour, and belief in victory. 

Yegor Troyanovsky / TAG film / Ukraine, France 

RED ZONE (UKRAINE) 

The war not only kills people – it also changes those who survived. In particular, on very subtle levels. Ukrainian filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk is sharing her very intimate and female perspective on the question – what does it mean to be a woman in the war times? 

Iryna Tsilyk / MOON MAN / Ukraine 

DREAMSCAPE (MALI) 

Close your eyes, go back to your earliest memories, remember that sense of vibration of dreams. Are there limits to the human dreamscape? This is a journey through generations, deep into uncharted territory, confronting realities, desires and fears. 

Ousmane Samassekou / DS Productions, DS Productions / France, Mali 

JURY MEMBERS 

MARADIA TSAAVA (GEORGIA) – NEW:VISION  

Maradia Tsaava is a journalist and documentary filmmaker from Tbilisi, Georgia. She is actively working with different local and international media organizations and is involved in film industry representing Georgian production company OpyoDoc. In 2021, she finished her first feature documentary ‘Water Has No Borders’, which premiered at DOK Leipzig in the International Competition section, and which is screening at this year’s CPH:DOX. She is currently working on her second documentary. 

SALOMÉ JASHI (GEORGIA) – DOX:AWARD 

Salomé Jashi is a documentary filmmaker and producer from Georgia. She has been attracted to filming micro environments from the very beginning of her career. Her visual approach is minimalist, poetical, sensitive and rough. Jashi’s Taming the Garden (2021) premiered at Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition and Berlinale Forum and was nominated for the European Film Awards. Her previous film The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016) was awarded the Main Prize at Visions du Réel’s Regard Neuf Competition as well as at ZagrebDox, Jihlava IDFF, FIC Valdivia and several other festivals. Her earlier work Bakhmaro (2011) was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. All three films were produced in collaboration with Arte’s La Lucarne. Her producing work How the Room Felt [2021] premiered at IDFA’s main competition.  

BEN FOWLIE (US) – NEXT:WAVE AWARD 

Ben Fowlie is the Executive & Artistic Director of the Points North Institute and the founder of the Camden International Film Festival. For nearly 20 years he has overseen the growth of the organization from a small-town film festival on the coast of Maine to a burgeoning market and institution that supports dozens of creative documentary film projects and artists through a suite of artist fellowships and grant initiatives. Most recently, Points North launched the Diane Weyermann Fellowship and Fund to honor Diane’s legacy and to support the development of significant works of art that highlight stories of moral and ethical urgency. Fowlie has served on juries at Hot Docs, Dokufest, Full Frame, the IDA Awards, and the Gotham Awards, and on panels at Sundance, SXSW, and Getting Real. Ben is a co-founder of the DocYard screening series and former Nominee’s Chair for the Cinema Eye Honors. 

IMS’ support to documentary filmmakers from the MENA region and the Eastern European countries is funded by the Danish-Arab Partnership Programme and the New Democracy Fund.