Alexander Mihalkovich & Hanna Badziaka (Sweden / Ukraine / Norway)
World Premiere
Dox:Award is sponsored by DR
Winners of CPH:DOX 2023 announced
Winner: ‘Motherland’
About the film
Svetlana has lost her son who was found dead while he was in the army. As she tries to shed light on the culture of violence and abuse in the Belarusian military, a group of young friends from the techno underground soon face being drafted themselves. They go to rave parties in undershirts and round sunglasses, but in a moment the party could be over – at least until huge protests break out in the streets following the recent ‘re-election’ of dictator-president and Putin sympathiser, Aleksandr Lukashenko. A glimmer of hope and a promise of change, which only causes the brutality of the authoritarian society to erupt in full force. Belarusian directors Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich have created a major film that reaches far beyond the country’s borders and analyses the post-Soviet condition from a perspective rarely seen: that of the young people. A scene where the prisoners are released in the middle of the night after a demonstration is overwhelming in its silent, emotional intensity. With eminent camerawork and an intimate knowledge of the culture, ‘Motherland’ is one of those rare films that manages to encapsulate a crucial point in history while it is still unfolding.
Jury statement
“This was such a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living within an oppressive and unjust system. It poses questions about the idea of an individual choice within a cornered society. The title of the film is a way to give back the power to the women who are at the forefront of this fight. The award goes to ‘Motherland’ by Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich.”
DOX:AWARD Special Mention
‘On the Edge’ (Nicolas Peduzzi / France)
World Premiere
“We would like to give our special mention to the film that gripped us, and took us on a journey through the labyrinth of a human mind. The jury’s special mention goes to ‘On the Edge’ by Nicolas Peduzzi.”
Read more about the film here
Winner: ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’
Steffi Niederzoll (Germany / France)
International Premiere
F:act Award is sponsored by IMS and the Danish Union of Journalists
About the film
In Tehran in 2007, Reyhaneh Jabbari holds a business meeting with a new client. When he tries to rape her, she stabs him in self-defence and flees the scene. The same day, she is arrested and charged with murder. At her trial, she is sentenced to death, even though much evidence points to self-defence. The assailant had connections in the right places and the patriarchy holds sway over him, even after his death. Reyhaneh’s fate now lies in the hands of the dead man’s eldest son. Through personal footage, testimony, and her letters from prison, ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’ tells the story over several years of the trial and fate of a woman who has become a symbol of the resistance and women’s struggle in Iran that is now raging again – and now her mother has taken up the fight. Cannes-winning actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi (‘Holy Spider’) lends her voice to Reyhaneh Jabbari’s heartbreaking letters to her mother.
Jury statement
“This film is artfully crafted – from the visual language to editing style, we are impressed by the filmmaker’s creative vision and ability to execute. It’s emotional but never sensational. It tells a tragic story but yet allows us to witness the warmth and resilience of human nature. It not only shows the courage of individuals standing up against systemic abuse and violence but also reminds us that even deaths can’t defeat one’s will to fight. The award goes to ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’.”
F:ACT AWARD Special Mention
‘The Hostage Takers’ (Puk Damsgaard & Søren Klovborg / Denmark)
World Premiere
“For its journalistic vigorousness and portrayal of both victims and perpetrators, the jury would like to give a special mention to ‘The Hostage Takers’.”
Read more about the film here
Winner: ’Mrs. Hansen & the Bad Companions’
Jella Bethmann (Denmark)
World Premiere
About the film
They are the ones the others are not allowed to play with. But 80-year-old Inger nonetheless gives a home and some much-needed love to the misfits she invites to live in her big mess of a villa in a small town somewhere in Denmark. Some of them have lived there for years, while others drop by for a brief mention and have moved on before anyone found out what they were even called. Abuse and mental illness are an important part of the story, but not the whole story. For Inger insists that there is good in all people and that the most important thing is to learn to love ourselves. But when Inger suddenly falls ill herself, the guests in her self-designed microcosm must learn to send some of the love and care the other way. Director Jella Bethmann paints a vivid and ultimately life-affirming portrait of ‘bad company’ in a film that gives space to some of the people who don’t fit into society’s conformist puzzle of norms and frames.
Jury statement
“Compassion is a virtue which is often evoked without recognizing the core of its essence: true empathy. This masterful film details a lead subject that emplifies this ideal through their tireless work, thoughtful candor, and openness to the simplicity of life. Furthermore, its control of its editing pace and the humanity given to its characters remind us to never forget, “the toys that others don’t want to play with”. The winner of the Nordic Dox section is Mrs. Hansen & the Bad Companions by Jella Bethmann.”
NORDIC:DOX AWARD Special Mention
‘Lynx Man’ (Juha Suonpää / Finland)
World Premiere
“The jury would also like to give special mention to ‘Lynx Man’ by Juha Suonpää. Its use of innovative visual language, ethereal sound and of course its spectacular lead subject, push the boundaries of films that consider humanity’s relationship with the sacredness of nature.”
Read more about the film here
Winner: ’An Asian Ghost Story’
Bo Wang (Hong Kong / Netherlands)
World premiere
About the film
Wigs were vital for the rise of the Asian economy in the post-war era. In the heyday of the 1960s, it was the number four export in Hong Kong’s export-orientated industrialization. Between Mao’s China – the largest source of hair supplies, and the insatiable Western market, Hong Kong functioned as the gateway. In 1965, U.S. Treasury Department imposed an embargo on “Asiatic hair”, to cut off foreign currency to Communist China in the hair trade. The highly racialized category of “Asiatic hair” was later revised as “communist hair”, to enable the wig industry to develop in U.S. allies including mainly South Korea and Japan, which led to a significant reconfiguration of light industry in East Asia. Departing from the moment of the communist hair ban, through stories of movement, diaspora and migration, this project examines the role of Hong Kong as a transient space that mediates and sanitizes the connection between different worlds, and the relationship between U.S. Imperialism and East Asia order in the Cold War era.
Jury statement
“The winning film is a story told about presences haunting a city for its complex cultural, economical and sociopolitical histories that resonate in the city today. The wig becomes a phantom limb, an amputated part of the body that exists beyond human life and, unlike many people, has the privilege of traveling across borders, and living multiple lives. Exploring the liminality of the living and the dead, the film stages various oral histories, from factory stories to therapy sessions to karaoke. Impeccable, sophisticated and with great wit, the film we give the New:Vision Award to is ‘An Asian Ghost Story’, by Bo Wang.”
NEW:VISION Special Mentions
‘The Secret Garden’ (Nour Ouayda / Lebanon)
World Premiere
“The one thing we unanimously agreed on is that the New:Vision Award has been the most difficult jury decision that each of us has ever had to make. The programming was exceptional, and each film was incredibly accomplished in terms of form, expression and image-making. We have decided to split the special mention between two artists. The first mention goes to Nour Ouyada’s ‘The Secret Garden’. Nour found magic in a city, Beirut, that over the past years has experienced immense challenges. The film highlights beauty in banality, and shows us a way of seeing something in a different way – one of the most powerful things a film can do.”
Read more about the film here
Special Mention: ‘Pacific Club’ (Valentin Noujaïm / France / Qatar)
World Premiere
“Our second special mention goes to Valentin Noujaim’s ‘Pacific Club’. It is a subversive and countercultural history which moved us immensely, through its impeccable photography and discussion of racial tension with simplicity and clarity.”
Read more about the film here
Winner: ’Queendom’
Agniia Galdanova (United States / France)
International Premiere
Om filmen
Like a young David Bowie from another planet, the whole world is one giant catwalk for intrepid 21-year-old queer artist Gena. She grew up in the far reaches of Russia, in a town built on top of an old gulag camp. Today, she stages her radical performances in supermarkets, metro stations and in the middle of Moscow streets in an alternative protest against the way LGBTQ+ people are treated in Putin’s extremely conservative Russia. People shout at her, and Gena calmly responds. With never-failing support from her grandmother, she acts out all the creatures that live inside her through her spectacular costumes, which she often makes out of tape and junk. Agniia Galdanova’s beautiful and atmospheric film is not so much a portrait as it is a direct cinematic extension of Gena’s inner universe. In other words, a film in the field between art and activism, between documentary and science fiction, and between an old and a young Russia.
Jury statement
“Urgent and Political, this award goes to a powerful and intimate coming of age story about an Outsider within her family and her country. With exquisite gentleness and outstanding visual beauty, the film quietly builds upon itself, ultimately crescendoing into a loud and expressive rebellion and rallying cry against a brutal regime and its attempts to violently control and intimidate both young and old generations. In this present moment, it’s impossible not to recognize the bravery of both the protagonist and the filmmaker. This film will remain a breathtaking and striking reminder of arts role in speaking truth to power.”
NEXT:WAVE AWARD Special Mentions
‘’The Last Year of Darkness’ (Benjamin Mullinkosson / China / United States)
World Premiere
“From flickering neon to the haze of one unforgettable sunrise this film distinguishes itself for its cinematic vibrance and pulsating edit. The jury was captured by the sensorial depiction of urban contemporary China and a crew of expressive underground youth hellbent on refusing to be swallowed by the machines of modernization. The special mention goes to ‘The Last Year of Darkness’.”
Read more about the film here
Winner: ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’
Lea Glob (Danmark)
Politiken:DOX Award is sponsored by Politiken Fonden
Om filmen
Lea Glob has followed the Danish-French artist Apolonia Sokol over 13 years. The result is an extraordinarily up-close and personal film that is both a portrait of the life of a unique artist and of the budding friendship and intimacy between two women over a (very) long and formative period in their lives. The charismatic Sokol was almost born to be an artist. The child of a French father and a Polish mother, she was born in a theatre in Paris and grew up in the city’s rambunctious bohemian milieu before taking up painting and training as an artist herself. Sokol’s friendship with Ukrainian artist and activist Oksana Shachko of the feminist group Femen becomes a dramatic and heartbreaking turning point. ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’ won the top prize at the IDFA documentary festival last year.
Jury statement
“This year’s Politiken:Dox goes to a film that continues to grow and leave its mark and live on in the audience long after the credits have rolled. It has been in the making for more than over 13 years, and along the way it changed both shape and direction, just as the art merged with the artist – both the one who is portrayed and the one who held the camera. It could have turned into nothing, but instead it became a magical, organic portrait of a certain time, of female artists, of the practice of documentary filmmaking, or in short one could even say a portrait of life. Lea Glob’s ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’ is clever, feminist, touching and sprawling documentary filmmaking at its very best.
POLITIKEN:DOX AWARD Special Mention
‘The Mountains’ (Christian Einshøj / Denmark)
World Premiere
“There has been a shift in Danish documentary filmmaking in recent years. From angry parental confrontations to a more constructive essayistic filmmaking that tries to atone and process rather than blame. Christian Einshøj’s ‘The Mountains’ continues this shift, which we want to support. In ‘The Mountains’, the director talks about himself and his own family and about the death of his brother, which is the family’s collective trauma. A trauma that has created holes in both hearts and communication, holes that may not be easy to patch, but in the film finds a loving expression in his caring attempt to understand and unite in what is difficult to talk about”.
Read more about the film here
CPH:FORUM 2023 AWARDS
CPH:DOX gives the stage to the Eurimages and Unifrance to give away a total of three awards to the best pitches in various categories presented at this year’s CPH:FORUM. Read more about the award winners here.
About the project
In collaboration with DR P3 (the Danish Broadcasting Corporation) and Film Workshop / Copenhagen, CPH:DOX has also handed out the DR Talent Award, which goes to a young talent who is in the process of developing a documentary. The price includes DKK 25,000, professional advice from DR P3 as well as guidance and access to professional equipment at Film Workshop / Copenhagen. This year, the award went to the project ‘Zone 4’ by director Aburna Mohanathas.