ZagrebDox 2018 Overview

Festival:
The 14th ZagrebDox

Dates:
February 25-March 4

About:
This Croatian event presents nearly 80 new feature documentaries in addition to retrospective programming.

The festival’s competition is split into two sections of fifteen films each – one focused on Regional filmmaking, the other on International work. In the former are titles like Marko Cvejić’s THE WORKING CLASS IS OFF TO PARADISE, which looks at the vanishing Serbian working class; Sead Kreševljaković and Emir Zumbul Kapetanović’s FOES, the story of former Bosnian War enemies turned unlikely friends; Damian Nenadić’s DAYS OF MADNESS, a portrait of two individuals lost within the mental health care system; and Jadranka Cicvarić Šiftar and Senad Zemunović’s JOSIPA, I LOVE YOU, in which a filmmaker falls in love with his protagonist in a film about the impact of childhood sexual abuse. Among the less well-traveled titles in the International Competition are Xiao Xiao’s TURTLE ROCK, a year in the life of a rural Chinese family; and Arunas Matelis’ WONDERFUL LOSERS: A DIFFERENT WORLD, which looks at professional cyclists whose role is to sacrifice themselves for their team leaders’ standing.

The remainder of the program is divided into several non-competitive themed strands, including Biography Dox, with Sarah Del Ben’s CAPTAIN OF UTOPIA, about a man on a mission to share the Arctic with others; Happy Dox, with Nedžad Begović’s EVERYWHERE, a filmmaker’s final film constructed from pieces of never completed projects; Controversial Dox, with Višnja Skorin and Kristina Baticeli’s MARY’S BLACK SHEEP, which follows an atheist’s coming out in hyper-religious society; State of Affairs, with Sarah Mondale’s BACKPACK FULL OF CASH, on the rise of for-profit charter schools and their impact on public education; Teen Dox, with Fiona Apanui-Kupenga’s MAKING GOOD MEN, which chronicles the reunion of a school bully and his victim after three decades; ADU Dox, with Zorko Sirotić’s UNIFORM MY LOVE, which follows applicants to a Zagreb police academy; and Dox Special, which offers Adela Peeva’s LONG LIVE BULGARIA, a look at the rise of Bulgarian nationalism; and Jessica Gorter’s THE RED SOUL, a consideration of the lasting trauma on Russia from the Stalin regime.