DSFF 2023 Essential Beauty CATALOG
If we agree that the cinema is an aesthetic creation, as a result of a collective artistic work of different creative minds, then the festival is an aesthetic-thematic gathering, the result of the arrangement in the universe that makes it possible many different minds to present their collective works in the same place and at the same time, creating a moment of magical illusion, an inexplicable feeling for the audience and an opportunity to exchange real values that last. In our times of living, when we are visibly missing simplicity, understanding and peace, we are happy that with the special little things, called short films, we contribute to the embellishment of the time in which we live. When the world is in danger, the beauty will save it. When reality weighs down, beauty is a necessity. With the 7th edition of the "Dream Short Film Festival" which will be held in Struga from August 14 to 17, under the motto “Essential beauty”, we declare our festival to be just one of the many cultural flashes that we need. ABOUT DSFF 2023
Ivan Bakrač (1987, Montenegro) graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Design in Belgrade (Serbia) with the MA degree in film directing. He has written and directed films that participated in many international festivals and won awards. Ivan participated in various programs such as Berlinale Talents, Talents Sarajevo and Zurich FF Academy. Apart from filmmaking, he also works as a festival programmer. IAlba Çakalli from Prizren has been part of DokuFest for 10 years now. Initially, she was engaged as a volunteer coordinator, then a program assistant, and later as a project manager in the DokuLab department, a department which aims to contribute to the non-formal education of young people in Kosovo through the screening of documentary films and the promotion of debates with the aim of developing critical thinking. Asja Krsmanović was born in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1988. Since 2011, she has been working as a manager of the Competition Program (Feature and Short) and the In Focus Program at the Sarajevo Film Festival, during which time she acquired important organizational and communication skills. Since 2017, she has been the organizer of the Student Film Competition section. Ivan Bakrac Alba Cakalli Asja Krsmanovic Main film selector Selector of the guest program ‘Dealing with the past’ (Docu Fest) Selector of the guest program ‘Dealing with the past’ ((Sarajevo Film Festival)
Graduate on the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje. Deniz made his theatrical and movie debut in 2010 (Romeo and Juliet) at the Macedonian National Theatre, Role: Romeo Montague And a movie debuts - Between, The Piano Room, and To the Hilt, from the directors Vladimir Mitrevski,Igor Ivanov-Izi, and Stole Popov. In his career, he has 25 movies and tv series with international and local collaboration. Film director and screenwriter. One of the most prominent figures in Macedonian cinematography. He directed four feature-length films and a dozen short and feature-length documentaries. As a screenwriter, he worked on five fiction films. Vladimir Blazevski is also a film history professor, but he also lectures on the theory of film at different universities in Macedonia and Serbia Film director and a screenwriter. He graduated at the Faculty of Dramatic Art in Skopje. He directed several short features and documentaries, as well as many TV commercials. His short film titles include “There is a Strange Man in a Habit of Hitting my Had with an Umbrella”, “The Whistler”, “One”, which were screened on more than thirty international festivals, getting gran-prix awards in Valladolid Seminci IFF, Mosfilm award of the Moscow Film Institute, Cairo IFF and many others. Deniz Abdula Vladimir Blazevski Vardan Tozija Jury - International and DWP competition Jury - International and DWP competition Jury - International and DWP competition
Ivana Shekutkoska is a producer from Skopje, N. Macedonia. She has a background in Economics and has M.A degree in Marketing, Advertising and PR. She has been part of MAIA, Coco Connecting Cottbus, MIDPOINT, When East Meets West etc. Ivana is producing shorts, feature films and documentaries. Born in 1992 in Ohrid, Macedonia, graduated on the department of EBusiness at the Faculty of Economics. Continued his formal education on the department of Creative Producing at Film Institute Ohrid. Currently producing his first stop-motion animation project as part of Focus Pocus Films. Working a script competition reader/judge since 2020. Published author of short fiction stories. Artan Sadiku is a researcher, theorist and activist and holds a PhD in philosophy. His primary theoretical interests are theories of the subject, feminism and radical practices in politics and arts. He has worked as a researcher in Skopje at the Institute for social studies and humanities where he led the School for politics and critique and is the founder of the Culture Club Syndicate and the activist movement Solidarnost. Ivana N Shekutkoska Dimitar Dimoski Artan Sadiku Jury - Student and Regional competition Jury - Student and Regional competition Jury - International and DWP competition
international competition
La Cañada Real, Europe's largest slum on the outskirts of Madrid, has been without electricity for over a year. In the firelight, Toni, a 13 year-old boy, discovers that his best friend Nasser is leaving forever. Amongst Roma legends of a possible future, Toni looks for a way to stay connected to him. Driven by their desire for light and warmth, British teenagers take a trip to the Balearic Islands. They must absorb the sun and store it in their bodies to take it back to their cloud-covered kingdom. Lu is a Chinese immigrant living day to day on tips from his job as a delivery worker. He supports his wife and ailing mother as they desperately try to make ends meet in the unforgiving city. One night, his bicycle, and in essence his livelihood, are stolen from him. He’s forced to embark on a desperate journey to reclaim his bike or shatter the fragile life in America he’s built Aunque es de noche Daydreaming so vividly about our Spanish holidays Same old Christian Avilés, ES Guillermo García López, ES, FR Lloyd Lee Choi, USA
Madden tells a story about relating to your herd. About duty versus longing. About high-heeled shoes stepping in dung and heavy animal bodies thundering across a Scandinavian landscape. A forest of tall tree trunks between our protagonist and the outside world. In an apartment in a city under curfew, a day expands from early Spring to late Summer. A couple’s longing to start a family is shaken by a pervasive feeling of uncertainty. Uberlandia, Brazil. Chico earns his living fixing ovens, in which he easily fits into thanks to his small size. Disregarded and marginalized by a society that hates him, Chico begins to resist. Madden Human Nature Big Bang Mónica Lima, PT, DE Malin Ingrid Johansson, SE Carlos Segundo, BR, FR
dealing with the past
"What the Soil Remembers," examines the trauma of a community uprooted during the Apartheid regime, making way for an educational institution that would become synonymous with the foundation of white supremacist ideologies. The film follows a group of elders who illuminate the screen with their approach to the problem. In 1905, the sailors on the battleship Potemkin are given political asylum in Romania - an act of defiance against Russia. In 2021, a sculptor (Alexandru Dabija) wants to create an artwork inspired by the event. A comedy about art, history, memory and cinema, which film critic Andrei Gorzo describes as "a cross between a Caragiale sketch and a Mark Rappaport video essay". It is May of 1992. The state sanctioned “Operation” has put the city of Karachi at constant unrest. Abdul Aziz Ansari wakes up at night and is informed by his daughter in law, Naseema that his son hasn’t returned home. As a knock on their door later at night summons them to the hospital, what they witness along the way is known today as the most brutal chapter of the city’s history, a sentiment of hatred towards their race, deep rooted beneath the system. What the Soil Remembers The Potemkinists Murder Tongue Radu Jude, RO José Cardoso, EC, SA Ali Sohail Jaura, PK
A peaceful demonstration in Minsk is brutally put down by the police. Two female journalists from an independent Belarusian TV station are the only ones broadcasting the events live. When they are tracked down by a police drone, they face a dramatic choice. A drama inspired by the true story of Katerina Bakhvalova and Daria Chultsova from BELSAT TV. History flows, the darkness wets our clothes. Live From Our Side Simone Massi, IT Mara Tamkovich, PL
regional competition
A date doesn’t go as planned when a young man drives a girl to a strange location on the outskirts of the city. His odd romantic gesture works out fine until he learns she’s leaving town for good in a week. He receives an urgent phone call, and suddenly leaves, suggesting that she waits for him there. There is still magic in the air, as she waits by the river, looking a bit stunned. Goran is walking his dog when a building collapses and almost kills him. But there is no time to reflect on the metaphysical aspects of this event, because he has to go to a children's birthday party with his family. It is very loud, chaotic, and unbearable. He walks away from the party in search of something. What is it? And will he find it? A little Kurdish girl tries to put a smile back on her grandmother’s face after the disappearance of her television, her only window into the world. Steady flow Little waves Things unheard of Filip Peruzovic, CRO Anja Jovanović, MNE Ramazan Kilic, TR
Humanoid Johnny is destined to be the perfect match of influencer Youla. However, during the first days of their marriage, Youla finds herself seeking for attributes that Johnny is not programmed to offer. Their love is tested, but their bond is unbreakable… Andrej and Kala, a couple with a broken relationship lives in the grey city, in a desolated post-pandemic time. One night Andrej sees a mysterious girl named Bella and starts following her, not knowing that he is following the death personally. Nikola’s life is turned upside down after he publicly accuses his football coach of sexual molestation. Homo Perfectus Dossier Future Goalgetter Goce Trajkovski, MK Alki Politi, GR Ivan Stojiljković, SRB
Petra, who has made a life for herself in the big city has a crush on her office co-worker (Igor) and is trying hard to start a meaningful relationship. Her mother’s visit from a provincial town in the south not only jeopardises her efforts, but adds to the already palpable disconnect between the mother and daughter. But soon it will be New Year’s Eve, and everybody is hoping for the best. Blue hour Ana Jakimska, MK
student competition
Nina is a 25-year-old girl who just graduated from college. She grew up in a conservative family in which she faces constant pressure from her mother who thinks that it's time for her daughter to get married and start a family. On the other hand, Nina has other plans in her life about her career and she doesn't plan to get married or have kids. Nina realises that her attitude about having kids is just superficial and she is saying that just to keep her mother away from the pressure she is causing. After a disturbing taxi ride, and an even worse party, a teenage girl must return home with a menacing taxi driver who insists on her sitting next to him. In research on the religiosity of Poles conducted in the 1990s by OBOP, the percentage of believers has always fluctuated around 95%. At the same time, the unemployment rates also reached record values. The crisis strengthened the society's need for spirituality, which allowed things not necessarily possible to happen in other times . Progesteror(n) 5/3/0 The Devil Danilo Stanimirović, SRB Tina Velichkovikj, MK Jan Bujnowski, PL
When she discovers a mysterious crack in the fundament of her workplace at the Copenhagen Opera, cleaner Angeli goes on alert and sets out on a Kafkaesque odyssey for help: No one in the building listens to her, everyone follows the motto 'the show must go on' by heart. The water keeps rising and Angeli has to find a way to make her voice count in this supernatural doomsday musical. A couple is waiting in the hallway of the veterinary clinic with a dog. Nonverbal communication begins between the visibly frightened woman and the receptionist. Jean, a young French hooligan, is sent on a forced vacation to his grandfather Evald, who lives in the Slovenian countryside. Despite Evald's warm welcome, Jean remains quite withdrawn, speaks only French with his grandfather, and coldly rejects his lifestyle, which is mainly devoted to tending the orchard and selling apples on the local road. While they struggle to get used to life together, frost is slowly approaching Evald's orchard. Opera Night Others remained silent Faraway fields Matic Štamcar, SL Hilke Rönnfeldt, DK, DE Filip Jembrich, SL
MK special
The teenager Vedran thinks bringing a ton of ice cream to a mother and her daughter will relieve him of his guilt, but the treat melts along with his hope for redemption. Several world-famous novel characters get lost in the fantastic world of The Script filled with mysterious pages and existential questions. We follow Timi, an energetic young skater who always seems to say more with his board than with words. A Ton of Ice Cream The Script Life of a Board Aleksandra Kardalevska, MK Sandra Gjorgieva, MK Leona Jarikj, MK
A community of people with disabilities are one of the first users of the long-opposed process of deinstitutionalization in the country. Among them is Marica, born and raised in an institution, yearning to see her mother again. A genius loner mathematician, whose only friend is his little neighbor, Lena, obsessively tries to travel to a parallel universe. Once he succeeds, he loses Lena in the void in between. Belles 4891 Ivana Mirchevska, MK Marija Apcevska, MK
guest program sarajevo film festival
‘RADIO FREEDOM’ tells the story of an idealistic man turned ham radio operator trapped in a besieged city. He finds refuge in an improvised radio station where he reports the war and helps his fellow citizens connect with their loved ones outside the city. His struggle for survival leads him through the war torn streets where danger lurks from all sides. A young couple is torn from the world for one long night in a hotel room in a town near the border. That night they agreed not to talk about the war. Completely lost in each other' s small world, they don't realize when the morning comes and force them to go back to reality. Reznica represents two generations of refugees who are still trying to create a new identity after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Mirjana and Borislav spent most of their lives in a collective center in Serbia. Now they take a journey into the past to embrace the future in which to find a new home. Radio Freedom It Is Quiet Here. Reznica Olena Podolianko, Novruz Hikmet, UKR, DE Ismar Vejzovic & Bafl Sarhang, BiH, NL Davor Marinković, SRB
guest program dokufest
A love story of a teenage, during the last war in Kosovo 1999-2000, love expressed in letters… A house burned down sixteen years ago, yet the smoke remains. How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, they embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout. Prison Romance Smoke Neighbour Abdi Gorana Jovanovic, KS, SRB Denisa Mici, KS Douwe Dijksta, NL
BALKAN SHORT FILM NETWORK
Drim Short Film Festival, together with regional partners Bašta Fest (Bajina Bašta, Serbia) and Seanema Film Festival (Ulcinj, Montenegro), in 2022. has founded BALKAN SHORT FILM NETWORK, which aims to educate young filmmakers and promote short films in the region.Since this year, the project has expanded and acquired a new dimension, BALKAN X VISEGRAD SHORT FILM NETWORK with the support of the Visegrad+ grant, the network is expanding to countries from the Visegrad group, through partnerships with short film festivals from Poland – Short Waves Film Festival, Hungary – BuSho Film Festival and Slovakia – Azyl Shorts. In cooperation with partner festivals, mentors from these countries will participate in three workshops in Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia.The partners are united around the same goals – decentralizing culture, raising awareness of the importance of short film as an art form, and connecting, empowering and providing a platform for young filmmakers. We will collaborate to achieve these goals through a series of activities, and the first and currently largest project is the expansion of our educational program.Participants in this year’s workshops are projects for short fiction films:“Smrt, more, plave boje” – director Milutin Milošević, producer Jelena Čeivanović (Serbia)“Preko praga” – director Tara Gajović, producer Nikola Uzelac (Serbia)“Nepredviđene okolnosti proistekle iz načina igranja” – director Olja Pokrajac, producer VeraPavlović (Serbia)“Sva naša putovanja” – director Goran Kaluđerović, producer Aleksa Bujišić (Montenegro)“Carolers” – director Filip Lafazanovski, producer Slobodan Trajkoski (North Macedonia)Ten participants will work on their projects at the FUND READY workshop as part of Drim Short Film Festival with mentors director Vardan Tozija and producer Ivana Nikolovska, as well as guest mentors Tamás Gábeli, festival director of BuSho Film Festival, Hungary and Zalán Bata, director of photography, animator and program director at BuSho Film Festival, Hungary. BALKAN SHORT FILM NETWORK
DISCUSSION Personal Journey: Unravelling the Past Through Film DSFF 2023 Moderator: Verica Nedeska Speakers: Davor Marinkovic Ismar Vejzovic Denisa Mici Location: Letna Scena 15 August / 7PM
DSFF 2023 MASTERCLASS WITH Ali Asgari Location: Hotel Freya 16 August/ 5:30PM
15 AUGUST / 12:00 - 18:00 / KINGSTON BEACH / STRUGA ROOTBOY SELECTOR DSFF 23 MUSIC PROGRAM Swimming in the Drim
16 AUGUST / BARABAR / STRUGA FOLTIN DSFF 23 MUSIC PROGRAM
17 AUGUST / KAMP LIVADISHTA / STRUGA DIAH 23:30 / FREE ENTRANCE BODAN JAMAKOSKI DSFF 23 MUSIC PROGRAM
HUGE THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS !