The industry event dedicated to documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe shed light on five almost-finished projects, covering topics from politics to environmentalism

The pitch for Dajori by Martin Páv and Nicolas Kourek

There seem to be a lot of issues that Czech documentary filmmakers want to bring to the audience’s attention. At the Prague-based East Doc Platform industry event, which focuses on non-fiction films from Central and Eastern Europe, five new, local projects were presented during Czech Docs: Coming Soon, co-organised with the Audiovisual Producers Association (APA). Below we examine these fresh efforts in more detail.

If Pigeons Turned to Gold by Pepa Lubojacki

If Pigeons Turned to Gold - Pepa Lubojacki (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
In this very personal documentary, director Pepa Lubojacki followed her brother and cousins with her mobile-phone camera for three years. The people in question suffer from alcohol addiction, a disease that has plagued her family for generations. Her brother is also immersed in a homelessness crisis, living on the streets. As the director pointed out during the presentation, she wanted to show that it’s important to respect people with such addictions, “meet them where they are” and ask what has happened to them, as they’re usually traumatised and substance abuse is a result of this. If Pigeons Turned to Gold, which is expected to be finished in February 2025, is being produced by Wanda Kaprálová and Klára Mamojková (CLAW films), and the team is looking for partners who can help finalise the financing, festivals, sales agents and international distributors.

Ms. President - Marek Šulík (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
This project was kept under wraps for a long time owing to its sensitive nature – it follows current Slovak president Zuzanna Čaputová, who recently announced she wouldn’t be running for re-election. Marek Šulík said he worked with an “observational method” and that his “idea was to be with her over five years and to maybe try to capture the changes in her values, her behaviour and her way of thinking, [in order to see] how the person within the politics is changing herself.” Barbara Janišová Feglová (HITCHHIKER Cinema) is the lead producer of the film, which is in post-production. Finding a sales agent and a festival world premiere were mentioned as the team’s priorities.

Dajori - Martin Páv, Nicolas Kourek (Czech Republic)
Marie, the protagonist of the upcoming documentary by Martin Páv and Nicolas Kourek, is 45 and lives in a Roma community with her husband and three kids. When her younger sister, a mother of nine, loses her home, Marie steps in and takes two of the children into her custody. The camera follows her, and her old and new family, over a period of three years. “We had an opportunity to create a unique film about Romani people, which are usually either about fascination with poverty or some exceptional hero. I believe in our case, we are showing a story about a normal family, about the daily ups and downs, about childhood, adolescence, motherhood and also the role of humour in our everyday lives,” said Páv during the presentation. Dajori, which is the Romani word for “mother”, is in post-production and is in search of a world premiere, festivals, a sales agent and a distributor. Jan Bodnár and Jarmila Poláková (Film & Sociology) hold producer credits.

Love Exposed by Filip Remunda

Love Exposed – Filip Remunda (Czech Republic)
Blanka and her father Vlastmil, who is a photographer of nude models, don’t have the easiest of relationships. The camera has followed them for four years, and the audience will see with their own eyes just why that is. Filip Remunda is a close friend of his protagonist’s, and over 20 years ago, he worked as a DoP on her student film about her father. “He soon took over the directing of the film, and it became his movie instead of Blanka's,” said Remunda during the presentation of Love Exposed. He explained that his own personal motivation was to take a closer look at the family, whose biggest problem lies in a lack of communication, which he knows only too well from his own home. He is also a producer of the film along with Tereza Horská and his long-time collaborator Vít Klusák. They are hoping to have a rough cut ready in the autumn and are looking for broadcasters, an international festival premiere, sales agents and distributors.

Ent - Tomáš Elšík (Czech Republic)
The two protagonists of this film, which is named after the tree creatures from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, are fauna and flora defenders. Klára protects birds, while Pavel’s areas of interest are woods and wetlands. “I started to work on this project as a response to climate change. I believe that art can open up some very difficult topics because the public space is full of stereotypes, and we can avoid this through real emotions that can be derived from art,” explained Tomáš Elšík while presenting Ent. Jitka Kotrlová (Frame Films) is producing the documentary, which is looking for sales, festivals and a world premiere, and the team expects to wrap the production period in October 2024.