Overview of the 15 Danish films at IDFA

CPH:DOX handed out their awards last week, handing the prestigious DOX:AWARD to Joshua Oppenheimer for "The Look of Silence" and awarding Camilla Nielsson a Special Mention in the same category for "Democrats." CPH:DOX has barely ended before it's time for IDFA, kicking off 19-30 November in Amsterdam.

A record-breaking 15 Danish documentary films will be screening at this year's IDFA. Two of these films, the aforementioned "Democrats" by Camilla Nielsson and "Something Better to Come" by Hanna Polak, are part of the festival's main competition. Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Look of Silence" will also be screening at IDFA.

14 years in Europe's Biggest Landfill

Hanna Polak's "Something Better to Come" was 14 years in the making. During these years she's been tracking a group of children living in a so-called Svalka in the outskirts of Moscow, one of the world's biggest landfills. It's controlled by the mafia, it's illegal to be there, and it's strictly illegal to be filming the actual conditions there.

Yula is one of the many poor inhabitants in the landfill. She has dreams of escaping, of changing her life. These are the dreams Polish director Hanna Polak has been observing and documenting since Yula was just 11 years old.

Polak rose to prominence with her 2004 documentary "The Children of Leningradsky" which earned her an Oscar nomination. "Something Better to Come" is a Danish production and is celebrating its world premiere at IDFA where it is selected for the main competition.

Read more Human Beauty in a Russian Garbage Dump

Zimbabwe in Times of Upheaval

For three years Camilla Nielsson has had access to the very centre of power in Zimbabwe, resulting in unique insights into – and footage of – the political process. Mugabe's governing party and the opposition have been working on the contents of a new constitution, and two politicians representing conflicting parties are searching for agreement in a political landscape hardly associated with respect for human rights.

The results of this rare footage can be seen in Nielsson's "Democrats," premiering internationally and chosen for the main competition at IDFA.

Read more On the Road to Democracy

Portraying Violence

While Joshua Oppenheimer is in this year's jury for the main competition, his film "The Look of Silence" takes part in the Masters programme only days after claiming the DOX:AWARD at CPH:DOX.

Read more Meeting the Audience (about the world premiere in Venice) and Holding a Mirror to Horror (interview)

The theme of violence is also explored in "Warriors from the North" by Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah. The film is about Somali-born Danes going abroad to take part in holy war in the services of the terror movement al-Shabaab. "Warriors from the North" is competing in the Mid-Length competition for films clocking in between 45 to 60 minutes.

Read more We Have to Learn from the Warriors of the North

Debating films

As is the case with Joshua Oppenheimer, Danish directors Phie Ambo and Jon Bang Carlsen have been invited to give talks at IDFA. Phie Ambo is part of Starting Off Like a Rocket about kickstarting your career with considerable acknowledgement and how to follow up on a bright start. Her new film "Good Things Await" has been selected for the programme The Female Gaze.

Jon Bang Carlsen will be travelling to Amsterdam with his short film "Cats of Riga" in the Paradocs programme. His 1981 film "Hotel of the Stars" will be a topic of discussion as part of a debate about hybrid films called Framing Reality, a debate Carlsen himself will be a part of.

Democrats, in IDFA's Feature-Length Competition. Framegrab.

Danish titles at IDFA 2014

Competition Programmes

Competition for Feature-Length Documentary

"Democrats" / by Camilla Nielsson, Upfront Films / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
The director takes a close look at an authoritarian state on the verge of democratisation: See how Zimbabwe got a new constitution. Read more On the Road to Democracy

"Something Better to Come" / by Hanna Polak, Danish Documentary Production / WORLD PREMIERE
For ten years, the director followed teenage girl Yula and her companions who live on the biggest garbage dump in Europe. Also in DOC U Competition. Read more Human Beauty in a Russian Garbage Dump

Competition for Mid-Length Documentary

"Warriors from the North" / by Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah, Made in Copenhagen / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
A group of young Danish-Somali men join the Islamic terror organisation al-Shabaab to become suicide bombers in Somalia. But why do they do it? Read more We Have to Learn from the Warriors of the North

DOC U Competition

"Something Better to Come" / by Hanna Polak, Danish Documentary Production / WORLD PREMIERE
For ten years, the director followed teenage girl Yula and her companions who live on the biggest garbage dump in Europe. Also in Competition for Feature-Length Documentary.

"Songs for Alexis" / by Elvira Lind, Copenhagen Bombay
Four years ago 18-year-old Ryan, a talented musician, came out as a transgender person and began the difficult transformation from girl to boy. Now Ryan has fallen in love with the beautiful Alexis. Also in Panorama.

The Arms Drop, in IDFA's non-competitive Masters programme. Framegrab.

Non-Competitive Programmes

Masters

"The Look of Silence" / by Joshua Oppenheimer, Final Cut for Real
The director's companion piece to his Oscar-nominated "The Act of Killing" revisits Indonesia's dark history, this time telling the story from the victims' perspective. Read more Meeting the Audience (about the world premiere in Venice) and Holding a Mirror to Horror (interview)

"The Arms Drop" / by Andreas Koefoed, Fridthjof Film / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
In 1995 a secret arms drop was set to take place in India. But nothing went according to plan. The film documents the affair that continues to impact the lives of everyone involved. Read more Double Arms Dealing
 

Panorama

"The Circus Dynasty" / by Anders Riis-Hansen, Hansen og Pedersen Film og Fjernsyn / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
The director follows two circus families, the Berdinos and the Cassellys, as they pursue a union between the two youngest members of their families. Read more A Circus Love Story

"Songs for Alexis" / by Elvira Lind, Copenhagen Bombay
Four years ago 18-year-old Ryan, a talented musician, came out as a transgender person and began the difficult transformation from girl to boy. Now Ryan has fallen in love with the beautiful Alexis. Also in DOC U Competition. Read more A Trans Boy Becomes a Man

"Mission Rape – A Tool of War" / by Katia Forbert Petersen and Annette Mari Olsen, Sfinx Film/TV
Some 25,000 to 40,000 women were victims of mass rape during the Balkan war 1992-95. The film follows some of these women, for whom the rapes remain a dark shadow in their lives. Read more War-raped Women Break the Taboo
 

Paradocs

"Cats in Riga" / by Jon Bang Carlsen
The director records the city of Riga and the social changes happening there by following a selective cast of cats. Find facts, photos, press material in factsheet

Kids & Docs

"The Fencing Champion" / by Simon Lereng Wilmont, Final Cut for Real / WORLD PREMIERE
Ruben has a great passion for fencing and is one of the best in his age group. We follow Ruben while he is preparing for the big annual championship. Read more Young Lives in Motion

"Malek Means Angel" / by Lea Hjort Mathiesen, National Film School of Denmark / WORLD PREMIERE
She has the smile of an angel and the will of a warrior. Malek strives to one day become a professional fencer and spends every day training alongside her best friend Yassmine in a working class neighborhood in Tunis. Read more Young Lives in Motion


Good Things Await, in IDFA's Special Focus programme The Female Gaze. Framegrab.

Special Focus

The Female Gaze

"Good Things Await" / by Phie Ambo, Danish Documentary Production / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
The film follows a farmer, Niels Stokholm, fighting with the authorities to run his farm – supplier to Copenhagen's acclaimed Noma restaurant – his way, biodynamically. Read more A Good Place to Be

Of Media and Men

"The Newsroom – Off the Record" / by Mikala Krogh, Danish Documentary Production / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
The director takes us behind the scenes at a Danish tabloid facing drastically declining print sales and increasing competition from new media. Read more The Future of (Tabloid) Newspapers

Framing Reality

"The Act of Killing" (2012) / by Joshua Oppenheimer, Final Cut for Real
The director's first film about the Indonesian genocide shows the perpetrators reconstructing their roles in the mass murder in a film genre of their choice – from Western to musical. Read more Scenes of the Crimes

"Hotel of the Stars" (1981) / by Jon Bang Carlsen, C&C Productions
Peopled by dreamers and wannabes, Hollywood's Montecito Hotel is a symbol of the deep divide between dream and reality, poverty and success. Find facts, photos, press material infactsheet
 

Something Better to Come

Hanna Polak, 2014

Ten-year-old Yula has but one dream - to escape the largest garbage dump in Europe and lead a normal life. For 14 years, Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak follows Yula as she grows up in the forbidden territory of Svalka, the largest garbage dump in Europe, 13 miles from the Kremlin in Putin's Russia. 'Something better to come' is Yula's story and is a dramatic cinema vérité story about coming of age, and maturing to the point of taking destiny into one's own hands.

Democrats

Camilla Nielsson, 2014

Over the course of more than three years director Camilla Nielsson has been up close in the inner circles of politics in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. With the process of creating Zimbabwe's new constitution as the film's narrative backbone, DEMOCRATS tells the unique story of the political elite in Zimbabwe fighting the battle over the founding principles defining the country's possible future.

The Look of Silence

Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014

Through Joshua Oppenheimer's footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

Warriors from the North

Søren Steen Jespersen, Nasib Farah, 2014

Abukar, a Somali, lives a life at the very bottom of the Danish society. His son, Mohammed, has joined al-Shabaab in Somalia, perhaps to avoid a life like his father's. Abukar now fears that Mohammed will be the next suicide bomber to carry out his mission, a fear that seems very reasonable, as two out of the seven Danish-Somali men recruited together with Mohammed have already become "martyrs".

Songs for Alexis

Elvira Lind, 2014

A timeless love story about two American teenagers and their struggle to find both love and an individual identity in a grown-up world. Ryan is 18 and a very talented musician. Four years ago he came out as a transgender person and began the difficult transformation from girl to boy.

The Arms Drop

Andreas Koefoed, 2014

British arms dealer Peter Bleach is on a mission to find the agent who lied in court as Bleach faced a possible death sentence in India. On his word, Bleach was convicted for dropping four tons of weapons over West Bengal to start a civil war. Bleach was indeed part of the weapons drop - but as an informer for MI5 trying to setup the mastermind behind it, the Dane Niels Holck, who was also on board.

The Circus Dynasty

Anders Riis-Hansen, 2014

Benny Berdino, the owner of one of Europe's biggest circus, has a dream. To make sure that his dynasty will continue to thrive, he hopes that his grandson, Patrick, and the award-winning circus artist Merrylu will marry and one day run Circus Arena. With their looks and skills they would be the perfect match.

Mission Rape - A Tool of War

Annette Mari Olsen, Katia Forbert Petersen, 2014

Despite increasingly refined war technology, mass rape is used as a tool of war in modern combat. Some 25,000 to 40,000 women were victims of mass rape during the Balkan war 1992-1995. Twenty years after these crimes, only very few cases of war crimes of sexual violence have been investigated and prosecuted.

Cats in Riga

Jon Bang Carlsen, 2014

The director records the city of Riga and the social changes happening there by following a selective cast of cats.

The Fencing Champion

Simon Lereng Wilmont, 2014

Ruben (10) is one of the best fencers in the club. He has won nearly every title in Denmark, so this season he has to face some of the toughest and most talented fencers in Europe. A lot is a stake for Ruben and he has to find the strength within himself to overcome his anxiety and control his temper if he is to win the big european championship.

Malek Means Angel

Lea Hjort Mathiesen, 2014

With the smile of an angel and the will of a warrior, Malek is far from an average 11-year-old girl. Striving to one day become a professional fencer, she spends every day training alongside her best friend Yassmine in a working class neighbourhood in Tunis. Malek and Yassmine are training intensively to take the top medals in an upcoming fencing competition.

Good Things Await

Phie Ambo, 2014

Niels is one of the last idealistic farmers in the agricultural country of Denmark. He makes some of the world's finest products, praised by the consumers, prized by the world's best restaurant, NOMA in Copenhagen, and nursed in harmony with the universe. But Niels' ways of farming in accordance with the planets and the primal instincts of the animals are not too popular with the authorities.

The Newsroom - Off the Record

Mikala Krogh, 2014

The world of printed media is threatened by the financial crisis as circulation figures are falling and the media corporations' economies are faltering. The Danish media is marked by the crisis as well - and also Ekstra Bladet is going through the worst crisis in the newspaper's hundred years of publishing. The readers have gone online and are failing the printed newspaper.

The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012

When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gang¬sters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.

Hotel of the stars

Jon Bang Carlsen, 1981

A documentary comedy on extras played by extras. On their dreams and how the American society is reflected in these dreams. The film takes place in »Hotel of the Stars«, a hotel in the centre of Hollywood - USA.