Projects of the Finalists of the Artdocfest / Riga Pitch Session 2024
Supported
Birds never sleep
Director Konstantin Selin (France)

One morning I woke up with an anxious feeling in my chest and since then I have not been able to sleep peacefully. After a year and a half of living abroad, I am returning to my home to find and eliminate the causes of this unbearable insomnia.

 

Project support: 31%.

Supported
No Death
Director Yevhen Titarenko (Ukraine)

An immersion into the work of an elite Ukrainian military unit of kamikaze drone operators. The group travels to the most difficult sectors of the front to deter the constant assault attacks of the enemy. A diverse group from simple guys from the outback to engineers with a high level of IQ. Laughter, joy, and routine mixed with constant flights and destruction of equipment and manpower. A second before the explosion, the connection with the drone is closed and the operator does not see death with his own eyes.

 

Project support: $8000.

Supported
Dizziness
Director Alexey Sukhovey (France)

There are good students and bad students, bastards and louts, with moles and crooked noses, but all are bald. From this moment on, their young bodies belong to the state. Soviet special films will show and tell how the body given to the state after school can be used in a fictional war. On the screen, they will present an example of how war should be fought and how to live in it. A young couple from an ordinary Russian city finds themselves in this virtual world.

 

Project support: 13%.

Supported
Anton is here with you. Until the end
Director Olesya Los / pseudonym / (Kyrgyzstan)

How does the human brain work, since in this organ all the social and personal characteristics of behavior are represented? Where does mental illness come from? Why is it scary? How does the process of turning on self-destruction occur, and how does a once beautiful, spiritual person decide to commit suicide? Is it possible to stop this? A story about the life and work of a psychiatrist helping his patients in the most difficult situations.

 

Project support: 17%.

Supported
Triumph
Director Angie Vincito / pseudonym / (Russia)

The film will tell the story of events in Russia through answers to many questions that specifically affect women.

 

Project support: 27%.

Mom
Director Petr Zaitsev / pseudonym / (Russia)

Every summer my mother goes to the village to visit her parents, where she finds peace and enjoys the simplicity of life. Here she meets old friends, walks through the forest, and swims in the river. This film reminds us of the importance of maintaining connections with our native places and respecting our roots.

 

The project is under consideration.

Supported
Mama's Voice
Director Ganna Yarovenko (Ukraine, Poland)

This is the director's diary, telling about her family's experiences during the war between Russia and Ukraine. Fleeing from the invading Russian army, mother, grandmother, and grandchildren are trying to adapt to a new life in Poland. The director's elderly father remains in Ukraine and endures a month of Russian occupation. A family of Polish musicians opens their home and their hearts to the Ukrainians, and a deep friendship develops between the two mothers. This special connection helps heal trauma and loss, giving voices back to Ukrainian refugees.

 

Project support: 94%.

Supported
In the Fog
Director Sveta Belkina / pseudonym / (Russia)

Vladimir Putin announces partial mobilization in Russia. The protagonist of the film, as a reserve officer, must go to war. In the last hours before leaving, he takes too much alcohol and admits that he is going to the front to find out the truth. The director of the film, meanwhile, is trying to understand what is happening to her country and how it will all end.

 

Project support: 18%.

Supported
Show me love
Director Eva Petrova / pseudonym / (Russia)

Ladies and Gentlemen! We invite you to a unique cabaret show. LGBTQ+ representatives from Russia will perform for you. The program includes songs, dances, verbatim and theatrical miniatures on the theme of repression of “non-traditional” people throughout Russian history. You will also hear from scientists who research LGBTQ+ people in Russia. Longtime fans of our artists will be in the hall - the police, the prosecutor's office, and representatives of the intelligence services. Do not miss! Then it will be too late.

 

Project support: 50%.

Supported
Nothing but love
Director Ksenia Ratushnaya (Russia)

Actress and artist Liza Kashintseva is trying to work, make art and love in Russia in the first half of 2023.

 

Project support: 33%.

Supported
The long goodbye
Director Dmitry Venkov (Turkiye)

A married couple in exile is facing a crisis in their relationship. The wife suspects that she may be pregnant and decides to have an abortion, believing that the unsettled life of an emigrant will not allow her to provide the child with a decent childhood. The husband is against abortion. The situation is complicated by problems with the legalization of the wife in the host country; she is denied a residence permit and is forced to return to Russia. The film, shot in the form of a chamber drama from the first person, takes place during the farewell and touches on topics that concern many Russians: immigration, separation, those who left and those who stayed behind.

 

Project support: 83%.

Supported
February
Director Vilen Baklushin / pseudonym /, Afanasy Vilkin / pseudonym / (Russia)

They are those whom society tries not to notice. They are the wives and mothers of Russian soldiers. These women were waiting for demobilization, but their men never returned home. Most of them continued to wait. They live as if everything is the same as before, but reality often bursts into their lives with a letter from the front, a funeral, or a military circle where their child is enrolled. This film is a tale about the new “outcasts” and how they fight for the lives of their husbands and sons.

 

Project support: 50% + prize from the TV channel "Current Time".