Germany’s DOK Leipzig 2024 unveils co-pro market selection

Documentaries by Tunisia’s Amine Boukhris, Israel’s Emmanuelle Mayer and Ukraine’s Yuriy Shylov are among 35 projects from 30 countries selected from a record 366 submissions to be pitched to potential financiers and co-production partners at the 20th edition of the DOK Co-Pro Market in Leipzig on October 28-29.

Boukhris’ Solo, which had previously been presented at pitching events in Sarajevo and La Rochelle, tells a personal story of the young Tunisian rapper Solo Akmal who was abandoned by his mother to live among the jihadist group Daesh (also known as Islamic State), while Mayer’s Woman In White is an investigation into the mysterious self-appointed diplomat Tamar Golan who changed the face of the Middle East by entertaining world leaders in her Paris salon.

Meanwhile, Shylov will be in Leipzig with Entr’actes , a portrait of a retired concierge who leads an amateur theatre for the elderly as they prepare for a local competition. Entr’actes previously won the DOK Leipzig special mention in the industry programme of the Krakow Film Festival in Poland.

This year’s selection features a number of projects that feature intimate family stories including Joël Jent’s Rebellion Of Memory about a family of three from different camps of Peru’s last armed conflict and El Kheyer Zidani’s My Dad’s A Farmer which explores the impact of Algeria’s recent troubled history on individual lives, a subject also to be explored by Camélia Gadhgadhi’s Bitter Seed and Assia Tamerdjent’s Hana Algeria and Me. 

In addition, various forms of resistance against oppressive forces are depicted in projects such as Esther Vital’s animation documentary If I Die, about the horrors of a clandestine torture centre during the Brazilian military dictatorship, and Aung Naing Soe’s When A Poet Goes To War, that follows former pacifists in Myanmar taking up arms to fight the military junta. 

Sports as an element of healing, empowerment and community is a common theme: Kan Muftic’s Blackbelts centres on a group of athletes with disabilities and their devoted carers as they navigate adversity and prepare for the World Para Taekwondo Championship; and Nupur Agrawal and Shivajee Biswanath’s Downhill Kargil is about two iteenage girls fighting to play in the Indian national women’s ice hockey team.

“This year’s line-up of projects at DOK Co-Pro comprises a set of diverse and ambitious creative documentaries, representing a wide range of artistic approaches and sensibilities to examine, explore, and negotiate the world around,” said Nadja Tennstedt, director of DOK Industry

“We’ve seen a rise in projects that are co-productions within Europe and, even more prominently, between different continents, such as Fan Yang’s Canadian-Chinese co-production Chunyu: A Death Foretold and If I Die by Esther Vital, a co-production between Brazil , France, and Spain.”

Projects pitched at recent editions of Leipzig’s Co-Pro Market include Ukrainian filmmaker Svitlana Lishchynska’s A Bit Of Stranger, an account of the impact of Moscow’s long-standing imperialist policies on four generations of women, which premiered in the 2024 Berlinale’s Panorama Dokumente section; Georgian director Elena Mikaberidze’s Blueberry Dreams which had its world premiere in CPH:DOX’s Next:Wave Award competition in March; and Francesca Scalisi’s Valentina and the MUOSters, the winner of the Special Jury Prize in the national competition at this year’s Visions du Réel in Nyon. (ends)

2024 DOK Co-Pro Market selection

Africa AI
Dir: Amílcar Patel
Prod co: KAMVA Collective (South Africa)

Bitter Seed
Dir. Camélia Gadhgadhi
Prod cos: Amok Films, Libre Image (France, Algeria)

Blackbelts,
Dir: Kan Muftic
Prod co: Panimage (Switzerland) 

BOOM!
Dir: Laura Plancarte
Prod cos: The Republic of Park Royal, LP Films (UK)

Chunyu: A Death Foretold
Dir: Fan Yang
Prod cos: Walking in the Mountains, Electric Shadow, (China, Canada)

Downhill Kargil
Dirs: Nupur Agrawal, Shivajee Biswanath
Prod co: AutumnWolves Media (India)

Entr’actes
Dir:  Yuriy Shylov
Prod co: Alarm Productions (Ukraine)

Fists Of Peace 
Dirs: Jacopo De Bertoldi, Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, prod cos: AntropicA, Alkebu (Italy, DR Congo)

The Free Speech Rises
Dirs; Daphné Leblond, Lisa Billuart-Monet
Prod cos: Les Films d’Ici, Iota Production (France) 

From Here
Dirs:  Philipp Diettrich, Sara Woldeslassie
Prod co: Pinky Swear Film (Germany)

From Radvanka
Dir: Tomi Hazhlinsky
Prod co: Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (Ukraine ) 

The Gary Project
Dir: Luchina Fisher
Prod co: Little Light Productions (US)

The Goldfather
Dir:  Decio Matos Jr.
Prod co: Capuri (Brazil)

Hana, Algeria And Me 
Dir: Assia Tamerdjent
Prod cos: Making of Films, Urubu Films (France, Algeria)

Hope Is A Word 
Dir: Maria Galliani Dyrvik
Prod co: Smau media (Norway, Nigeria)

If I Die
Dir: Esther Vital
Prod cos: O Par Produções, Marmitafilms, Midralgar (Brazil, France, Spain)

Kafka In Belgrade (working title)
Dir:  Maša Nešković
Prod co: Marienbad film (Serbia)

The Land We Breathe
Dir: Manuel Inacker
Prod co: Restart ( Croatia, Germany)

Left Behind
Dir: Nasib Mahamud Farah
Prod co: Emjay Productions (Denmark)

Letelier File
Dirs; Rafael Valdeavellano, Nicolas Acuña
Prod co: La Ventana Cine (Chile)

Letters
Dir. Andrei Kutsila
Prod cos: DocEdu Foundation, Docdays Productions ( Poland, Germany)

My Dad’s A Farmer
Dir:. El Kheyer Zidani
Prod cos: Z§K Production, jip Film & Verleih (Algeria, Germany)

My Skin And I 
Dirs. Milton Guillén, Fiona Guy Hall
Prod cos: Mayana Films, Solaris Film (Nicaragua, Germany, US)

Not-yet-her 
Dir: Giorgio Bosisio
Prod co: Studio x01 (Italy)

Oh, Heart Don’t Be Afraid
Dir. Ana Kvichidze
Prod cos: Moonbow Production, Parabellum film (Georgia, Germany) 

Popol Vuh: A Cosmic Journey 
Dir: Walter Fasano
Prod co: Good ‘n Proper (US)

Queerinale, Who Will Take Care of Me?
Dir: Matteo Castellino
Prod co: Stefilm International (Italy)

Rebellion Of Memory
Dir: Joël Jent
Prod cos: Aaron Film, Les Films d’Ici, Amazona Producciones (Switzerland, France, Peru)

Sacred Songs
Dir: Nona Giunashvili
Prod co: 1707 Productions (Georgia)

Sitting The Month
Dir: Marita Stocker
Prod co: Eikon Media (Germany)

Solo
Dir: Amine Boukhris
Prod cos: Donia Films, Dynamo Production (Tunisia, France, Qatar)

Umbrellas Of The Acrobats
Dir. Mukesh Subramaniam
Prod co: Elsewhat (India)

When a Poet Goes to War
Dir: Aung Naing Soe
Prod cos: Singing Cicadas, 101fps (Thailand, Hong Kong)

The Wind’s Thirst
Dir:  Alejandro Valbuena
Prod co: Curare Films (Colombia)

Woman in White
Dir. Emmanuelle Mayer
Prod co: Emmanuelle Mayer Films (Israel)

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