Mesiac v nás / The Moon Inside You (Slovakia/Spain/France 2009)
directed by Diana Fabiánová
documentary, 75 min, eng subtitles
Like many other women, the young director has been suffering from problematic periods for years accompanied, with every new cycle, by the same question: „Why the pain and annoyance if I am healthy?" Her initial innocent curiosity sparks off an emotional voyage to the very roots of feminity and life. The film is a fresh look at a taboo that defines the political and social reality of both women and men in a more profound way than society might be willing to admit. Facing the menstrual etiquette with doses of humour and self-irony, the documentary approaches the subject through both personal and collective references, thus challenging our preconceived idea of womanhood.
Awards:
Montenegro IFF 2010 (Grand Prix)
shown at Locarno FF 2009, Mumbai FF 2009, Chicago IFF 2009 etc.
followed by a discussion with the director Diana Fabiánová
Królik po berlińsku / Rabbit à la Berlin (Poland/Germany 2009)
directed by Bartek Konopka
documentary, 38 min, eng subtitles
The untold story about wild rabbits that lived between the Berlin Walls. For 28 years Death Zone was their safest home. Full of grass, no predators, guards protecting them from human disturbance. They were closed but happy. When their population grew up to thousands, guards started to remove them. But rabbits survived and stayed there. Unfortunately one day the wall fell down. Rabbits had to abandon comfortable system. They moved to West Berlin and have been living there in a few colonies since then. They are still learning how to live in the free world, same as we - the citizens of Eastern Europe.
An allegorical documentary intriguingly speaks about the end of ideologies from the animal point of view describing the life of rabbits on the strip of no man's land dividing one city and two worlds, which has become a unique ecosystem damaged by the fall of the Berlin wall.
Awards:
Batumi International Art-House Film Festival 2009 (Special Jury Prize)
East Silver Market 2010 (Best Mid-Length Documentary)
awards at festivals in Cracow, Madrid, Toronto
nominated for Oscar 2010