Monday with a series of films

The first festival day features one Croatian premiere as part of Dox events – Five Women by Tomislav Perica, focusing on five women who were forced to leave their home and go abroad during the war. The premiere takes place at 9pm, theatre 3.

The first official festival day begins at noon in the screening room 2 with Temple by Ivan Vuković. Temple is a documentary film about a place in Zagreb which most visitors consider just an old passage. However, there is also a small group of young street dancers who see the place as a Temple of Dance. They are of different age, they live in different neighbourhoods and are of different origins, but they share the same passion and love for that place.

Following is a film from the international competition Bad Boy High Security Cell by Polish director Janusz Mrozowski. Twenty-eight-year-old Damian is fighting insanity in solitary confinement of a Polish high security prison, with no privacy, no visitors and not even a window. His only touch with the outside world are masked guards who bring him food and take him for a short walk. The film portrays an intimate tale about life in prison through a video journal and conversation.

Dragan Wende - West Berlin by Lena Müller and Dragan von Petrovic is scheduled at screening room 1, 3pm. Young cinematographer Vuk from Belgrade goes on a trip travelled by his uncle Dragan Wende, the “working-class” king of West Berlin’s hedonist disco scene in the 1970s. as a Yugoslav, he had use of the Berlin Wall, but today he is an aged doorman in a brothel, living off social welfare and wanting the Wall back.

At 8pm, screening room 5, Teen Dox’s Small World is scheduled. Albert Casals is a young man living in a wheelchair since he survived leukaemia at the age of five. However, this has not stopped him from making his dream come true and embarking on a trip around the world. He leaves his home armed only with his imagination and courage. Small World takes us on his greatest challenge thus far: arriving on a completely opposite side of the planet! Is it possible to cross such a distance in his condition? After the screening we will host a Q&A with the protagonist and author.

At 9pm, theatre 3, the premiere of the already mentioned Five Women by Tomislav Perica will take place, followed by Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom – a poetic film by the award-winning filmmaker Lucy Walker about the healing power of the most famous Japanese flower – cherry whose blossom gives courage to tsunami survivors to renew their torn down homes. This film received the jury award at this year’s Sundance Film festival and was also nominated for 2012 Academy Award.

The multi award-winning Dutch film Matthew’s Laws by Marc Schmidt portrays Matthew, the author’s childhood friend who suffers from autism and is desperately trying to create order in the chaos surrounding him, generating constant conflict with the outside world. German filmmaker Jakob Schmidt in I’d Rather Be a Murderer tells a tale about another marginalised individual: a former sex offender who spent ten years in a psychiatric hospital and is now in vain trying to reintegrate in the society. Both films are scheduled for 10pm, theatre 4.

This year’s new programme Biography Dox on the first day presents three interesting titles – at 9pm, theatre 1, the short film A Brief History of John Baldessari by the American team of directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman is scheduled, describing the life of this internationally acclaimed artist, followed by Meet the Fokkens by Gabriëlle Provaas and Rob Schröder. The latter film is a portrayal of unusual lives of Louise and Martine Fokkens, 70-year-old identical twins who spent more than fifty years working as prostitutes in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. During their long career they managed to get rid of the pimps’ control, owned their own brothel and launched the first informal prostitutes’ union.

The last screening at 11pm includes a film about Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview by Robert X. Cringely, John Gau and Paul Sen, presenting old found video footage which provide a fascinating insight into the most interesting moment in Jobs’s career, two years before he would retake Apple.