06 August, 2019


In collaboration with the online platform for documentary films DAFilms.com, DokuFest is delighted to bring a selection of Balkan documentaries that have screened or are screening at DokuFest. The Croatian film ‘On the Water’ and the Serbian-German film ‘Centar’ come from this year’s competition section, while the other films were screened in the Balkan Dox section in the past year.

On the Water
Goran Dević
2018, Croatia, 79 min

A portrait of a former industrial city through a river that passes through its center. The river is today a place of relaxation and leisure. When we meet people who appear on the water or riverside the social conflicts of transition arise in all directions. Sometimes river reveals the remains of past that left traces in the water. What will remain behind us?

Watch the film here.

Centar
Ivan Marković
2018, Serbia / Germany, 49 min

The architecture of the building still communicates a past idea of the future, while the materials reveal its current state. The vast complex of corridors, atriums and halls now feel almost abandoned. Through their relentless effort, the maintenance workers shoulder the duty of restoring what the space was imagined to be. Their movements are unison, ritual but also their own.

Watch the film here.

Taurunum Boy
Dušan Grubin, Jelena Maksimović
2018, Serbia, 70 min

Taurunum boys, as Belgrade was once called from the name of the ancient outpost of the Roman Empire, seem tough. They spend their time hanging around abandoned places, throwing parties and riding bikes. Their dreams are simple and their loves are unrequited. This summer brings them into adulthood.

Watch the film here.

Zvicra
Fisnik Maxhuni, Benoît Goncerut
2018, Switzerland, 70 min

The second largest foreign population in Switzerland is Albanian, and this is reflected in the DNA of the Swiss society, at all levels. The film highlights the complexity of lost and rediscovered identities in a society that is destined to adapt to ever-increasing population arrivals, seems more relevant than ever. By giving the voice to the concerned people the film studies this new generation of “the new Swiss” through several key characters, each giving a particular insight on this issue. What does it means to be Swiss today?

Watch the film here.

Sarabande
Kaltrina Krasniqi
2018, Kosovo, 36 min

Sarabande started as a personal documentary on the classical music virtuoso Petrit Çeku who was about to record the Bach Cello Suites in Spain back in 2014. It then evolved into a road movie examining the notions of borders and illegality, about a journey of two friends traveling between the invented ideas of the Orient and Occident, past and future.

Watch the film here.

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