POLISH PROJECT AT DOCU TALENTS FROM THE EAST
Runa by Agnieszka Zwiefka has been included in the elite group of eight projects qualified for Docu Talents from the East 2023. The presentation of projects will take place on 13 August at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Docu Talents from the East is a programme aimed at filmmakers from eastern and central Europe that lets directors and producers of selected documentary projects present their current work on their films at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The 8-minute presentations will be held during the CineLink Industry Days section.
The most promising project has the chance to win the Docu Talent Award, which involves a $5,000 financial contribution. In turn, the special DAFilms.com Distribution Award is 3,000 euros.
Documentary filmmakers from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Northern Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and Ukraine are eligible to participate in the program.
Among the prestigious eight selected projects is Agnieszka Zwiefka's Polish-Danish co-production Runa. The film has recently met with critical acclaim at Polish Docs. You can read more about it here.
Runa is produced by Zofia Kujawska (Chilli Productions), Sigrid Dyekjær (Real Lava), and the director herself. The main character of the documentary is a 16-year-old Kurdish girl who, after the tragic death of her mother at the Polish-Belarusian border, has to become a mother to her 4 younger brothers. The family copes with the trauma and tries to build a life in Europe. This partly animated coming-of-age story is set against the backdrop of the global refugee crisis.
A list of all qualified projects can be found here.