DOK Leipzig, the largest German and second largest European documentary film festival will start its 53rd issue with an exciting programme and attractive offers in its individual sections. True to its tradition as the „Window to the World"the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film again presents the best and latest animated and documentary films from more than 50 countries to its audience between October 18 and October 24, 2010.


International Competition Documentary Film

The best the documentary film is able to offer at international level. Ten films from nine countries on the big screen in Germany for the first time ever and competing for the treasured prizes: About dreaming girls in Russia, a Polish Summer Night's Dream and an idyllic pastorale from the Carpathian Mountains about sweating Finns, sleepless fellows, the psyche of a family, an essay about the dream of film-making, from a Vietnam saga to the experience gained under the dictatorship in Portugal and the truth about the Gaza war. Formidable images.

DOK Talks: Wednesday - Saturday, 10-11 a.m., CineStar

The films:
48 by Susana de Sousa Dias | Portugal 2009 | 92:50 min.
Victims of Salazar's military dictatorship in Portugal talk about prison, torture and courage, in a strict composition of anthropometric photos made by the secret police. Powerful and oppressive.

Close to Heaven (Dem Himmel ganz nah) by Titus Faschina | Germany, Romania 2010 | 90:00 min.
A shepherd's life in the Romanian Carpathians. A striking composition of dancing light and dramatic black and white images, which makes the landscape become a monument.

Dreaming Films (Les films rêvés) by eric Pauwels | Belgium 2010 | 180:00 min.
A monumental essay about the film eye as discoverer of the world. From Ulysses to Christopher Columbus to Jean Rouch - a meditative dream trip of moving images.

Empire of Mid-South (L'Empire du Milieu du Sud) by Eric Deroo, Jacques Perrin | France 2009 | 85:00 min.
A powerful visual epic about the history of colonisation and liberation: Vietnam in archive footage and literary quotes, composed by blockbuster filmmaker Perrin.

Gaza on Air by Samir Abdalla | Egypt, Palastine, France 2010 | 90:00 min.
The Gaza that we never saw. The horror, filmed by Palestinian cameramen during the war, and a reflection about the medium and the images, politics and power.

Goodnight Nobody by Jacqueline Zünd | Switzerland, Germany 2010 | 77:00 min.
Four people on four continents, all of them insomniacs. Night as a hypnotic space and undiscovered territory full of ghosts, restlessness and melancholia.

Let's run away from her (Ucieknijmy od niej) by Marcin Koszalka | Poland 2010 | 50:00 min.
Two siblings contemplate their relationship with their parents and the latter's death, which redefines everything. Disturbing and painful, as usual from the master of the cinematic psychological study.

Steam of Life (Miesten vuoro) by Berghäll Joonas, Mika Hotakainen | Finland, Sweden 2010 | 81:00 min.
Finnish men in the sauna: when they talk of love and hate, birth and death, loneliness and hopes, pores and hearts open up. There won't be a dry eye in the house.

The North of Calabria (Na polnoc od Kalabrii) by Marcin Sauter | Poland 2009 | 67:00 min.
A film crew mingles with the inhabitants of a Polish town for the summer to enact an almost Italian comedy... A documentary midsummer night's dream.

Vodka Factory by Jerzy Sladkowski | Sweden 2010 | 90:00 min.
Working at the assembly line, bringing up children alone, dreaming of happiness - women's lives in the Russian provinces. But Valya wants more, whatever the price... an insightful drama.


International Young Talent Competition - Generation DOK

The section of discoveries
It can be so exciting - the future of the genre: Daring films leaving the ruts and refusing to see things as they are expected to be seen, unsettling films that provoke and leave you baffled. 11 works from 9 countries made by filmmakers who still study at a film university or have not made more than three films after having graduated. Generation DOK - there is more at stake than a Dove. It's about names one should bear in mind.

DOK Talks: Wednesday - Saturday, 10-11 a.m., CineStar
The winner is awarded the Talent Dove. The prize money (10,000 euros) is to be used as push-start financing for the winner's nnext film project. The Talent Dove has been presented since 2004 by the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig.

In 2007 a special competition "Generation DOK" has been created with the kind support of the Saxonian State Institution for Private Broadcasting and New Media and the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig

The films:

12 Angry Lebanese by Zeina Daccache | Lebanon 2009 | 78:00 min.
A theatre project at a Lebanese prison: in the course of the rehearsals, hardened criminals open up to talk about prejudices and feelings, crime and punishment. Extraordinary.

In Case of Loss of Pressure (En cas de dépressurisation) by Sarah Moon Howe | Belgium 2009 | 46:00 min.
How to continue life when it turns out that your child is handicapped? By not sacrificing yourself and starting to work as a dancer again... A meditative collage.

Koundi and the National Thursday (Koundi et le jeudi national) by Ariani Astrid Atodji | Cameroon 2010 | 86:00 min.
A village in Cameroon practices democracy and collective economy. A quiet observation with some ludicrous moments when archaic structures collide with modern society.

Miner's Day (Den shakhtera) by Andrey Gryazev | Russian Federation 2010 | 55:44 min.
Life on the edge, but nevertheless a romantic love - kind of: the mentally disturbed, overweight Irina and the gaunt, unemployed Sanya in Russia's no man's land.

Mum Died on Saturday in the Kitchen... (Mama pomerla v subotu na kukhni...) by Maksym Vasyanovych | Ukraine 2009 | 52:00 min.
The father sacrifices his career as a conductor for a family life in the province. The son explores the question of "art or life" with respect, irony and the courage to leave blanks.

Sounds under the Sun (Pasaules skana) by Davis Simanis, Gints Grube | Latvia 2010 | 62:00 min.
Hearing the sun: 17 contemporary composers from all over the world collaborate on one piece, rehearsed by a Latvian choir. A visual journey into the realm of sounds that become music.

The Chilean building (El edificio de los chilenos) by Macarena Aguiló | Chile 2010 | 95:00 min.
A social experiment: the children of Chilean underground fighters from the 1970s grow up in anti-authoritarian project families. Trauma and utopia in one child's memories.

The Earth Giveth, The Earth Taketh (Terra Deu, Terra Come) by Rodrigo Siqueira | Brazil 2010 | 89:00 min.
The reconstruction of an old ritual of Brazil's black slaves, a charismatic main character and increasingly blurred boundaries between fantasy and reality.

The Echo of Songs (El Eco de las Canciones) by Antonia Rossi | Chile 2010 | 71:00 min.
A Chilean childhood in exile, in a composition of images, songs and animated scenes. Chaotic, colourful, painful - like memory.

The Octopus (La pieuvre) by Laetitia Carton | France 2009 | 89:00 min.
Generations of a family suffering from Huntington's Disease. Diary reflections about life with and without disease and a tough decision.

Walking Back to Happiness by Pascal Poissonnier | Belgium 2010 | 70:00 min.
Who is this guy that pretends to be my father? A light-handed comedy full of visual surprises about the rapprochement between two generations who have nothing in common.