Karlovy Vary 2018: Documentary Overview

Festival:
The 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Dates:
June 29-July 7

About:
Approximately 30 documentaries are included in over 130 new feature offerings by this A List Czech event.

Eight of the twelve titles in the Documentary Films Competition are world premieres. On the international side are: From Germany/Lebanon, Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke’s DREAM AWAY, a look at a once-thriving Egyptian luxury resort tuned post-revolution ghost town; from Lebanon, Cyril Aris’ THE SWING, a lyrical portrait of a longterm couple contending with mortality and illness; from Switzerland/Austria, Daniel Zimmermann’s WALDEN, a formalist immersion into the Austrian woods; from France, Guillaume Brac’s TREASURE ISLAND, which observes activities within a Parisian public park and pool; and from Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia, Audrius Stonys and Kristīne Briede’s BRIDGES OF TIME, an essay on the 1960s Baltic New Wave in filmmaking.

Czech world premieres in the doc competition are Tomáš Bojar’s BREAKING NEWS, which follows two newsrooms as they scramble for word on a major breaking story; Vitaly Mansky’s Latvian/Swiss/Czech title PUTIN’S WITNESSES, which focuses on the ascension of Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency; and Jana Andert’s INSIDE MOSUL, on the filmmaker’s experiences embedded with an Iraqi Army unit fighting ISIS.

Among the other nonfiction world premieres at the fest are two titles screening in the Special Events strand: Czech/Slovak doc CIRKUS RWANDA, Michal Varga’s look at the collaboration between Czech and Rwandan acrobat troupes; and Czech doc KING SKATE, Šimon Šafránek’s exploration of the growth of a skateboarding subculture in Czechoslovakia.