“Baltic UXO” and “The Big Chief” won awards at Docu Talents From the East during the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Industry Days on Sunday.
Docu Talents From the East presented eight documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe that will be released in cinemas over the next twelve months.
The main prize of $5,000 in collaboration with Current Time TV went to the Lithuanian-German-Latvian co-production “Baltic UXO” directed by Agnė Dovydaitytė and Alexander Belinski, produced by Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė.
The film shows how 1.6 million tons of munitions, including chemical weapons, were dumped into the Baltic and North Seas after World War II. The film examines the ecological impact on marine life and coastal landscapes.
The jury said the project “looks very professional, features beautiful cinematography and seems to transform a hidden secret into a universal story.” They added: “We can imagine the success of the planned impact campaign, which links the film to contemporary conversations about environmentalism, militarism and the political decisions that are made without our knowledge.”
The DAFilms.com Distribution Award, worth 3,000 euros, went to “The Big Chief” by Polish director Tomasz Wolski, produced by Anna Gawlita. The award includes an international VOD release on DAFilms.com, including America, Europe and Asia, for two years.
The film centers on Leopold Trepper, a WWII spy mastermind who had to fight a Kafkaesque battle in 1970s Poland. Once a war hero, his fame as a member of the Red Orchestra made him a target of the communists. He was stripped of his post and placed under constant surveillance. He tried desperately to get a passport, but was refused one. The USSR, his former ally, viewed him as a liability.
News of his fate reached France. The Committee for Trepper’s Release began its work. The author Gilles Perrault urged him to emigrate, but attempts to document his story or put pressure on Poland were thwarted by the secret police. The French film crew faced the threat of having their film material confiscated, and baseless accusations of espionage made matters even more difficult.
After a hunger strike and growing international pressure, Poland finally gave in. Trepper left the country and eventually settled in Israel.
The jury said: “Although this project looks back into the past, it has the potential to be a great modern thriller. It introduces us to a character many do not know and explores his controversial life through a wealth of archive material.”
Since 2005, Docu Talents – curated by the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival – has been a platform for documentaries by renowned and emerging directors such as Laila Pakalniņa, Vladimir Mansky, Bartek Konopka, Piotr Stasik, Peter Kerekes, Dmitrii Kalashnikov and Helena Třeštíková. The films presented have had world premieres and international premieres at major film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam and Sundance.
Marek Hovorka, Director of Ji.hlava, said: “Documentary filmmakers are pioneers in the world of filmmaking and are often the first to capture and present the most topical reflections of our time. This year’s Docu Talents exhibition, which features a selection of the most fascinating upcoming films from Central and Eastern Europe, highlights issues that resonate strongly today – mental health, environmental issues and the impact of the war in Ukraine on neighboring countries.”
During the awards ceremony, representatives of Ji.hlava announced the names of the emerging producers for 2025. The program aims to promote the work of European documentary film producers and provide them with a range of networking, educational and promotional support throughout the year.
Seventeen European producers will be accompanied by a producer from Canada, the guest country of the Emerging Producers programme 2025. The programme consists of two workshops – they will take place in October 2024 in Jihlava and in February 2025 during the Berlinale.
The emerging producers for 2025 are Vahagn Khachatryan (Armenia), Michal Sikora (Czech Republic), Danai Anagnostou (Finland), Elise Hug (France), Michael Kalb (Germany), Loránd Balázs Imre (Hungary),
Zofia Kujawska (Poland), Daniel Pereira (Portugal), Elena Martín (Romania), Danilo Lazovic (Serbia), Monika Lošťáková (Slovakia), Zoran Dževerdanović (Slovenia), Miguel Eek Quesada (Spain), Ashley Smith (Sweden), Irene Muñoz Martin (Switzerland), Luiza Paiva (Great Britain), Mariia Ponomarova (Ukraine/Netherlands) and Audrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre (Canada).
