DokuTalks
DokuTalks brings together filmmakers, thinkers and audiences for urgent conversations about film and society.
Short Film Forum
A DokuFest platform supporting young filmmakers to develop, present and advance short film projects.
Forum Guest Country: Italy
DokuFest's partnership with the Italian Short Film Center welcomes Italy as the Forum's 2026 Guest Country, connecting Italian projects, filmmakers and archival cinema with Balkan producers, funds and decision-makers. This partnership is supported by Italian Embassy in Prishtina and Istituto Italiano di Cultura - Tirana.
Short Film Forum
The celebration of letters
In May 1986, weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, thousands of Bulgarian children gather to celebrate the Day of the Slavic Alphabet and Culture. Among them is a seven-year-old girl in white tights, holding a balloon and waiting to join the festive parade. Years later, this memory becomes the starting point for a documentary essay about radiation, silence and the failure of language to speak the truth.
Through archival footage, photographs, documents and personal narration, the film reveals the contrast between the grand socialist spectacle and the invisible radioactive contamination spreading through the air. As children sing “Forward, People Reborn”, the state remains silent about the danger.
Gradually, the festive images begin to decay: balloons deflate, white turns grey, and the letters of the alphabet transform into words like “Radiation” and “Chernobyl”. “The Festival of Letters” is a film essay about memory, propaganda and the moment when words lose their meaning.
More in Short Film Forum
Betwixt
Hybrid / Director: Dita Xhaferi / Producer: Lendina Balaj / Kosova
Cicë!
Animation / Director & Producer: Finesa Peja / Kosova
For Whom Do the Bells Toll
Documentary / Director: Erlisë Beqiri / Producer: Ardian Dubova / Kosova
About
Based in Prizren and taking place during DokuFest, the Forum connects filmmakers and producers from the region with European film institutions, funds, broadcasters, markets, festivals, distributors, sales agents and potential co-producers.
Grasshoppers
Fiction / Director: Hanis Bagashov / Producer: Kasiyana Angelova, Jérôme Blesson / North Macedonia, France
Korridoret e Pritjes
Fiction / Director: Adrian Guri / Producer: Ajola Daja, Adrian Guri / Albania
My Pants Are Your Pants
Hybrid-Experimental / Director & Producer: Durim Klaiqi / Kosova
Silent Return
Fiction / Director: Dionis Prifti / Producer: Genc Përmeti / Albania
The Rifts
Documentary / Director: Gogo Vanev / Producer: Félix Lambot, Nevena Semova / Belgium, Bulgaria
The Sweet Teeth of Ana and Her Mama
Fiction / Director: Đorđije Petrović / Producer: Jana Rovčanin / Montenegro, Serbia
